Apartment Cleaning in Philadelphia

What apartment cleaning covers

• Every room in the unit, down to a studio's single space
• Bathrooms done in full, tub or shower, mirror and fixtures
• Floors in one pass, with no stairs to carry equipment up
• The sliding door glass and the balcony floor, where there is one
• The in-unit washer and dryer wiped down on the outside
• Trash carried out to the building chute or the dumpster

What is usually not included

• Shared parts of the building: hallway, lobby, laundry room, gym
• Your storage locker, your parking stall, anything outside the door
• Washing windows from the outside on any floor above the ground floor

When to book apartment cleaning

Book this for a rental or a condo. If you are moving out and want the deposit back, ask for a move out clean instead, which is a different job.

How long it takes

A studio or a one-bedroom goes quickly compared with a house, and a two-bedroom with two bathrooms comes closer to a small one. Getting in counts too: a gate, a front desk, an elevator and parking all take time before the work starts.

What makes the price go up

• No parking for the cleaner, or a paid garage with no visitor pass
• A walk-up with no elevator, or a service elevator that has to be booked
• A building that only allows this kind of work during set hours
• No trash chute on the floor, so every bag goes down to the dumpster outside

What to ask before you book

• How do you get into the building, and do you need a code or a pass?
• My building has quiet hours. Can you work inside them?
• Do you do the balcony and the sliding door, or just the inside?

What apartment cleaning looks like in Philadelphia

Philadelphia is a rowhouse city: narrow, deep homes sharing walls, two or three floors up a tight staircase, a front door opening straight onto the sidewalk and a basement below. Winters are cold, the radiators run, and salt from the sidewalks comes in on shoes. Summers are humid, and the middle of the house gets little daylight.

The front door opens on the sidewalk, so street grit lands in the first room and stair treads take the worst of winter. A vacuum gets carried up narrow stairs instead of rolling room to room. Radiators collect dust down between the columns, and the dim middle rooms need a light brought in.