Every visit follows the same cleaning list

We dust first and mop last

A regular visit runs in the same order every time. Dust comes down first, off shelves, ledges, lamp shades and the tops of door frames. Counters and sinks get wiped after that, since whatever gets knocked loose from above lands on them. Floors are last, always. Mop a kitchen and then dust the ceiling fan over it, and the floor needs mopping again. Most of the time nobody goes back and does it.

When a kitchen is clean, the stovetop has no grease ring around the burners and the sink drain has no gray line. Cabinet fronts near the stove get wiped too, because cooking grease settles there and holds dust. Bathrooms take the most time. Mirrors and the sink come first, then the tub or shower, then the toilet. The floor around the toilet base gets cleaned on its own, because that is where a bathroom starts to smell once it is skipped.

The list is the part that protects you. When you set up regular cleaning, we agree with you on what gets done in each room. Maybe the ceiling fans matter to you, or the glass on the back door where the dog noses it. Once it is on the list, it gets done every visit, and you can check any visit against it. Without a list, a cleaning slowly shrinks to whatever is quickest, and mopping is usually the first thing to go.

• Stovetop and kitchen counters wiped down
• Showers, tubs, toilets and sinks scrubbed
• Mirrors cleaned in every bathroom
• Furniture and shelves dusted high to low
• Hard floors vacuumed first, then mopped

Oklahoma wind pushes dust into the house

Around Shawnee the wind blows most days, and it carries fine dust in off fields and gravel roads. That dust works in around window frames and under doors, then settles on every flat surface in the house. Red clay is the other half of it. It rides in on shoes and on the dog. Vacuumed up dry, it comes right out. Hit it with a wet mop first and it smears into the grout and stains it orange.

The time of year changes what we find. In winter, cedar pollen leaves a yellow film on window sills and dark wood furniture. Summer is a different problem. The air conditioner runs for months, and the vents and ceiling fans keep pulling dust around the rooms. A fan blade that goes a few weeks without a wipe throws a gray haze over the bed the next time somebody turns it on.

This is why the dusting on a regular visit goes high to low and why the floors wait until the end. Dust that falls off a fan after the mop has gone over the floor turns into gray streaks the minute someone walks through in socks. It is also why a regular schedule works better here than a big cleaning once in a while. Dust keeps blowing in, and a regular visit takes it out before it builds up on every surface.

The type of house changes the cleaning

A lot of the houses in Shawnee and Tecumseh are brick ranches built on a concrete slab. The floors are usually tile or vinyl plank laid right over the concrete, and they show every footprint. Grout is the weak spot. A mop that is too dirty or too wet leaves a film the grout soaks up. Over a few months the lines go from tan to dark gray. Fresh mop water partway through keeps kitchen grease off the bathroom floor.

The older wood-frame houses near downtown Shawnee often still have their original hardwood floors. Wood like that gets a damp mop, never a wet one. Water that sits in the seams soaks into the boards, and over time the edges curl up and the finish turns cloudy. These houses also have more painted trim and deeper window sills than a newer home, and both catch dust fast. Those spots go on the list by name, or they get missed.

Out in the county, around Bethel Acres and McLoud, you see more manufactured homes. Their bathrooms usually have a fiberglass or acrylic tub with molded shower walls, and scouring powder scratches that surface dull. Once it is scratched, soap scum settles into the scratches and never fully comes out. A gentle cleaner and a soft pad keep it smooth. If your water leaves white spots on glass and faucets, that is mineral, and it comes off far easier every other week than twice a year.

Regular visits keep grime from building up

Most of what makes a house hard to clean is time. Soap scum on a shower door wipes off easily when it is two weeks old. Leave it for a couple of months and it hardens into a crust that takes real scrubbing. Grease on a stove hood works the same way, and so does the dust on top of the fridge once kitchen steam gets to it. Coming back on a schedule means we spend the visit wiping instead of scraping.

Tammy Whorton left us this Google review, and it says what regular cleaning is supposed to feel like: "They clean our house every other week. Do a great job and very reasonable. Nice to come home from work to a clean house. Everytime." That last word matters most. Anybody can have one good day. The same clean house every visit comes from working the same list in the same order.

Setting up regular cleaning starts with a phone call to (405) 821-0861. Tell us about the house: brick or wood frame, tile or carpet, how many bathrooms, and whether pets shed on the couch. From there we agree on the list and the schedule. Expect the first visit to take longer than the rest, since it catches up on whatever built up before we started. We are a veteran owned and woman owned business based in Shawnee.