Tag: residential cleaning calgary

Top Holiday Organizing Tips for a Calm and Festive Season
Imagine a holiday season that’s calm, organized, and free from cleaning stress. You’re sitting back, enjoying the conversation and laughter, being in the moment with loved ones. Pure bliss.

This level of holiday calm is rarely fully experienced without planning ahead and being on top of your organization game. From decluttering strategies that create serene spaces to time-saving hacks for a seamless celebration, below we share our top organizing tips (through the eyes of cleaning) so you can enjoy a calm, stress-free holiday season ahead!

Make a Checklist, Prioritize, and Schedule

Start by creating a comprehensive checklist of all the cleaning tasks that need to be done before the holidays. This will help you prioritize what needs to be done and by when. Add these items to your schedule (e.g., book cleaners for post-party cleaning), starting early to avoid last-minute stress. As you finish tasks, cross it off the checklist.

When scheduling items, include your family in tasks. Doing your holiday cleaning and decorating with your family doesn’t just take the load off your shoulders. It helps create memories with them as well.

One trick for next year is to take notes as you go on tasks that may need extra attention. Add these items to your checklist for next year and you’ll save your future self time and stress.

December is for Declutter

One thing we love about the holidays is that it gives us a chance to declutter our homes simply because we have to move things around for holiday decorations and guests. Before you dive into your December deep clean, go through your home and declutter. Get rid of items you no longer need or use. For tips on how to reduce clutter, visit here.
Cleaning Considerations

Just as the holidays are a great time to declutter, they are also the perfect time to deep clean your space, closing the year off by removing all of last year’s “dust.” A deep residential clean often involves paying special attention to areas that are not included during regular cleaning, such as baseboards, ceiling fans, light fixtures, and under furniture and appliances. A deep clean will make your home feel fresh and inviting to any guests you may host, or merely help make your home a space of calm during the other holiday hectic happenings.

If you are planning on hosting a holiday party, there are two primary cleaning hacks we recommend:
- Focus on high-traffic areas: You have limited time and energy – use it on the areas where guests are most likely to spend time, such as the living room, dining room, kitchen, and main bathroom(s).
- Plan for post-party and holiday cleaning: Prepare for the cleanup after the party by setting aside boxes or containers for decorations and linens before the party. As you finish with items, note what needs to be washed/cleaned before storing away for the year.
- Treat yourself: hosting a holiday party can be exhausting. The last thing you want to do is clean up. Treat yourself to a party cleaning package, and have professionals clean-up for you!
Holiday Decoration Organization

Before pulling out your decorations from storage, dust and clean the surfaces they’ll be placed on. This ensures you’re starting with a fresh space rather than trapping dirt.

If you don’t already, invest in storage containers for your holiday decorations. This helps to keep them organized, less likely to break, and protected from dust and damage during the year. When bringing out your decorations, sort and organize them before you start decorating. Discard any that are broken or outdated. When repacking them at the end of the season, neatly pack your decorations so they are easy to access next year.

Wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbons, name tags – all of these items used to wrap gifts can be a beast to clean up because of the itty-bitty pieces created during wrapping. To help minimize the spread of wrapping calamity, we recommend creating a designated wrapping station with all the supplies you need to wrap gifts. Then, when someone needs to wrap something, they can go to the station, helping to keep the gift-wrapping organized and prevent the potential mess from spreading.

Take a Break

Don’t forget to take breaks and relax through all the holiday planning, cleaning, and event partaking. If you find this difficult to do, book your “relax” breaks directly into your holiday schedule. This will help to avoid holiday burnout so you can enjoy the season.

With the holidays mere weeks away, now is the time to get a head start on organizing your holiday “to-dos” so you can live the relaxing holiday season you imagined above. To include a deep clean or a pre-/post-holiday cleaning in your holiday checklist, connect with us for a quote today.
November 24, 2023
The Nitty Gritty Difference between House Cleaning and Deep Cleaning
This question is so common. I hear it all the time. The truth is that, yes, a regular house cleaning is absolutely different from a deep cleaning. While there are many commonalities between them, there are also some major differences.

The primary one? The level of detail. A regular weekly or biweekly cleaning is typically engaged for maintaining cleanliness, while a deep cleaning, typically completed every 6 – 12 months, is more extensive. A deep clean gets into the darkest of corners, on top of all cabinets, and ensures we scrub like there’s no tomorrow!

Let’s break it down even further and get into the nitty-gritty differences between a regular house clean versus a deep, deep, deeeeeep clean.
What is a Regular House Cleaning?

A regular house cleaning involves those items you would consider “weekly cleaning tasks.” These are the chores many kids (myself included) grow up having to complete before being allowed to go out and play. The main purpose of a regular clean is to maintain a certain level of cleanliness, one that meets your personal standards on a day-to-day basis. Most home cleaning companies offer this type of service on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis.

When the Clean Club Calgary team goes in to complete a regular cleaning the following items are often included.
- Bathrooms – everything here is cleaned and disinfected as this is often the room that holds onto the most germs. I mean…have you ever really looked in your toilet?
- Kitchen – cleaning the outside of appliances, while scrubbing the sinks
- Floors are swept, vacuumed, and mopped
- Carpets and rugs are properly vacuumed
- Mirrors and windows are wiped down and made to shine again
- Surfaces, such as light fixtures, are thoroughly dusted
- Disinfecting/Sanitizing the most-touched surfaces, such as doorknobs and other handles
- Collecting and removing the garbage
- And special request items, such as removing the dog’s nose art from the front windows.
While each customer has their own requirements and special requests, the above are common regular cleaning options completed during a regular clean.
What’s Involved in a Deep Cleaning Package?

As mentioned above, the biggest difference between the regular maintenance cleaning and a deep cleaning is the level of detail in the cleaning (but never the quality. This always remains consistent). The easiest way to explain it is to think of a deep clean much like Spring Cleaning. This involves going from top to bottom, left to right in every room, in every nook and cranny. It is extremely extensive and pays attention to those often neglected and hard-to-reach spots, such as the tops of your kitchen cabinets or behind your oven. While a regular cleaning supports the overall health of your living environment, a deep clean takes it to a whole other level, often including vacuuming the air vents.

We’ll dive into when you should have a deep clean in just a moment. Right now, below are the additional items often involved in a deep clean.
- Appliances (e.g. fridges, ovens, etc.)
  
  Both the inside and outside of appliances are washed
  
  Appliances are pulled out from the wall so we can clean underneath and around. This is especially important if you have animals as their fur tends to get sucked under and can impact how the appliance functions.
- Furniture
  
  All furniture is pulled away from the wall, where we then wash the wall, removing any stains and streaks the furniture may have left
  
  We dust and wash the sides of the furniture
  
  Upholstered furniture is vacuumed
- Window and Blinds
  
  While a regular cleaning may have a wipe down of the windows, a deep clean involves washing them with soap and water, squeegee and a sparkling cloth.
  
  Blinds are dusted, which takes time as we go in between each vane to ensure an intense and proper clean
- Tops of Items
  
  We get on step ladders to wash the tops of kitchen cabinets and dust/wash ceiling fans
- Additional Items
  
  We wash, scrub, and remove all marks from doors, walls, and baseboards.
Deep cleaning is much more labour intensive and can take anywhere from two-three times as much time as a regular cleaning because it is a highly detailed and intense approach.
When Do You Need a Deep Clean?

When starting with a new customer, most cleaning companies have a standard rule to always start with a deep clean. This ensures the quality of clean starts us off on the right foot. From there, we’re able to schedule a regular cleaning, knowing that the weekly/bi-weekly cleaning is doing an excellent job maintaining the quality of the deep clean we started with. After this, we recommend that you have a deep clean completed every 6 – 12 months.

There are a few other situations that we recommend a deep clean for, including:
- When your house needs spring or fall cleaning.
- If you’re hosting an event where you want your home to simply glisten.
- When moving out of an apartment, condo or rental, and you want to get most, if not all of your security deposit back.
- When you’re selling your home and you want to make it attractive to potential buyers.
What’s the Cost for a Regular Clean versus a Deep Clean?

Unsurprisingly, with the additional time involved in a deep clean, the deep clean is more expensive and can range anywhere from $440 to $1300. To give you a better idea of where your cleaning cost may fall, the following breaks it down by sq ft.
A deep clean is typically an all-day event, whereas a regular clean is usually between two-three hours (house size dependent). While you should always receive quality cleaning regardless of the type of clean, it really falls to the reason you need a clean that will determine which type of cleaning makes sense for your needs.

If you are curious as to which type of cleaning makes sense for your next clean, feel free to reach out, book a quote and we’ll be happy to start bringing back some sparkle to your home!
May 12, 2022
How Residential Cleaning is as Refreshing as a Brand New Hair Style

Hair – long strands, short whisps, colourful and gray. Every single professional cleaner has had their fair share of hair discoveries while cleaning. From hair tumbleweeds to flying hairballs, hair is everywhere in a cleaner’s world…including on our heads (well…most of us anyway 😉).

So, it’s no surprise that customized cleaning is exactly like getting the perfect haircut. After all, hair from one’s head always ends up in our vacuum!

Even more, hair has a huge place in my heart because of the entrepreneurial family I grew up with in Hungary. When we immigrated to Canada, this entrepreneurial spirit came with us. In fact, it’s what made us grow, connect, and build our lives here. To this day, my mom still owns and runs her own barber and hair styling business (30+ years after we moved here). To say that her entrepreneurial spirit, business knowledge, and hair talent influenced me is an understatement.

It’s her business knowledge (and love of cleaning too) that guides so many lessons at Clean Club Calgary. There are so many parallels between receiving a fresh haircut and walking into a room that has been freshly cleaned.

Even more – I firmly believe that one of the most important relationships in our lives is that with our hairdresser. They have the power to make us feel like a completely new version of ourselves, lifting our spirits and literally cutting away old pieces of ourselves that we’ve outgrown.

That’s what a quality cleaning company does as well – clear away old pieces of the home (AKA: dust, dirt, grime, hairballs, and fur) that no longer belong. Once removed, a whole new home appears.

Let’s see what other fun parallels there are!

There’s a Hairstyle for Everyone

No two haircuts are the same, just as no two homes are the same. Therefore, no two cleanings are the same.

A breakdown of the different types of cleanings aligns beautifully with the types of haircuts I’ve not only watched my mom create, but I have had!

The regular touch-up session: For short hair that needs ongoing maintenance, a touch-up every few weeks does wonders to keep flyaways in place and the shape to frame the face. Similarly, for homes that need an easy-to-maintain, no-fuss household, a short two – three hour cleaning every week/bi-weekly does the trick to keep dust at bay and grime away.

The intense, deep impact session: A full transformation hairstyle – including a cut and colour, or even *gasp* the addition of bangs – a longer session must be booked as there are different stages and products required. This type of transformation I liken to either a deep clean – such as spring or fall cleaning – or a post renovation clean.

Custom style session: Like any client-centric hairdresser, modifying services is also key. For instance, one may want a blowout with a small fringe trim, just as a residential cleaning client may only want to have their bathroom and kitchen cleaned (leaving the rest of the cleaning to their own vices…AKA: their teenagers). Other’s request unique once-a-month cleanings with different requirements each time, much like the individual who wants a different haircut each time.

Relationships are All Important for Growth

My mom never did any marketing. She grew her business the old-fashioned way – through relationships, word of mouth, and high-quality service.

To this day, this is how she continues to keep her repeat (happy) customers, along with gaining new clientele. She doesn’t need fancy Tik Tok posts or special marketing frenzies to attract clients. She merely provides service that is top-notch and leaves her customers feeling relaxed and ready to take on the world.

While Clean Club Calgary is online to share information about how we work and who we are, I look to the type of quality service my mom offers to inform how we attract and retain our clients. It’s all about the quality experience we offer. From clear communication with our clients to supporting our own team members, our customer service is built on personal relationships. This will always be core to this business.

Further, knowing who our clients are – what and who are important to them and why – is crucial for us to provide the quality they deserve. This helps inform who we send to clean and focuses on building a long-lasting relationship with each client.

Professionals All Need Training

Cutting, colouring, and styling someone’s hair requires training. There are details involved that, if not performed correctly, produce an end result that can be disastrous (we all know someone who had severe chunky highlights that did not come out the way they imagined). A colourist MUST understand how to properly colour someone’s hair, otherwise, they run the risk of damaging the individual’s natural hair and scalp.

Just as a hairstylist must understand their craft (types of scissors, hair textures, colouring techniques and chemicals used), professional cleaners must also understand their craft. If someone accidentally uses the wrong chemical on a surface, damage is done. This is why it’s so important that we take the time to properly train our team, not just with processes, but with the science of cleaning as well.

Knowing the right type of training required allows us to pair the right individual with the service requested.

Every Miracle Only Lasts Three Days

Last, but certainly not least, all services are being provided by human beings. Humans who are not perfect. We’ve all had our fair share of bad haircuts along the way – even the most talented of hairdressers have an “oopsie” slip with their scissors. Professional cleaners are no different and sometimes mistakes happen.

When they do, I remind myself of this Hungarian saying – every miracle only lasts three days. Just as our amazing hair days come and go, so do our bad hair days. While we always strive to complete our cleans without any issues, sometimes things happen. What matters is not that it happened, but that we understand why and make sure that we know how to not have it happen again. THIS is how we continue to grow, provide excellent service and experiences, and leave our clients with the freshest of homes that they deserve.

Plus…the hair will always grow again. This is how we are able to step out of the stress of an “oopsie” moment and move forward together.

While Clean Club Calgary can’t help with your own hairstyle, we can absolutely support you removing the hair from your home, in the style of your choosing!

Connect for a quote on your own custom style of cleaning today! It could be the very thing you need to feel refreshed again in your home.

November 20, 2021
Love Your Renovation: Post-Construction Cleaning Tips
It’s that time of year – the time for renovations galore!

Even more so this year as people use their travelling funds for home improvements as we continue through COVID adjustments.

And with each of these renovations comes the dreaded renovation dust! Thick, sticky, heavy dust that lasts and lasts.

The dust that renovation companies often promise to keep to a minimum. To contain. To try and control.

The truth is – no renovation company can truly control the dust that comes with renovations. Yes – some things can be done to contain it. But, there will always be a need for a proper post-renovation deep clean. This helps to ensure the renovation experience won’t fall flat.

So, what are some of the things to consider when looking for a renovation that ends in relaxation…not grumbles over dust floaties?
Minimal Dust is Still Dust

There really should be three things in life that are guaranteed: DUST, death, and taxes. There’s no way around it. Dust will always be a part of your renovation.

To support your overall renovation experience, ask what procedures the construction company has in place for keeping dust to a minimum (e.g.coverand protecting floors/windows, safely blocking vents, etc.). This will help contain the dust from flowing through to the rest of your house. The hazard here is if dust is not contained, it will require deeper cleaning beyond the room(s) where the renovation was completed. Ventilation systems carry this thick dust from room to room. If not accounted for, you could be looking at a hefty cleaning bill just to ensure all the dust is removed and your air quality is decent.

Other items to inquire about are:
- what type of cleaning post-renovation is included in the contracting company’s scope?
- if cleaning is not included in the renovation scope, what is their solution for cleaning?
- do they have a relationship with a cleaning company for this specific reason?
Recognize that even if there is minimal dust that’s all contained, it will still be a frustration if it is not properly taken care of, taking away from the renovation itself.
Renovations have Cleaning Stages

One of the biggest misconceptions is that there are stages in renovation cleanings.

Renovation dust takes time to settle. Even minimal dust.

The clients we support with post renovation/construction cleaning (this includes our renovation partners who coordinate on behalf of their clients) are best supported in stages. An example of what this staged cleaning process looks like includes:
1. Construction Clean. Here, most of the cleaning is done. This clean allows the trades to see what deficiencies there are to fix. (Oh yes – cleaning helps to identify where any knicks are, where things are misaligned, etc.). This clean also collects the majority of the renovation dust. Depending on the renovation itself, we may also complete the inside windows at this point, or leave it to the Final Clean.
2. Final Clean. Here is when we come in and again vacuum and wipe everything down (once trades have finished all final touches). This removes any final dust that settled since the initial construction clean and is to be completed prior to occupation (if possible).
Trade Tools Always Matter

We can vacuum until we’re blue in the face, but if we don’t take care of that vacuum and change the bag, then we are merely spewing these heavy, sticky dust particles right back into the air.

I’m not sure why renovation dust is unlike everyday dust, with its ability to linger long after it’s wanted, but it is. I do know that a simple wipe down is not going to cut it for post-construction cleans in getting rid of this dust. Neither will a simple rag.

An invested post-renovation cleaning company will show up with the following each time:
- A good vacuum that they know how to properly use. Learn more about this here. We highly recommend that the vacuum is HEPA-equipped for proper filtering of the dust particles.
- A scraper. Even the best painters will always have a couple of spots that fly through the air. Our fresh eyes allow us to spot and then remove these mini splatters with ease.
- Quality products. At Clean Club Calgary, we do not use a lot of harsh cleaning agents. Rather, we show up with our dish soap, Tide, Bar Keeper’s Friend, a bit of bleach, and a whole lot of elbow grease. These are the products that we find get the best results.
- Brushes, dusters, and our microfiber cloths. These tools should be able to trap dust and fully remove it rather than merely pushing it around. To learn more about our favourite cleaning tools, click here.
With the right tools (and the proper training), cleaning augments the home renovation, creating a positive overall experience for you, the homeowner! The ultimate reward? You get to simply enjoy the renovation…not any lingering dust.

Right now, the construction industry is in full swing, working all hours to complete the projects so many Calgarians are investing in post-COVID. It’s important to work with a renovation company that understands the importance of the entire experience, beginning to end of a renovation. Someone who recognizes the need for a cleaning relationship that is high quality, can work with a flexible schedule, and collaborate with your construction crew for a coordinated clean.

Remember, you’re renovating for a reason and I’m certain it’s not to sit in a pile of dust at the end of everything.

If you’re in the middle of a renovation and are now thinking about a post-renovation clean, reach on out for a customized quote.

If you are a renovation company yourself and are looking for a cleaning company to support you with this aspect of your customer experience, let’s connect for a deeper chat.
August 19, 2021
Scrub A Dub-Dub: The Truth in How to Clean a Toilet
Cleaning the toilet. It’s something that must be done…but is rarely the chore that anyone raises their hand to complete.

Still, the toilet can cause health, well-being, and aesthetic problems when not properly cleaned. And, if it’s not done effectively, you’re putting yourself and your family at risk.

Today, we’re breaking down how to scrub the toilet to remove both the visible and the not so visible dirt and other particles (you know what I mean).

When Clean Club Calgary goes into a home, there are seven typical areas of the toilet that must be cleaned. That’s right, SEVEN!
1. Toilet bowl
2. Seat Cover
3. Flush handle/buttons
4. Tank
5. Walls around the toilet
6. Toilet lid
7. Floor and baseboards and a possible carpet or area rug
And here you thought it was just cleaning the toilet!

So, how do we clean these well-used seats in every single home?

Well, it’s not pretty, but it starts by getting down on our knees for the best elbow grease power. Then, we tackle the toilet section by section.
THE TOILET BOWL

Every single inch of the bowl should be scrubbed…unfortunately many homes ignore this and do a quick swish of the toilet brush. But, because water and urine flow down the sides, when dried, it sticks and leaves behind germs.

THE TOILET SEAT

The seat itself does not have one or even two sides. It has four! Of course, it’s important to clean the top of the seat, but the bottom is often much dirtier due to sewage backsplash…that’s dried! It’s a serious hotspot for collecting germs and, if not regularly cleaned, these particles enter the air you breathe. Who wants that?

THE FLUSH HANDLE/BUTTONS

Yes – even the handle needs to be cleaned as everyone touches it, often with unwashed hands. The toothbrush comes in handy to get right into the tiny cracks of the handle. Here, Clean Club Calgary members also disinfect the handle over and above cleaning it because of the amount people who touch it.

THE WATER TANK

This is often hidden, so it makes sense to miss cleaning it. However, it doesn’t hurt to toss in a chlorine tablet from time to time to keep the tank clean and disinfected. If the tank is exposed, dust – especially toilet paper dust – will fall in. We also make sure that we always clean the top of the tank, along with the sides to remove any dust or backsplash that may have gotten away from you during your “private time.”

THE WALLS AROUND THE TOILET

I don’t want to scare you, but have you ever looked at the walls behind your toilet? They are dirty with both toilet water and urine. While you may have cleaned the toilet, if you’re not wiping down the walls around it, you’re leaving urine and fecal particles behind for you and your family to breathe in. Make sure you wipe down the walls!
THE TOILET LID

The lid itself must also be cleaned and disinfected (top and bottom) to ensure a true cleaning of the toilet.

THE FLOOR, BASEBOARDS, and CARPET

Much like the walls, the floors, baseboards and toilet area carpet (if you have one), must be cleaned. Plain and simple – gravity takes over when we use the washroom, causing splashing and overflow. Cleaning these are MANDATORY (I mean…many of us use the bathroom without socks or slippers…just think about what you’re stepping on for a moment). When Clean Club Calgary cleans, we vacuum and then handwash around the toilet to get the best results and sparkle.

Now that you know WHAT needs to be cleaned, let’s chat about the HOW.

YOUR TOILET CLEANING TOOLS

Gather all your tools ahead of time
- Toilet brush.
- Bucket of clean, hot water.
- Cleaning product. Dish soap with a splash of bleach in water will do the trick.
- Toothbrush (not the one you use on your teeth!!! A separate toothbrush solely for scrubbing nooks and crannies. Make sure you keep it separate from your actual toothbrush. No one wants to mix these up).
- Two cloths – one damp and one dry.
CLEAN YOUR TOILET IN 10 STEPS

Fill the bucket with clean, hot water, and then add your cleaning product. We use dish soap and bleach as this cleans AND disinfects.

Use the damp cloth to wipe down the toilet lid first, followed by the dry cloth. If there are any tough to remove stains, use the toothbrush to scrub them off. To use the toothbrush, dip it in your hot bucket water first to ensure there is disinfectant on it. When finished, run hot water on the toothbrush before putting it away for next time.

Add your cleaning product directly to the toilet bowl and scrub with a good toilet brush. Then flush. Note – if you are a fan of bleach in your toilet do not mix it with the toilet bowl cleaner! This produces toxic fumes and is extremely harmful to breathe.

Using the toilet brush, scrub under the rim of the toilet bowl. This is often overlooked, however, it is prone to black mould as urine/fecal splatter deposits here. If you have kids, they may put their tiny fingers here to hold onto while going and you do not want them touching this.

Take your damp cloth and wipe down the toilet tank, along with the handle/buttons, followed quickly with your dry cloth to add some shine.

Next up, the toilet seat itself! Start on the underside, at the back where the seat attaches to the bowl. Wipe down the whole seat; remember all four sides. Then follow up with your dry cloth. Again, if there are any super tough stains, use that toothbrush to scrub them off.

Now, wash the outside of the toilet with the damp cloth, paying close attention to where the bottom of the bowl meets the floor. This is often where “drippings” collect. If needed, use your toothbrush here too.

Wipe the back of the toilet and then behind it. This is where the water pipe connects to the wall and is notorious for catching lint and dust from toilet paper.

Wipe down the walls and baseboards, removing those unsightly stains that have splashed onto them.

Finally, clean the floor. I recommend doing this by hand rather than a mop to make sure your elbow grease removes any stains on the floor.

TIPS TO REMEMBER FOR A COMPLETE TOILET CLEAN

It takes ~10-15-minutes to do a proper cleaning/disinfecting of the toilet alone. This is not a quick two-minute job. If it is, well…you’re fostering more grime, more urine, and more fecal particles that impact the quality of the air not just in your bathroom but throughout your entire home.

Clean the toilet last so as not to spread the germs around your home.

Always disinfect the toilet paper holder.

Clean and disinfect the toilet brush and holder as well.

Replace the toothbrush every so often, just as you do the toilet brush.

Do not use the rags and sponges you use to clean the toilet anywhere else. If you do not want to throw them out, wash them with detergent at a high temperature. Even if you do this, still only use them to clean the toilet.

Not the quick swish you may have thought, but an in-depth technique to ensure your home’s “throne” is truly clean, keeping you and your family’s health intact.

Of course, even with all this information on how to properly clean your toilet, you may still not want to rush and tackle this chore. That’s exactly what Clean Club Calgary is here for – scrubbing toilets to keep you healthy and your home all sparkly.

To forget about cleaning the toilet, simply book Clean Club Calgary for this truly gross chore and we’ll do the dirty work for you.

Don’t worry – we’ve got the stomach for it!
February 18, 2021
The Three Truths Behind Your Residential Cleaning Costs
Residential cleaning is a rip off! Why pay someone to do something that we can do ourselves? It’s super expensive and never great service. Cleaning companies make huge profits and are just racking up the money…but not sharing it with their staff.

Yep. A lot of these statements are true of the industry. However, a lot of them are not true of most cleaning companies who are working hard to build reputable businesses. I believe it’s important to change these overall beliefs, demonstrating that cleaning is about more than, well, cleaning. It’s about a quality of life. To do this, I want to start by being completely transparent about the real costs of where your hard-earned money goes.
TRUTH 1: HOME CLEANING IS AFFORDABLE FOR MOST HOUSEHOLDS

There is a misconception that to invest in residential cleaning services, one must be earning hand over fist in cash, with lots to spare. The key to affording it is working with your budget and developing a schedule that suits your lifestyle. For instance, there are a number of ways you can split a $520 monthly cleaning budget. Let’s break it down here:

Monthly Cleaning Budget: 520 CAD

Results in: 8 cleaning hours / month at 65 CAD / hour

Cleaning Options:
- Option 1: 1x/month for 8 hours, 1 lump sum payment, monthly cleaning list
- Option 2: 2x/month, 4 hours/visit, 2 lump sum payments, cleaning priority list
- Option 3: 2 hrs/week, 4 lump sum payments, weekly cleaning priority list
While the budget remains the same, the spacing of payments and type of cleaning can be manipulated to fit your family’s budget and life schedule.

TRUTH 2: PROFITS ARE INVESTED BACK INTO THE CLEANING COMPANY’S PEOPLE

To be incredibly frank, Clean Club Calgary currently has a slim margin at only 10% in profit. This goes directly back into the company and the development of our people through team building workshops, individual training, and educational opportunities. In addition, 90% of what you pay for is for a lot more than clean floors. It supports an entire ecosystem that supports Calgary’s economy, both in terms of service offerings and in adding jobs. The reality is you are supporting a local business, along with the costs of running a reputable, ever-improving company. This breaks down into specific business, operations, and human costs.
BUSINESS COSTS
- Insurance: making sure that both our customers and our team/business are covered with the proper type and amount of insurance is crucial to building a reputable business. By having the right insurance, we are able to stand behind both our team and our customers should an issue arise.
- WCB: if anything happens to our team while on the job, we must take care of them. This means investing in WCB coverage to, again, protect both our team and our customers.
- Background Checks: you are trusting us in your home with all your personal belongings and your family members! We cannot, and will not, hire anyone who has a history with red flags. This means covering timely and accurate security checks to make sure we continue to earn your trust with the right people on our team.
- Team Payroll and Business Taxes: as with most businesses, one of our largest overhead costs is the employee payroll. At Clean Club Calgary, this accounts for more than half of your hourly rate. In addition, there are also those fun CRA taxes, such as GST, Payroll, and Corporate taxes that all incorporated businesses must pay. We are a business who takes pride in paying our team a healthy living wage while still remaining in good standing with the CRA.
- Administrative Fees: all of the above have monthly administrative fees to obtain proper coverage and certifications, along with ensuring we remain up to date with industry organizations.
OPERATIONAL COSTS
- Overhead costs: items such as cleaning supplies, office rent, and our user-friendly booking system through Jobber is crucial to ensuring that you receive quality cleaning when you want it.
- Travel Costs: not all cleaning companies do this, but at Clean Club Calgary, we pay our team for travel time and mileage in between cleaning jobs, particularly since a team may clean three sites a day. We do not charge the client for this time, but we ensure that this is covered as travel is a requirement of the job, much like it is for a sales rep.
- Advertising: cleaning is a very competitive industry. Even though word of mouth is our preferred – and most common – way of advertising, we still invest in professional advertising services, such a Google AdWords, to ensure we remain competitive in the market.
- Image: running a professional company goes beyond the quality of service (but never overshadows it). It’s in how we show up, including with what we wear, how we carry and present ourselves, how we communicate and respond to clients – all of this takes time to train, reinforce, and ensure that you receive a consistently positive cleaning experience.
- Ongoing Training: Currently, there is nothing available for residential cleaning training in Calgary. Any training we do receive must be done outside of the province. For instance, I completed my IICRC House Cleaning Technician certificate to properly support my clients, along with onboarding my team through best practices, industry standards, and new cleaning techniques. Since training includes completion in person, one must travel to where the training is taking place. While I would love to bring this type of training to Calgary (future goals!), there is nothing here at the moment for us to send our team to. We account for this when completing our yearly training budget.
HUMAN LABOUR COSTS
- Back-Breaking Work: cleaning is not easy on the body, especially for people who have mobility limits or body injuries. Yes, you are paying us to take this physical labour off of you and, while we are absolutely honoured to do this, we then place the stress on ourselves. You are literally paying us to put additional strain our bodies.
- Team Benefits: to ensure that our team remains in tip-top shape due to this additional strain, our company must take care of them. Specifically, Clean Club Calgary has an excellent health benefits plan that keeps our people happier and healthier. Read more about how we invest in our team here.
TRUTH 3: THE QUALITY OF YOUR HOME LIFE & RELATIONSHIPS IMPROVES

As I sat down with a recent prospect and his wife, he said,

“you are really taking care of things that we would otherwise fight about!”

At the end of the day, he’s right. You are investing in getting your time back in multiple ways – from not having to do the actual cleaning, to avoiding the time-wasting “who does what” convos and “who can hold out the longest” mind games we have all done (myself included, much to my husband’s own frustration). Residential cleaning is as much about providing you with a quality clean as it is about investing in the quality of your personal relationships.

I fully acknowledge that cleaning services are a luxury investment as they are something that most households can do on their own. At the end of the day, though, the primary question isn’t about how much your residential cleaning services cost. Rather, it should be about what impact this investment has on your life. From there, it becomes easier to understand exactly what the cost is – time, money, and harmony – for cleaning your home.

If you are curious to learn more about where your cleaning investment goes, I am more than happy to have a conversation. Contact me when you’re ready.

Alternatively, know someone who wants to understand a bit more about cleaning costs? Share this blog with them!
December 12, 2019