Illustration by Christiana Sandoval Woodard
I will know I’ve made it in life when I can hire a cleaning service. I don’t need a fancy car or a mansion, just a cleaning service for a modest home. In the nearly four years I’ve lived in my house, I’ve treated myself to cleaning services three times. Extravagant, I know. But when life gets busy and I want to treat myself, I would much rather purchase a Groupon for two hours of house scrubbing than a day at the spa. OK, that’s actually a tie, but a tight one.
I’ll tidy all day long — fold laundry, put things away, organize a drawer — but scrub the floors? Wipe the baseboards? Dust the fan blades? No, thank you. I do, of course, do these things occasionally, but with two dogs in a 1950s home, my labor doesn’t seem to last long. I’m convinced that older homes get dirty faster.
Alex Ronan, the quality assurance manager at The Maids of Richmond (first-place winner in R•Home’s Readers’ Favorites for House Cleaning Service for 2019), assures me that this is not the case. “The difference,” says Ronan, “is that in areas like Richmond city, with houses that are 100-plus years old, you have to be careful cleaning. You actually can make a bigger mess if you start chipping paint by wiping too hard, using abrasive chemicals like bleach in an old porcelain tub, or by damaging your 100-year-old heart-of-pine hardwood floors by [using] an oil or acid product. Older homes require smart cleaning, not more cleaning.”
My home may only be pushing 70, but cleaning smarts are certainly what I need. So I continued to quiz Ronan about best practices. Though I was hoping to unlock some serious scouring skills, I learned that there are no magical cleaning hacks. Here’s what he says:
R•Home: What are some secrets to make cleaning your home more manageable?
Alex Ronan: It is basically what your parents told you growing up: Keep your things neat and orderly; that way it is easier to clean and easier to notice when cleaning is needed. It is easier to keep up with small messes than to let it build up and compound. If you spill something, wipe it up with water and a safe, eco-friendly cleaner.
R•Home: Beyond regular cleaning, what are some of the seasonal cleaning tasks that should be addressed during spring cleaning?
Ronan: It is usually a good time to handle all those areas you may not think about for the rest of the year. Inside and outside windows, gutters, inside of the garage, organizing the shed or basement. You don’t have to do everything, but a good whole-house cleaning is a must. If it seems like too much, tackle the one project that needs it the most this spring, and make a plan for the other jobs.
R•Home: What is the most overlooked area that should be cleaned regularly?
Ronan: Most people keep the rooms they interact with on a daily basis pretty clean, such as kitchens and bathrooms. What I’ve most commonly seen a need for is a solid damp-wipe dusting of the whole home. Some of your decorative items, books, records, etc., haven’t been cleaned in years. Not only does keeping a house dust-free make it look better, it helps with breathing, allergies and sick days. Don’t use a feather duster; it just moves the dust around. A damp (not wet!) wiping with a mild cleaning agent is what you need to catch and remove all the dust.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
