Homestead Maid Service

We have greatly appreciated the services of Homestead Maid personnel since March 2003 -- about 16 years so far. I love the fact that they let you try their best new person, and if you like them, schedule that same person regularly for years on end so that they can cope with the initial state of your house, get to know your house's needs and build on their progress.
The managers of Homestead Maid are reasonable people, and occasional misunderstandings were always resolved quickly and fairly. They must be decent employers because they do not have frequent staff turnover. However, their hourly charges are competitive, so, if you can afford it, I recommend generous and consistent tipping of anyone you like. Helping to keep good staff is great for us clients so that we don't have to keep training new people. In 16 years, we have only had to train a new person four times!
For 15 of those years, we had a 3 storey house, which takes a lot of cleaning in only 3 hours, once every two weeks. After the first few visits, I learned how much can realistically be done in that time, and learned to do easy tasks like my dishes beforehand and prioritize more arduous tasks. Biweekly surface-cleaning tasks included washing kitchen counters, range and floor, wet-swiffing hardwood floors in large living/dining area and master bedroom , leaving two bathrooms sparkling clean, and vacuuming the wall-to-wall carpet on top floor. To save money, I closed off one small third bathroom (easy for me to keep clean) and my messy study. This made time for one "deep cleaning" task per week such as cleaning kitchen drawers or the refrigerator. After moving out the furniture, we hired two people for 3 hours each to clean the whole place from top to bottom. Thanks to them, the house looked beautiful for the resale showings. One year later, that same person from Homestead makes our large condo beautifully clean in 3 hours every two weeks.