How to Start an Apartment Cleaning Business

If you want fulltime money for part time work, consider cleaning apartments after the tenants move out. You can make your own hours and work the jobs in around your family schedule. Finding a partner to help you will let you get the vacant apartments done quicker and make the job more fun. You can charge more from the tenants then the complexes. Tenants are willing to pay a cleaner so that they can get back their deposits.

It doesn't take much money to start this business it can be started on a shoestring budget.

Items needed to start:

Insurance - liability insurance, this can be bought from insurance agents. This will protect you. Most complexes require it.

Vacuum

Cloth towels

Paper Towels

Scrub brush

Bucket

Mop and broom and dust pan

Oven cleaner

Window cleaning solution

Degreaser

General Cleaning solutions

Toilet bowel brush

Soft scrub with bleach (you don't want to use straight bleach)

Baby oil (to shine the stainless steel sinks)

Scouring pads and sponges

A few trash bags

How to start:

Make a checklist of things that you will do in the apartment to clean, such as sanitize the bathroom (which is where the soft scrub with bleach is going to be used for), clean ovens, bathrooms, mop floors, vacuum, clean inside windows, wipe down front door, sweep in front of apartments.

After you make up the check list, use some of the points from it to make up a simple one page flyer to send to apartment complexes. You can fax them or take them in person.

If you take them in person, ask at the office if you can put flyers up on the bulletin boards for the residents. Make the flyer for residents different with tear offs with your phone number at the bottom. It doesn't have to be fancy just state the facts, put on that you double check everything.

Pricing:

Call different cleaners in your area to see what they will charge you to clean an apartment after you move out to get an idea of what the prices are in your city. If you have a complex that you need to price, you can ask them what they are usually paying cleaners to get a rough idea of what to charge. Most places will allow you to charge more if there are stairs, or if the oven is really bad. Don't be shy to ask. They will charge the old tenants.

Billing:

If you're doing work for the complex, you turn in an invoice, with the date, the apartment number that you did, and the price. They usually pay weekly, biweekly, or monthly.

For tenants, collect the money before you do the work. After all they will be moved out when your cleaning their place, and you may never get your money.

How to clean an apartment fast and efficiently:

The two worse places to clean will be the bathrooms and kitchens. If you spray down the kitchen and bathroom when you go in the apartment 1st, the cleaners will work while you're working on other rooms.

Kitchen:

Spray the oven and the broiling pan if there is one in there, as well as the racks. If they have drip pans for the stove, spray them and toss everything in the oven. Next spray down the inside of the refrigerator, take out the drawers, and shelves, fit what you can in the dishwasher, and run the dishwasher while you are doing other things.

Cabinets are easy to clean, wipe the shelves down with cleaner, doing the same with the doors, (inside and out). Wipe out any drawers under the countertops.

The refrigerator gets wiped out, replacing all the drawers and shelves. Clean the seal that goes around the door of the refrigerator, which is one place they will check at apartment complexes. Pull out the refrigerator and wipe down the top of it, as well as both sides. Now the refrigerator is finished. It is now time to do the oven.

The oven after it has sat with the oven cleaner won't be that bad, take the stuff out of the oven and wipe it out. After you're done with the oven, spray it with window cleaner so that it shines.

Wipe down the top of the stove, and clean it thoroughly. Now your kitchen is almost done, the drawers are wiped out, refrigerator is done, and the oven. Wipe off the counter tops, clean the sink getting behind the faucets, dry the sink if it is stainless steel, and rub in a few drops of baby oil so that the sink shines. All that is left in the kitchen is to mop the floor and that room is done.

Bathrooms:

You will want to use the Softscrub on the tub/shower and with the scrub brush quickly go over the tub and let it sit while you move on to other things to do. Pour some toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet and Softscrub the sinks. If there is another bathroom do the same to that.

After letting that soak and you come back to the bathroom to clean, wipe out the tub/shower, clean the mirrors, wipe down the cabinets. Clean behind the toilet, and wipe down everything in there. Run hot water in the shower when you're cleaning out the tub, and the steam will make it easier to clean. Mop the floor on your way out.

Bedrooms:

While you have the bathroom and the kitchen started you can move on to the bedrooms, wipe down the rods in the closets, and clean the inside of the windows, wipe the windowsills. Wipe down the ceiling fan if there is one in that room. Vacuum the carpet and you're done with that room.

Living rooms, Dining Rooms:

The living room, dining rooms are done the same as the bedrooms, unless there is a fireplace, and then you will have to clean that also.

Tips I've learned:

Newer properties are the easiest to clean.

Make things sparkle. That is what they are looking for.

Double check everything.

After the cleaners clean the apartments, they usually have carpet cleaners come in to do the carpet, vacuum the carpets, but don't fret about getting vacuum lines perfect in the carpet.