The pre-Christmas clean: book it before November does

Every year the same thing: the last two weeks of November and the first two of December are booked before Halloween. If family are coming, this is the article to read now.

When to book

By mid-October for a December date of your choosing. By early November you’ll still get a slot, probably not a Saturday. After 1 December, it’s whatever is left. I open the December diary in September precisely so that regular customers and early birds get first pick.

If the whole house isn’t possible

Prioritise what guests see and use:

1. The bathroom guests use: limescale off the screen and taps, grout, the toilet properly. Bathroom deep clean, €120.
2. The oven: it’s about to do the most work of the year. Oven clean, €55–65.
3. The sitting room: sofa and carpet extraction so the room smells like a room, not like the dog. Sofa from €75, carpet €10 per m².
4. Windows inside: with the lights on early, every smear shows. €8 per window.

Or do the lot: a full house deep clean at €3.50 per m², a 3-bed around €350, and the oven, sofa and windows all go into the one visit and one price.

Bundles

December is when the bundles earn their keep: sofa plus rug, sofa plus four dining chairs, sofa plus mattress. One visit, better value than separately. Booking a bundle gets the 15% welcome bonus on a first clean.

After the guests leave

January is quiet and cheaper on my diary. If December is already gone, a post-Christmas reset in the first two weeks of January is the next best thing, and the house gets a proper start to the year.