We reset every room between guests

Every rental gets cleaned the same way

A vacation rental clean starts after the last guest leaves. We walk the whole house first, so we know what the stay left behind before we touch anything. The used sheets and towels come off every bed and rack. Trash comes out of every room, including the small bins guests forget are there. Then we work each room from the top down. Dust from a ceiling fan or a high shelf should land on a floor we have not cleaned yet, never on one we just finished.

Guests judge a rental by the kitchen and the bathrooms. In the kitchen we clear out any food left in the fridge and wipe the shelves inside it. The microwave gets cleaned inside, and the stovetop gets cleaned around every burner. In the bathroom we scrub the shower and the toilet, including the floor behind the toilet where few people look. Then we pick up every hair we can find. One hair in the tub shows up in a review faster than a dusty shelf does.

The last pass is the reset. Beds get made with the clean set you leave for us, and towels get folded and set out. Furniture and lamps go back where your listing photos show them. We vacuum and wash the floors on our way out of each room, finishing at the front door. When it is done right, the house looks the way it did in the photos. The next guest walks into a place that feels like nobody stayed there before them.

• Sheets and towels changed in every room
• Trash out of every room and bin
• Fridge cleared of food guests left behind
• Bathrooms scrubbed and every hair picked up
• Furniture set back to match your listing photos

Guests notice what a quick clean skips

A rental clean usually fails in small places. Coffee grounds sit in the basket of the coffee maker, and crumbs sit in the toaster tray. A phone charger is still in the outlet by the bed, with a sock under the bed next to it. None of that takes long to fix. But a guest who finds one thing left behind starts looking for more, and once they look, they usually find it.

So we check the same places every time, in the same order. Every drawer gets opened, and every bed gets a look underneath. The hooks on the back of the bathroom door and in the closets get checked too, since that is where robes and jackets hang forgotten. Guests leave pans in the oven and plates in the dishwasher, so both get opened. Anything left behind gets set aside, and we tell you about it so you can decide what to do with it.

The step that gets skipped most is the smell. A guest opens the front door and notices the air before they see anything. Old food in a trash can will make a kitchen smell in a warm week, even with a fresh bag in it. So we wipe out the inside of each can before the new bag goes in. The kitchen sink drain gets rinsed, and the fridge gets checked for anything left open. We would rather find a spoiled carton of milk than have your next guest find it.

Each Massachusetts season brings its own mess

Winter around Bellingham means sand and road salt. Guests carry both in on their boots, and the salt dries into a white film on wood floors and tile near the doors. A dry mop only pushes it around. It has to be washed off with clean water and dried, or the film comes back and the floor looks dull however much you vacuum. Entry mats get shaken out and vacuumed on both sides, because salt works through to the floor underneath.

Spring brings pollen. In a rental with the windows open, it settles in a yellow layer on every sill and flat surface. Summer brings humidity. A house closed up between bookings in July can smell damp by the time the next guest arrives, most of all in a finished basement. We run the bathroom fans while we work. We also look for mildew along the shower caulk and around the tub, where it tends to show up first.

Houses around Bellingham are mostly wood frame: capes, colonials, raised ranches and split levels, many with a basement and baseboard heat. Baseboard heaters collect dust and hair along their metal fins. When the heat comes on in the fall, that dust burns off and the house smells like something is burning. A cape usually has knee walls upstairs, with small doors into storage space that guests use for their suitcases. We vacuum along the baseboards in every room, and we open those small doors and check behind them too.

We tell you what we find

If you are not nearby on checkout day, the person cleaning is the only one inside the house between guests. That makes every clean a check on the house as well. A cracked lamp shade, a stain on a couch cushion, a slow drain or a missing remote gets noted while we work. You hear about it before the next guest does, so you can fix it or plan around it.

When nobody is staying in a house, somebody has to notice a dripping faucet or an open window before it becomes a bigger problem. We look for those things every time we are inside a rental. It is the same habit a good house cleaner brings to a family home. Joyce Frank wrote this about Elisabete in a Google review. "She’s checked in on our house when we are away, watered our plants, and is a truly caring and capable person."

Our hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and we are closed on Saturday and Sunday. Many rentals change guests on weekends. Talk to us about your booking calendar before the first stay goes on it. If your checkouts can land on a weekday, that makes the schedule easier for both of us. Call (508) 816-5094. Tell us how many bedrooms and bathrooms the house has and which days your guests check out.