Clean Sweep: Big Messes Are No Match for Plymouth Cleaning Company

It may very well be the ultimate dream, right up there with calorie-free chocolate and custom-fitted jeans that don’t cost an arm and a leg: A perfectly clean house.

Let’s say this house is your house. And it is so clean, you could eat off the floors, there isn’t a dust bunny, and that gob of God-knows-what that has been hanging out on the wall next to the high chair? Gone.

And let’s make this fantasy even better by revealing that you weren’t the one who did the cleaning. No, let’s say you called Sandra Kline, founder and owner of More Grime Than Time, and she and her crew worked their magic on your home, rendering it unrecognizable. This very well could happen. After all, Kline is a bona fide pro at this cleaning stuff, and she knows how to make both homes and businesses immaculate.

I recently talked to Kline about how she does her dirty work.

Plymouth Patch: I’m sure you’ve taken on some sticky situations in the cleaning business. What inspired you to take this on as a career?

Sandra Kline: It fits in my life. A friend of mine did this -- I didn’t even know that people who weren’t rich got their homes cleaned. Normal people who just don’t have time to clean their home still need their homes cleaned.

Plymouth Patch: How long have you been in business?

Kline: Sixteen years. I started when my kids were toddlers. I was going back to school to finish my degree, and that’s what I mean by it fit into my life. I could clean on the days that my boys were at their dad’s house, and I was home with them on the other days.

Plymouth Patch: Tell the truth, is there an ick factor? I mean, I know you are experienced, but are you ever surprised by the magnitude of a particular mess?

Kline: No. We don’t get a lot of gross stuff. When I go to a home, and it’s gross, it means they’re not going to be good clients. People who pay to have their homes cleaned on a regular basis obviously place a high value on having a clean home. If I walk into a home and it’s destroyed, that means they’re looking to be dug out and it’s going to be a one-time thing…People ask me all the time if I see gross stuff, and, typically, no.

Plymouth Patch: Does your approach to cleaning change depending on whether you’re cleaning a home or business?

Kline: Yeah. Very much so. People care more about how their home is cleaned, and they’re much more particular, and that’s kind of my niche, too, because I’m a particular person. I have a soft spot for seniors, too, so if this woman’s been cleaning her own home for 50 years and she just physically can’t anymore, I’m not out to reinvent the wheel, I want to do things the way she’s comfortable with. So I will interview her and see how she’s done it. We’ll try to tailor things to her so that she doesn’t feel like we’re pushing her out of her own home, taking away an important job that she’s cherished over the years.

Plymouth Patch: For me, I think one of the hardest things about your profession is the idea of entering into a person’s home. Does that ever become mundane, being in someone’s personal space? I’d feel like…

Kline: Like you’re an intruder?

Plymouth Patch: Yes!

Kline: I’m very sensitive to that. I’m sensitive to the fact that we are coming into someone’s home, and that’s why I try to get people who work for me on referral. I get both my clients and the people who work for me on referral. I don’t place ads for either customers or people who work for me. You get better clients that way, you get better workers that way, and the trust factor is huge when you are in people’s homes. That being said, I’m fully insured -- and I’m bonded -- so if anything should happen…but, yeah, that [trust] is a big concern when you’re going into people’s homes.

Plymouth Patch: How many people do you have working for you?

Kline: 13

Plymouth Patch: How do you charge?

Kline: I meet with each client individually and go over their specific needs. It’s largely based on how long I think a job will take, and I’ve gotten pretty good at estimating it over the years.

Plymouth Patch: How long does it take to clean your average-sized home?

Kline: Well, let’s say you have a 2,200 square-foot home, which is kind of a small-ish colonial. Four bedrooms, two and a half baths…it would take about four hours, without the basement.

Plymouth Patch: Can you lend us any cleaning tips? Perhaps a fail safe cleaning tactic that is particularly effective for, say, getting sparkling floors or eliminating soap scum?

Kline: I’m a pretty basic cleaner person. I use pretty basic stuff. But if people are questioning what’s a safe product to use on just about any floor type, it’s going to be vinegar and water. People have been using it for years. It’s safe, it won’t harm anything. It cleans well and gets the dirt up. A lot of people request that we use that for floors.

Plymouth Patch: So what would be the vinegar-to-water ratio?

Kline: I would say, in a bucket of water, maybe a half a cup of vinegar. Any more than that, and you’ll be gagging. But we also have cleaners that we keep on hand -- some Amway cleaners and some Shaklee cleaners -- for people who are sensitive to smells. Many of our products do have bleach in them, and some people like to be accosted by the smell of bleach when they walk in their house or else they don’t feel it’s clean.

Plymouth Patch: At the risk of incriminating one of your clients, what is the absolute worst experience you’ve encountered when cleaning? And the best?

Kline: Well, I think the worst might seem the best: When you walk into a home, and it looks like you don’t even need to be there. Those are the pickiest clients. So you can’t say, Oh, this looks clean and not clean it. You have to clean every surface -- and they will check.