It was 10am when the phone rang. As usual I answered with “Happy Clean, hello! How can I help?”
A woman with a lovely voice, sounding a bit shy, asked me if we do house deep cleaning. We’ll call her Mary in the story, even though this is not her real name.
“Absolutely!” I respond. “I just need some details so I can price it up!”
“I think it’s better if you actually come and see it! It’s really bad! It’s for my sister, and she hasn’t been well lately… she was taken into hospital this morning and me and my brother want to do a full clean up of her house before she comes back.” the woman replied, in a soft voice, and I could feel she was embarrassed.
“That’s no problem at all, we’re here to help!” I said reassuringly. “Send me the address and I’ll be over in one hour to have a chat!”
After getting the address, I hopped in the car and went over to see the job. From outside, the house looked like a regular 3 bedroom, the windows were dusty enough and you could see from the state of the gutters that they hadn’t been cleaned in a while and had plants overflowing. The main door had cobwebs in corners and around the door bell. Once the nice lady opened the door, a very strong smell reached out. It was as if the windows had never been opened to let the fresh air in and the urine smell was so strong that you could barely breathe.
Mary had tears in her eyes and started to apologise. Her sister had been struggling with a severe depression, and she had been unable to do any cleaning chores around the house. There were piles of dirty dishes all over, with flies and mould on them. Piles of clothes all over the place, dirty mixed with clean. The bathrooms were in a very bad state, making you wonder what the original colour of the sink and bathtub should have been. In the bedroom and living room, there were lots of empty wraps, cans and bottles that had never made their way to the bin, which was already too full anyway.
“I’m so sorry! I knew it was bad, but I didn’t think it was THAT BAD! You see, my sister would not let us in the house while she was here.”
“It’s ok, don’t worry, I understand it’s a delicate situation, and we are not here to judge, we’re here to help!” I told Mary, wanting to reassure her once again that it’s ok.
After a brief chat with her about what our approach should be, we decided that a full deep clean, including the gutters, windows, the carpet, the hard floors and mattresses was mandatory. So basically everything was going to be fresh and clean for when her sister would come back from hospital. But as she would only be away from home for two days, we had to move fast!
Luckily enough, we had some availability for that afternoon so I was able to bring the teams in straight away! The cleaning ladies started decluttering the bedrooms so the carpet and mattress cleaning can start. The other team went ahead to clean the gutters and windows outside. We opened all windows and as the fresh air started coming in, it already started to feel closer to what a home should be like.
After 4 hours of hard work, the first floor was smelling nice and looking clean. We took out 8 bags of rubbish and headed to the ground floor. As this was a bigger job than the one upstairs and it would have taken much longer we decided to come back the next day.
The following morning, we went back to the house and continued the TRANSFORMATION. As this was not just a cleaning… the house was completely converting to a home! Another 6 hours with 4 cleaning ladies, 2 carpet cleaners, 1 window cleaner and 1 floor cleaner and the job was completed. Another 12 bags of rubbish were removed from the ground floor.
It was an exhausting job, a challenge to our teams and we had the smell lingering in our noses for a good few days. But the reaction of the family when they entered the property, made us feel just pride and joy, knowing that when their sister would come home, a little ray of sun will be brought to her life. And maybe this whole change in the house would help her keep on top of the daily cleaning jobs and boost her morale.
For our team, it was shocking to see what depression can do in one person’s life as that was the first job of its type. But after that day, many more similar jobs followed and we were always happy to help, even a little bit, as every little step counts on the way to recovery. Depression is a disease not a choice and if you know anyone struggling, there are multiple community mental teams that can help. A lot of information can be found on www.mentalhealthireland.ie
And if in this process, you need a compassionate cleaning team who can help turn your house into a home, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Our 24/7 customer service team is here to help and answer any of your queries.