Too Hot to Clean in a Uniform – What to Wear

“It’s too hot to clean in a uniform.” House Cleaners and maids ask what to wear when it’s too cold to clean in a uniform too. 

The best cleaning uniforms are the ones that promote the consistency of your brand. And if you’re a domestic cleaning service it’s important to show your customers they always get the same “package.”

If you wear cleaning uniforms year-round and change out the neckpiece you can regulate your body temperature. 

Listen: Too Hot to Clean in a Uniform – What to Wear

Watch: Too Hot to Clean in a Uniform – What to Wear

What Do You Wear When it’s Too Hot to Wear a Uniform

What do you wear to clean when it’s too hot to wear a uniform?

A house cleaner has this problem. “I live in Canada and I’m starting a solo cleaning business. What do you recommend to wear while cleaning when it’s summertime because it gets too hot here in Canada during the summer?”

As a house cleaner, you want to remain professional while cleaning and yet sometimes it’s so hot you don’t want to suffocate.

So what I recommend is the exact uniform that I’m wearing. I figured this out over 25 years of trial and error. It’s so hot and then bitter cold winters, where you are freezing to no end. So what do you wear?

Where a Microfiber Top When it is Too Hot

All right, first, wear a microfiber top. Now in the last 15 or 20 years, these performance fabrics have become mainstream and they’re not as expensive as they once were.

I remember buying my first set of running tights that were performance fabric that was like $40. But the truth of the matter is I still have them.

I still have them and they’ve still gone through the wash hundreds of times and they still lasted all these years.

Performance Fabrics are Built to Last

Performance fabrics are built to last which the reason you pay a little bit more money upfront. So if you can buy something and it lasts for five, 10, 15 years, you’re getting your money’s worth, right?

All right, so this is a microfiber top. It’s made of a polyester blend and it wicks away sweat.

So if I’m in a house cleaning and I’m super sweaty or whatever, it keeps it away from my body. So it’s not like wearing a cotton t-shirt where my clothes are stuck to my skin and you get all itchy.

Microfiber Tops are Wrinkle Resistant

All right. The next thing is it’s wrinkle-resistant, which is great because you don’t have to get up every morning and iron it.

Another thing that I like is it’s colorfast and what that means is when you wash them they retain their color.

So they always look professional.

Wear a Flexible Shirt When it’s Too Hot to Wear a Uniform

Another I like about it is that it’s flexible and so I can move around in it. I can do all kinds of cleaning and move my arms and whatever and it doesn’t ride up.

It wears really nice. It’s loose-fitting, so it’s very comfortable. It’s easy breezy and it’s lightweight.

So it has all these features and I can wash it in a regular load of laundry with a little bit of OxiClean so everything comes out.

Microfiber Tops are Stain Resistant

Then one of the things that I like about it is it’s stain-resistant. You know, if I get bleach on it, it will ruin the shirt.

But aside from bleach, pretty much everything else comes right out of it. So if you have like under the arm deodorant sweats or whatever, it comes right out in the wash.

So I love this particular shirt and I wear it year-round.

What to Wear if it’s Too Cold for a Tshirt

All right. Now the secret to wearing this shirt year-round is to keep warm in the wintertime. Now lots of people will wear hoodies and sweaters. But then the arms bunch up and they get stuff on them, like cleaning supplies or they spill stuff on there and it ruins the hoodies.

So, what do you wear? I do not wear a hoodie. I wear the exact same outfit. But during the wintertime, I grab this little tiny knit ski band. You find these at Walmart for about 97 cents. They slide on right over the top of your head and they were right around your neck.

The secret is to keep your neck warm in the wintertime. So this just fits in your pocket. It can fit in your jacket pocket and keeps you warm.

Don’t Wear Hoodies or Jackets While You Clean

I don’t wear hoodies; I don’t wear long sleeves. I don’t want to wear coats, none of that stuff to clean. All I do is make sure I keep my neck warm.

In the summertime, it’s the reverse process. You want to keep your neck cool. For that, you can use a chilled neck towel.

There are a whole bunch of different opportunities to wear this. You can wear it over your head like a bandana. You can wear it over your neck.

How to Use a Chilled Neck Towel to Stay Cool When it’s Too Hot

So, what you do is you soak the neck towel and then you squeeze it out and then you put it inside the freezer so it’s crunchy and it’s like ice, right?

Then you open it up and it’s a great big tube so you can actually see through it. This keeps your neck cool because it is designed and patented to keep your neck 30% cooler than the rest of your body.

So when it cools down your neck, that cools down the rest of your body. So even in the summertime when it is smoldering heat outside, I will wear something like this.

What Pants to Wear When it’s Too Hot

For pants, I wear cargo pants. The cargo pants are lightweight and very durable.

Again, they’re colorfast. They’re wrinkle resistant. They’ve got lots of pockets for all the different things that I have.

I keep my cell phone on me at all times. I keep a car key. I keep all the things I need with me wherever I am in the house. And so whether it’s hot outside, whether it’s cold outside, I have all my gear on me and so that’s awesome.

Your Pants Should be Flexible Too

They’re flexible pants that are a relaxed fit. So I can bend over and I can move my knees.

I’ve got lots of movement flexibility so that I can clean without splitting out the seams or without them tugging on my legs or whatever.

So, the pants are comfortable, but they also look professional at first glance. It looks like, hey, that’s a house cleaner. That’s, that’s what you wear. But this is also what I go to bid my jobs in.

Show Up to Bid Jobs Looking Like a House Cleaner

So, if you’re starting your house cleaning business, you do not want to show up in Sunday clothes. That doesn’t make you look like a house cleaner.

You want to wear your cleaning uniform. When customers see you wearing the same clothes consistently, no matter the weather. Then they think they’re still getting consistent work.

They assume they’re getting the same consistent cleaning every single time. Then, of course, you have to back that up with consistent cleaning every single time.

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