Does anyone clean houses for a living?

My mum did house cleaning etc for the council as it was a way to keep people in their own houses and she always said it was a nightmare.

For some people even though they could not do it themselves it didn't matter how many times you went over the same spot on the carpet with their own hoover it was never right, for some customers my mum would get them upright and help them do the carpets as it was funny that her going over a spot 20 times still meant it was dirty but one quick run over by the resident equaled 100% dirt removal.

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

26.

I have no idea what I would enjoy, I have absolutely nothing in mind - Other than owning my own business.

Doing what? Once again, no idea.

a reply to: deadlyhope

Cleaning for their arrival after months of vacancy is tedious because everything is dust covered and spider filled. Each and every hard or soft surface including sofas and beds must be touched. Toilets have near impossible to remove rings from standing water.
Cleaning up after people wealthy enough to have vacation homes is demeaning and they often treat you as subhuman.
If your clients are nice it can be tolerable work, but it is physical and dirty.

originally posted by: deadlyhope
a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

I have no idea what I would enjoy, I have absolutely nothing in mind - Other than owning my own business.

Doing what? Once again, no idea.

If your only conscious ambition is to own your own business, that's a good place to start with trying to work out the what.

Next, think about your skill set. Work out what your skills are and then be honest with yourself about which skill you most enjoy exercising.

That may provide the clue you seek.

As to the cleaning holiday lets idea; the work would be hard and to begin with, you most probably will only be able to employ your own time and efforts. You will have to sell your services to potential clients. This will involve some form of marketing or advertising.

If you want to create an actual company, would you be able to fund start up costs, such as promotion or would you have to get a loan? If you need a loan, can you rely on family etc or would you have to go to the banks? How healthy is your credit score? Banks always want to see a business plan. Do you have someone to help you draft one?

Depends how big you are thinking really. Do you want to own a major contract company that employs numerous high skilled people to clean holiday lets for a major tourist outfit? Would you rather be a small local concern providing services to another rung in the tourist industry? A subcontractor?

a reply to: deadlyhope

As far as vacation rentals, I've done a handful of AirBnB homes. Those tend to be pretty easy as the tenants seem to keep the place pretty tidy. Much more so than say bob's house down the street. I've never done hotel rooms though, as hotels tend to hire their own staff for that, therefore don't need to contract with other companies for cleaning.

As far as running a cleaning business, there's a lot more freedom than a 9-5. As far as working for one...well, it all depends on the company you work for. I know my business, I give my employees a lot of flexibility. I'll send them an email with the jobs for the week, and they can accept and/or decline whichever ones they want.