You do not need to clean before the cleaners arrive, and you should not. What genuinely helps is clearing the surfaces you want cleaned, deciding what happens with pets, sorting out how we get in, and telling us anything specific before the first visit rather than after it. Everything else is our job.
Clear surfaces, do not clean them
Anything sitting on a counter, dresser or shelf is something that has to be lifted, cleaned under, and put back. That is fine and it is part of the work, but the more that is put away the more time goes into actual cleaning. Paperwork, mail, kids' projects and the general layer of life are the usual candidates.
Anything sitting on a counter is something that has to be lifted, cleaned under, and put back.
Decide the pet plan
Most dogs are fine and most cats vanish. What we need is the plan: crated, loose, one room closed off, absolutely not let outside. Tell us once and it goes into the notes for every future visit.
Sort out access before the day
Code, lockbox, key or you being there. Any of those work. What causes problems is deciding on the morning.
Say the specific things out loud
The marble that must not be touched with the wrong product. The room that is off limits. The thing that always gets missed by everyone. The surface that looks like it needs scrubbing but must not be scrubbed. We take notes at the walkthrough for exactly this reason, and anything you tell us then applies to every visit afterwards.
