FAQs

Once prospective clients have reviewed my cleaning rates and determined that my services are within their budget, they are encouraged to call/text me at (414) 368-0826 or email me at jac@thehandylibrarian.com to schedule an in person initial assessment of their home. Initial assessments are always free and come with no obligations.

The initial assessment is meant to give me a sense of the usual state of your home and the quote given for cleaning services will reflect what I observe. Homes that fall at the lower end of my price range are typically those without pets or very small children that also have only a minimal amount of decor that needs to be dusted and few specialty finishes requiring careful cleaning methods. Please be honest about both the state of your home and your expectations for cleaning, as every client has different priorities. 

The quote given at your initial assessment will always apply to the first standard cleaning and will typically apply to all subsequent standard cleanings. If any adjustments (either up or down) need to be made to a client's standard rate, this will always be discussed by the end of the first standard cleaning. 

While I make every effort to give an initial quote that I believe will be your stable rate moving forward, it is always possible that my initial quote will need to be adjusted, either up or down, before or immediately following the first cleaning.

There have been a few times my initial quote has been adjusted down for a client whose financial situation changed between our initial assessment and the first scheduled cleaning. In most cases, we decided to move forward with cleaning only the kitchen and bathrooms instead of the entire house to reduce the cost to the client. While I do have minimum rates for both standard and deep cleaning, my goal in doing this work is to help people and the last thing I want to do is drop a client in need.

There have also been times my initial quote has been adjusted up because the scope of the job turned out to be greater than expected in terms of time, physical labor, or supplies. The only time an adjusted rate will exceed the maximum range for the type of cleaning service being performed is if an item outside of my usual list has been added on to the service.

When I was researching how to set cleaning rates as a registered and insured limited liability company, I was frustrated by the lack of consistency in pricing in this industry, with clients in the same area often reporting vastly different rates for similar-sounding cleaning services. While some solo independent cleaners choose to charge hourly rates to create consistency in their pricing models, these rates are often conflated with the personal income of the cleaner rather than being understood as revenue for a business, which can create significant tension with those unfamiliar with the expenses associated with a cleaning business. 

The inconsistency in cleaning pricing is further compounded by the complex power and labor dynamics of a pink collar industry with a relatively low barrier to entry. Most of the groups who choose to work in this industry, like women, immigrants, and very young adults, are disproportionately more likely than the general population to undervalue their labor, whether out of economic necessity or a lack of knowledge of the market. Even when cleaners have this knowledge, they are often doing this work out of genuine care for others and are reluctant to raise their prices, especially for long-term clients or for those in need, creating sticker shock for clients who need to find a new cleaner and receive quotes twice as high as their former cleaners' rates.

Pricing by the job using square footage as a starting point is the only model I've found that sidesteps these issues and creates transparent, consistent pricing by factoring in both the size of the home (square footage) and the features of the home (the minimum and maximum of the price range.) Square footage is a convenient and consistent way to quickly estimate the size and number of rooms (especially time-consuming rooms like kitchens and bathrooms) in a home, allowing me to get a rough sense of the time, supplies, and other expenses any given job will require and keep my prices as consistent and fair as possible between clients. This pricing model also allows prospective clients to calculate my minimum and maximum rate for their homes before contacting me, ensuring that everyone is on the same page from the beginning. 

Pricing by square footage means clients pay the same price for the same services every visit, removing ambiguity about which services or spaces are included and incentivizing cleaners to get better and faster at their work by increasing their effective hourly profit. While it does require doing a bit of math initially, it helps to create fair working conditions for cleaners and prices for clients, benefiting everyone involved. 

My minimum rates for standard and deep cleaning are based on the assumption that every job will require cleaning a kitchen and at least one bathroom. Since these are the toughest rooms to clean in any home, they almost always account for over half of the time and nearly all of the supplies needed for any given job and are weighted more heavily in my pricing as a result. 

The average full bathroom is only around 50 square feet, but it's not unheard of for even a smaller bathroom to take about an hour for standard cleaning if it has a tiled shower with a glass door. Exclusively using square footage pricing would put that job at just $5, which obviously isn't right! This is why square footage is only a starting point in my pricing model and I always use the square footage for a whole home or large part of a home rather than individual rooms.

In the sense of scrubbing or using cleaning products, absolutely not! I do appreciate it when monthly clients perform at least some maintenance tasks between my visits, such as taking out the garbage and rinsing food particles out of the kitchen sink, but I don't expect to walk into a clean house by any means. That said, there are definitely ways clients can make my job easier by moving/removing clutter, which helps me charge them lower rates or include the occasional extra as a freebie. 

Clients with either particularly expensive/sentimental or unusually large amounts of decor/knickknacks may wish to remove these items from surfaces themselves to reduce the chance of accidental damage to beloved items. While this may sound like a chore, I've actually had folks tell me it helped them to appreciate their items more, especially deeply sentimental items like photographs that can easily fade into the background noise of everyday life.

Throwing bath or kitchen rugs and towels in the laundry before I come is a great way to get textiles that could be stained by cleaning products like bleach out of my way while also ensuring that I'm not putting dirty rugs or towels back in freshly cleaned spaces.

Picking up small items from floors, like small garbage cans or toys or pet beds, can also make it a lot faster and easier for me to vacuum, sweep, or mop a given area and is always appreciated!