Having the grime of your life?

Arm yourself with a good battle plan as you take on the dust bunnies.

By JUDY STARK

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 6, 2000

The worst thing about moving into a newly built home?

"Dust," says Terry Bingham, who has more than a passing acquaintance with it. As president of Hillsborough-based A Thrifty Maid Professional Cleaning Service, he and his crews are often the ones who have to deal with the dust.

"It's not really hard cleaning. It's just time-consuming cleaning," Bingham said. "Whenever you've got new construction you've got dust everywhere. There's sawdust and sheet rock dust."

Even after his crews clean a newly built home (a process that can take two people two days), Bingham says he cautions the homeowners: "You'll probably be getting dusty in the next few days. There's dust inside the ductwork of the air conditioning and heating system. Once that's turned on, you'll get more dust. A new house is typically going to be dusty for the next few weeks. You need a good couple of cleanings after you move in before you catch everything."

Bingham's cleaners attack the dust with a damp rag. "You don't even look at any cleaner," he said. "You go over it with a squeezed-out water rag, then go over it with a dry rag. It's a two-wipe type of situation. Rags get dirty quickly. You constantly rinse out your rags."

In terms of time, Bingham said, the kitchen is probably the hardest "because you've got to wipe out all the cupboards, cabinetry, drawers." In terms of difficulty, "the hardest thing is the windows, especially if it's a two-story house, you're looking at ladders for the outside."

Typically, new windows have stickers on them; they get coated with paint overspray and splattered with mud and dirt from the construction site. "So you've got to scrape the window, then clean the window."

He recommends scraping the window first, using a glass scraper, then cleaning it. If the window is just mildly dirty, he may use a cleaner such as Windex. (Some builders cover their windows with plastic, which makes cleaning quick and easy, "but most contractors don't do that.")

If the windows are "really bad, use a window concentrate in a bucket of water. Go over the window with a rag, then squeegee the window."

In an existing home, Bingham says, the "worst part" is the master bath. That room is typically used twice daily by two people, and therefore is the dirtiest of all the bathrooms, and the most time-consuming to clean.

The time and effort involved in cleaning are the reasons why lots of consumers are willing to pay someone literally to do their dirty work. Nearly 22-million U.S. households paid for professional cleaning in 1998, a figure that is expected to rise 10 percent by 2006, studies show.

Bingham's crews carry caddies with six cleaners. He uses professional supplies -- "I haven't bought a cleaner in a grocery store for years" -- and therefore could not name specific brands he likes, but offered these suggestions on the kinds of cleaners to look for. (Tip: Read the labels to make sure the product does what you want.)

• A bathroom cleaner that removes soap scum and hard-water deposits.
• A bleach cleaner (he did offer the names Tilex and Clorox as representative types). "When we scrub the bathroom, we hit the corners with a bleach cleaner for mildew to make sure it doesn't become a problem."
• A degreaser for the kitchen.
• Glass cleaner, for mirrors, windows and shiny areas. Glass cleaner leaves no streaks, unlike kitchen or bath cleaner.
• Toilet bowl cleaner.
• Floor cleaner, preferably one that combines a cleaner and disinfectant. We all walk around barefoot a lot of the year, so a disinfectant is desirable to avoid the spread of germs.

"Cleaning is not rocket science," Bingham said. "Anyone can do it. Be persistent; you've got to do what you've got to do. Cleaning is a routine. If you do it the same way, you're not going to have a problem. When you start skipping steps, that's when you have a problem."

-- Information from the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union was used in this report.

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