Winter Weather Transportation Tips for Cleaners
If you plan to service an area that is prone to bad weather, using an all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive vehicle to get you from job to job is extremely helpful.
Along with having the proper vehicle type for this work, you should always allow an extra hour for potential travel challenges and allot time for shoveling snow. In some cases, the client or company you clean for may have a maintenance team to clear driveways and walkways for cleaners and guests.
According to one of our marketplace cleaners, however, there were plenty of times she made it to a property before the maintenance team and had to clear a path through the snow herself.
“While working in the mountains, I had a four-wheel-drive sport-utility vehicle and carried snow chains, a 6” wooden wedge, and a small snow shovel in the back just in case.”
Our expert cleaner recommends using anti-snow chains instead of the traditional option. Anti-snow chains are quick and drastically easier to install. In fact, they work much like zip ties.
Being equipped with the right vehicle and having snow chains helped this cleaner reach success even in the grueling winter months. She recalls that in four years, there was only one time she wasn’t able to get to the property to clean. Most of the time, however, she made the most of the extreme weather and grew her business.
Winter Cleaning: What to Do When You First Get to the Property
Promptly upon arrival, clear a pathway from your vehicle to the door through which you enter the property with your snow shovel. Next, sprinkle some ice melt over the walkway to create a safe path.
It’s recommended to wear shoe covers while unloading your cleaning supplies into the property to keep your feet dry and to give you a little extra traction for walking on the snow and ice.
Once you’ve retrieved everything you need from your vehicle, you can simply slide the covers off and sit them just inside the door. This way, you can walk inside the property without making a mess on the floors. From time to time, you may get wet shoveling snow. If this happens, it’s best to change into clean, dry clothes.
3 Must-Know Tips for Cleaning in Winter Weather
1. Dry the Floors First
Before you begin cleaning, use towels to thoroughly dry the floors inside the house. When finished, place the dirty, wet towels in a trash bag to be laundered at a later time.
Next, you can proceed to clean the home like you normally would.
2. Revitalize Wet Surfaces
You may encounter incidents where a guest leaves wet clothing laying on wood furniture, causing a water stain.
According to our professional marketplace cleaner, going over those spots with some elbow grease and Pledge® Restoring Oil will cover them nicely, leaving only a shiny wood surface behind.
3. Remove Ice Melt Salt
When cleaning a home or short-term rental, floors are typically done last. Once everything else has been cleaned, take a broom to the floors and sweep up any big debris, such as slat or salt chunks, first. Then, vacuum the floors to remove smaller pieces of dirt and dust.
Next, use a flathead mop and an apple-cider vinegar cleaning solution in a spray bottle to mop over the entire floor. The vinegar breaks down the salt from the ice melt and gets rid of the white film that salt and slag leave behind on hardwood floors. Lastly, mop the floors again with a quick-drying steam mop to leave a nice shine to hardwood, tile, and laminate flooring.
The cleaning expert in our marketplace who provided these tips says she has never received a complaint about a client’s floors not being completely clean after using this method.
Prepare Your Short-Term Rental Cleaning Business for Winter Weather
To sum up the tips above: Be safe getting from job to job and prepare for the extra messes that accompany winter weather.
Want more resources for short-term rental cleaners? Check out these expert cleaning tips.
