So, the youngest kid just moved out of home for college. Your home is quieter and emptier. Now is a great time to “downsize” your house cleaning bills as well. Here are our suggestions of how to downsize your cleaning bills from your maid service in Chicago.
Downsizing
- Don't bother with unoccupied rooms in order to reduce their cleaning frequency. If the kid’s bedroom is no longer occupied, leave it out of the cleaning scope. If the second floor bathroom is only used during the weekends, then reduce the cleaning frequency of your cleaning company from bi-weekly to monthly.
- Apply the “10 minute pick up” rule before the cleaners arrive! Now you just have a little more time on your hands, tidy up! Take 1-2 minutes to go from room to room and pick up all personal belongings and put them back where they belong. You just created the opportunity for your cleaners to focus on the more thorough cleaning, the stuff that makes us want to hire a cleaner like the floors, walls, dust and grime. The less time picking up before scrubbing = less money spent.
- Rotate your less used or easier-to-be-maintained rooms. The whole house takes some time to clean. But, for the areas that are easier to maintain, you can skip cleaning. Focus on the high traffic areas (example: bathrooms and floors) one week and the whole house the next. Give it a try and see how this suites your home (and your wallet!).
- Request less-used rooms be cleaned “on request” only. Depending on the size of your house and how many occupy it, there are sometimes rooms that are less used than others (craft room, guest bedrooms, guest bathrooms) and do not necessarily need to be cleaned each time. Usually with a little notice these areas can be added on request.
- Skip the basement. Once or twice a year ensure it gets a deep clean to dust out any spider webs and clean window sills.
- Avoid the add-on offers. Your cleaning service may also want to do your dishes, laundry and linens–at typically pricey add on charge, increasing the final cost noticeably. It sure seems like a dream to come home to a clean house, clean dishes, and folded laundry on the foot of your bed and I can relate completely… but it is a lot cheaper to just fit it in to your daily routine.
- And lastly, the ultimate money saver: Have your cleaners come less often. Shortening your cleaning service from weekly house cleaning to bi-weekly or once a month doesn’t set your house up for disaster, it will still be cleaned but you must take the responsibility to maintain your house in between cleans. That may include adding bathrooms (scrubbing tubs/showers/toilets) and kitchen (sanitizing counters/appliances) to your weekly chore chart.
After the last child moves out of your home, it is a great time to save some money on your maid service. Combining a few or all of these options above will help reduce your service bill while still keeping a clean home!