This past week, after over twenty years in this business, it came to me that what we sell is trust. Anyone can clean well, or badly, but when you invite people into your home, give them a key, you are trusting them. I know it sounds like I’m completely stupid for just realizing this, but it has always seemed natural that people would give me the keys to their home.

To be fair to myself, most of our clients have come to us by referral. Some have found us in the local paper, but usually we have a common bond in the neighborhood. We are a small company with a limited service area. Today people look us up online, and we do have a good internet presence, so that helps.

I’m thinking, that is why so many people go with large companies. They trust the brand name, and that the brand name is thorough in back ground checks, and they know what they are doing. That is very true. Large, national companies do have procedures for getting people in your home you can trust. In another post I’ll explore the dynamic of large companies, but in the trust department many have excellent references.

What started me thinking about this is that we just discovered Angie’s List. Actually they discovered us. We got a good review, and they contacted us. As I researched the company, one of the things they are selling is a way to trust a service provider. After all these years of being in business it just struck me, that what all business people do is sell trust. In the business world it’s even called Blue Sky, there’s a term for it.

Now, I can’t tell you how to trust some one, or a cleaner in particular, but when you hire some one that is a big part of the equation. I guess in a future post I will give you a check list of what to ask for from a cleaner, and maybe that will help. In the mean time hire some one you are comfortable with, and you can put the person to a location you can trust.

Maybe once every six months or so, if you have tile in the kitchen or bath you could use a mild hydrogen peroxide wash for cleaning. Some people mix a solution with baking soda for the abrasion. On flat counters we some times dump the brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide along with a generous sprinkling of baking soda then work it in with a damp cloth. You can do the same thing in a bath tub or tub surround then work your way up the tile walls.

There are some cautions for this, such as don’t let is sit too long. When you rinse you have to rinse repeatedly. The residual will break down over time, but you want to make sure it’s rinsed. With some bleach solutions, and we will talk about that another time, you want to let the product sit to be effective. Hydrogen peroxide starts working right away, so the time you are working with it is enough time.

Don’t splash the peroxide around, it is a bleaching agent. Work it with the cloth. On the wall surfaces of the tub or shower surround you will want to saturate the cloth. Wear gloves, and clothing you don’t mind losing.

Now this is actually a good thing, as long as you are careful. I only brought it up because it is a step. In the long list of things you can do with your tile this is really pretty benign.

One of our clients today made the comment for us to “have fun.” It struck me as an odd comment because his wife told us we were having too much fun the last time we were there. She is referring, of course, to our chatter, laughing, and making funny faces while we clean. Not all houses are as fun, but we like these people, have been cleaning there for seven years, and they have eclectic stuff. It’s a whimsical kind of place.

We all speak Spanish, so it is confusing for some clients to understand. Most of the time, with my team, they are making fun of my bad Spanish. However it helps in a day to have some fun.

In my opinion one of the greatest things, and this can help you if you chose to do your own cleaning, is having everything in one place at one time. We have a bucket of cleaning supplies, and a bag of rags. We have the two vacuums to be able to get everywhere. I also have my special ramiento to do high dusting. It’s a duster on a pole. You can get one at Ace Hardware for between $15 to $20.

The other great thing is working in teams of three. We have the option of rotating tasks. The fact we rotate gives us the ability to make fun of each others methods. I get it all the time. There again I also notice that some people forget the same things, or hum a tune, or do things different from me.

Our team has been together for about two years now. We do have a rhythm, and having some fun, making some games out of the cleaning, helps get the job done. I think it gets done better our way.

In this economy we have had more once a month cleanings for people on a budget. We go in for an hour, with three people, clean the kitchen, baths, and do some dusting. It just helps people stay in the game of keeping the house clean. Of course this works best for the people who keep a place tidy.

For those who have cleaning challenges we have found we are both, the cleaners, and customers, unhappy with the results. Expectations are high, so some times there is disappointment. The price is also a little bit higher than what some want to pay.

Some simple tricks for once a month cleaning are to clean the dishes, and put them away. Dishes cost a lot for the cleaners to do. Clean a section of the kitchen, and put everything there, out of the way. Get everything you can out of the way in the bathroom. Pick up the toys, put out the trash, and straighten where the vacuum is going. The idea is for the cleaners to clean, and the less they move around the more they can get to.

If you read through this blog you can see that these simple tips get you half way to a clean house. What you may also want to consider is breaking the cleaning into two sessions of an hour each to see how a system may work for you. It may be that paying $120 to $135 for once a month would be better than paying $180 for once every two weeks, but you may want to try it both ways.