With the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon sweeping the nation, it’s no surprise that many businesses, groups of friends, book clubs, and more are finding parallels to this unique and perhaps now iconic love story and our lives.
With the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon sweeping the nation, it’s no surprise that many businesses, groups of friends, book clubs, and more are finding parallels to this unique and perhaps now iconic love story and our lives.
When you first meet with a cleaning service to have them evaluate the condition of your home and establish what level of cleaning is recommended for your home, that cleaning company is attempting to establish EXPECTATIONS as clearly as possible with you. Just as Christian and Anastasia spent the early part of their relationship reviewing a contract of what each party would and would not do, so a cleaning service must establish a clear “do list,” specifying which activities are included in the quoted price and which activities are priced separately.
Liz Trotter, owner of American Maid in Olympia, WA, made these notes in the book Lists to Live By:
This is really good – we have the same thing at work! Who would’ve thought there is SUCH a different in the words
- wipe
- swipe
- wash
- clean
- scrub
- dust
- sweep
- tidy
- cleanse
- groom
- rinse
- etc!
Trust me – get a word wrong and it’s ALL wrong!
That’s certainly what happens more often than we’d like to see, that YOU have one expectation, one idea of what a “clean home” means to you and a different idea spelled out in the instructions in our cleaning technicians’ notes for cleaning your home.
At Castle Keepers, we think the four most important aspects of “cleaning” are the formal, scientific definitions of these terms:
- Clean—remove visible dirt and contaminants from the premises
- Sanitize—make a hard surface it food safe by removing 99.9% of germs and bacteria
- Disinfect—make a hard surface 99.99% germ and bacteria free
- Sterilize—make a hard surface operating room germ and bacteria free
These are the four ways that “clean” can be defined and, most importantly, proven…or measured with an objective tool. We’re not talking about the white glove test; we’re talking about measuring things like the presence of adenosine triphosphate or ATP, which shows how much living matter is on a surface.
These different levels of cleaning can be achieved using a variety of methods in a variety of combinations and with a variety of tools and equipment. Again, it is vital that YOU as the homeowner make your expectations known and clear so that EVERYONE can be pleased with the job they’ve done!
So when you are thinking of adding or changing your home cleaning service, be very careful to make your expectations known and clear. That will make it easier for you and the service to know if you’ll be a good match for each other!
