Many people hire cleaning services to alleviate some of the stress and time consumption of regular chores. These services are helpful to people with large families, people with busy work schedules, and those with pets that shed a lot of hair. When hiring a cleaning service, it’s essential to know what to do with pets who will be home when the cleaning is happening.
Here are a few important things to keep in mind if you are a pet owner and are considering hiring cleaning help or have already:
- Ask for an in-person consultation. Not only will the quote from the company be more accurate, but the cleaner will be able to meet the pet, enabling an appropriate cleaner assignment. This also provides an opportunity to ask about the cleaning products and their safety for pets.
- Be there the first time the cleaner comes to service the home in order to introduce them to your pet(s) and show them any procedures they need to follow.
- It’s best to separate the pet from the cleaner if the pet is aggressive, anxious, nervous, tends to be distracting, or might be destructive with the cleaner’s equipment and supplies. This separation can look like moving a petto a closed room, daycare, or crate.
- Talk to the cleaner about their comfort level, preferences, and what they are and aren’t allowed to do.
- Can they give the dog a treat at the end of the service? Where are the treats? How many treats can they give?
- Can they let the dog outside if it needs to go?
- Can they let the dog out of the crate at the end of the service?
- Are they not allowed in some regions of the house?
- Are there certain parts of the pet that don’t like to be touched (ears, belly, feet)?
- Leave emergency contact information that includes you, a secondary contact, and the pet’s veterinarian.
Our pets are the lights of our lives, but they can also bring unwanted smells into our homes. Having a house cleaner is not essential to reduce or eliminate these odors. Still, it’s so important to know how to best address the situation and make sure your dog is safe and your house cleaner is comfortable.
For a comprehensive list of ways to deodorize almost every kind of surface in your house, check out this resource on how to keep pet odors at bay.
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/tips/a22053/deodorize-your-house/
Photo by Monica Silvestre from Pexels
Written by: Lynn Moynahan
