We clean your home on your schedule

We dust first and do floors last

A recurring visit follows the same order every time. We work from the top of each room down, because dust falls. Shelves, window sills and the tops of dressers get dusted first. Counters and tables get wiped next, then the baseboards, which catch everything that drifted down. Floors are always last, vacuumed and then mopped, so nothing we knocked loose is left behind for you to find.

The kitchen and the bathrooms get the most time, because they get used hardest between visits. In the kitchen that means the counters and the sink, plus the outside of the appliances. Cabinet fronts get wiped around the handles, where fingerprints build up. In a bathroom it means the toilet inside and out, the tub or shower, the sink and the mirror. Everything gets wiped dry, since water left to dry on its own leaves spots.

Every visit uses eco-friendly, non-toxic cleaning products. On a regular schedule, mild products handle nearly everything, because grime never gets months to harden. Grease on the stovetop from last week wipes off. Grease left since last spring turns sticky and needs hard scrubbing. That is the practical case for a recurring visit. The house never falls far enough behind to need anything harsh on the counters where you cook or the floors where kids and pets play.

• Dusting from high shelves down to baseboards
• Kitchen counters and sink cleaned and dried
• Toilets, tubs, showers, sinks and mirrors cleaned
• Floors vacuumed first, then mopped
• Eco-friendly, non-toxic products on every visit

New England seasons change what we clean

Winter is the hardest season on a clean floor around Canton. The roads get salted from the first storm until spring, and every pair of boots carries some of that salt inside. It dries to a white film on hardwood and tile, and left there it dulls the finish on wood floors. On winter visits the entry and mudroom floors get extra time, and the mats get shaken out before we clean the floor under them.

Heating season brings its own dust. With the windows shut, a forced hot air system blows dust out of the registers and onto every flat surface in the room. Baseboard heaters and old cast iron radiators collect it too, and it gives off a burnt smell when the heat comes on. In spring the windows open, and yellow pollen from the pines settles on every sill. Both wipe up easily each visit and turn into a chore once they pile up.

Summer is the damp season. Humid air hangs in a bathroom for hours, especially in older houses where the bath fan is weak or missing. Mildew shows up first in the grout lines and along the caulk at the base of the tub. It starts as a faint gray shadow that is easy to miss. Wiped away every week or two, it never takes hold. Left for a couple of months, it stains the caulk, and cleaning alone may not bring the white back.

Each Canton house style cleans differently

Most houses around Canton are colonials and capes, and many of the newer streets have split-levels and ranches. Each layout puts the dirt in different places. A colonial puts the bedrooms at the top of a full staircase, so every tread gets vacuumed and the railing gets wiped where hands grab it. A cape tucks the upstairs rooms under the roof. Its sloped ceilings and the low walls under them collect dust and cobwebs that a quick pass never reaches.

Split-levels put a short run of stairs between every level, and each landing is one more small floor to vacuum. Many have a family room partly below ground, and that room runs damp in summer. Dust in a damp room sticks to surfaces and turns to grime faster, so those floors get a damp mop along with the vacuum. Ranches are the easiest layout to keep on a schedule, with everything on one floor. Many still have wall-to-wall carpet in the bedrooms, and that carpet takes real vacuum time.

Canton also has older houses, some with wide pine floorboards and original wood trim. The gaps between old boards hold dirt, and a soaking wet mop pushes water down into them, where it swells the wood. Old floors get a vacuum along the seams first, then a well wrung mop with very little water. Carved trim and deep window sills hold dust in every groove, so they get wiped by hand on every visit.

We walk the house before we start

Recurring cleaning starts with a free on-site estimate, and there is no obligation to book. We walk through the house with you and agree on which rooms each visit covers, plus anything you want left alone. That list is the job. It stays the same on the first visit and the tenth, so you always know what was done. If the house has fallen behind, we will say so, and a deep cleaning may need to come first.

Scheduling is flexible, and evening and weekend visits are available. That helps a household where everyone is out during the workday. How often we come depends on how hard the house gets used. A family with young kids and a dog tracks in more dirt than a couple who are gone most of the week. The schedule should follow that. If it turns out to be too often or not often enough, we change it.

The people who come into your home are trained, background-checked members of our team. We are licensed, bonded and insured, and every job carries a satisfaction guarantee, so if something on your list gets missed, tell us. One thing helps on your side. Clothes and toys picked up off the floors before a visit mean the time goes to cleaning instead of moving things around.