How to Check a Cleaning Was Done Right When You Are Not Home

A lot of people book a house cleaning for a time when they are busy somewhere else. That is the whole point of hiring help. But it leaves one nagging question: if you did not watch the work, how do you know it was done properly?

This guide covers how to know if a house cleaner did a good job when you were not there to see it. It works for any cleaning company, and we will also explain how we handle it at Luxury Mop Squad.

Why this worry is so common

When we read through local reviews of cleaning companies across North Metro Atlanta, one complaint came up more than any other: missed spots and incomplete work. The details were very specific.

• Dust left on furniture
• Window sills and the bases of furniture skipped
• A toilet or a sink that was not cleaned
• Cobwebs along the baseboards
• A whole room overlooked
• Nothing cleaned under bathroom rugs or around items left on counters

The second fear was close behind: paying full price for less work than was promised. People who are away during the visit feel both of these more sharply, because they have no way to see what happened. What they want is proof.

Start before the visit: know what was agreed

You cannot check a cleaning against a standard you never saw. Before the appointment, make sure you know what is supposed to be cleaned.

• Ask for the scope in writing
  • A written checklist turns "a good clean" into a list of tasks that were either done or not done
• Confirm your add-ons
  • Extras such as the inside of the oven, the inside of the refrigerator, baseboards, blinds and interior windows are usually priced separately
  • If you want them, they should appear on your quote
• Keep the quote
  • It is your record of what you paid for

Every Luxury Mop Squad job follows a written checklist, so what gets cleaned is set out in advance instead of left to memory.

Look at the photos first

If your cleaning company sends photos when the job is finished, look at them as soon as they arrive. Photos let you see the finished rooms from wherever you are, while the visit is still fresh and easy to discuss.

We send photos at the end of every job. When you look at them, compare what you see with what you asked for.

• Do the photos show the rooms you booked?
• Do surfaces look clear and wiped?
• If you paid for an add-on, can you tell it was done?

Photos will not show every corner of a home, so treat them as a first check, not the only one.

Do a quick walk-through when you get back

Once you are home, take a few minutes to walk through the house before life gets it dirty again. Use the spots that local reviewers say get missed most often.

• Kitchen
  • Counters, including around small appliances and items left out
  • The sink
  • The fronts of appliances
• Bathrooms
  • Toilet, sink and tub or shower
  • The floor under the bath mat or rug
• Living areas and bedrooms
  • Tops of furniture, where dust shows
  • Window sills
  • Around the bases of furniture
• Edges and corners
  • Along the baseboards, where cobwebs collect
• Every room
  • Check that no room was skipped altogether

If anything looks off, take a photo of it right away. A picture and the name of the room make the problem easy to explain.

Speak up quickly if something was missed

Even a careful cleaner can miss something. What matters is how fast it gets fixed. In the reviews we read, many of the most positive comments were recovery stories: something was missed, the customer said so, and the company came back and made it right.

So do not wait, and do not just clean it yourself and stay annoyed.

• Report it the same day if you can
• Say which room and which item
• Send your photo if you took one

With us, tell us within 24 hours and we come back and re-clean what was missed. That is our 24-hour re-clean guarantee. You can call (470) 330-8585 at any hour, because the phone is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Four questions to ask any cleaning company

If you are still choosing a cleaner, these questions tell you how easy it will be to check their work later.

• Is there a written checklist for my type of cleaning?
• Do you send photos when the job is finished?
• If something is missed, what do you do about it, and how long do I have to report it?
• Will I see the price and the add-ons before I book?

A company with clear answers to all four is giving you a way to hold it to its word.

How it works with Luxury Mop Squad

We book house cleaning in Alpharetta, Roswell, Marietta, Canton, Woodstock and Holly Springs. Each job comes with the three things described above.

• A written checklist for every clean
• Photos at the end of every job
• A re-clean of anything missed, if you tell us within 24 hours

A Standard clean starts at $199, a Deep clean at $349 and a Move In / Move Out clean at $429 for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home. You can see more about our Alpharetta service at /areas/alpharetta-ga/ and what a regular visit covers at /services/standard-cleaning/.