House cleaning in Auckland, on a schedule that suits your week

What a house clean covers

Every visit starts in the two rooms that show wear fastest. In the kitchen that means benchtops and splashback, the outside of the cabinetry, the front of the oven and dishwasher, the sink and taps, and the rubbish and recycling emptied and re-lined. In the bathrooms it means the shower and screen, the bath, the basin, the toilet inside and out, mirrors, and the tiles and grout in the wet zone.

From there we work through the rest of the house: dusting flat surfaces, skirting boards, sills, light switches, door handles and the tops of frames, then vacuuming through and mopping the hard floors last so nothing gets walked back over. Beds get made if the linen is out, and you can add oven interiors, inside windows, the fridge or the wardrobe interiors to any visit.

The first clean of a house usually takes longer than the ones that follow. There’s a backlog in a home that hasn’t had a deep clean in a while, and it’s better to spend the extra hour once than pretend a fortnightly visit will quietly catch up on two years of grime.

Who books it, and when

Most of our regular clients are households where both adults work and the weekend is already spoken for. Fortnightly is the most common rhythm; weekly suits larger families and homes with dogs, and monthly works for couples and downsizers who keep on top of the day-to-day and just want the deep work done.

One-off cleans get booked around events. Before a birthday or Christmas when the extended family is coming. After a stretch of illness or a new baby, when the house has quietly gone sideways. Before a rental inspection. Before the photographer arrives for a listing. And in September, when the first properly dry weekend in Auckland makes everyone want the windows open and the winter cleaned out.

How Tidy Kiwi works in your home

Every cleaner who comes into your house is police-vetted and the company is fully insured, which matters more for house cleaning than for any other job we do, because you are handing over a key and a code to your own front door. You’re welcome to be there or not; plenty of clients are at work and never see us.

We try hard to keep the same cleaner on the same home. Someone who already knows that the good glasses go on the top shelf, that the spare-room door sticks, and that the cat is not allowed out the ranchslider does a better job in less time than a stranger following a list. If a regular is away, whoever covers gets the notes for your property before they arrive.

We turn up when we say we will, and if something isn’t right we come back and put it right — that’s what the 100% satisfaction guarantee means in practice. We’re locally owned and run out of Sandringham, working Monday to Saturday, 7am to 6pm, across central Auckland, the North Shore, and the west, east and south.

Built for Auckland houses

Auckland’s damp winters put mould on window reveals, silicone seals and the ceiling corners of bathrooms long before the rest of a house looks tired. We treat those spots as part of the standard clean rather than a specialist extra, and we ventilate wet areas as we work so the room isn’t left to sit shut and warm.

Older villas and bungalows around the central suburbs come with their own quirks: painted timber sills that hate harsh chemicals, original floorboards that want a barely-damp mop, and skirting deep enough to hold a season of dust. Homes closer to the harbour and the west coast beaches collect salt film and fine sand that streaks glass if you clean it the quick way. We match the method to the surface instead of running one bottle through the whole house.

What we clean on a standard visit

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  Benchtops, splashback and cabinet fronts wiped down

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  Sink and taps scrubbed, descaled and polished

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  Oven, rangehood and dishwasher exteriors cleaned

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  Microwave cleaned inside and out

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  Shower, screen, bath and basin scrubbed and rinsed

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  Toilets cleaned inside, outside, behind and at the base

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  Mirrors and splashback glass streak-finished

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  Dusting of surfaces, shelves, sills, skirting and light switches

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  Cobwebs removed from ceiling corners and door frames

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  All carpet and rugs vacuumed, including under moveable furniture

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  Hard floors vacuumed then mopped

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  Rubbish and recycling emptied and bins re-lined

Questions about residential cleaning

What’s the difference between a regular clean and a deep clean?

A regular clean keeps a home that’s already in good shape there. A deep clean resets one that isn’t — inside the oven and fridge, grout scrubbed, mould treated, skirting and door frames washed rather than dusted, and inside the windows. Most people start with a deep clean and move to regular visits after it.

Will I get the same cleaner every visit?

That’s what we aim for, and it’s why regular clients get more done in the same window. When your usual cleaner is on leave we send someone from the same team with the notes for your home, so nothing has to be explained twice.

Do you clean while pets are home?

Yes, and it helps to tell us up front so the cleaner knows which doors have to stay shut and whether the dog is a greeter or a bolter. If your pet is anxious around the vacuum, we can work room by room and shut them into a cleaned space while we do the rest.

Can I skip or move a clean when we’re away?

Of course. Let us know as early as you can and we’ll shift or skip the visit and hold your slot. Plenty of clients pause over Christmas and pick the same day back up in the new year.