When stress and schoolwork meant it was time to admit defeat on the house cleaning front, I turned…read moreto Google for help, which brought me to Maids in America (despite the name, they don't appear to be a franchise).
Scheduling: I was able to schedule a deep clean online, just selecting options for size of house, number of rooms, etc. I actually called two days prior just to confirm, they assured me they had me down, and two ladies turned up right on time.
Cleaning: Overall, I was pretty satisfied. The stove has never looked better -- they even got the caked on crud off around the most frequently used burner -- and the bathtubs looked brand new. A deep clean includes the inside of things, so they wiped down the inside of the fridge and microwave, which was nice (the inside of the oven didn't need cleaning, and I had them skip the inside of the cabinets). They very also thoroughly swept our hardwood floors (and rugs -- no vacuums) and then cleaned them with the spray solution we preferred.
However, there were a few things that they either don't do (mirrors? I'm pretty certain they didn't touch any of those), and they definitely could have done a better job on the dusting (not sure if dusting under things is something they intentionally skip). They have you do a walk-through before you leave, so I pointed out some windowsills that had been missed, but it is a little weird to be sort of white glove checking things.
Time: The scheduling tool marked down five hours, but they were done in 2.5. I'm sure some of that was due to our house being not as dirty as it might have been, and so not needing a few things, but I think another 30-45 minutes might have been well-spent.
Cost/payment: For a small house (less than 1,500 square feet) it was $194, which seems like a reasonable price. When they were done, one of the ladies called her boss and I provided my credit card over the phone. It wasn't charged for several days, making me nervous that they had written it down on a piece of paper somewhere, but I got an email invoice and haven't had any issues.
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to tip. One of the ladies mentioned that I could choose to add a tip to my credit card total, but the woman on the phone didn't offer that, and since one of the two cleaners seemed to be in charge (with a helper), I was kind of on the fence about how much to tip, so I didn't.
Overall: I was very happy with the service. In just a few hours the house looked WAY better than it would have even after days of me trying to clean and the price was pretty reasonable. While I'm hoping to keep up on my own cleaning for the time being, I wouldn't hesitate to use them again or recommend them.
