Since I can’t see the room, I can only give general advice.
– Do this in finite chunks of time. 30 minutes at one go, or 15, or 5 if that’s all you can manage. It’s easier to motivate yourself if you’re working against time, rather than a goal such as “I’m gonna get all these horse statues clean.”
– As far as the horse statues, get a paintbrush to dust them with. Don’t be afraid to use water, either, if it won’t damage them.
– I hate to think of you doing this without a vacuum. Sure you can’t borrow or rent one?
– Get a duster (feather is best, but synthetic will do) and spritz it with Pledge before you run it over surfaces. I don’t like dusting with a rag or paper towel; I always feel that they’re consolidating the dirt, which is hard to remove, rather than dispersing it, which can be taken care of with a vacuum.
– When all’s said and done, designate one area of the house as your work room. Your craft stuff is to be done only in that room, to prevent it creeping all over the house.
– Hang in there, and remember you’re doing this for YOU.
We got this book by Jeff Campbell, Speed Cleaning, and liked the system so much we actually bought his products. It’s common sense stuff (and cleaning, not organizing or decluttering) but it’s really helped us a lot. I guess nobody ever really sat me down and taught me how to clean, so I do it rarely and inefficiently. So we started with Organizing from the Inside Out, which worked for us because there was a video I could make Himself watch (he’d never read a book on it) and when we’ve done that for each room we do Speed Cleaning. I just finished the dining room!
Wondering if Rilch was your real name, I googled “Rilch” and “Rilch cleaning” (Don’t do that*). If that is your real name, you got some serious work to do to get your website up higher in the search results…you probably don’t want to be associated with what does come up.
How did you go about getting a business license and insurance for this? And then advertise - especially in this economy - is anyone hiring for this? What about safety? and I think that pay is low when you consider buying equipment, travel and supplies. How many hours minimum do you work?
Success: I don’t have a license. I’m working on getting bonded. I advertise on Craigslist, through word of mouth (business cards), and occasionally in places like church bulletins and public bulletin boards. I get paid for a minimum of four hours. As far as safety, no one’s ever lured me to an empty house, if that’s what you mean.
Can I ask for a bit of random cleaning advice? I’ve discovered a cough drop firmly stuck to the rug under a bed. Tugging on it didn’t get it off. Any suggestions? Steaming it, maybe?
As for advertising, another place you might want to try, because I think it’ll fit in with what you’re already doing, is bar place mats. My dad was doing that for our store at a couple of 3rd shift bars (ya know that places where people are already hammered by 9:30 am). It was pretty cheap, something like $250 for a run of 7000 paper place mats. Can you picture what I’m talking about. It basically looks the same as the church bulletin.
I wanna guess before Rilch get’s back.
I think steaming it might make it melt into the carpet, I think the best way would be to get a razor blade/X-Acto knife/good scissors and just cut the carpet right under the cough drop. I know I’ve done that to get rid of cigarette burns and no one was the wiser.
I really like them - they don’t burn my eyes or make me cough or anything, which most cleaners do. I think they clean pretty well too, although I’m obviously no expert - I suck at cleaning, but my bathroom is currently gorgeous from 'em. I even cleaned my microwave out, and that was four years of the grossest splashed on stuff you’ve ever seen - I just microwaved some water and baking soda, waited a few hours, and then Red Juiced and white padded my way to victory.
Try a rag and hot water. Dunk the rag, squeeze it out so it’s heavily damp but not dripping. If it’s hard to get at the cough drop for extended work, try to tuck the rag under and around the cough drop as much as possible, and let it sit for a bit. If you can work at it, try scrubbing at the fibers under the cough drop with the hot, wet rag - you’re trying to dissolve away enough of the cough drop to release the fibers from it.
My guess for the cough drop: if there’s enough room, smash it with a hammer. Then pick up all the loose shards, and use the let a damp cloth sit on the remaining stuck on bits to dissolve them free.
Shivers dear god. Was it one of those “am I actually a white collar worker?” moments? I’ve had those working at the library, which is why I ask.
Depends where in LA you clean, but at minimum, I’d say $13/hour. Maybe you could charge depending on the “level” - eg heavy and medium duty $15/hour, squalor $17/hour, and light duty $13/hour.
PS as an aside to the OP, how would you define light, medium, and heavy duty cleaning? I ask because my mom recently became partially disabled (she can still walk and carry on life reasonably well, but any cleaning duties aside from very basic things are out of her capacity). My parents’ home is large, and they have a weekly cleaning person, but it’s not enough, so I’d like to advertise (I have their permission) for another person to clean. If you could define light/medium/heavy for me, I’d could better place an ad.
You don’t have to get them to display them, it’s just what they use as their normal place mats. Like I said, they look similar to church bulletins with a whole bunch of local company’s ads on them. What you would have to do is find a bar that has them and either see if there’s a phone number on them that you can call or ask the owner where they get them from. Beyond that, I’m not really sure what to tell you. When we started advertising on them it was just a fluke that my dad bumped into the person that sells/prints them. I’d get you his number, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a local operation, I’ll check tomorrow when I get to work.
These would typically be used at 3rd shift and/or dive bars.
Come to think of it, the people you talk to about the church bulletins, might be the best place to start. If they don’t do it, they probably know who does.
I can’t answer about the light/medium/heavy thing, but here’s another angle–the frequency with which you do certain tasks.
There are things you do more or less weekly, like vacuuming, dusting, changing the sheets, etc.
There are things that you would do a lot less often, but still have to be done on a regular basis, like cleaning the inside of the fridge or washing the mattress pad.
And then there are “spring cleaning” tasks that you’d do rarely.
(There are detailed lists in the book Home Comforts.)
So even if you have a regular weekly cleaning service, you still have to make sure those less frequent tasks are taken care of. I’m sure Rilch can offer some advice.
The heavy work is generally the stuff that makes you tired and takes a certain amount of exertion. Scrubbing floors and bathrooms, that sort of thing. “Light” housework is like dusting, simple tidying, fluffing pillows, etc.
