You are not cleaning before the cleaners come. You are clearing, which is a different thing. Every item left on a surface is an item that has to be lifted, cleaned around and put back, and that time comes out of the cleaning you paid for.
The single most useful thing you can do takes about ten minutes and has nothing to do with cleaning.
Clear, do not clean
- Counters and tables: put away what lives elsewhere
- Floors: pick up toys, shoes, laundry and cables
- Bathroom surfaces: move products into a cupboard or a basket
- Desks: paperwork into one pile, because a crew will not sort your documents
Say the things that are not obvious
- 1Pets: names, temperament, and whether they should be shut in a room.
- 2Allergies and product sensitivities, which change what gets used.
- 3Any surface that needs specific care — unsealed stone, antique wood, a finish that has already been damaged.
- 4The two or three things that bother you most. They get priority, and saying so is more effective than hoping.
- 5Anything that looks like rubbish but is not. This one prevents the worst outcome.
Access, if you will not be home
Most clients are not there. Leave clear entry instructions, and say where things live so items get put back in the right place rather than a reasonable-looking one. If there is an alarm, the code and the sequence.
Secure what matters
Not because a vetted crew is a risk — ours are background-checked — but because an accident near something irreplaceable is a bad day for everyone. Put away jewellery, cash, documents and anything genuinely fragile.
Afterwards
Walk the space the same day if you can. A guarantee that runs 24 hours only helps if you look inside the window, and a spot flagged the same evening gets fixed with far less friction than one raised a week later.
