What Won’t a Maid Service Clean, and What Should You Do About Those Jobs?

Hire someone to clean your house, and you’ll save yourself a tremendous amount of effort. A normal clean will cover a dusty ceiling fan, a dirty kitchen floor, soap scum around a bathroom sink etc. The sort of mess that’s not going to be tackled by a standard cleaner is infested cabinets, biological waste, furniture that’s going to fall over, and the outside of the house.

Knowing these limitations helps the homeowner to avoid confusion and get their home in a state where it can be cleaned. A maid service will generally be concentrating on cleaning rather than dealing with hazardous materials, repairing damaged areas or working in hazardous situations. The difference is most pertinent when you have a property that’s been let down and has problems that standard cleaning products simply won’t deal with.

Why Professional Cleaners Have Limits on Certain Tasks

Cleaning a house is all about working around furniture, personal possessions, appliances and all sorts of surfaces. Basic cleaning requires a degree of judgment as to what products and tools to use. There are, of course, some situations that present a risk which is outside the normal course of cleaning.

The problem isn’t necessarily the amount of dirt. Cleaning a very dirty kitchen worktop may just take longer, but even a small amount of contamination can require specialist equipment, specialist safety procedures and careful disposal. The same applies to a dusty bookshelf. It’s straightforward to clean if you can get to it safely, but it becomes a whole different proposition if you have to use an unsteady ladder.

Cleaning companies put in place limits for all sorts of reasons really (to keep the workers safe, the homeowners safe, and the property safe). The limits also serve to define which jobs are just part of the normal maintenance and which ones require specific training.

For instance, Airhearts Cleaning Services Phoenix doesn’t do biologicals, pest infestations, hoarding, fragile blinds, or any jobs that require second-story ladders. The condition of the home is just as important as the size of the home when determining what level of regular cleaning can be safely undertaken.

Homeowners should check these limits prior to a cleaning visit, particularly if the property has any special circumstances or hasn’t been cleaned for a while.

Biological Hazards Require a Different Kind of Cleanup

One of the most significant limitations is biological contamination. Blood, vomit, feces, urine and a few other bodily fluids can present a health risk and standard cleaning methods may not be adequate to deal with them.

The risk will depend on what the material is, how much there is, and whether it has come into contact with surfaces which absorb liquid. Carpet, upholstery and unfinished wood in particular can be difficult to assess as the liquid can soak in below the surface where it’s not visible.

A normal cleaner wouldn’t be expected to be in a position to decide whether or not deeply contaminated materials can be cleaned up or saved.

If there’s significant contamination, then a trained biohazard professional may be required. They’ll use the correct methods and PPE for the scenario and can determine whether the materials in question need to be removed.

The same applies to discarded needles and any possible drug paraphernalia. You don’t just go and pick them up; you don’t chuck them in the regular bin; you don’t leave them for a cleaner to pick up.

Even if the stain appears minor, the situation it represents can be quite different. Cleaning up a spill of drink from the tile is a very different proposition to dealing with some unknown biological material.

The safest thing to do is to work out what the contamination is and get it dealt with before you go any further with the normal cleaning.

Pest Infestations Cannot Be Solved by Surface Cleaning Alone

A few crumbs in a kitchen cupboard are a fairly normal cleaning job. If you find lots of insects, rodent droppings, nests, or damaged food packaging, however, then that’s a different matter.

Pests can get in via gaps in the building; they can move through the hidden spaces, or they can just end up in places that your normal cleaning gear can’t get to. Simply cleaning the visible bits won’t necessarily solve the problem.

Some pest debris can be a health hazard if disturbed. Rodent droppings in particular should not be swept up or vacuumed with a standard vacuum as this would release the hazardous material into the air.

A properly trained pest control expert should be looking at any active infestation and recommending the appropriate treatment. In some cases, special cleaning will be required prior to the normal cleaning regime being able to recommence.

Good food storage and regular cleaning will go some way towards preventing pests, but that’s not the same as dealing with an actual infestation.

The exclusions published by Airhearts Cleaning Services Phoenix distinguish pest infestations from ordinary household dirt. That distinction is useful because a clean countertop will not address insects entering through wall gaps or rodents nesting behind appliances.

Once the pest problem has been sorted and the area is safe, regular cleaning will help to control the amount of crumbs, food debris and all the other sorts of thing that will attract pests.

Heavy Clutter Can Prevent Cleaning Even When Nothing Is Hazardous

Not every place that’s difficult to clean has hazardous materials in it. It may simply be that you can’t get to the surfaces that need cleaning.

A bedroom full of boxes could well have virtually no floor space at all. Kitchen worktops are likely to be a complete mess and very difficult to wipe. The hallways will be full of stuff and that will obviously make it very difficult to get a bucket or cleaning tool through.

The problem gets worse when you’ve got all sorts of clutter blocking up the exits, hiding the electrical sockets or making the furniture unstable.

Hoarding is not just a regular mess. It can involve building issues, fire risks, contaminated goods, and the like, and can be a situation that requires a very careful and coordinated response.

Getting rid of a lot of possessions is of course nothing like a simple dusting, vacuuming or mopping. That decision as to what to get rid of is solely for the homeowner or someone with permission.

If it’s just a case of a lot of clutter, then the first thing you might want to do is get it organized, possibly with the help of a professional declutterer or a cleaning specialist. You can do the cleaning once the space is safe and accessible.

That’s why preparing for a maid service generally involves picking up all the loose bits from the areas that are to be cleaned. A cleaner can do a much better job on the surfaces when all the personal items, the rubbish and the unstable piles are cleared away.

Fragile Blinds and High Surfaces Need Special Consideration

Some things in the house can break even if you’re very gentle with them. Old plastic blinds are a perfect example. The slats can become quite brittle over time, particularly after a lot of sun and usage.

A slat that appears fine can crack if you bend it or wipe it. The cords and bits can also go weak so normal dusting can be a bit of a risk.

Rather than try and force the damaged blinds into position, check the condition of the blinds and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for care. If the window treatments are badly damaged, then they may well need to be repaired or replaced rather than just cleaned.

Height is another consideration. Cleaning a high ceiling, high window or raised fixture may require specialist equipment and safety measures that go well beyond the normal domestic cleaning.

Standing on chairs, balancing on counters or reaching from an unstable ladder can result in serious injury. The mere presence of dust doesn’t mean that those hard-to-reach bits and pieces should be treated as normal cleaning jobs.

If the job requires you to be up high then it’s probably best to just hire the right specialist with the right kit.

It’s vital to be able to distinguish between ceiling fans and the sort of blind you can just reach and the fragile bits or surfaces that you’d need a tall ladder for. A company may well be happy to do a general dusting but will not be prepared to do any of the more risky jobs.

How to Prepare a Home Without Doing the Cleaner’s Job

Getting ready for a cleaning visit doesn’t mean you’ve got to do all the cleaning yourself. It’s about making the home as accessible as possible and spotting any issues that would make the work unsafe.

Best to get all the loose clothing, papers, toys and valuables out of the way so they don’t get in the way of the cleaning. That way, the cleaners aren’t going to be handling your things and can concentrate on the counters, the fixtures, and the floors.

Homeowners should let the cleaner know about any oddities rather than just hoping they won’t be an issue. An active pest problem, potential contamination, furniture that’s not going to be stable, or broken window treatments, etc., could all have an impact on whether the cleaning can go ahead.

The Airhearts Cleaning Services Phoenix rules are important here as they draw the line between standard home cleaning and things which are not safe to do. Knowing those boundaries in advance enables the homeowner to deal with the special issues themselves rather than have them all incorporated into one cleaning visit.

What you expect from a clean should be in line with the type of visit. Regular cleaning is very different from deep cleaning, and some jobs have specific requirements. It’s important to identify the problem areas prior to the visit so as to avoid any confusion as to what can and can’t be done.

Prep is most useful in the sense of removing obstacles without creating new ones. Don’t go around trying to move the fixed cabinets, take the electrics apart or touch any suspicious material just to get a room ready.

Recognizing When a Different Professional Is Needed

Rather than ask if a job looks dirty, it’s better to ask if it can be done safely using normal domestic cleaning methods.

Cleaning the grease off the stove, dusting the furniture you can get to and wiping down the bathroom fixtures is all pretty standard cleaning. If you’re looking at potential biohazards, infestations, hoarding, or areas that are just out of reach, then you’re going to need a different methodology.

Occasionally a homeowner will have to deal with a number of issues before they can get back to normal cleaning. Pest control will deal with the pests, the repair people will deal with the damaged fittings and the remediation people will deal with the unsafe contamination. You don’t want to just combine them all together to save time.

Knowing these limitations helps the homeowner to work out what a maid service is expected to do, so they don’t go expecting it to do things it’s not designed to do. If the jobs are clearly defined then they’re far easier to do than if you’re expecting the service to sort out everything in the house.

Final Thoughts

A routine cleaning visit is intended to keep the house surfaces in good order. It is not in any way a substitute for specialist remediation, pest control, repairs or hazardous materials removal. It’s important to be clear about the difference, as it protects both the operatives and your property.

Before you go ahead and hire a maid service, make sure you’ve sorted out any oddities, cleared the areas they’ll be working in and decided whether you need a specialist. Once you’ve got the safety issues and the major hurdles out of the way, routine cleaning will be a lot smoother.

The key point is to match each household problem with the appropriate type of work rather than assume that every mess is going to require the same level of skill, the same type of work or the same amount of attention.