There's a strange piece of unspoken etiquette in the cleaning industry: people clean before the cleaner arrives. It's not weird, exactly — most of us were raised to. But it does say something about the trust gap most services operate in.
Here's our take: you shouldn't have to. But if you want to, here's what actually moves the needle.
What helps (a lot)
- Floors clear of small items. Toys, shoes, mail piles on the floor — anything we have to pause, pick up, decide where it goes. Two minutes of tidying floors can shave 30 minutes off a visit.
- Counters clear. Kitchen and bathroom counters double as work zones for a clean. The fewer things to pick up, wipe under, and put back, the deeper the surface gets cleaned.
- Sink empty. We'll wash dishes in the sink as part of the kitchen reset, but a half-loaded dishwasher cleared into action doubles our effective cleaning radius.
- Pets settled. If your pet hides under the bed, gets anxious around the vacuum, or has a strong opinion about strangers, let us know in advance. We'll plan around it. A note in your preferences profile is enough.
- One sentence on what matters most. "Please pay extra attention to the kids' bathroom" is more useful than the entire 47-point checklist. Tell us where you'd notice the difference, and we'll spend the time accordingly.
What doesn't matter
Things people stress about that don't actually help:
- Vacuuming before we vacuum. (Genuinely.)
- Hiding clutter you'll see again the second we leave.
- Putting fresh sheets on the bed. We'll do that.
- Wiping down counters. We'll do that too.
If anything, "pre-cleaning" makes us slightly less effective — we're working from a less honest baseline.
Why we still won't expect any of this
Our recurring members tend to do less and less of this over time. The first visit, they pick up. By visit four, they don't. They've seen the standard hold either way.
If you've been doing the pre-clean dance for years, consider this permission to stop. We've got it.