What to move before the cleaner arrives: a ten-minute list

The short version

Pick up the small stuff. We will handle the furniture.

That is genuinely most of it. The rest of this is the detail, and the four things that cause nearly every avoidable problem on a visit.

What to clear, room by room

Off the floor entirely. Toys, shoes, laundry baskets, magazines, pet toys, dog bowls, litter trays, waste baskets, floor cushions, plant pots, chargers and cables. Anything a person would have to pick up and put somewhere before the machine could pass — which, multiplied across a house, is where the time goes.

Off low surfaces. Anything breakable sitting on a coffee table, a low shelf or a windowsill at knee height. Hoses get dragged, and a hose has no idea your grandmother’s vase is there.

Out of the way. Cables running across the floor. If a lamp or a router has to stay plugged in, say so and we will work around it.

Emptied, if the furniture is coming out. If a dresser or a bookcase needs to move, it moves far more safely empty. Anything with electronics or glass in it — TV units, display cabinets — is best cleared regardless.

What we move ourselves

Sofas, chairs, coffee tables, dining chairs, side tables, ottomans — anything two people can safely lift. We move it, clean underneath, and put it back with protective tabs under the feet so nothing marks the damp pile.

We generally do not move beds, large dressers, wardrobes, pianos, aquariums, or anything with a full water tank or a screen bolted to it. If a bed needs to move, tell us before the visit rather than on the day, because it changes how long the room takes.

If you would rather we cleaned around some pieces entirely, that is a perfectly reasonable choice — plenty of people do it — and it just needs saying at the start.

The four things that cause almost every problem

1. Nobody mentioned the pet. Not because pets are a problem, but because knowing changes the plan: the pre-treatment, the order of rooms, and where we look for contamination that is not visible. It also means the dog is not introduced to a running machine unannounced.

2. Nobody mentioned the deadline. “It has to be dry before the tenants arrive at four” is critical information, and it is the difference between bringing air movers and not. Told at booking it is trivial. Told at 2pm it is a problem.

3. Nobody mentioned the building rules. No lift, permitted working hours, a reserved service lift, a certificate of insurance, no parking. Every one of these is routine when known in advance and disruptive when discovered at the door. This matters most in Hoboken, Jersey City, Fort Lee and the newer Hackensack towers.

4. The stain nobody pointed at. People are sometimes slightly embarrassed about the worst patch and hope it will be dealt with in passing. It will not, necessarily — a stain that needs a specific pre-treatment needs to be seen first. Point at it. It is the single most useful thing you can do.

Parking and the route in

Equipment comes in from the van, and the length of hose and the number of trips are decided by where the van can stand. If you have a driveway, leaving space helps. If you are in a building with a loading area or a service entrance, telling us is worth ten minutes. In Hoboken or downtown Jersey City, where there is realistically nowhere, we plan for it — but knowing in advance means the appointment is timed properly.

Inside, a clear path from the door to the room being cleaned is enough. It does not need to be tidy, just passable.

What you do not need to do

Do not clean the carpet first. People do, and it makes no difference to the result. A quick vacuum is fine if it makes you feel better, but we vacuum properly as the first step of the job anyway.

Do not empty an entire room. Unnecessary in almost every case, and it usually means somebody hurt their back for no reason.

Do not be there, necessarily. Plenty of jobs happen with a key, a code or a building concierge. If you would rather not be home, arrange access and leave a note about the problem areas.

Do not worry about the mess. A house with children in it looks like a house with children in it. Nobody is judging the state of the floor; we are here because of the state of the floor.

Afterwards

Stay off the cleaned rooms for the time we tell you, and off them in shoes for longer. Furniture goes back last — foot marks and stain transfer into damp pile are both avoidable and both look permanent.

If you can, put a fan on and point it sideways across the floor rather than down at it. It is the cheapest way to halve a drying time.

And if something looks wrong the next day — a mark that surfaced, a smell that came back — call. Wicking happens, it is normal, and it is far easier to sort out in the first week than in the second month.