How often your place needs us
Weekly, biweekly or monthly, the visit itself is the same room-by-room clean the maid service page walks through. The question on this page is how often we come.
1. How many people live there
A one-person studio and a four-person house have different cadences. One person who travels often can go a month between visits without the kitchen or the bathroom showing it. A four-person household with roommates on different schedules fills a week.
2. Pets and shedding
A shedding dog or a cat with a favorite couch adds a round of vacuuming that stacks between visits. Hair and dander collect more between visits than almost anything else in a home, which usually pushes a household toward a weekly or every-other-week visit rather than monthly.
3. Kids
A toddler who eats at a low table, a grade-schooler who tracks in the backyard, or a kid who paints in the kitchen all push the schedule up. The spots that show it first are the floor under the table and the handles the kid uses most.
4. How much cooking happens
A kitchen cooked in every night carries more than one used for a cereal bowl. Cooking spray collects on the backsplash and the hood, which hits a point where a wipe no longer handles it. If the stove runs most nights, every other week is usually the rhythm that holds.
5. Floors and the entry in snow season
Chicago has a long snow season. The dirt that gets tracked in during a snowy stretch is different from summer dust, and it carries salt. See salt and slush on winter floors for what to watch for. In snow season, a rhythm that was fine in July can show on the entry floor by January.
6. Bathrooms per person
A two-bathroom home with four people lets each bathroom go longer than a one-bathroom home with two people. The bathroom that gets used the most is the one that sets the schedule, which is usually the one closest to the bedrooms.
A first visit on a recurring arrangement usually involves more than the ones that follow, because the home has a few months of catching up folded into it. After that, each visit covers what the week has added since the last one.
| Household | Rhythm that usually fits | What each visit focuses on |
|---|---|---|
| One person in a studio | Monthly to every other week | Kitchen, bathroom and floors |
| A couple in a one-bedroom | Every other week | Kitchen, one bathroom and the entry |
| Roommates in a two- or three-bedroom | Weekly or every other week | Shared bathroom, kitchen, common rooms |
| A family with kids | Weekly | Floor under the table, bathrooms, kitchen |
| A home with a shedding dog | Weekly or every other week | Floors, upholstery passes, the entry |
| A home cooked in every day | Every other week | Stovetop, backsplash, kitchen floor |
If none of these fit, we talk it through on the call.
Which rhythm fits which home
What each rhythm suits in a Chicago home.
Weekly
Fits a home where a week brings the work back fast.
- Kids who eat at a low table and track dirt in on shoes.
- A kitchen cooked in most nights.
- A shared bathroom carrying three or four roommates.
Every other week
A middle rhythm that holds for most two-adult homes.
- A one-bedroom with two adults.
- A condo with one shedding dog.
- A home where cooking is steady but not every night.
- A two-bedroom where the shared bathroom holds up for two weeks.
Monthly
Fits a lighter home, spaced further out.
- A one-person studio or a one-bedroom with light cooking.
- A traveler who is often out of town and light on the home.
When a recurring schedule is the right fit
When this is the right page
You want the apartment or house kept at one level without choosing it again each weekend. You have a sense of which days work. You want the kitchen and bathroom caught up without having a conversation about it every time.
When another service fits
If the place needs a thorough first clean before anything else, book a deep clean to start from. A deep clean up front means the weekly visits that follow keep the home at a level rather than chase it. For a single event rather than a schedule, see a single visit instead and we can plan it as a one-time. For the room-by-room list that a recurring visit covers, see what a maid service visit covers.
For the longer piece on picking the rhythm, see how often to schedule a cleaning, which walks through the same questions in more depth.
What each visit covers
Each visit is a full room-by-room clean: dusting from high to low, the kitchen counters, sink, stovetop and outside of appliances, the bathroom top to bottom, bedrooms and living rooms, and the floors last. On a recurring arrangement we learn your place over the first few visits: which cabinet door the dog opens, which radiator sheds the most, which spot on the counter is the one that bothers you. Those details fold into every visit that follows.
The price is set per visit after the questions on the call, not quoted as an hourly rate. The levers on a recurring arrangement are rooms, bathrooms, people, pets, how often we come, and anything extra on the list (inside the oven once a quarter, say). See what moves the price for the detail. Visits can shift later if a season changes what the home needs, and that conversation happens on a later call.