What a maid service visit covers
Our cleaners work through a home in roughly the same order every time: high to low, since dust falls and lands on the floors we finish with. A visit should leave a home that still looks clean when you walk in that evening.
1. A look at the rooms against what you told us on the call
We walk the apartment or house with the list from your call in mind: what bothers you most, which rooms get used, whether the dishes in the sink stay or move, where the pet sleeps. Nothing personal is sorted, moved or opened unless you asked for it.
2. Dusting from high to low, from the floor
We dust before anything else so what falls off a ceiling fan or the top of a door frame lands on floors we have not cleaned yet. An extendable duster handles the ceiling fans, vents, light fixtures and the tops of door frames and cabinets, all from the floor. We do not use ladders, step stools, chairs, tub edges or counters to reach a high spot, and anything out of reach that way stays where it is.
3. The kitchen
Counters are cleared and wiped, and the sink is cleaned down to the faucet, the handle and the rim. The stovetop goes next, with the grates lifted and set back. We wipe the outside of the fridge, the oven and the dishwasher, including the handles and the top of each one, and the front of the microwave. The backsplash gets attention wherever it has caught cooking spray. Inside the oven and inside the fridge come on request and are priced into the visit when you want them.
4. Bathrooms
The tub or shower is cleaned from the floor with no leaning in, and shower glass gets its own pass when the bathroom has it. We clean the toilet inside and out, including the base, then the vanity, sink and taps and the mirror. The light fixture is dusted from the floor with the extendable duster. The floor comes last, with the mop reaching behind the toilet as far as it fits.
5. Bedrooms and living rooms
Surfaces dusted and wiped: dressers, nightstands, side tables, headboards, bookshelves. Beds made when you ask, with the linens you have left out. Mirrors and glass. We do not sort, open drawers, or move personal items into them. If something is on the floor and we are not sure what you want done with it, we leave it where it is.
6. Floors, last
Hard floors vacuumed and then mopped. Rugs and carpet vacuumed. Along baseboards and into corners. We stop before any area that needs a wet extraction, which is a different trade and not what we do.
7. A last look with you if you are home
If you are home when we finish, we walk a last round with you so you can see each room. If you are not home, we leave the place closed up the way you asked.
| Room | What a standard visit covers | What moves it to a deep clean |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | Counters, sink, stovetop, outside of appliances, backsplash | Inside the oven, inside the fridge, cabinet fronts and the range hood filters |
| Bathroom | Tub or shower, toilet, vanity, mirror, floor | Grout lines, hard-water film on shower glass, behind the toilet |
| Living room | Surfaces, mirrors, glass, floors | Baseboards, door frames, switch plates and under furniture |
| Bedroom | Surfaces, bed made on request, floors | Under the bed, closet shelves and window sills |
| Entry and halls | Surfaces, floors | Baseboards and door frames top to bottom |
| Dining room | Table, chairs, surfaces, floors | China cabinet fronts and chair legs by hand |
If the whole table starts looking like your home, that is the sign to start with a deep clean rather than a maid service visit.
The sequence here matters; a visit done out of order needs a second pass to catch up.
The order of a maid service visit
High to low, so what falls off a shelf never lands on surfaces that are already clean.
High dusting first
Ceiling fans, light fixtures and the tops of cabinets, worked from the floor.
Kitchen surfaces
Counters, sink, stovetop and the outside of each appliance.
Bathrooms
Tub or shower, toilet, vanity and mirror, with the floor behind the base.
Bedrooms and living rooms
Surfaces dusted and nothing personal moved into drawers.
Floors last
Vacuumed and mopped, so no later work walks across them.
When a maid service is enough and when another service fits
When a maid service fits
Your place is in fair shape and you want it kept that way. The kitchen and bathrooms are the parts that bother you most. You want a predictable rhythm you can share with roommates or a partner. You have the time to pick up the night before. You already had a thorough clean this year.
When to start with something else
If it has been more than six months since a top-to-bottom clean, a deep clean first means the regular visits that follow can keep up with the place rather than chase it. If the place is empty, move-out cleaning is the right page. For a bigger seasonal reset after winter, see our spring cleaning write-up. If the household wants milder products, say so on the call and we can plan a visit around milder products.
We tell you plainly on the call which is right. The deep clean takes more and costs more at the start, and the regular visits after it are what the maid service page is written for.
What the visit covers
A maid service visit covers the rooms you tell us to cover, in the order above. We go over products and supplies on the call, so no one is guessing at what you want used in your kitchen or around a pet. People search for a housekeeper or a cleaning lady and mean this same service; the job is the same whichever word a household uses.
We do not quote a job length and we do not sell the visit by the hour. Two homes with the same square footage can hold very different amounts of work, so the price is set per visit after the questions on the call.
How the call becomes a cleaning
- You call us and tell us about the place: rooms, bathrooms, how we get in, pets, what bothers you most.
- We go over products, supplies and anything we should leave alone.
- You get a price for the visit and decide.
- The cleaning happens, and we walk a last look with you if you are home.
Chicago homes and what a maid service means here
Chicago households average 2.29 people and about 40 percent of Chicago households are one person living alone. Two-bedroom homes are the most common size in Chicago, with about 33 percent of the housing in that size, and 501,168 units (about 39 percent) have three or more bedrooms. For a maid service that means a small household and a modest number of bedrooms sets the pace for a lot of calls: the kitchen and the bathroom carry the most, the bedrooms are rooms to dust and the floors pick up what the entry brings in. A bigger home adds rooms to the same list rather than adding new pressure points. The questions on the call are the same for any size: who is in each room, what bothers you most and what we should leave alone.