How to Choose the Ideal Housekeeper
In our day and age, time is precious. We live much longer but it seems the older we get, the quicker time speeds up. Work, family, travel, everything we do tends to end up in a bit of a rush. So to get control of time, its important to think carefully about lifestyle and choices that are made. Wise decisions can result in giving you time back to do the things you love to do. Spending time with your family, travelling the world or just putting your feet up! You’ve decided to hire a housekeeper – but how do you pick an ideal housekeeper? You want to match exactly what your family or property needs.
Read our guide on how to choose the ideal housekeeper.
Families hire housekeepers for any number of reasons. Some hire part time and some hire full time. Some housekeepers are live in and some live out. It can be a common misconception that the role of the housekeeper is a ‘lesser’ job in some way, but it most certainly is not!
Decide the hours
There are two types of principals, ones who have never had to do any housework in their lives and ones who have had to, but now choose not to. Try to be realistic about the demands of the job and what you need your ideal housekeeper to do.
If you live in a 5 story townhouse, with only stairs (most of our clients have elevators in their homes!) and you have 3 children, 2 dogs and 7 bedrooms, chances are that your house will need a full time housekeeper. We would expect them to work from 8:30/9am to 5:30/6pm each day, with possible Saturday work. Don’t expect miracles.
Live in vs Live out
Space is precious (perhaps second to time!) but most of our clients tend to have space for staff. If you have the space, then seriously consider live in.
What to Know Before You Hire a Housekeeper
Finally hiring a housekeeper can bring such a sense of relief, but only if you’ve done your homework. It’s important to find someone who is trustworthy, particularly if they will be cleaning your home while you’re at work or running errands, and will take their time to do the job properly. Ask around for referrals and consider the ins and outs of using a sole proprietor or hiring a larger cleaning company before you commit to a housekeeper.
Independent Workers vs. Cleaning Companies
A number of housekeepers work as sole proprietors of their own business, but you might be more comfortable with a larger cleaning company that hires their own employees. There are pros and cons to both: A benefit to hiring a cleaning company is that they are responsible for screening the employees to ensure that a background check comes up clean. On the other hand, if you want the same person cleaning your house every week, you should choose a sole proprietor—turnover tends to be higher with cleaning companies, and they might send someone different each time.
Find a Referral
The best place to start looking for a great housekeeper is to ask your family and friends if they have a company or person that they use and love. One of the great things about using a cleaning service is that they have multiple people who might work out well for your needs. A lot of services will allow you to try out different housekeepers until you find one that is perfect for your needs.
Interview Candidates
Take some time to come up with real questions, and make sure that you’re thorough with the interview. Ask questions about what they enjoy about their work. Why did they choose housekeeping as a line of work? Check references, work history, and criminal history. A lot of services will do these things in advance, but be thorough and check out the results.
Decide on a flat fee or an hourly fee
When considering hiring a housekeeper, one of the things that you might have to decide is if you’re going to pay by the hour or pay a flat fee, though the housekeeper or company might have their own non-negotiable policies.
Awesome Tips Will Help You Choose The Best Maids Service
Cleaning your home is never an easy task, especially when you have a busy schedule to work with. When it comes to the best housekeeping Houston solutions available, there’s bound to be many choices. However you don’t want to just hire anyone for the job. Finding the best Houston maids in your area to come and clean your house is vital. But just how can you find the Houston maids that are best suited for your home? This guide can help, with a handful of tips that can point you in the right direction.
Have a busy schedule and just can’t find the time to clean your home? Companies in your area are ready to help. Because you don’t want to trust you house to just anyone, these tips can help you find the best maids available
Reputation – In this day and age, there’s no reason to risk leaving your home to just anyone. Research the maids you are looking to retain and make sure that they’ve got a good mix of positive reviews. With a good clientele and lots of good reviews, you can be sure that their service is top notch. The last thing you want to do is come home to a bigger mess, or find that you picked the wrong house cleaning service
Variety of Service – Maybe you’ve got guests coming over for an important social event, or there’s such a big mess you just can’t handle it. Perhaps you are heading out of town and need someone to come in and clean up. Or you are throwing a huge get together, and time is of the essence.
Trustworthiness – Let’s face it, you need a cleaner that you can rely on and trust. Not only to show up when you need them, but to keep the house clean and without any accidents. Meeting and discussing your home cleaning service needs is often the best way to find the right fit for. You want to be able to leave your home in the right hands, and not have to worry about things missing or broken when you return.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST HOUSE CLEANING OR MAID COMPANY
Before we started this house cleaning business, we were occasional clients of various maids services. Our experience was frequently inconvenient, cumbersome, and hit-or-miss. It took forever to figure out what the price would be, the cleaners were late, and the results were uninspiring.
Now, after having serviced hundreds of clients in Las Vegas, we have a much better idea as to what ingredients go into a great house cleaning experience. The first time is always a bit traumatic for the client: inviting strangers into your home, trusting them with your possessions, paying them a lot of money, with very specific and frequently unexpressed expectations. So, how does one choose the best house cleaning or maid company?
Basics first. Does the house cleaning company have all proper licenses and insurance? there are licensing requirements by both city and state. We were surprised that some companies don’t have one, another, or both! Why is proper licensing important? The house cleaning businesses – as all others – are regulated. The licensing fees are costly. But if the maid company is serious about obeying the laws and playing by the rules, it will pay those fees. Whether someone has paid those fees or not is easy to check online: just google business registration for the city and for the state.
Insurance is even more critical for the house cleaning business. Your house cleaning company should have both general liability (think you slipped on the mopped floor and broke your hip, or maid accidentally dropped antique heirloom or dinged your expensive floors) and worker’s compensation (think maid fell in your home while working). Depending on your state’s law, the maid maybe considered your employee, especially if her true employer didn’t have the worker’s compensation coverage. Even if neither of you intended it that way, you pay cash, and she used her own equipment. I would highly recommend asking your house cleaning company to provide a copy of the policies before any work.
Is the work guaranteed. Their products are high quality but if something goes wrong and I’m not happy, I know I can get my money back. One time I’ve returned a tray of sushi which tasted suspicious. Accepted it without batting an eyelid. And it gets thousands of dollars each year from me, my family, and our business shopping there. Your house cleaning company should offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It’s a tough promise to carry out. Maids work hard, but every client’s expectation is subjective and sometimes the results fall short. It’s an honorable (albeit expensive) thing to do – return your client’s money. Some cleaning companies – especially the ones that charge extremely low prices – are not in the position to stand by their work. In that respect, you can decide: whether to pay $100 for the service you’re unhappy about or $200 for your guaranteed happiness?
How to Pick a Unique & Catchy Cleaning Business Name
One of the first things you need to do when starting a cleaning business is picking your business name. When it comes to picking your cleaning company name, you want it to be unique, catchy, and memorable. It’s also important to pick a name that can be branded well and gives the appearance of a professional cleaning service.
I have compiled a list of example cleaning business names below that may or may not be available for website domain name registration. Please note that some of these names may already be registered as domains and/or businesses in your local city/town. Please do your due diligence before registering a business name.
You want to pick a name that is 2-4 words long and includes maids, maid, clean, cleaning or some other name that describes your business and does not have your personal name in it.
The reason you don’t want your personal name in your business name is that more than likely someone else has already registered a business and website with your name in it. Plus, it could come across as unprofessional and not unique.
How to Pick a Cleaning Company Name Exercise
To pick a name for your business I would recommend using the cleaning terms clean, cleaning, maid, or maids in the name. This helps with brand recognition and search engine optimization.