Saints.
Sweethearts…read more
Professionals.
That is how I would describe the cleaning team I hired on Saturday night for what must have been one of the worst clean-ups they've ever had in their professional lives...
So I just started seeing someone, and I like him a lot, but he would not invite me over to his place because he said it was "way too messy". I was thinking, you know, garden-variety-bachelor-pad kind of messy, but he assured me that no, it was really bad. After a few weeks of back and forth over whether he might hire a cleaning service to come help him out, he finally relented and let me call around to find someone. I told him that the cleaning would be my treat.
Have you ever tried to find a service to do same-day apartment cleaning... on a Saturday? On the final weekend of the month, just when everybody is either moving out or moving in? Let me tell you, it is TOUGH. Everyone is either fully-booked, or won't answer their phones. I started on page 1 of Yelp, and kept dialing the numbers of every single service that had 4+ stars until I got to Immaculate Maid, my lucky #19.
Breanna answered the phone - the office line was forwarded to her cell (what a novel idea, other cleaning service companies!). Not only did she have staff available to come clean that day, but she scheduled us for later in the day - 5pm. This was perfect. She offered to send either 2 or 3 people, and with my guy's foreboding tone ringing in my head ("you don't understand, it is really bad"), I quickly suggested she send 3 people, for sure. I also told her that he was just a little bit sensitive about having let his place go so badly, and could she please tell her girls to be extra nice to him, whatever it was they walked into? She was so understanding and reassuring - she said, "Of course."
Well! He sent me "before pictures" just before the Immaculate Maids arrived, and WOW. It was literally kind of a den of filth. When I picked him up at 5:15 he told me that the girls had walked in with very large eyes as they surveyed the work, but they didn't say anything to him other than, "What is your cell phone number?"
We were originally quoted 2.5 hours of work, but very very understandably, this got extended to 5.5 hours. Breanna was super responsive, very professional, and kept me up-to-date via text about how much time they would need to complete the cleaning. These poor girls spent ALL of their Saturday night in his place, until 10:30pm, hustling to squeeze 10-or-so years of catch-up cleaning into one session.
Boyfriend was skeptical about how far they could actually get, but when we walked in he was immediately transfixed by how unbelievably clean and orderly everything was. He was literally overwhelmed with happiness! He just sat down, couldn't stop smiling, and kept saying, "You don't understand, it was BAD," and then would point out some amazing feat the girls had taken care of which he could not believe.
I wasn't sure how much to tip for such an extensive and time-consuming undertaking, but I (hopefully) erred on the side of "way too much". I am hoping they will return to do touch-up service for him every few weeks, after all!
I want to let Breanna, her cleaning staff, and all of you Yelpers know what an enormous psychological burden was lifted off of this man's shoulders when he came home to a clean house. His entire disposition shifted and it was almost like he was excited about life again. Seriously. I think sometimes you just get to a point where it's too overwhelming for you to even take the first few steps yourself, and you need someone to come in and wipe the slate clean for you. Immaculate Maids did that for him Saturday night. It was such a gift - it was priceless.
Thank you, Breanna and staff!!