When starting out as a cleaner, you probably already have years of experience cleaning within your own home – but this isn’t always enough to make sure that the service you deliver to clients is of a professional quality.
It’s important that you begin to improve your skills and make sure you get them up to a standard that a client will be happy to pay for, and to make sure that you impress them enough to keep using your services again and again!
Luckily, there are plenty of resources out there that will be helpful in assisting you with developing and improving your cleaning skills. There are also tips that are worth considering in order to ensure that you’re doing the best cleaning job that you can.
Here are just a few ways that new cleaners can improve their cleaning skills.
Train Yourself to See Through a Client’s Eyes
Whenever you clean, make sure you look at a finished job through the eyes of a client.
By this, we mean to take a closer look at each and every item or area you have cleaned and really think about whether or not the cleaning is to a high enough standard that you would be willing to pay for it.
While we may keep our own homes looking beautiful, we’re probably more likely to cut corners and leave out some cleaning tasks in lesser-noticed areas of our home. However, a paying client won’t necessarily be happy with the standard of cleaning you keep in your own space!
Every time you finish a cleaning task, check it over and make 100% sure that you’ve completed the job to the highest standard possible, keeping a close eye out for anything you may not have noticed that could catch the client’s attention. Doing this on all paid jobs and also in your own home will soon get you into the habit of looking at every cleaning task closely to ensure you get it looking perfect!
Do Your Research
Cleaning is an area where the majority of us have our tried-and-tested favorite products and techniques that we’ve been using for years. However, if we’re not careful, we could be missing out on new innovations and ideas that could help us do an even better job!
Products and equipment are growing and changing all the time, so keeping a close eye on what’s new in the cleaning industry will allow you to keep your techniques and skills up to date. Make sure you put a little time aside often to do some research into what’s new and trending within the cleaning world.
Replace Tools, Products and Equipment Often
Have you ever scrubbed and scrubbed at an area for so long and can’t seem to get it clean? Stopped noticing the beautiful scent that used to come from your favorite cleaning product? Noticed your mops aren’t leaving the floors as sparkling clean as they once did? You may need to replace some tools and equipment in your cleaning bag!
Make sure you take a look at your tools and equipment and find out just how long they’re supposed to last. A lot of cleaning products have expiration dates – and they’re obviously not there to tell you when they’re not as safe to eat! Expiration dates on cleaning products are there to indicate when your products will stop being quite as effective as they once were. These dates are often printed on the packaging in the same form as a traditional expiration date or featured in a tiny logo of an open product, with a number indicating how many months you should use it for after opening.
Equipment needs replacing often, too, with the replacement rates varying depending on what equipment it is. Mop heads should generally be replaced every two months (but sooner if they begin to look dirty), scourers and cloths should be replaced at least once a week and scrubbing brushes should be replaced at least every three months.
You should also empty your vacuum cleaner after every use to ensure that there is nothing getting caught in the revolving brushes and affecting the way it works.
Assign Your Time Wisely
Before you start a shift cleaning for the day, ensure that you’re thinking carefully about how long each job should realistically take for you to complete to a high standard. Planning out how you’ll split up your cleaning time – even if you only do this in your head rather than marking it down – will prevent you from falling behind and taking too long to complete some jobs. As a result, you could be left with no time left over to fully complete others cleaning tasks.
Consider how long each job generally takes you and then consider which jobs take slightly longer in order to get them completed to the best of your ability!
Connect With Other Cleaners
As an independent cleaner, it’s helpful to have a place where you can connect with other workers in your industry and share tips that will help you out on the job.
Social media is a great place to start! If you have an account on Facebook, take a look at the hundreds of groups on the site where cleaners (as well as clean-ken homeowners) exchange tips and tricks with each other. These groups often feature advice on cleaning techniques, product recommendations and other handy cleaning hacks, so it’s certainly worth joining in and seeing if you can pick up any helpful tips from cleaners around the world.
There’s also a hugely popular community of cleaners sharing tips and advice on Instagram, too, so either site is a great place to gather information.
Of course, the most effective way of connecting with other cleaners would be to join a cleaning team, just like the ones you can be matched with here on Cleaning Network Worldwide! We have lots of cleaning teams looking for new cleaners to get on board. Joining a team is a great way to secure more clients and can lead to better career progression opportunities within cleaning, too.
