What an apartment or condo cleaning covers
The clean is the same work it always is: kitchen, bathroom, dusting from the floor, floors last. What changes in a building is getting in and out, so the first step is settling that before we arrive. A loading zone off the alley or a visitor spot in the garage. A gate code or a buzzer at the lobby. The service elevator or the stairs. A front desk that takes a name and a photo ID, or a package room that opens at a certain window. For a condo in a smaller building, the HOA rule or the building manager we need to let know. Each of these gets agreed on the call.
1. A compact kitchen
Counters wiped clear and gone over, the sink and the faucet done, the stovetop and the backsplash cleaned, the fronts of the fridge, the microwave and the dishwasher wiped. In a one-bedroom or a studio, the kitchen is usually the kitchen and part of the living room at the same time, so the counter under the toaster is doing double duty as a work surface. We treat it that way.
2. The bathroom
Shower glass and tile first, with the hard water film wiped off the glass, the chrome and the shower head. Grout lines around the tub and the shower pan. Toilet inside and out, including the base and the back. The vanity, the mirror and the light fixture, the medicine cabinet front if it opens into the room, and the exhaust fan cover. In a small bathroom, we work slowly so spray does not land on a surface we have already wiped.
3. Living space and bedroom
High dusting is from the floor for the fan, the vents and the top of a bookshelf. Surfaces wiped. The sliding door's inside glass gone over, with the tracks vacuumed. We do no outside windows above the ground floor and no outside of a tower window; those are a window company's job on a lift. We do not step onto a balcony to wash the slider from the other side.
4. Floors, last, out the way we came in
Vacuumed in each room. Hard floors mopped. San Diego's code counts streets, curbs and gutters as part of the storm drain system. We finish at the door and head back through the way we were told to come in.
| Building | What changes for a cleaning | What to tell us when you call |
|---|---|---|
| Walk-up with an open-air walkway | Stairs between the parking and the unit | The entry door number and whether a service entrance is open |
| Mid-rise or tower with elevators and a desk | A service elevator slot and a visitor sign-in | The elevator we are allowed to use and the hours |
| Condo in a small HOA building | A manager or a board rule to work around | Who holds the keys and any HOA rule for the day |
The home cleaning stops at your front door; common spaces inside the building are the building's own work.
When apartment cleaning fits, and when another service fits better
When this is the right page
You live in the unit, or you own it and someone lives in it. The work is a normal pass through a condo or an apartment, with a kitchen, a bathroom, dusting and floors. The place has your things in it, which the clean works around.
When another service fits
If the unit is empty and the keys are about to change hands, a move-out clean in an empty unit is the right page, with cabinets and appliances open. If you have just moved in, the cleaning before the boxes come in is written for that moment. If the surfaces have run away from a weekly pass, a deep clean for the buildup catches up on fans, baseboards and the inside of shower glass. If you want a cleaning on a schedule rather than a single visit, a regular maid service sets the rhythm.
What the visit covers
Kitchen counters, sink, stovetop and appliance fronts; the bathroom top to bottom with the hard water film off the glass and chrome; dusting from the floor; the sliding door's inside glass and tracks; the floors vacuumed then mopped. Products are ours or yours, agreed on the call, with the building's own rules folded in. We do no outside windows above the ground floor, no outside work, and no building space beyond your front door. If old cleaning products are being thrown out, residents can take them to the City's household hazardous waste facility, by appointment; a cleaning company cannot bring them for you.
From the call to the cleaning
- You call with the address, the unit number, the building's own rules (parking, the elevator, the front desk, any HOA note) and what matters most inside the unit.
- We go over products, pets, how we get in and out, and anything the building says about hours.
- You get a price for the visit and decide.
- The cleaning happens, and we go over the rooms with you at the end if you are home.
San Diego apartments and condos
Apartments and condos are a big share of the housing in the city, not a side category. Citywide, about 38 percent of housing units sit in buildings of five or more units and about 15 percent in buildings of 50 or more. The share in bigger buildings rises close in: in the Census area the Bureau names San Diego City (Central/Centre City & Balboa Park), about 30 percent of housing units are in buildings of 50 or more units, about 47 percent of homes are studios or one-bedrooms, and about 72 percent of households rent.