How To Find A Home Cleaner

By Graham Rogers | Cleaning Top Tips

Finding A Cleaner – The Trials & Tribulations – DIY or Call in The Professionals!

Do you despair and give up hope that you will never find a suitable cleaner?  Years ago (prior to starting HomeGleamers) I needed a cleaner and faced that dilemma – do I find one myself or use a professional domestic cleaning company to find one for me. 

First I went down my own route – placed an advert in a local shop and crossed my fingers.  I had a few replies but I have to say I was not confident by speaking to any of the ‘cleaners’ that called that they would be suitable for me.  I lived alone at that stage and went abroad a lot so I needed someone I could trust implicitly. 

Back to the drawing board, I started phoning cleaning companies and yes I phoned all of them! To be fair I am fussy about who I spend my money with so companies that I work with have to reach a certain standard.  But for many of those companies not even the basics were there:  half of the companies did not answer (and had no answerphone), a couple answered the phone “‘Ello what do you want?” (no comment!) and of the rest only 2 sounded friendly, courteous and professional. 

Of the final 2 I arranged for them to come and see me – one lovely lady turned up from a local cleaning company and assured me she had plenty of cleaners that could help me and we arranged for her to call me back with suitable days that they could provide.  The second cleaning company representative did not even turn up!  When I called them asking where they were, they said that I lived too far away from them – so my question was then: why had they made the appointment with me in the first place!?  To which I did not get a reply.

A few days later with slight nervousness, I opened the door to my new cleaner and I have to say, that the local company came up trumps – she was with me for a few years, in fact until I moved away from the area.  So thank you to that one local cleaning company that actually wanted my business, got me a lovely cleaner and made me a happy client.

Some Top Advice Tips for you when deciding to DIY or to find a local Professional Cleaning Service

DIY

#1.  First ask your friends and neighbours – can they recommend anyone?  Local recommendations are worth their weight in gold.

#2.  If you place an advert in a local shop – only include your contact details NOT your address – you may get not only genuine applicants calling you but some odd people too.  So only leave it up until you’ve found your cleaner.

#3.  Go and interview the cleaner in their home – you want to see the type of person that they are and how they live before you invite them into your home and trust them with your cleaning.

#4.  Check their identity – see a passport/driving licence for photo ID and also a utility bill proving that they live in the home where you are interviewing them.  (It has been known for potential cleaners to meet us in their mates house because it’s cleaner!)

#5.  Ask for the names of at least 2 people who you can approach for references AND phone them and do not engage the cleaner until you have spoken to both of these referees.  You may also want those referees to put the reference in writing as confirmation of what they’ve said on the telephone to you.

Professional Service

#1.  Ask them how long they have been operating and how many clients they provide a service to.  You want to be sure that they’re not a fly-by-night company – here on day and gone the next.

#2.  Find out how they find their cleaners and how the selection and vetting process works – be sure that they will provide you with an honest and reliable cleaner.

#3.  Check that the company has insurance in place to cover the cleaners work within your home.  Ask about any restrictions and excess charges – know where you stand in the unlikely event of a claim. (We hope!)

#4.  Find out how you can get hold of someone if you need to – do they work office hours, where are they located – locally or overseas – yes some companies run their business from sunnier climates, relying on cleaners to sort themselves out without any local support.

#5.  Ask about sickness/holiday cover for your regular cleaner.  You don’t want to be paying for a service that doesn’t offer a cover cleaner when your regular cleaner of off with illness or away on holiday – the whole idea of a paying for a professional service is to ensure that your home gets cleaned Each and Every week without fail.

If you’d like our help in finding a suitable cleaner for your home, please call our Client Services Coordinator Jayne Hardy on 0117 911 5150 between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.  She is based in our offices in Pill, Bristol.

Save Five Hours A Week

By Graham Rogers | Cleaning Top Tips

Do you clean for five hours each week? That’s how long the average Briton spends time cleaning and tidying with kitchens getting the most attention

Would you prefer to spend that time doing something more enjoyable?  Spend those extra hours with your family, enjoying a hobby or catching up with friends?

Britons spend nearly five hours a week keeping their homes clean, a survey found.   Kitchens are cleaned most often, while doing the oven and windows are the least popular jobs.

Quick Quiz:  How long do you spend cleaning your home?  Complete the far right-hand column with the timings taken by the average homeowner.  Add up what the total would be for your home.

Eg.  The average household: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room and medium sized kitchen spends 4 hours per week just cleaning.

Were you shocked by how long you are spending just cleaning each week? 

HomeGleamers have found that the number one reason that clients pay for a cleaning service is to give them back some leisure time.  With 2 partners in a household often working, cooking, washing and cleaning has to be fitted into short evenings and the weekends, leaving little time for leisure time. 

Surely we’d all love to use some of those 5 hours doing something other than cleaning!

On average families spend 2 hours each evening preparing, cooking and enjoying dinner, catching up on washing and ironing and doing the shopping.  Cleaning is often shoehorned in small snatches of time so the home never seems to be fully clean at any one time. 

Even worse, some of us allocate Saturday morning as “cleaning time” and spend 2-3 hours of the first day of our weekend – cleaning.  Imagine waking up every Saturday morning knowing that the first thing you’ve got to do it clean.  I know that would make me dread Saturday mornings.

This is where a home cleaning service offers every household a valuable lifeline.  Once a week a cleaner can sweep in (excuse the pun) and blitz your home from top to bottom leaving you with that “Wow isn’t it lovely and clean” feeling when you walk in the door. 

The average home needs usually 2 to 3 hours per week for a thorough clean and of course if that ironing pile seems to never diminish, many cleaning services offer an in-home ironing service too.  Wouldn’t that be great, to come home to all your clothes ironed and neatly folded, ready to be put away.

For busy households with parents and children coming and going, time is precious and often those few family hours are a little tense as we all juggle trying to fit everything in.  Often arguments occur due to clutter build up, washing up not done and the bathrooms being permanently in a state of chaos.

With a once a week cleaning service, families do not need to worry, their home will have been cleaned professionally, with no interruptions and all be done in one go.  That feeling of “Oh no the toilets need cleaning” will disappear.

HomeGleamers have also found that our more senior clients, so used to cleaning their homes daily, become frustrated that they can no longer manage to keep on top of their homes as they become less mobile.  Again, just that once a week blitz is enough to help them relax and enjoy their home, whilst knowing that it has had a thorough clean that week.  They are then free to potter around doing any top up cleaning as and when they feel able.

Do you crave a couple of hours extra leisure time?  Is it time that you admitted that you need extra help to keep on top of the cleaning?  Then give HomeGleamers a call for a friendly no-obligation chat with Jayne, our client services coordinator.  Jayne, a self-confessed cleaning addict, is perfect for helping you assess what will help you most, whether it’s just a cleaning service, a cleaning and ironing service or a service that includes tidying up too.  Call us today on 0117 911 5150.

Get More Time At Home With Systems, Tools And Our Top Tips

By Graham Rogers | Cleaning Top Tips

Save Time with Systems, Tools and Our Top Tips

Every week the average Briton spends 5 hours per week cleaning and tidying.  How would you like some simple ideas to cut that time down?

Whether you do the cleaning yourself or have a professional cleaner coming in, there are some very simple systems you can put in place to save you time, effort and money.

#1.  Make sure everything has a place in your home – if it doesn’t – throw it out!!

Yes we live in the age of ‘stuff’, we all seem to be surrounded by it and in many homes that we visit, the main problem in keeping the house clean is lack of space to put things.

Top Tip :  Encourage each family member to keep a box in the corner of their bedroom and also keep one in the living room, dining room and study, in which they can put items that need to be recycled.  Items that are broken should be just thrown away.  But items that are still usable but juts now unwanted should be passed on to a local charity, sold on eBay or resold on at a local car boot fair.

Then encourage family members to find permanent homes for everything else.  Once items are put back in the same place every time, the house will look cleaner as there will be more free space and items will have been tidied away.  Your home will feel lighter and more airy too and you should feel calmer within a less cluttered space.

#2.  Have the right tools to keep your house clean

Men love gadgets don’t they?  Great, get them to research the best vacuum cleaner to suit your home.  There is no point have a massive upright super bagless machine with a big ball at the front if you need  to carry it up 3 flights of stairs every week to do the vacuuming. 

Have a look at your home, its layout and the flow in which someone would go around the home cleaning.  Do you need a smaller lighter vacuum for carrying around the house or have you got vast areas of carpet that need one of those great bagless wonders.  You may need both.

Top Tip:  Have several cleaning caddies in different rooms.  Keep one in each bathroom/cloakroom and encourage toilet cleanliness daily.  If you only use certain items upstairs, then keep them upstairs in a separate cupboard.  Stop spending time carrying things all over the place when they could be kept close to where they are needed.

#3.  Have a system.

If you’re cleaning the home yourself or are sharing the task with housemates/family then have a system eg Monday – clean bathrooms, Tuesday – clean kitchen, Wednesday – dust and vacuum upstairs, Thursday – dust and vacuum downstairs, Friday – declutter and empty bins etc.

Top Tip:  Younger children love to help around the house so encourage them by giving them responsibility to help from a young age and increase that responsibility as they grow older.  This will help them when they move into their first home – at least they will have been taught how to clean and look after a home.

If you’d rather not DIY but would like our help in finding a suitable cleaner for your home, please call our Client Services Coordinator Jayne Hardy on 0117 911 5150 between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.  She is based in our offices in Pill, Bristol.

Ultimate Guide To Cleaning: Home Cleaners Bristol

By admintam | Cleaning Top Tips

Clock Cleaners (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Would you like to gain useful hints and tips to enhance your home and keep it looking clean and smelling fresh.  Whether you do the cleaning yourself or you have a cleaner do it for you, these cleaning tips will be help you have a lovely home.

Each entry will offer you a separate tip, so you will easily be able to search through and find the one that you need.  Please enjoy these and feel free to share them with friends and family.  We could all do with a little extra help and advice at times so why not share it.

Ultimate Guide To Cleaning: Upholstery Cleaning

By admintam | Cleaning Top Tips

The secret to keeping your upholstery looking good is to vacuum it often using the brush

I HAD to wash the sofa cover (Photo credit: storebukkebruse)

attachment and crevice tool.  Turn removable cushions weekly to ensure even wear.

Depending on the fabric type you can wash or dry-clean loose covers.  If you wash them, replace them before they are completely dry to re-shape and stop any shrinkage.  You will need to iron them in position, using a cool iron on foam furniture (do be careful I’d hate for your to scorch your lovely cushions).

If the covers cannot be removed, have them professionally cleaned, or clean with an upholstery shampoo and spotting kit.  Always test on a hidden area first and make sure you don’t over wet the cloth.

I suggest you dry-clean chenilles, velours, tapestries, velvets and fabrics containing silk, wool or viscose.

Ultimate Guide To: Shower Cleaning

By admintam | Cleaning Top Tips

Ideally keeping a daily eye on the cleanliness of your shower with ensure that your shower

English: shower head Deutsch: Duschkopf mit strömenden Wasser (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

remains sparklingly clean.

Shower Tray:  Clean the base with an all-purpose bathroom cleaner.  If you live in a hard water area you will also need to use a limescale remover about once per week.

Cleaning the Shower Screens: The easiest was of cleaning the shower screen is to us a solution of washing-up liquid.  If you have a folding shower screen make sure you pay particular attention to the hinge sections, which can get very dirty.  Use a limescale remover to clean off any white watermarks.

Cleaning Your Shower Head:  You can descale this with a liquid descaler and an old toothbrush.  Or my preferred option soak the shower head in a solution of white vinegar and water and leave for a couple of hours.  I also find that lemon juice works really well too.

Mould:  Damp areas may be susceptible to mould which appears as black spores.  Ideally to clean it off, spray with a fungicide and re-spray regularly to prevent further mould growth.

Discoloured Grout: Try cleaning with an old toothbrush and a solution of diluted household bleach.