What Cleaners Wish You Would Do Before They Arrive (And What to Skip)
If you’ve ever wondered what cleaners wish you would do before they arrive, you’re not alone — and the answer might surprise you. Here’s a quick summary:
The 5 things cleaners actually want you to do before they arrive:
- Clear clutter from counters and floors — so they can clean surfaces, not shuffle your stuff
- Do the dishes or empty the sink — dirty dishes often fall outside standard cleaning scope
- Secure your pets — even friendly ones can stress out around vacuums and strangers
- Put away valuables and sensitive documents — to keep them safe and in the right place
- Ensure clear home access and set out fresh linens — so no time is lost before the work even starts
And the one thing they wish you would stop doing? Frantically vacuuming or wiping everything down right before they show up. That last-minute “vanity clean” wastes your time and can actually make it harder for your cleaning team to accurately assess your home.
Here’s the thing: professional cleaners are not coming to judge you. They have seen it all — the dust bunnies under the sideboard, the overflowing bathroom counter, the week’s worth of dishes in the sink. What they really need from you is simple: clear access to the surfaces they are there to deep clean.
Clutter is the single biggest time-waster in any cleaning visit. When counters are buried and floors are covered, your cleaning team spends valuable paid time moving belongings rather than scrubbing, sanitizing, and polishing. That is time you are paying for — time that could go toward a sparkling kitchen or a spotless bathroom instead.
I’m Sabrina Jones, owner of Maids of Movher and a home services entrepreneur with over a decade of experience helping Spokane-area families get more out of their professional cleaning visits — which is exactly why I know what cleaners wish you would do before they arrive and why it matters. Read on for the practical, no-fuss steps that make every clean count.
What cleaners wish you would do before they arrive basics:
1. Clear Clutter and Skip the “Vanity Clean”
We have all been there. It’s twenty minutes before our professional cleaning team is scheduled to arrive at your home in Spokane or Spokane Valley, and you are running around like a whirlwind. You are frantically sweeping the kitchen floor, wiping down the guest toilet, and trying to make the house look like nobody actually lives there. This is what we call the “vanity clean,” and we are here to officially give you permission to skip it!
When you hire a professional cleaning service, you are paying for our training, our specialized equipment, and our hard work. Doing a pre-clean out of embarrassment is not only unnecessary, but it can actually backfire. During a first-time clean, our team needs to see the “real” state of your home to understand where dust naturally settles, where high-traffic grime builds up, and how long future maintenance cleans will truly take. If you scrub everything beforehand, it skews our initial time estimates and makes it harder to tailor our services to your home’s unique needs.
Instead of cleaning, what we really need you to do is tidy.
Consider your bathroom vanities. If your master bathroom counter is buried under a mountain of hair dryers, makeup palettes, half-empty lotion jars, and toothpaste tubes, it looks less like a functional space and more like a disheveled Sephora display. For our cleaners to thoroughly scrub and sanitize that countertop, they have to carefully pick up, wipe down, and move every single one of those items.
If we have to spend 45 minutes of a scheduled session playing “organizational Tetris” with personal items, that is 45 minutes we cannot spend deep cleaning your baseboards, polishing your chrome fixtures, or scrubbing your shower tile.
To help you get the most value out of your service, we recommend reading our guide on how to clear the clutter before the cleaner so your surfaces can shine. By clearing off those flat surfaces, you ensure we can focus on the deep sanitization you are paying for.
If you are still struggling to decide whether you should lift a finger before we arrive, check out our detailed analysis on should you clean before the cleaners come. To make it even easier, we have put together this handy comparison table to guide your pre-arrival routine:
| Task | Tidying (Do This! 👍) | Pre-Cleaning (Skip This! ❌) |
|---|---|---|
| Floors | Pick up shoes, toys, and loose laundry. | Vacuum, sweep, or mop the entire floor. |
| Countertops | Place toiletries, mail, and cords in drawers or baskets. | Scrub countertops down with chemical disinfectants. |
| Bathrooms | Put away personal hygiene items and dirty towels. | Wipe down toilets, sinks, and shower glass. |
| Kitchen | Empty the sink and put dry food items back in the pantry. | Degrease the stovetop and polish stainless steel. |
| Bedrooms | Clear clothes off the bed and put away clutter. | Dust the ceiling fans and vacuum under the bed. |
What cleaners wish you would do before they arrive to clear floors
When it comes to floor prep, the rule of thumb is simple: if we have to guess where it belongs, it shouldn’t be on the floor.
Our professional cleaning technicians are equipped with high-powered commercial HEPA vacuums and specialized microfiber mops. To use them efficiently, they need a clear runway. When a floor is littered with stray socks, children’s toys, dog bones, and Amazon packages, our workflow grindingly halts.
As one of our team members candidly put it: “I want to give you the most beautiful, freshly vacuumed carpets possible, but I really do not want to touch your dirty underwear to do it.”
Leaving clutter on the floor forces your cleaner into a difficult position. Do they pile your personal belongings onto your bed? Do they guess which closet your shoes belong in? Or do they simply vacuum around the pile, leaving a patch of dusty carpet behind? To prevent items from being misplaced or areas from being skipped entirely, take ten minutes to walk through your home and clear the floors. Your carpets—and your cleaners—will thank you!
What cleaners wish you would do before they arrive regarding kitchen prep
The kitchen is the heart of the home, but it is also the room that requires the most intensive sanitization. To help us make your kitchen sparkle, the single most important thing you can do is empty the sink.
Washing a mountain of dirty dishes is generally outside the standard scope of a regular house cleaning service. When a sink is piled high with pots, pans, and coffee mugs, it blocks us from doing our job. We cannot scrub, sanitize, and polish your kitchen sink basin if we are navigating around yesterday’s spaghetti dinner.
While some cleaning services will wash dishes for an additional fee, doing so eats up a significant chunk of your cleaning time. It is a direct trade-off: if your cleaner spends 30 minutes hand-washing dishes and loading the dishwasher, that is 30 minutes they cannot spend on deep-cleaning tasks like wiping down your cabinet fronts, cleaning the inside of your microwave, or dusting your blinds.
To maximize your budget, run your dishwasher the night before and put away clean dishes so your sink is completely clear when we walk through the door.
2. Secure Your Pets and Protect Valuables
At Maids of Movher, we are incredibly proud to be a pet-friendly cleaning company. We love meeting your furry family members, and we only use safe, eco-friendly cleaning products that won’t harm your dogs, cats, or pocket pets. However, even the friendliest pets can find a cleaning visit highly stressful.
The combination of unfamiliar people in their territory, loud vacuum noises, and doors opening and closing can cause significant anxiety for dogs and cats. An anxious pet might try to slip out an open door while we are carrying in our supplies, or they may feel the need to protect their home from the scary, loud vacuum cleaner.
To keep your pets safe and allow our team to work efficiently, we ask that you secure your animals before we arrive. This could mean placing your dog in a comfortable crate, setting up a cozy space for your cat in a spare bedroom we aren’t cleaning, or arranging for a neighbor to take them for a walk.
Beyond pet safety, preparing your home also means protecting your most valuable and sensitive belongings. While our employees are background-checked, highly vetted, and fully insured, accidents can happen in any home.
Before your cleaning visit, please take a few moments to secure:
- Financial documents and mail: Stash bills, bank statements, and tax documents in a desk drawer so they aren’t accidentally mixed up with trash or recycling.
- Prescription medications: Keep these safely tucked away in a medicine cabinet or drawer.
- Valuable jewelry and cash: Place loose change, cash, and precious jewelry in a safe or jewelry box.
- Irreplaceable heirlooms: If you have an incredibly fragile antique or a sentimental piece of artwork, let us know! We can easily skip dusting that specific item to completely eliminate the risk of accidental damage.
By taking these small precautions, you create a stress-free environment for our cleaning team and your pets alike. For more professional tips on preparing your home, review our comprehensive checklist on how to help your cleaner do a better job in 7 simple steps.
3. Provide Clear Access and Set Out Fresh Linens
Time is of the essence on cleaning day. Because we operate on a carefully planned schedule to serve our clients throughout Spokane, Mead, Airway Heights, and Liberty Lake, any delay in entering your home directly impacts the amount of time we can spend cleaning it.
Providing clear access is the ultimate multiplier for a successful service. Before our team arrives, make sure you have communicated clear entry instructions. If you won’t be home, please ensure your key is in the designated lockbox, your smart lock code is active, or your garage door code is shared with our office. If you have a security system, don’t forget to temporarily disable it or provide us with a guest code. There is nothing more frustrating than having a professional team waiting on a porch in Shadle Park or Five Mile Prairie, watching the clock tick away valuable cleaning time because of a forgotten entry code.
Once we are inside, another fantastic way to streamline our visit is to prepare your beds.
Changing bed sheets is a standard service that we are happy to provide, but we need your help to do it efficiently. If you would like us to change your linens, please strip the dirty sheets yourself and leave a fresh, clean stack of linens directly on top of the mattress or in an easily accessible spot nearby.
This simple step does two things: it tells our cleaners exactly which beds need a refresh, and it ensures they don’t have to search through your linen closets to find matching pillowcases. If you have never hired a professional service before, don’t worry! We have put together a step-by-step guide on how to prepare your home for the cleaner even if you’ve never tried it before to help you feel completely confident.
What Cleaners Wish You Would Do Before They Arrive: Frequently Asked Questions
Preparing for a professional cleaning service doesn’t have to be complicated, but it is natural to have questions. Here are some of the most common questions we hear from homeowners in the Inland Northwest.
Do I need to be home during the cleaning?
No, you do not need to be home! In fact, the vast majority of our recurring clients prefer to go about their day while we work. Whether you are working at your office in downtown Spokane, running errands in Spokane Valley, or taking the kids to Riverside State Park, you can trust our highly trained team to treat your home with the utmost respect.
If you do choose to stay home, that is perfectly fine too! We just ask that you give our cleaners space to work. Constant hovering or micromanaging can disrupt their workflow and extend the time it takes to complete the job. If you are working from home, letting us know which room you are occupying allows us to plan our route around your schedule, perhaps cleaning your home office first or saving it for last.
For a complete breakdown of what to expect during our visit, read our guide on how to stop watching the clock and learn what to expect during a maid visit.
What tasks are typically outside a professional cleaner’s scope of work?
While we strive to make your home as clean as possible, there are certain tasks that fall outside the standard scope of residential cleaning, often due to health, safety, and insurance regulations.
These typically include:
- Biohazards: We cannot clean up human or animal waste, blood, bodily fluids, or severe mold infestations.
- Heavy organizing: While we tidy up minor clutter, we do not offer professional organizing services (like sorting through closets or filing paperwork).
- Outdoor cleaning: Our services are focused on the interior of your home. We do not clean exterior windows, power-wash patios, or sweep driveways.
- Dangerous heights: Our cleaners use safety step stools, but they cannot climb tall ladders to clean hard-to-reach areas like high vaulted ceilings or exterior gutters.
- Moving heavy furniture: To protect our employees’ backs and your hardwood floors, we do not move heavy appliances or large furniture items.
How much time should I spend preparing for the cleaner?
You do not need to spend hours getting ready for us! We recommend using the 15-minute rule.
The night before your scheduled cleaning, grab a “clutter basket” and do a quick walkthrough of your home. Use the basket to collect out-of-place toys, stray shoes, mail, and laundry, and quickly return them to their proper homes. Empty your kitchen sink, make sure your pets have a safe plan for the next day, and leave out any fresh linens.
Just fifteen minutes of focused preparation can easily save your cleaning team 30 to 45 minutes of tidying. That is extra time they can spend deep-cleaning your home, giving you incredible value for your investment.
If you are curious about tipping etiquette for your hard-working cleaning team, we have written a stress-free guide on how much to tip a cleaning service without making a mess of things.
Conclusion
Hiring a professional cleaning service is more than just a way to keep your home looking beautiful—it is a total lifestyle reset. When you delegate the scrubbing, dusting, and vacuuming to a trusted professional, you reclaim your weekends. Instead of spending your Saturday afternoons cleaning toilets, you can spend quality time with your family, explore the beauty of the Inland Northwest, or simply relax with a good book.
At Maids of Movher, we are dedicated to bringing that peace of mind to homeowners throughout Spokane, Spokane Valley, Mead, Airway Heights, and Liberty Lake. As a locally and woman-owned business, we do things differently. We believe that exceptional service starts with happy employees, which is why we pay the highest wages in the area and ensure our team members never have to work nights or weekends. This employee-first philosophy means you get a highly motivated, consistent, and reliable team that treats your home like their own.
From our recurring weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly maintenance cleans to our intensive deep cleaning and move-in/out services, we are here to make your home shine. Plus, through our proud partnership with Cleaning for a Reason, we give back to our community by providing free cleaning services to local cancer patients.
Are you ready to experience the joy of a truly clean home? Schedule recurring cleaning services today and let us handle the hard work for you!
