What you need to know about your pets and professional house cleaning with Blue Jay Cleaning Services.
Pets are such a joy to their owners. They bring comfort, laughter, companionship and messes! When you hire a professional house cleaning service like Blue Jay Cleaning, it is important to consider how your pet could impact the cleaning process. There are cleaning challenges, security issues and safety concerns to consider.
Cleaning challenges with pets:
- Pet Hair
- Floors
- Dust, dander
- Slobber, snot and other unmentionables
Pet hair:
The pet hair is the most obvious issue with cleaning. Households (and offices with office pets–we clean them!) with heavy shedding pups and felines must first and foremost have a realistic expectation of what a cleaner can do within a reasonable amount of time.
In many properties with heavy shedders, we can watch balls of hair fly swiftly across the floor like a tumbleweed with the most minimal air flow. A broom, vacuum, dusting wand or microfiber cloth will capture most of the hair, but some strays could be left behind. The animal hair tends to land on places that may not be easy to clean like fabric furniture, walls and hard to reach spots behind or under furniture.
Floors:
Floors in homes with pets get extra dirty–literally! Extra dirt and debris are tracked into the residence on the animals’ paws. Add a few kids and busy adults, the floors can gather quite the buildup. Some homeowners don’t have a realistic expectation of how clean their floors can get with a general cleaning service. It may be necessary to hire a floor cleaning company that specializes in deep cleaning of tiles, stone and carpet/upholstery cleaning. These companies have heavy duty scrubbers and extraction equipment that a house cleaning company doesn’t have access to. Another solution would be to add floor cleaning routines between your scheduled professional cleans. They even make automated mops now which can cut down on floor maintenance time.
Dust & Dander:
The more pets in a household, the dustier a home can get. However icky it may sound, a lot of dust is dead skin cells, pet dander and other small particles from the air. Larger pets and heavy shedders add to the dust issue more so. If dog hair settles on a baseboard, it can attract additional dust. Cleaning the accumulation of dust can require additional time and effort. Overall satisfaction with a cleaning service can come down to a pet owners’ realistic expectations or budget. Many times, perfection just isn’t possible in a home with pets.
Slobber, snot and other unmentionables:
Pets can just be plain gross. Our cleaning technicians work hard to clean pet slobber marks off the glass doors or glue-like snot substances off surfaces. Sometimes pets can leave an oily residue on a wall that needs addressed. If a cleaner isn’t quite getting an area clean enough, just let the cleaner or management know. Perhaps extra time needs scheduled to address challenging pet messes.
It is important to know it is NOT the cleaner’s responsibility to clean up animal urine and feces. This is against company policy. Homeowner’s must clean up the pet’s messes before the cleaner arrives.
Pet and Cleaner Safety
Let the company know what pets you have:
When hiring a cleaning service, it is critical to mention you have pets if they are not visible during the estimate. Blue Jay had a client who forgot to mention they had a long hair cat, and the cleaning technician ended up at urgent care due to an allergic reaction. She wouldn’t have cleaned there if we knew there was a cat!
Secure pets:
If you are NOT home during a clean, please secure your pets. We would hate for an animal to escape while bringing in supplies or leaving.
It is not a cleaner’s responsibility to keep track of your pet either. If you have a cat get locked in a bedroom because a cleaner shut the door, you will need to consider an alternative process to keeping your cat secure and where it needs to be. Cleaning techs are not pet sitters either. Unless agreed upon during onboarding, they will not take your pet out to go potty. We have had to chase a dog around a neighborhood and entice it with a hot dog to come back because the unsecured pup darted the moment the front door opened. We love your pets and want to keep the safe and sound at home.
Vicious pets should be crated or isolated. If they are isolated in a room, please put a sign on the door for the cleaning technician not to enter. Also remember that some pets exhibit more protective behaviors when the owner isn’t home. Even the sweetest dog can get upset and bite–ask how we know!