Percentage of Clean vs. Messy Houses

The Ask a House Cleaner Show and Podcast with Angela Brown

Percentage of clean vs messy houses is a question that came up from one house cleaner. It's a fair question so she can plan enough time to clean a filthy mess. Not all homes will be spotless and need a quick wipe down. Is there a way to gauge the percentage of tidy homes against the number of cluttered homes in any area? Today on Ask a House Cleaner we look at the percentage question along with questions to ask your prospects so everybody is playing on the same page. This will give you enough time to do a great job every time. On time.

Percentage of clean vs messy houses is a question that came up from one house cleaner. It’s a fair question so she can plan enough time to clean a filthy mess. Not all homes will be spotless and need a quick wipe down.

Is there a way to gauge the percentage of tidy homes against the number of cluttered homes in any area?

Today on Ask a House Cleaner we look at the percentage question along with questions to ask your prospects so everybody is playing on the same page. This will give you enough time to do a great job every time. On time.

Listen: Percentage of Clean vs. Messy Houses

Watch: Percentage of Clean vs. Messy Houses

Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer.

Question: What is the Percentage of Clean vs. Messy Houses?

Today’s question comes from a girl who is starting her own housecleaning company.
And she wants to know “What is the percentage of homes that are already clean when I get there and I just tidy up, and the houses that are really cluttered and messy?
Because I need to know how to budget my time and set up my schedule.”

Answer: It’s All About Time Management Not Percentages

Okay, well that is an impossible question to answer for a variety of reasons that are just common sense.
We don’t know the lifestyles, of the people that live behind closed doors. We really don’t. And there’s no way to do a census and find out from everybody “are you tidy? Or are you sloppy?”

Nobody’s going to give us that information. But when you get to a house, and the house is totally immaculate, find out “Why did you hire me?”

“I see that everything in your house is clean. I’ve run a flashlight over all of the surfaces. There’s no dust. There are no crumbs. There’s no dog hair. There’s nothing.
What do you want me to do?”

A Percentage Of Customers Have Immaculate Homes

Because sometimes people will have a specific set of chores that they don’t want to do. We’ve had customers that were immaculate. They spent all of their free time cleaning during the week, but they did not clean toilets, or they did not mop floors.

And so once you find out what their hot pockets are, you can go in and excel in those areas.
Another thing is there are people who fancy clutter. They just are cluttered people they live cluttered lives. They’re comfortable around clutter.

And so when you arrive at their house you need to make it very clear with them “hey what are you having me here to do? Am I picking up all of your toys? Am I picking up all of these loose pieces of clothing that are around the house?
And if yes, do you want me to hang them back up? Or do you want me to throw them in the wash?
Would you like me to also do the wash? What is it that you would like me to do while I’m here.”

Housekeeper Needs To Clarify Customers Expectations Upfront

As long as you have clearance with the customer exactly what you’re supposed to do there will be no surprises.
What is the percentage? I have no idea. You’re going to get some really tidy customers, and you’re going to get some really messy customers. That’s just kind of how things go.
When you get a really clean tidy customer your heart sings, and you’re like “yay!” And then when you get a really messy customer your heart also sings because you can quickly see your progress.

When you have a really messy room and then all of a sudden it’s really shiny and tidy and everything is organized and put away – that’s kind of like a little dopamine in your brain that’s like “Woohoo! Yeah, I did that! I can see progress where I’ve been.”
But just find out from your customer.

Every customer it seems has a hot pocket of junk. It’s a closet. Or is a bedroom, or it’s some stash of something they have hidden under a bed or somewhere.

Save It For The Professional Organizer

Ak your customer “Do you want me to deal with that area? Or do you want me to just leave it alone?”
And I’ve had customers who were immaculate but behind one closed-door there was just everything was chuffed in there. And you look at it and you’re like “Wow that would take me a long time to clean.”
“Nah, don’t touch it.”
“Okay great, that just made my job really easy.”

So, find out from your customers.
Another thing is if you run into a house that is super cluttered and you don’t specialize in clutter, what you may want to do is have in your back pocket…
and you get these from like the BNI Network or networking communities or https://alignable.com
There are a bunch of different people that are professionals that associate with each other in similar related industries.

Build a Professional Referral Network

I would have in your back pocket a list of professional organizers that could come in and could help organize these people’s homes before you come to clean.

Because if what they’re wanting is for you to completely renovate and organize their closet and that’s not part of your routine cleaning you don’t want to take on those chores.
What you want to do is recommended those chores to someone else who does that for a living then when you show up your job is a whole lot easier.

So, the secret to your question is there’s no particular percentage of who is tidy and whose not.
As much as there is how do you budget your time? Because if you go and you bid a job and are super messy people you’re going to need a lot more time in that house.

Learn to Budget Your Cleaning Time

If they’re super clean but they want you to go over every surface in their house which also happens, it might take longer than what first meets the eye.
And so, you need to be really fair about the time that you allot for each of the houses that you clean.

Taking into consideration how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms what the common living areas are, and then all the extra areas, like stairways and stairwells and hallways and entryways and sitting rooms and stuff like that that are not considered rooms of the house, just a little areas.
Some areas are more lived-in than other areas.
And so you want to make sure that whether their tidy or whether they’re messy that you’ve allocated enough time.

So congratulations on starting this new business. I am super excited for you and I want you to keep me posted and let me know how it goes.
Okay, so that’s my tip for today if you have any questions you can ask them to us at https://askahousecleaner.com/show
Okay so until we meet again leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.

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