Will Your Housekeeper Clean The Oven?

It’s not always clear which parts of your house your housekeeper will clean when you first hire them. The best practice is to have them come to your home before your first cleaning job. Walk them through different parts of the house, and tell them what you would like cleaned. They’ll tell you if they normally clean that part of the house or if they charge extra to clean it. You’ll also be able to tell them things you don’t want cleaned. For example, if you have fragile items that you can’t replace, it might be best to just clean them yourself. Along the way, they’ll tell you if they clean ovens. Typically, housekeepers clean the outsides of ovens but they don’t clean the inside. Cleaning the inside is a pretty difficult task. If they do clean it, or if they clean it for a fee, you can save some money by doing a pre-clean yourself.

How to Pre-Clean Your Oven

 Cleaning your oven can make it much easier for your housecleaner when he or she arrives. In some cases, house cleaners actually won’t clean an oven that’s too dirty. So, a good pre-clean might be essential. The easiest way to accomplish this is to run the self-cleaning cycle on your oven. When you read about self-cleaning ovens, some will swear by them and others will suggest that you should never use the cycle. If you follow the instructions on your oven, it will likely work out fine.

Take out the racks and any type of oven liner. Also, take any pots or pans off the range on top of the oven. Don’t use any type of chemical oven cleaner before the cleaning cycle, and make sure that any pets or children are out of the area. When you turn on the cycle, it will heat up the oven to an excess of 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The process can take between an hour and six hours. As it burns off anything stuck on the oven, it will likely create smoke. So you’ll need to stick around to open windows, direct fans, and otherwise ventilate the area. After the process is finished, you’ll likely have ashes on the bottom of the oven. You’ll need to wait an hour or more for the oven to cool down. Sweep the ashes into a dustpan, and the oven is ready to be cleaned by the house cleaner.

Cleaning It Yourself

If you don’t have a self-cleaning cycle or if it worries you, you can also use a pan of water. Put a pan of water on the center rack of the oven. Turn the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and allow it to run for at least an hour. That will create steam inside the oven to loosen grease and grime. After that, allow the oven to cool. Scrub it with a damp brush and allow it to dry.

Lastly, you can use a commercial oven cleaner. If you use an oven cleaner, you’ll need to follow the instructions on the cleaner. Use a face mask and gloves because they can be very caustic. Typically, you will heat the oven to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and then turn it off. Spray the oven cleaner, allow it to sit, and then wipe it clean.

How Much Can You Expect to Pay for a House Cleaner?

Maid service was once thought of as a luxury. In the days of one-income households with two adults, it was simple for one person to do the cleaning while home and for the other person to work outside of the house. Now, two-income households are becoming the norm. That means that there’s no one around to clean your house. You could clean it when you get off work or on the weekends, but that leaves little time for anything but work and unpaid work. Instead, many people are turning to house cleaners. It’s an added expense, but how much does it actually cost?

Square Footage or Time

Maids tend to charge either hourly or by the square footage. If you can choose, then you should weigh your options. Charging by the hour is probably best for homes that are fairly large. If you home is large, it’s entirely possible that the job could still go fairly quickly. The housekeeper might move from room to room fairly efficiently. If you were charged by square footage, you might be charged for rooms that don’t necessarily need cleaning.

However, if your home is fairly small, charging by square footage is useful. It allows you to anticipate exactly how much the job will cost. Typically, house cleaners charge between $50 and $90 per hour. They charge about $90 for 1000 square feet and $250 for more than $3000.

Repeat Business

If you schedule your maid to come at a certain time each month, you can likely save some money on the cost. That’s because they will be able to estimate better how long it will take them and give you a more accurate estimate. Furthermore, things that typically don’t get dirty in only a few weeks will still be clean. That will speed up the cleaning process. The maids know that; thus, they charge less for repeat cleanings. Typically, customers save between $5 and $15 for repeat cleanings.

Averages

So, what does all of that mean for you? On average, cleaning an apartment costs customers about $100 per cleaning. That will be slightly lower for repeat customers. Cleaning a single family home costs about $130. A business costs about $150. Multi-family homes, large businesses, or large homes will cost you slightly more.

A one-time cleaning, such as for a party or an open house, will be a deeper clean. It generally costs between $200 and $300 for a single family home.

Which Cleaning Services Are Specialty Services?

When you hire a new housekeeper for the first time, it’s important to do some research. Make sure you know how much they charge, what time they’ll show up, how long it will take, whether they bring their own supplies, and what they need from you. These are all important conversations to have. Typically, that happens when they do a walk-through of your space before the first cleaning. However, some housekeepers just list additional charges for “specialty services” without always clarifying what that includes. There are a few things that you should know are considered specialty; if you don’t read closely or ask the right questions, you might not realize certain things aren’t typically included.

Kitchen Appliance Cleaning

 Kitchen appliances are some of the most difficult parts of your house to clean. They combine practically every aspect of a difficult cleaning situations. They experience frequent use, they’re heated regularly, and they face lots of oil. All of those things combine to make difficult cleaning. Most housekeepers will clean the outside of a kitchen appliance in their standard repertoire of services. However, you’ll need to ask about cleaning the insides. Cleaning the front of an oven with some surface cleaner is completely different from actually cleaning inside of an oven.

Cleaning inside and oven requires time, heat, and special cleaning solutions. It’s also very labor-intensive. If you need someone to clean the inside of your refrigerator, dishwasher, or oven, you need to ask about that beforehand.

Window Cleaning

 Windows are something that many people assume will be included in their normal housekeeping services, but many cleaning companies consider them to be specialty services. They’re a little bit more tedious than some other cleaning tasks and they don’t always need to be completed every week or every month. If nobody is smudging your windows, they should be relatively clean for quite a while. That’s why most cleaning companies don’t bother to do it unless you ask about it.

Outdoors window cleaning is yet another expense. Some companies don’t even offer it as a service.

Wall Cleaning

 Cleaning the walls is not particularly difficult, but much like the windows, they might not need it very often. So, most companies don’t include wall cleaning in their services. However, it does take enough time that they will charge you extra for wall cleaning. If you’ve got smudges on your walls, be sure to ask about wall cleaning services.

Several other services might be considered specialty depending on the company you hire.

Do You Have to Provide The Cleaning Supplies For Your Housekeeper?

Clients who are hiring their first housekeepers often wonder if they’re supposed to provide the cleaning supplies or if the housekeeper brings them. The answer is not a simple yes or no. It’s a mixture of the two depending on what you need and on who you hire.

Typical Situation

 A typical housekeeping situation involves the housekeeper bringing some of the supplies and you providing other supplies. Usually, a housekeeper will tell you what chemicals, supplies, and tools that they will need to properly clean your house. That usually involves some microfiber cloths, a vacuum, a mop and bucket, rubber gloves, brushes, window cleaner, surface cleaner, and a mild abrasive. That about covers a typical home cleaning kit. Many housekeeping companies are willing to bring everything they need to clean your house effectively, but they will charge you a surcharge for those supplies. You can provide the chemicals and supplies yourself to avoid the surcharge.

However, if you say you will provide the supplies but fail to do so, that could void any guarantee for the quality of the surface. Alternately, they might end up using their own supplies and charging you anyway.

Lastly, some companies will demand that you have certain supplies in your house while bringing other supplies with them. Those supplies are typically a broom and a mop. That’s because brooms and mops are used to clean up pet hair. Some clients are allergic to pet hair. They could accidentally transfer pet dander from one house to the next, which could be a problem.

Special Requests

All of that is altered if you have some kind of special request. For example, you might want the housekeeper to only use green, environmentally friendly products. If they’re a green housekeeping company, then that’s not a problem. If they’re not, you’ll need to provide all of the cleaning chemicals.

Also, if you have allergies or sensitivities, you’ll need to let your housekeeper know about it. That could alter which chemicals they use; if you have very specific sensitivities, they might require you to provide the chemicals.

Lastly, many companies are very hesitant about bleach. Obviously many people are sensitive to bleach and it can damage certain fabrics or surfaces. If you insist on the use of bleach, they might ask that you provide it yourself. Alternately, they might require that you waive any liability for bleach damage.