Should You Prepare Your Home or Office Before the Cleaning Team Arrives?

People apologise to us at the door constantly. "Sorry, I didn't get a chance to tidy." You don't need to. Cleaning the house before the cleaner arrives is the most common unnecessary stress in this job, and it slightly defeats the purpose of booking one.

That said, there are about four things that genuinely change how much we get done in the hours you're paying for. Here they are, and then the list of things you can stop thinking about.

The things that actually matter

• Access. This is the big one. Someone home, a key, a lockbox code, a building fob, or the office alarm code and how to disarm it. If we can't get in, nothing else on this list matters. For apartments around Mentone and Mordialloc, let us know about visitor parking or a loading bay - it saves ten minutes at the start of every visit.
• Pets. Tell us in advance, and on the day either keep them in one closed room, outside, or just let us know they're friendly and free to roam. We're not bothered by pets; we just need to know so a door doesn't get left open.
• Anything fragile or genuinely valuable. If there's a piece you'd rather nobody handled - an heirloom, an instrument, a sensitive piece of equipment in an office - point at it or put a note on it. We'll clean around it.
• Tell us the priority. If you only care about the kitchen and bathrooms, say so. Cleaners who don't ask will spread the time evenly and you'll be disappointed for no reason.

What you can genuinely skip

• Don't pre-clean. Wiping the benches before we arrive means you paid for a slot and did part of it yourself.
• Don't strip the beds unless you want them remade with fresh linen - just leave it out if so.
• Don't stress about the dishes. A sink of dishes is normal. Tell us if you'd like them done and we'll factor it in.
• Don't buy products. We bring our own equipment, our own non-toxic products, and fresh cloths for every job - separated by zone so nothing crosses between a bathroom and a kitchen.
• Don't move furniture. We'll move what's safe to move. Anything heavy, leave it - that's our job, not a back injury waiting for you.

The one thing that does help: clearing surfaces

Not tidying - clearing. If the kitchen bench is covered in mail, school notes and chargers, we'll either work around them or move and replace them, and both take time. Same with a desk in an office clean. Ten minutes putting loose items into a basket buys you noticeably more actual cleaning. It's optional, and it's the only prep step with a real return.

For offices, add two things

Commercial cleaning adds two questions to the list above. Let us know which rooms are off-limits or need someone present (server rooms and document storage are the usual ones), and whether cleaning happens during business hours or after. Beyond that, an office needs the same short list as a home: access, priorities, and permission to move what's on the desks - or clear instruction not to.