It is out there!

I decided, can’t remember why, to have a professional cleaning service in to do my house while my full time domestic is away.  Best decision I ever made! Good service – it’s out there!

In November I contacted and booked with a company called Sweep South after I saw their advert on Facebook.

I booked for them to come for 2 days as I have a large house, 6 bedrooms, 2 ½ bathrooms, my bead room, lounge, dining room, study and kitchen.

I have a full time domestic and a lady who comes 2 full days to help with ironing – 6 people create a lot of laundry!

Over the years I have been a very laid back employer.  I trust that when I say dusting, it is getting done and that the vacuuming of the carpets is done twice a week, as I have written in the cleaning schedule.

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/printables/house-cleaning-check-list/

First mistake!   I need to be a bit lot more hands on, with ensuring the work I requested gets done. My expectations were not high as I am aware that there is a lot of clutter in my house (my husband is a minor hoarder).

Monday morning, after a little miscommunication on my address, the cleaners arrived on time.  They had phoned me 30 minutes before they were due, to say that they were outside my house (wrong house, wrong suburb!, this actually happens quite often with deliveries).

They changed their clothes and began cleaning.  They started moving beds, which from the amount of rubbish under them, hadn’t been moved in possibly 6 months. Now the ladies asked for my vacuum cleaner, so I showed them where it is. Disaster!  At some stage the catches that hold the top of the machine to the tank where the dirt is stored, have been broken, so the top came off and, to my disgust and, need I say, embarrassment, it hadn’t been cleaned out since the last time it was used.  That time is now in question as we could not get it to work, no matter what we tried. So off I went to get a ‘cheap’ vacuum cleaner. Somewhere I actually have a second vacuum cleaner, which I know my domestic hates. No idea where it has been hidden. Hopefully I can get an answer in January!

These ladies then washed the walls and doors of every room, changed the sheets and vacuumed the carpets in all the rooms and then cleaned all the bathrooms (2 ½ bathrooms). The dust and the dirt in the carpets and the black marks on the doors were so bad that it took both of them a full day. So my lounge, dining room, kitchen and the junk room/home office/study were left untouched.  There is now a long list of topics to discuss with my domestic in January!

Here is an important note; my husband is looking for an important document somewhere in all that junk, so the mess is more spread out than usual!

I have written before that the one thing that defeats me in my home is the clutter! Tuesday morning the cleaners arrive on time.  I decide to use the two ladies to work on the kitchen, lounge, dining room and disastrous study.

In the end we managed to do only the study and lounge. The 3 of us worked for 8 solid hours clearing and sorting. I have another item on the agenda for January’s discussion with my domestic.

By time the ladies left, I was exhausted. I don’t know how they were, because they definitely worked harder than I did with all the heavy lifting. In the end we got rid of 8 full bags of paper and 3 rubbish bags.

They sorted and packed and dusted and mopped. We can now see the floor and windows of the study clearly. The curtains are down as they are in serious need of a wash. . The window area in my husband’s study is 6 meters wide and these are full length curtains!

There wasn’t much time for the lounge, so they just tidied up and vacuumed.  The furniture will have to be moved in January.

I will be booking them again in April when Jewish homes need to undergo a massive cleaning as is usual in our preparation for Passover.

If you wish to book them, please use the coupon code GECISP and get R100 off your booking.

I learnt from this experience that fantastic customer service is still alive out there, you may not come across good customer service often and I know I have never come across this type of excellence!

Well done to the team and owner of Sweep South. I am your customer for life!