A few weeks ago, I wrote about hiring professional movers and how, despite the stress that we encountered, we felt the service was totally worth it.
This week, I decided to focus on our experience of getting professional cleaners.
Ok, so I know what you’re thinking. These people are lazy, lazy as**s who waste their money hiring people for jobs that they could very well do themselves.
That is true. I won’t deny that.
BUT it actually worked in our favor to hire professionals.
To appreciate this a little better, I think I need to give a brief background on what we had to go through when we moved.
OUR SCENARIO
As shared in my old post, we needed to be out of Subic 2nd week of July..
The thing is, it was hard enough to look for a house in Manila given the short time frame. To make matters worse, we had a really small budget, but had pang- mayaman needs: We wanted to a house. Not a condo. Not a townhouse. A real, legit, suburban house. In Metro Manila. In a gated neighborhood. (See what I mean?) We also needed it to be relatively big since we will end up storing stuff from our real house when they start renovating. So yeah, we were THE couple that your real estate broker friends complain about.
BUT I am nothing if not tenacious. So after many insomniac nights scouring through ads, we found a place. Exactly within budget. And exactly in the neighborhood that we wanted. (Taking a moment to give myself a smug pat on the back).
There was a catch though. The house, to put it delicately, was a fixer upper. To put it non-delicately, I will quote my friend Boo: “Yuck Pi. It’s gross.”
I was ready to write this one off. As luck would have it, I was talking to the property manager about another house she was leasing out, and she informed me that they were actually about to renovate the icky house to make it more rentable. We didn’t have to spend a cent- we just had to wait til the 1st week of August to move in.
My husband and I discussed it, and we both agreed that this was the best we could do given our needs and our timeframe. So we decided to go for it.
In the meantime, our awesome friends (yey, Margaux and Dondon!) graciously offered to let us crash and mooch of them indefinitely.
The property manager also agreed to finish the major, dusty renovation work before the second week of July. That way, we could dump everything there and wait for the rest of the house to be finished.
Seemed like a plan right? Wrong. We’re the Villamors – nothing in our collective life has gone according to plan.
THE GLITCH
The manager was the nicest, sweetest old lady- but she was also a bit of a space cadet. So when I called her the last week of June to follow up on the house –she had totally forgotten that we were moving our things in 2 weeks (it was in the freakin’ contract for crying out loud)! They were not even close to finishing the target renovations.
To give ourselves credit, we had anticipated the delay. So we just simply called our movers and told them that although we were pushing through with transporting our things (it’s not as if we had a choice anyway), we would have to reschedule unpacking to a later date. Hopefully, this will prevent grubby renovation crap from getting on our stuff.
After another couple weeks of delay, the house was finally nearing completion and we were told that we could now move in.
But space cadet property manager, God bless her good intentioned soul, decided to get the cleaning out of the way BEFORE we were scheduled to unpack. So when we started unwrapping and unraveling our stuff, the dust sitting on the plastic wrappings and boxes went flying over the place, and the house was just a complete mess.
We patiently but firmly insisted that they had to redo general cleaning. And in all fairness to her, she did oblige.
When I told my friends Margaux and Boo about our latest setback however, they adamantly insisted that we hire professionals. They pointed out that aside from having all the dirt and grime from construction, we had no idea what mold, mildew and leftover previous- tenant -grossness was hiding in all those dark corners. WE NEEDED DEEP CLEANING.
It took me a while to heed their advice . I was already scandalized with the amount of money we’ve spent on the movers to begin with. I didn’t want to spend on professional cleaners on top of that.
BUT I visited the house one last time, and realized begrudgingly that no amount of amateur scrubbing and mopping will make the house liveable.
So (sigh) we decided, once again, to stretch our budgets and just get professionals.
ON GREEN GRACE SUCCESS INC.
Margaux recommended her go-to cleaners to help us out. I contacted Mike Gamez, the owner of the company directly. And he personally came to the house along with his chief cleaner before giving us a quote.
It was not cheap.
But I have to tell you something about Margaux – her kuripot tendencies put my daddy to shame. And if she was she was willing to splurge on their service, then they must be REALLY, REALLY GOOD.
Sure enough, these guys were worth it. They were fast and thorough. They cleaned every corner, shelf, drawer, railing and vent that they could find with very minimal mando-ing. Apart from that, they also cleaned all our aircon units and disinfected our pillows and mattresses.
Our agreement just covered everything inside the house– but I guess they were a bit horrified at the state of our veranda and dirty kitchen – so they offered to scrub those as well.
I loved that they had all these professional looking equipment – aside from using rags, mops and cleaning agents – they had this really wicked high-tech Grunheim super machine – it’s this vacuum, steamer and sterilizer in one! (Dude, the things that excite me now. It’s pitiful really.)
The machine was attached to a container which you’re supposed to fill up with water. While they were cleaning, we could see the water getting darker and darker as it sucked in all the grossness out of the house. Talk about instant gratification! ;p
I also love how professional their cleaners were. They were respectful, efficient and amiable. They even brought their own baon!! Of course, we ended up buying them lunch anyway – but all suppliers we’ve dealt with ever automatically assume that free meals were part of the deal – so to work with people who were actually willing to feed themselves is a BIG DEAL.
(It’s like when family and friends come to Subic. We’re gracious hosts, so we like treating them out – but at the same time, you kinda expect them to reach out for their wallets. That’s all I want metaphorically- a reach. I am more than happy to pay for your meal. But demur a little- it’s the polite thing to do. 😛 )
WHEN SHOULD YOU HIRE PROFESSIONAL CLEANERS
Anyway, I’ve disgressed enough. This is probably not what you have bargained for. So just to wrap things up:When should you hire professional cleaners?
After construction/renovation -Tidying up after renovations may be part of your contractor’s job; but, based on my personal experience and anecdotes from friends, they do not always do a thorough enough job. So I suggest for your peace of mind, hire someone to do a once over before you move in.
Before moving to an occupied rental/permanent house– You have no idea if previous tenants did nasty stuff in there. It doesn’t hurt to be a little extra hygienic. (Just watch an episode of hoarders and you’ll know what I’m talking about).
Every 6- months – I talked to Green Grace about this, and they recommended investing in thorough cleaning every 6 months. I was watching them work on our rental, and I realized that there is no way we can clean our place the way they do. We simply don’t have the time, nor the equipment. Ofcourse, we could invest in those high-tech machines and do it ourselves (they do sell them if anyone is interested) – but those things cost hundreds of thousands. So no.
I’ve spent my money on more ridiculous items – so why not invest in making sure that my house is clean, safe and germ-free?
Anyway, that is my take on hiring professionals in general: You can actually do it yourself, but probably not as thoroughly and efficiently as they can.
Is it a lazy ass move? Probably. But for me, making sure that these practical errands are taken cared of by trusted experts gives us more leeway to spend our time and energy doing other productive things. So in the end, it pays off.
Martine says
What a nice home you have! When it comes to things like deep cleaning, here in Manila? YES, it’s worth it to hire professionals. Tim Ferriss says it’s worth it to find ways to waste our money on things that save our time. I SO agree. We don’t have time, it is the most expensive thing! So splurge on professional cleaning and moving, YES. Because you will experience freedom from concerns in the end.
Happy to know you are settling down in Manila.
Pia says
Hi Martine! Thanks so much! Very well said! Yes, when you weigh it with the freedom that hiring professionals affords you, the investment is definitely worth every penny. 🙂
Alan says
Very thorough! We have many clients that wonder and ask us about this – hope you don’t mind if I direct them here to explain why they need cleaners when they move, instead of DI Y – Thanks
Maria says
I honestly don’t think that it’s a lazy ass move. I think of it as a way of letting the cleaners earn. Like, hiring them for a certain job hence, letting them earn. I live in a rented unit as well and sometimes I have thought of hiring cleaners to clean the space. It’s not the big, it’s a studio unit only but my stuff could hoard a lot of dust and dirt and most of the time, my rhinitis gets the best of me. Hahaha! So I think, this is really practical especially when you are handling to many on your plate.
Pia says
Thanks Maria, that’s a good way of looking at it. 🙂
Alyssa Tuangco says
The first time I heard about professional cleaners. I don’t think this is a lazy move tho, and I know you needed the help too. It’s cool to have your place professionally cleaned! With those cool cleaning tools. Maybe this will be needed like twice a year? Before Christmas 🙂
Pia says
Thanks Alyssa. Before Christmas (or right before New Year) sounds like a plan! 🙂
Channel Marie Imperial says
Wow! Very detailed blog about professional cleaners. Haven’t tried them yet because I usually call somebody I know to clean the house but from your experience, I guess I can give it a try. I love the fact that they bought their own baon! 🙂
Pia says
Thanks Channel! Yes I highly recommend it! And bringing their own baon was a definite plus. Hehehe.
Milton Coyne says
I still remember those times that we had to move from one house to another. i think we only stayed for four to six months in a house before moving somewhere else.. we had to do it to adjust to my dad’s work…but finally we settled down in one house after his retirement and yes,. the struggle is real when moving… it really stressing yet rewarding when you finally see the outcome.. we never had a chance to hire a professional cleaner though because our relatives usually help us
Pia says
Wow, moving is a b*tch, so I definitely admire people who have managed to go through it a few times. You’re right, it’s quite rewarding when you’ve settled in and have made some sort of sense out of the initial chaos. 🙂
Iza Abao, Two Monkeys Travel Group Writer says
Is this your new house? It looks lovely. I like the idea of hiring professional cleaners. I am not eager to do all the cleaning because it will take so much time. I am sure these people can do their job really well. How many cleaned your home?
Pia says
Thank you so much Iza! It’s technically not our house, we’re renting it out lang until we finish our renovations. But yes, this was the house that I had cleaned. There were around 4 of them if I’m not mistaken. They were super efficient. They came at 9 finished at around 12. 🙂
Nya says
Honestly, I completely agree with hiring professional cleaners every 6 months. In fact sometimes we hire them more often than that for a more generic cleaning. It’s really difficult to have proper time in the day to actually do deep cleaning, of course I keep my home clean every day but it’s nice to have help for a more in deep cleaning. We’ll be hiring cleaners now as well after we move so we know everything is in impeccable state as we first moved in (our house was new).
Glad you have a nice experience, I find out that the best professionals are found via recommendations.
Pia says
Thanks Nya! we’re not staying in this house for long but I plan to do this again, and this tim regularly once we’ve moved to our permanent house. Hope you can share your cleaning contacts as well. 🙂
KT Nielsen says
As early as now, I am already planning how to clean our house when we move in next year. The house is still in the planning stage now and we actually have not finalized the design yet but I’m so excited about the thought of moving. I would also hire professional cleaners because I just can’t do deep-cleaning on my own. Deep-cleaning is really necessary when there are kids at home. It’ll be our permanent home as well so I guess yes, deep-cleaning it every 6 months would be a good way to keep it clean, tidy and germ-free.
Pia says
We’re in the process of building our permanent home too! Yes, totally agree. It’s especially important that your house is germ-free when you have little ones. Good luck with your move! Can’t wait to see pictures!