Well I've decided to market my borderline OCD ways when it comes to cleaning and branch out into cleaning peoples houses for money. I just tackled my first house today, although it was more like it tackling me. The problem with being extra fastidious is that I don't know when to stop. I've got to learn how to triage the situation because I could seriously have spent five hours just cleaning the bathrooms. Hexagonal floor tile, which I love, but the grout can get really dirty and it was all I could do not to run home and get something to remedy the situation. Instead I said that I'd be able to do that as a special job if the woman liked my work and would like that done some day. It's a lovely house I cleaned but man is that house big! Enormous with a lot of dust catchers and wicker (which is a major dust catcher). I also did the stuff most people probably overlook, I'm thinking, like clean the baseboards and behind the massive tv on the third floor which was dust bunny central. I was there five and half hours and still could have cleaned more, oh probably 3 hours more. I looked awful by the end of it because my pants are a size too large and after wearing them and doing a lot of stuff they stretch out to two sizes too large. So I was constantly hiking up my pants. Meanwhile, I wore a tank top (with a cardigan but that got tossed off five minutes into the job) that stretched out and started hanging precipitously low, like I was the Cricket (strip joint two neighborhoods over from me) version of a maid. She gave me a ten dollar tip and it sounded like she wants me to come back in three weeks. If I can get enough of these where I've got one or two each week I'd be doing pretty well. But I met with a potential client this morning, this man lives in a suburb further out from me. He chain smokes and he has his Dad living there, who also chain smokes - Dad mentioned that the place needs a woman's touch. He's wanting a lot of cleaning done, plus laundry and he mentioned that his daughter, who used to do the cleaning, would bake brownies for him and that a neighbor did that as well when she cleaned for him. I was thinking, don't make me have to bake on top of this. Then he mentioned that my hourly wage was on the high side but maybe we could work something out. Hmmmm. Oh and the house is very dusty (two heavy smokers will do that) with dust catchers galore. At one point he asked if his home smelled like old age, because of his father. I said no it just smelled like smoke to me. I don't know if I can do that one regularly, it's seriously so smoky I feel like I could develop emphysema just cleaning the place. We'll see how bad the deep cleaning is. I'm wondering if I should put a sign up at the gym and branch out into the Fox Chapel homes, I'd love to see the inside of some of those places, but I'm thinking they probably have salaried cleaning help. Maybe I should watch Friends with Money and Gosford Park this weekend to get into the spirit of things.
Friday, September 18, 2009
at your service
Well I've decided to market my borderline OCD ways when it comes to cleaning and branch out into cleaning peoples houses for money. I just tackled my first house today, although it was more like it tackling me. The problem with being extra fastidious is that I don't know when to stop. I've got to learn how to triage the situation because I could seriously have spent five hours just cleaning the bathrooms. Hexagonal floor tile, which I love, but the grout can get really dirty and it was all I could do not to run home and get something to remedy the situation. Instead I said that I'd be able to do that as a special job if the woman liked my work and would like that done some day. It's a lovely house I cleaned but man is that house big! Enormous with a lot of dust catchers and wicker (which is a major dust catcher). I also did the stuff most people probably overlook, I'm thinking, like clean the baseboards and behind the massive tv on the third floor which was dust bunny central. I was there five and half hours and still could have cleaned more, oh probably 3 hours more. I looked awful by the end of it because my pants are a size too large and after wearing them and doing a lot of stuff they stretch out to two sizes too large. So I was constantly hiking up my pants. Meanwhile, I wore a tank top (with a cardigan but that got tossed off five minutes into the job) that stretched out and started hanging precipitously low, like I was the Cricket (strip joint two neighborhoods over from me) version of a maid. She gave me a ten dollar tip and it sounded like she wants me to come back in three weeks. If I can get enough of these where I've got one or two each week I'd be doing pretty well. But I met with a potential client this morning, this man lives in a suburb further out from me. He chain smokes and he has his Dad living there, who also chain smokes - Dad mentioned that the place needs a woman's touch. He's wanting a lot of cleaning done, plus laundry and he mentioned that his daughter, who used to do the cleaning, would bake brownies for him and that a neighbor did that as well when she cleaned for him. I was thinking, don't make me have to bake on top of this. Then he mentioned that my hourly wage was on the high side but maybe we could work something out. Hmmmm. Oh and the house is very dusty (two heavy smokers will do that) with dust catchers galore. At one point he asked if his home smelled like old age, because of his father. I said no it just smelled like smoke to me. I don't know if I can do that one regularly, it's seriously so smoky I feel like I could develop emphysema just cleaning the place. We'll see how bad the deep cleaning is. I'm wondering if I should put a sign up at the gym and branch out into the Fox Chapel homes, I'd love to see the inside of some of those places, but I'm thinking they probably have salaried cleaning help. Maybe I should watch Friends with Money and Gosford Park this weekend to get into the spirit of things.
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5 comments:
just please don't work yourself too hard. i know, i know, who am i to tell you something like that. but i have a personal reason why. when i was younger, i worked at a bank, and this woman who was probably the age i am now (37) came by every week to make a deposit. she owned her own cleaning business. she enlisted my help on a couple of really big houses.
her husband had left her for some skank, and she had 2 kids, and one day, she dropped dead of a heart attack.
i think of her every time i start feeling panicked--because i don't want to end up like her, you know?
so anyway, just give yourself some rest in there somewhere...please. :)
i wouldn't assume the FC ladies have salaried help - post a sign at the gym and see what transpires. and, hey - turn down the smoking job? Not worth it. sounds like the kind of client that will nickel-and-dime you to death. brownies, indeed. F---them.
dude you are such an intrepid entrepreneur. am inspired how you are making money doing the thing you would do for free. way to go. xoxo
i would not do that job with the smoking men.
i can't believe the brownie comment.
okay, also i agree with kristi you need to rest too. even i sort of rest:)
if you still want to knit i have some yarn i could send you to practice......
Simple and gorgeous!! I love it.
Hexagonal floor Tile
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