Cleaning Services
Note: This page contains reviews of businesses. If you're looking for individual housekeepers, see Seeking a Housekeeper
Parent Q&A
Archived Q&A and Reviews
House Cleaning Service Once a Month?
Aug 2015
Can any of you recommend a house cleaning service? I think I only need it once a month and really just for floors (vacuum and mop) and bathrooms. I can do the rest. I have a 3 story, 2400 square ft house. Does anyone have a ballpark for what that might cost. (I don't need sheet changing or kitchen or even dusting.) Thank you. Dust Bunnies Run Amuck
I recommend Eco Friendly Cleaning: http://www.ecofriendly-cleaning.com/ Clean House
Contact Natural Home Cleaning (great service!) and they will give you an estimate over the phone: http://naturalhomecleaning.com/ Andi
References for Green Cleaning Service
Oct 2012
I'm looking for a new cleaning service / person that uses green products and can start in October / November. mg
I have used Lotus Cleaning for many years and have been very happy. They are a Oakland-based, woman-owned business, all employees are paid a living wage, and they use Eco-friendly products. I pay $100 (including tip for a 900 sf apartment every 2 weeks). They will basically do whatever you need you just have to ask. Call for a free estimate. (510) 452-0755, or email lotusclean [at] comcast.net. Alicia
Oct 2015
RE: Anyone recommend good housekeeper in Moraga?
Check out King's Cleaning Services at http://www.kingscleaningsvc.com - they recently expanded into Moraga, Lafayette, Pleasant Hill and that whole 680/24 corridor. Jamie is local Mom trying to grow her small business and has been really great this past year! Good luck! Debbie L
June 2011
Lotus Cleaning Services provides ecofriendly, non-toxic home and office cleaning services throughout Berkeley and Oakland, and surrounding areas. We're a small, family owned local business, fully insured, experienced and provide fair compensation and amenable working conditions for our staff. You can check out our website, www.lotuscleaningservices.com, as well as our excellent reviews on Yelp! Service inquiries can be submitted through our website or by email. Rebecca T
June 2011
Call Laura's Cleaning Services at 510-575-3626. Laura's crew has been working for us for the past two years and they've delivered the same high quality work ever since. Laura understood from the very beginning what we were looking for and made sure to get our feedback after each cleaning date. Her cleaners are very well trained, detail oriented and take great respect and care towards customer's property. I highly recommend Laura's Cleaning Services. You can also reach Laura by email at laurascleaningservices [at] yahoo.com
2001
I would like to recommend my current housecleaner who is simply excellent. He has very reasonable rates and cleans extremely well which makes him an excellent value. Also, he is very good with following advice. If he forgets something and I remind him he is very receptive to the same. His spouse is a doctoral student at U.C. Berkeley. He lives in Albany in the UC Berkeley married student housing. He is very reliable and conscientious. His company is called Royal Cleaning company and their license number is #2044374. The website address is http://ourworld.cs.com/royal732 Sharmila
1999
From: Debbe
I just hired someone this past weekend to clean parts of my house in Richmond View, and she did a pretty good job and was very reasonable. Her name is Eva of Eva's Cleaning Service. To clean my kitchen and bathroom, which took a little less than 4 hours total, she charged me $35.00
I did use an agency (Dana's Housekeeping Service, actually a big, possibly even national, company) for several months, but it was very poorly run, had high turnover, and cost a bit more. In the end the agency ended up being a lot more trouble than it was worth. The obvious advantage to the agency is that they find you a housekeeper and can provide a substitute if that person is ill or quits. Also, if they send someone over you don't like, you can avoid the unpleasant task of firing someone by telling the agency you'd like them to find you someone new. However, in my experience the high turnover meant that I was breaking in a new person every few months and often had to cycle through a few housecleaners before I found another one I liked. If you can find someone reliable and stable you're likely to much happier than with an agency.
I think you can find people/agencies who will bring their own cleaning supplies, but I like to provide my own so I can be sure the products being used are appropriate to the task and not too nastily smelly or toxic.
My husband and I feel that cost of professional housecleaning is some of the best money we've ever spent and when measured against the increased time we have to spend with each other and our daughter is worth much more!
1997
One of the best gifts my parents have given us is that they pay for someone to come to our house for 4 hours once a week. I can highly recommend our current employee, but I won't put her name and phone number on a public mailing list (I'll send it to you privately). I found her through an organization called Manos. They train people and make referrals and the nice thing is that they are available on phone to translate to/from Spanish in case you need them. (They also do other things such as gardening and painting I think). You pay the person they send $9/hr if it's a one-time thing and slightly less if you plan for it to be regular. However, they have to give some of this to the agency so what I usually do is try someone out and then if I like them ask them to come on a regular basis, bypassing the agency. (I think they changed the rules as the agency used to take a flat fee and then give free referalls which makes more sense). You can feel the person out for how good their English is and for trustworthiness as well as how thorough they are. You have to provide all the cleaning supplies which stay in your house. Most of the people are good, decent, hard-working, etc. The only problem I've ever encountered is late- or no-shows without calling, which is when I'd try someone new. The better a person's English the more likely they are to call.
I recently read a couple of requests for house cleaners. I have some information that may be useful to the group. I recently used a group called the Fruitvale Latino Employment Cooperative. From their brochure: The Fruitvale Latino Employment Cooperate is a nonprofit community organization dedicated to increasing the job skills and employment availability for Central American and Mexican immigrants and refugees in Oakland. We offer our members job placement and training in exchange for their membership and participation.
If you are interested in a house cleaner, either one time, short term, or regular, just call, describe the job duties, indicate whether or not you need some English language skills and how much you can pay, ( I believe the scale is $8-12 per hour). They will send someone to your house via public transportation. The worker will come with a contract and a Spanish translation list of typical housecleaning duties. You pay the worker directly (checks ok).
RE: Housecleaner recommendations: a good cleaning service, which will assign a regular individual cleaner to your home is Busby's of Berkeley, 524-0459.
Sounds like a big task! I don't have a specific service to recommend, but if you're searching look for "crime scene cleanup" or "biohazard cleanup" to find the right kinds of companies.
Sounds like you need a biohazard or crime scene cleaner. There are a few businesses on Google under those search terms.