How to prep your home before the cleaners arrive

There's something a lot of people do the night before a cleaner comes. They clean. Bench wiped, dishes done, a quick vacuum, so the place doesn't look too bad when we walk in. It's a kind of stage fright, and it's the one piece of prep you can safely skip. The clean is our job. The prep that actually makes a difference is quicker than a pre-clean, and it's mostly about getting things out of the way and telling us what matters to you.

Don't clean. Clear.

This is the one that surprises people, so it's worth being plain about. Cleaning before the cleaner arrives doesn't improve the result, and it usually wastes an hour of your evening. What changes the result is clearing, because a cleaner can only clean what they can reach.

A bench covered in appliances, mail and a fruit bowl gets wiped around. A clear bench gets wiped properly, right to the edges and under things. The same goes for the floor, the coffee table, the bedside tables. Every surface with stuff piled on it is a surface that gets a worse clean, not because the cleaner cut a corner, but because they couldn't get to it.

Spruce works to a fixed price and a set scope rather than the clock, but the principle holds either way: the more of your home the cleaner can reach, the more of your home gets properly cleaned in the visit. Clearing the clutter is the single most useful thing you can do, and it takes a fraction of the time a pre-clean does.

The two-minute clear

Genuinely quick. You're tidying, not cleaning. A lap of the house picking things up is most of it.

• Kitchen: clear the bench of dishes, mail and anything you can move. If the sink's full, run the dishwasher or stack the dishes to one side so the cleaner can clean the sink itself.
• Floors: pick up toys, shoes, clothes and bags so the floors can be vacuumed and mopped rather than worked around.
• Surfaces: clear the small stuff off coffee tables, bedside tables and the bathroom vanity, the chargers, glasses and clutter. We'll dust and wipe them properly once they're clear.
• Anything precious out on show: move it somewhere safe (more on that below).

That's it. If it's taking much longer than a couple of minutes, you're probably cleaning, and you can stop.

What to leave to us

The flip side of clearing is not doing our work for us. A few things to leave alone:

• The actual cleaning. Don't scrub the shower, degrease the oven or vacuum before we come. That's what you're booking, and doing it first just means paying us to clean an already-clean surface.
• The beds. Leave them as they are unless you've asked us to change the linen. If you do want beds stripped and remade, flag it when you book so it's allowed for.
• Heavy furniture. We clean around and under what's reasonable to move. You don't need to shift the couch or the bed yourself, and we'd rather you didn't hurt your back doing it.
• Products and gear. Spruce brings its own equipment and cleaning products, so you don't need to supply anything. The one exception: if you'd prefer a specific product used on a particular surface, a stone benchtop or a special timber floor, for example, leave it out on the bench and let us know.

Pets, parking and getting in

The practical logistics are what quietly derail a clean when they're not sorted, so they're worth a minute at booking.

• Access. Tell us how we get in: someone home, a key, a lockbox, or a code. If no one will be there, just confirm the arrangement when you book so there's no locked door on the day.
• Pets. If you've got a pet that gets anxious, bolts for open doors, or doesn't love a vacuum, either secure them in a room or let us know they'll be around. Cleaners are in and out of doorways with gear, so this is about a smooth clean and a safe pet, not the pet being a problem.
• Parking. If parking's tight on your street, a heads-up helps, and keeping a spot free near the door makes a real difference when there's equipment to carry in.
• Valuables. Put away cash, jewellery, small electronics and anything genuinely precious before we arrive. Not because you can't trust the cleaner, but because it's simply good practice and it keeps things clear for everyone.

What to flag when you book

To be clear, none of this is about directing the clean. Our cleaners are trained professionals: they know what a good clean looks like and how to handle the surfaces in your home. This is simply about pointing them at what matters most to you. That's what makes it the highest-value part of the prep. Two minutes of clearing gets us reach; a few notes at booking gets us aimed at the right stuff.

• Your priorities. What matters most to you? The kitchen, the bathrooms, a spare room that's got guests coming? Tell us and we'll make sure it gets the attention, rather than spreading the time evenly and hoping.
• Problem areas. The shower that's gone mouldy, the oven that hasn't been touched in a year, the skirting that's built up. Flagging these means we can scope the right clean, and if it's genuinely a bigger job than a standard clean, a deep clean, say, we can tell you up front instead of after. If you're not sure whether a room needs a normal clean or something heavier, our guide on regular vs deep cleaning lays out the difference.
• Delicate or special surfaces. Our cleaners are trained on every common surface and know how to clean each one properly, so this isn't about telling them their job. It's just a heads-up if you've got something unusual or especially precious, natural stone, polished timber, leadlight, a fragile heirloom, so it gets exactly the care you'd want.
• Anything off-limits. A room you'd rather we didn't enter, a desk not to touch, a "please don't move this." Just say so and we'll work around it.
• Add-ons. Inside the oven, inside the fridge, interior windows, carpets: these usually sit outside a standard clean, so book them in rather than assuming they're included. That way the cleaner has the time allowed to do them properly.

First clean or regular visit

A first clean asks a little more of you, but honestly not much: a few notes at booking and the same quick tidy we've already talked about. Our cleaners are trained and know exactly what a clean needs. The notes simply point them at what matters to you and anything specific to your home, your priorities and any problem spots, so the very first visit goes as smoothly as possible.

For a regular booking, it gets easier still. You get the same Spruce cleaner each visit, so over a few cleans they learn your home, your standard and your preferences, and there's even less to say each time. At that point the two-minute clear is really all the prep a visit needs.