House Cleaning San Diego: Are You Still Cleaning Your Own Home?

You may have recently looked into cleaning services. Perhaps it was because you don't have enough time to clean your own home, you are not able, or simply don't like it. How do you decide to hire a house cleaning service?

Many of our inquiries come on Saturday mornings - my theory is that this is when everyone is doing house chores and missing out on one of the nice San Diego days to get out and enjoy. The bulk of our new house cleaning calls come on Monday. It seems that many have thought about it over the weekend and one of the first items on their to-do list is to make that they don't lose the next weekend to more chores.

In choosing a cleaning service in San Diego or anywhere else, be sure that you are comfortable with the team, that adequate insurance is in place, and that you can communicate with the office.

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Until then, here are a some house cleaning tips to make your chores go faster:

• Pick up first and get rid of things you don't need. It's easier to clean the surfaces if the piles are removed. You may even feel that picking up is enough and you can leave it until next week! 
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•  Clean the most important areas. These are generally the dirtiest, too. Sorry! Many of our customers focus on the kitchen and bathrooms. Just make sure you choose one room at a time.
• Pre-treat. Perhaps the most important way to save elbow grease is to apply your cleaner a few minutes before you start scrubbing. This allows the cleaning agents to go to work on the tough areas.
• Follow a sequence; start cleaning top to bottom, left to right, to make sure you don't miss an area.
• Use the right cleaner: When removing grease, use a degreaser, use scum remover..yes you guessed.  You don’t need to run to the store and stock up with every product on the shelf. You only need a soap base product and a disinfectant and make sure to be kind to yourself and the environment when choosing cleaning products.

Photo credit:Jude Doyland

So...if you're still cleaning your own home, go turn up the music, get your cleaning materials out, and get it done quickly so that you can enjoy your weekend!

House Cleaning Prices Worth Having Professional San Diego Maids

Maid service used to be synonymous with living in luxury in grand homes or estates.  Today, with our busy schedules, families, work and other lifestyle commitments, we're finding that keeping a house clean and sparkling as our mothers did years ago is a daunting task. Once you take a closer look at house cleaning prices, you will see that the expenditure is far worth it in terms of your time and energy.

Maids are able to offer you competitive house cleaning prices based on the size of your home, number of bedrooms, square footage, and the condition of the home.  House cleaning prices are also calculated on how often your San Diego maids will clean your home and the amount of services included in their regular cleanings.

House Cleaning Prices

Obtaining house cleaning prices can be a bit difficult as many companies would prefer to come out to give you a personal estimate.  Fortunately, we have been able to obtain some house cleaning prices that are basically a national average.  You can adjust these house cleaning prices by choosing various options such as the number of times your maids come out to the house to clean, the services you will need performed, and what materials are used and whether you provide them or the maid service uses their own.


Typical house cleaning prices for the first cleaning which usually takes a little longer and is very thorough:

• 900 square foot apartment with 2 bedrooms and about 5 rooms total runs between $74-$200.
• 1300 square foot single story home with 7 rooms runs between $95 and $300.
• 2200 square foot two-story, 3-bedroom house with up to 9 rooms would run $149 to $400.

House Cleaning Service

Once you've had the initial, first-time house cleaning, a professional maid service would then generally clean your home on a bi-weekly basis.  Let's look at average house cleaning prices for bi-weekly cleaning of the same size homes as above:

• 900 square foot apartment or condo would be $59 - $124.
• 1300 square foot single-story home would be around $79 - $150.
• 2200 square foot two-story home would run $104 - $180.

San Diego Maids

If you've been on the fence about hiring a maid service to do your house cleaning for you, these figures should give you a better idea about the actual cost.  You will find house cleaning prices worthy of having a professional maid service to do this work for you.  A regular house cleaning on a particular schedule generally includes vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing sinks, floors, countertops and range hoods, cleaning and sanitizing bathrooms, shine and polish mirrors, fixtures, and cleaning appliances.


You can obtain a more specific house cleaning rate from your San Diego maids service by requesting an estimate.  Someone will come out to your home, review the services with you, walk through your home and determine the actual cost as it pertains to your unique home and requirements.

5 Ways San Diego Maids Can Help Combat Dust Mite Allergies

Allergy sufferers already know what they are allergic to and how badly.  One of the major irritants to an allergy sufferer is dust mites.  Dust mites are microscopic creatures that take great delight in making their residence in your home, and challenge your housekeeping in San Diego.  

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Dust mites, unlike other pests, are not fussy about the type of house or the social-economic environment they infiltrate.  They simply want to live and reproduce within a warm, humid home that they can call their own.  Your home looks absolutely perfect to them.  

Once we started to build homes and refurbish existing properties to be better insulated against the outside elements, we set up the perfect habitat for these pesky little critters. The relative warmth and humidity which now is typical for most all houses has managed to increase an allergy sufferer’s complaints.

Dust mites hide in your furniture, bedding, carpeting, and window treatments.  They are happy to take up residence in your pillows, on your countertops, under the furniture, and in your clothing.  If you could take a microscope or a very powerful magnifying glass and inspect these areas, you would be quite surprised at how many little creatures have come to visit.

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Clean for Dust Mites

It's important to remove as many of these dust mites from your home as possible to reduce the allergies of your family members who suffer from them.  Here are some easy tips to help send these little fellows packing.

1)  Wash bedding weekly
2)  Wash throw rugs weekly
3)  Keep countertops wiped clean and dry  
4)  Damp cloth dust all surfaces weekly
5)  Vacuum with either a double-bag unit or one which has a good HEPA filter

The actual process of cleaning your home can stir up quite a bit of dust and other allergens that can instigate an allergic reaction in susceptible people.  Care must be taken when doing your housework.  Dusting surfaces with a damp cloth is a better way than spraying a dusting product (an allergen) where just the force of the spray will send dust flying.

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People with allergies have found that they can reduce their allergic reactions by having a maid service or house cleaning service in San Diego do the weekly house cleaning for them.  The staff of a maid service is well trained in how to properly clean a house, how to efficiently clean a house, and how to remove the typical causes of allergies in a home.

San Diego Maids

While a San Diego maid service can keep up with the regular house cleaning chores, and thereby keep the dust down to a bare minimum, you will find you have extra time to handle some of the other projects you need to do. 

One thing you can do to help remove allergens and dust mites, is to toss your throw rugs, your comforters or bedspreads, and your pillows into the dryer on the high heat setting and tumble them for 15 to 20 minutes.  The heat and the circulation in the dryer will release the dust mites, which will then be carried outside through the vent of the dryer.  Do this on a regular basis and you will find the allergy attacks reduced.

Hiring A Maid Service

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What am I, your maid?  How many times did you hear that growing up from your mother?  The thought probably often crossed our minds then and as we got older that, yes, we really would like to have a maid service to ease our chore list.  

Reasons to Hire a Maid Service

Having a maid service come in and do your housework for you is an amazing service.  You can look at it as a necessary assistant to help keep you on track, you can look at it as a time saver, or you can look at it as a personal luxury that you deserve to have.  Maid service is a lot like internet service for your computer, once you have it, you'll wonder how you ever managed without.

In today's society we are all so busy with many responsibilities and commitments.  Some of us travel or commute daily to jobs well away from our homes.  Certainly, returning home to find house work that needs to be done, dinner to be made, children to ferry about to activities, leaves us little time to clean house as thoroughly as we'd like.

Maid Service Options

Maid service companies are well trained in how to clean a house from top to bottom, and adapt well to different home and owner requirements.  You can hire a maid service to come to your home on any schedule that works for you such as once a week, bi-weekly, or even monthly.  It all depends on your house cleaning needs.

Regardless of the frequency of their visit to your home, you will find that the basic rates for maid service are relatively inexpensive per hour, and that time you save yourself is priceless.  

Hiring Maid Service

Hiring a maid service can be a little tricky until you decide what type of company you want to work with.  In many neighborhoods there are people using a maid service, either an individual or a company.  Check with your neighbors to see if they might refer someone to you.  

A professional house cleaning service is well trained in the best and most effective cleaning procedures.  They will be fully insured and bonded and generally work in teams of two to four cleaners that work together to clean your house thoroughly and quickly.  Many maid services are now offering healthy (green) cleaning services to their clients since today more than ever we are aware of how chemicals are associated with certain health challenges.

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Individuals may come with impeccable references, which is obviously something you will want of anyone entering your home to provide a service.  You need to be sure that the individual providing cleaning services is insured both for liability and for injury, that they have clean records, excellent references, and legal work status.

Either way you go with hiring a maid service, be sure to go through the house room by room with the person providing the service to ascertain what is expected from both parties.  You need to be clear about what work you want done on a regular basis and if there are any additional or special requests necessary for your home.  Always have a written estimate before hand, and an understanding on both sides as to what is expected.

Visit here to learn more about hiring a: maid service in San Diego.

Elderly Parents Grateful for Maid Service

No Time For House Cleaning

Many of us are finding we are running our own households, raising our children, working outside the home, and helping our elderly parents to be able to remain as independent as possible.  It's a difficult and sometimes overwhelming responsibility to be caring for and organizing so many different needs in our lives.

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Our parents, now living by themselves either in their homes or apartments where they must still look after themselves, grocery shop, attend appointments, cook their own meals, and clean their homes are finding that sometimes these chores are more than they can handle.

Their energy levels, strength, and the medical conditions that affect the older population can make many normal activities such a strain and be a real test on the limited resources our parents have.  House cleaning is noted by many elderly people as the least enjoyed, least tolerated, and the most exhausting chore on their list.

Elderly Parents Need Help

In a nearby apartment complex that is home to a high percentage of elderly people, I've heard so many of them wish for a housekeeper or a maid service so that they can sit back and save their energy.  As a daughter who sees her mother struggle with simple housecleaning chores, it's a situation that bears a response.

We want the best for our parents, just as they have always wanted the best for us and still do.  At this time in their lives, our parents want to spend quality time with their family and not be worrying about cleaning their homes.  A house cleaning which used to take a day, now stretches over the entire week due to decreased energy levels and health challenges that are typical of this age group.

Many parents will insist that we, their children, not spend out visiting time with them doing their housework.  They want to be with us and not watch us work without the interaction they so crave.  One of the ways that we've found to work through this situation is to hire a maid service in San Diego to come into the parents' home or apartment on a regular basis to clean.

A professional maid service will make short work of cleaning a small apartment, plus get to all those little places that we all have difficulty remembering to clean.  The older generation generally has not been in a position to have an actual maid service clean their homes.  Our parents were very proud of being able to keep their homes clean and bright for their family.

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Today, we need to look at what could make their lives easier, and having a maid service arrive every so often to vacuum, wash floors, clean countertops, wipe down surfaces, clean bathrooms and kitchens is one of those very things.  Once an elderly parent has experienced the efforts of a house cleaning service, they will wonder why they hadn't used one before.  This is such a relief in time spent, energy expended, and a huge reduction in the worrying that they all do about the condition of their homes.  You can help your parents by hiring a maid service to do the housecleaning and allow you and your parent the time you deserve to spend together.

Warning! Are House Cleaning Chemicals Invading Your Home?

Have you ever taken a peek in someone else's under-the-sink cabinet to see all of the chemical cleaners and products they have stored there?  Does your cabinet look similar?  We've been brought up with name brand cleaners and convinced that only the strongest chemical cleaners will get rid of the germs lurking in our homes.

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Over the years we've unwittingly been poisoning our bodies, our family, friends, and pets through the constant use of chemical-laden products that we bring into our home.  There are so many bad chemicals out there that enter our homes on their own; so why continue to make it worse with house cleaning products that you really don't need?

Chemicals Affect Our Health

We're now learning about the effects that these insidious chemicals are having on our bodies from feeling ill too often, birth defects, brain damage, and even cancer.  We don't have to live this way, and it's time that we re-evaluate using products that contain physiologically damaging chemicals.

Clean has no smell.

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The popular and well-advertised name brand household cleaners are full of strong, harsh chemicals with sometimes very innocent names like "fragrance."  Fragrance is specifically a chemical called phthalates that has been connected to low-birth weight, cancers, allergies, and asthma.  You will find phthalates in all kinds of different products including cosmetics, perfume, shower curtains, vinyl floors, new cars, toys -- and house dust.

Yes, house dust.  There's another perfect reason for keeping your house clean, vacuumed, and dusted on a regular basis.  It’s hard to believe that our homes are shedding this chemical due simply to time and wear and tear.  You don't have to become a slave to your home - or a prisoner either.  Remember to keep a cleaning schedule with weekly vacuuming, floor mopping, and dusting as the most important thing you can do to keep your family safe.

Green Cleaning Products Are Safer To Use

After all these years of using chemical cleaners, there are new, earth friendly, plant-based, chemical free cleaners on the market.  It's time we learned how to use these green products to clean our homes, and look at some other natural cleaners that will reduce the chemical overload in your home.

 

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Natural cleaners for your home include lemon oil, vinegar, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide.  Vinegar has long been a very useful liquid that can be used to clean coffee pots.  Today, we know that vinegar cleans windows much better than any chemical window cleaner and shines and polishes chrome and other decorative metals in your home.

Cleaning your home with green products, getting rid of the harsh chemicals you've been using, and remembering to keep your home dusted, vacuumed and mopped will go such a long way to making your home a safer place to live, breathe, and play.  Check out green cleaning products and green house cleaning services in San Diego to learn what options you may have should you require professional services to clean your home.

What To Do When You've Lost the House Cleaning Wars

How long has this been going on?  The immortal words of George and Ira Gershwin should be resounding in your head as you begin to take stock of the situation your house is in when regular cleanings have been forgotten.

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Let's face it, there just are not enough hours in a day to complete all our chores and errands.  And if you work full time, have children, a family, social obligations, and any number of other demands on your time, are you really spending the time needed on your house cleaning?

A large number of people freely admit that their house cleaning activities consist of a brief vacuum to pick up the most unruly dust bunnies, a damp mop of the kitchen floor to wipe off the coffee dribbles (the dog cleans up the crumbs), and the replacement of the 1000 Flushes toilet bowl cleaner.  Seriously?  

Have you looked closely at your floors, carpets, windows, mirrors, counters and appliances?  What is that grime that has built up all over everything?  That, my dear friend, is the result of not doing thorough house cleaning on a regular basis.

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You are not alone in getting to this point of not knowing where to start, nor having the energy or time to do even a little bit of the work.  There are two real options (letting the grime and clutter continue to pile up is not one of them) that you could consider.  

The first option, of course, is to do the major cleaning yourself.  You could start with one room at a time, and work your way down from the top of the walls to the floor.  This will require a fair amount of effort and elbow grease as you scrub down your walls, wash the baseboards, clean the lighting fixtures, shine the mirrors, wash the windows (inside and out), dust the mantle, then steam vacuum the carpet.  Oh, did you leave all your furniture in the way?

Now, remember, every room needs to be gone through and scrubbed to remove the buildup from the weeks or months that you haven't really cleaned in those rooms.  I've heard of some people that have had to get out the scrub brushes to get the grime up off surfaces.  Does this sound like something you'd really like to spend your next day off doing?

Okay.  There is a way to get past this major project, retain your sanity, and end up with a sparkling clean house without the sore muscles to prove it.  Start looking for a maid service in San Diego to come out and give you an idea how they could make your life a whole lot easier.

House cleaning services are not just for those every day, weekly regular cleaning jobs, but they have a lot of training and tools that allow them to come in and do a full, deep cleaning of your home.  A team of professionally trained cleaners will come to your home with the most up-to-date industrial strength tools and products and make a very quick project of getting your home clean and smelling fresh.  The combined effort of the team of cleaners will double and even triple the elbow grease that goes into getting a home sparkling clean.  

So rather than spending countless hours trying to get your house back to the shiny clean that you wish for, take a look at hiring a maid service in San Diego to scrub your home clean.  And then, you can not only sit back and relax, but have the time to pursue many more satisfying and enjoyable activities.

5 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Maid Service in San Diego

Many busy families have chosen to hire a house cleaning service to keep their homes clean on a regular basis, and allowing the homeowner the opportunity to enjoy their free time together enjoying the activities they love the most.

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Small business owners may find themselves in need of a new cleaning service here in San Diego or a recently opened business that has yet to secure cleaning services may be doing research on hiring a cleaning company.

If you are ready to hire a maid service, here are five main questions that you should be asking and getting the answers that you need before you make a commitment to any service.

5 Questions a Maid Service Should Answer

• Does the service you are interviewing screen their employees for references, past work history, and are they bonded?  A reputable house cleaning service is only as good as its employees.  You want to be sure that the people coming into your home are good employees who take their job seriously and have an impeccable work history.  
• Does the maid service have a current liability insurance policy, and are their employees covered by workers' compensation?  You will find that an actual service business will have liability insurance and workers' compensation coverage for their employees.  Individuals who are cleaning houses as their own private business often skip the insurance portion, as there is a steep cost to carrying it.  You should ask to see the current policy to be sure the coverage is in force.  You can also ask to speak directly with their insurance agency or company to obtain confirmation of coverage.
• Ask for a complete list of what their cleaning service provides and entails.  You want to be absolutely sure as to what the maid service will clean and what they will not do.  Some companies will not do windows, some will clean everything top-to-bottom each and every time they come in to your home.  The maid service will be happy to provide you with a full list of their services.  You should request a written estimate from them in order to compare with other services and to have as a record of the agreement you make with them.
• Ask for a complete explanation of the type of equipment they use, the cleaning products they will use in your home, if they use green products, and if they clean with allergens in mind.  You need to be aware of what type of chemicals may or may not be used in cleaning your home.  If you or someone in your home suffers from allergies, you will find that most house cleaning services offer special products and cleaning methods to treat for allergens.
• Lastly, today, be sure to ask what their payment policy is, what might be charged extra for (should you ask for something additional upon their arrival, it's good to know what that cost might be), and what is their cancellation policy.  A maid service will have given you an estimate for their regular cleaning routine.  If you need something that is not on that list, you will have to pay an extra cost for it, and it is best to know ahead of time what that cost might be.  Hopefully, you won't be cancelling a cleaning appointment, remember that your home is one of the jobs they've been counting on for the day.  Most services cannot replace your cancelled appointment at a moment's notice and keep their employees dutifully employed.

San Diego Maid Service Helps Clean Your Pet Friendly Home

If there's one thing that even pet owners cringe at, it's the amount of hair they seem to be sweeping up every minute they turn around.  Pets leave dirt, dander, foot prints and plenty of fur everywhere they go.  It's just one of those things pet owners live with every day.

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Let's compound these house cleaning issues with the possibility that someone in your home is also an allergy sufferer.  How do you clean your house sufficiently to not only get it clean, but remove as many allergens as possible?

You can spend many hours a week constantly sweeping, vacuuming, dusting and wiping down surfaces, but after a while, that gets pretty old.  House cleaning is an onerous job in a home without pets, but add just one dog or cat into the mix, and you'll see how your housework becomes very time consuming.

How about considering the benefits of having a maid service in San Diego come to your home?  Gone are the days when house cleaning services are for only the wealthy or well-to-do set.  Many families now hire house cleaners in order to be able to have more quality time with their families and to do the activities they would rather be doing.

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If you have a home with a pet or two, you are sure to be pleasantly surprised at the amazing job a maid service would do in cleaning your home.  The house cleaning services are professionally trained to come into a home, follow a specific routine for cleaning, work methodically to spotlessly go from room to room, top to bottom, and make your home sparkle.

Maid Service Cleans Up After Pets

The equipment a maid service uses is up-to-date, ergonomically correct for its employees, and efficient.  The products used by a house cleaning service are also chosen for their cleaning ability, their safety for the people using the product, their safety for you and your home, family and pets, and even green products are being used as a matter of preference.

Another great item that house cleaning services are using on a regular basis is the steam cleaner.  Steam cleaning, whether you're talking about hard floor surfaces, furniture, window treatments, countertops, whatever…steam cleaning gets deeper into the dirt and grime that has built up over time, and in the process keeps the allergens from floating about wildly waiting to land on another spot.  Steam cleaning removes far more dust, allergens, dust mites and other matter than you could ever imagine.

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What you will find with using a maid service to clean your home is a totally clean, shiny house with far less allergy producing dander and dust, more time for yourself and your family.  And you know that dog hair that rolls under the furniture - it will be cleaned and removed every time so that you can enjoy your pets.

Best Tip When You're Too Busy For House Cleaning: Hire Maid Service

Cleaning your house is probably the very last thing that you "want" to do on your time off.  If you're like many people today, young couples, professional people, those who work full time at jobs away from home, I'm sure you find the time you need to spend on house cleaning chores to be eating away at what little free time you have.

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In today's world, we leave home at dawn to commute further and further to our jobs where we are then locked into a cubicle for eight hours or more, just to turn around, commute back home, pick up the children from daycare, and if we're lucky, have dinner, tuck the little ones into bed, and pass out ourselves.  And then, start all over the next day.

When do you have time to do house cleaning?  On the weekends?  Well, what about that weekend time that families like to spend together visiting with friends, spending quality family time, going to local events or traveling – not to mention kids’ activities.

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Yes, many people still clean their own homes, either doing an all-out clean on Saturday mornings or piece by piece throughout the week.  In the past, many women were home taking care of the home and would do the housework while their spouses were working.  If you ever heard of someone having a cleaning service come in to help clean, then you would assume that they were very well-off families who could afford such a luxury.

Today, the cost of having a house cleaning service is relatively inexpensive.  When you compare what your time is worth, the hours you'd have to put in to get your house cleaned each week, and the time it takes away from your family, you will see what a relief it is to hire a maid service in San Diego to come in and do your housework for you.

Professional couples, busy young couples, and families with outside commitments would benefit from hiring a house cleaning service to deal with the weekly house cleaning, as well as any major cleanings in anticipation of the holidays, summer entertaining, parties, and other get-togethers.

The biggest benefit for busy people in hiring a house cleaning service is obviously the time saving efforts of having a professional, organized, and thorough cleaning service come into your home and make your house sparkle.  In addition to saving time, you will be proud to have such a clean home, feel confidant when visitors stop by unexpected, and be able to spend time with your family or out and about to events that you wouldn’t have had time to attend.