The same housekeeper, every visit, in Northwest Indiana
Your home, cared for. Your weekends, yours again.
I learn your home, look after it to a standard we agree on together, and take it off your list for good.
Who is coming to your home
About us
I am Maria. I grew up in Poland, but most of my life has been in and around Chicago. A few years ago we moved out to Valparaiso for the quiet, and I have not regretted that once.
I spent nearly thirty years in corporate offices, most of it keeping things running for other people, in jobs where "I did not notice" was never an answer. I was good at it. And I have been cleaning homes on the side that entire time, for friends, for family, for whoever asked, and it was always the part of the week I looked forward to.
So I stopped doing the thing I was supposed to do and started doing the thing I actually love. I like walking into a house that has got away from someone and leaving it so they exhale when they open the door. That reaction is the whole reason I do this.
Those thirty years are most of why I am useful, though. Anybody can clean a kitchen. Holding a whole house in your head, what was done, what is coming, what somebody needs to be told about before it turns into a bill, is a different job, and it is the one I spent a career doing.
Most days you will find me out with Buster, my dog, who is fairly sure every walk was his idea. The rest of the time I am usually trying to get out to the West Coast to see my children.
I would rather know the handful of families whose homes I look after than have a long list of clients. So tell me about your home, and about what would genuinely make your week easier.
I clean every home the way I would want mine cared for, whether or not anyone is watching. That is the whole standard.
What actually changes
It is not really about the cleaning.
Nobody lies awake over a bathroom floor. What wears on people is the low hum of it always being there, and knowing that if they do not deal with it, nobody will.
Saturday is yours again
No half day lost to it.
Nobody keeps it in their head
The running list of whose turn it is just stops.
People can come on a Tuesday
No scramble before anyone arrives.
You stop thinking about it
Which is the real point.
The Golden Standard
The same three phases in every home, in the same order, every time.
Nine steps sit inside them, and each one leaves you something you can check afterwards.
The nine steps, in full
How I work.
All of it, phase by phase: what I do in your home, and what each step leaves behind for you to check.
First
I learn your home
Which floors cannot take a wet mop, where the dog hides, what to leave alone. You tell me once.
We walk it together
Room by room, photographed as I find it, before anything is touched.
Photos to you the same day
I write your home down
Your surfaces, your pets, your way in, and what I should leave alone.
Ask, and I read it back
You know the cost first
The price and the hours behind it, in writing, before I start.
On screen before you decide
Then
I reset it, once
The first visit is the long one. Everything that has quietly got away from you gets sorted properly, once.
Always the same way round
Top to bottom, dry before wet, finishing at the door.
Same in every home I go into
The parts nobody gets to
Baseboards, door frames, tracks, blinds, vents, grout, behind things.
Look at the edges of the rooms
I photograph it finished
Your home, room by room, the day it is done.
You keep them. Hold me to them
After that
I keep it that way
This is the part that has let you down before. A different person, a different day, and soon you are managing your cleaner.
The same person, every time
Me. Your key, your notes, your home. Never handed on.
You will not meet a new face
The same list, every time
Same rooms, same order, checked against the day it was finished.
The list is yours, any time
I tell you what I saw
A short note after every visit, including what I would keep an eye on.
After every visit, without fail
The bit everyone worries about
"And what happens when you get busy and send somebody else?"
Anyone who ever works in your home learns these nine things before they are handed a key, and is paid properly to follow them. That is why the way I work is written down instead of living in my head.
We call it The Golden Standard, mostly so it has a name.
My guarantee, in one sentence
If it is not right,
I come back.
Tell me within a day and I come back and do it again. You should never have to push for something you already paid for.
No charge
Not a service you pay twice for.
No argument
I will not ask you to prove it.
No form
A text saying which room is enough.
No contract
Stop whenever you like.
One exception, said up front: if you took the reduced first clean and leave before the third visit, that reduction is billed back.
No bill you did not agree to
More than quoted, I stop and call first. Less than quoted, and it comes down at the third visit.
Nothing charged until it is done
No card to book, no deposit, no retainer.
Insured to $1 million
Certificate sent before the first visit, without you asking.
The same rooms, four hours apart
This is what I actually do.
Real homes in Northwest Indiana, photographed on the day. No staging, and nothing tidied before the first picture.
So you know exactly what you are getting
The whole list, not a sample of it.
Kitchen
Counters, backsplash, sink and faucet, outside of every appliance, cooktop and hood, inside the microwave, cabinet fronts, floor.
Bathrooms
Tub and shower scrubbed, tile, toilet inside, outside, base and behind, vanity, mirror, chrome, floor and corners.
Bedrooms and living
Beds made, surfaces and mirrors, sofas vacuumed, under the bed where I can reach, floors.
Everywhere
Dusted, ceiling fans, light fittings, sills, door frames and switches, cobwebs, trash emptied and relined.
Included, most places charge
- Inside the microwave
- Green, fragrance-free products
- Key or lockbox sorted
I do not do
- Outside windows
- Carpet shampoo
- Mold or pests
- Errands or groceries
- Above a two-step ladder
The part that is not cleaning
Kept, not just cleaned.
A cleaning service cleans what it can see and leaves. I am in your home more often than anybody else, so I may as well be useful about it. Four things come with every visit, and I have written down where each one stops so nobody has to guess at the door.
I watch what is running low
I am already in every cabinet and under every sink. Hand soap, paper towels, dishwasher tablets, trash bags, detergent. You hear about it before you run out.
I tell you. I do not shop for it or spend your money.
The kitchen is left in order
Shelves fronted, containers squared, the fridge door shelf wiped and straightened, dishes done or in the machine rather than sitting in the sink.
Tidying what is there. Not organizing, and not emptying a pantry.
A note after every visit
What I did, what I noticed, and what is worth keeping an eye on. The damp behind the washer. The grout going in the guest bath. Most weeks it is dull reading, and that is the point.
I notice and I tell you. I am not an inspector and I never quote a repair.
One call on your behalf
If I flag something that needs a proper trade and you would rather not chase it, I will ring somebody and get them out to you.
I make the call. I do not run the job or vouch for their work.
Beds and laundry. Beds are made on every visit as standard. If you would like the linens stripped and remade, leave them out and I will do it, and I can take the laundry through washed, dried and folded as well. Both are on the price list rather than assumed, so you are never paying for something you did not ask for.
Where I go
Close to home, on purpose.
I would rather look after a small area properly than a large one badly. If you are just outside it, ask anyway.
And what it takes
Seven questions, and your home has a plan.
How many hours your home actually needs, what gets done on every visit, and when I can start. I would rather you read all of it quietly, in your own time, than have anyone on the phone with you.
Seven short steps and your home has a plan: the hours it takes, what happens on each visit, and a date in the calendar. No call, nobody coming out to sell you anything, and nothing charged today.
Would rather talk it through? Call (219) 500-6794.
Let somebody else carry it.
Tell me a little about your home and I will take it from there. No sales visit, nobody to talk into anything, and nothing charged until your home is clean.
Or call (219) 500-6794 if you would rather talk.