We clean homes all over Flanders

Houses near Flanders Bay collect salt and damp

A lot of Flanders sits right on the water. Streets run down to Flanders Bay and Reeves Bay, with salt marsh in between. Many houses near the shore started out as summer cottages and were closed in later for year-round living. The shore faces north, so winter wind comes straight across the water at them. Houses on the water face it with windows and sliders, and whatever the wind carries off the bay lands on that glass first.

Salt is the part people underestimate. It dries on windows and sliding doors as a gray film that plain glass cleaner smears around rather than lifts. It settles on light fixtures and the tops of door frames too. Inside, damp air off the marsh keeps bathrooms and closets from ever fully drying out in summer. That is where mildew starts, in the grout and along the bottom of a shower curtain. Skip it for a season and the stains set.

So on a house near the bay, the glass and the bathrooms get the most time, because salt and damp show up there first. Sand is the other constant. It comes in on shoes and beach towels and gets ground into the floor by the door. The rest collects in the tracks of the sliders. We clear those tracks before we wipe the glass, since a cloth pushed through sand just drags grit across it. Tell us which rooms face the water and we plan the visit around them.

• Salt film cleaned off windows and sliders
• Sand vacuumed out of slider tracks first
• Shower grout scrubbed where mildew starts
• Light fixtures dusted and wiped down
• Kitchen cleaned top to bottom

Pine pollen coats inland Flanders homes each spring

Back from the water, Flanders turns into pine woods. The hamlet runs into the pine barrens, and plenty of houses sit on wooded lots between Sears Bellows and Hubbard County Park. The ground is sandy and the trees are mostly pitch pine and oak. Those lots are quiet and shaded. They also send a steady trail of needles and sand toward the front door. In a wet stretch, the shade keeps decks and entryways damp for days.

Then pollen season arrives. In late spring the pines let go of a fine yellow dust that coats porches and window screens all over Flanders. With the windows open, it drifts inside and settles on sills and on the tops of ceiling fan blades. A dry duster just pushes it around the room. It takes a damp cloth to lift it, and it keeps landing until the pines finish for the year. So a spring cleaning here works best once the yellow stops falling.

A spring cleaning on one of these houses goes past the everyday surfaces. Ceiling fans and light fixtures get cleaned of pollen and dust, and the sills and window tracks get wiped out. We also move furniture to reach the sand that collects behind it. In one customer's words: "Suave came to assess the job and listen to my goals/priorities, and quickly created a detailed and fair quote."

We look after Flanders rentals and summer houses

If you rent out a house in Flanders, the cleaning is the first thing each new guest notices. We clean between guests and do pre and post rental cleaning. Each stay starts in a clean house instead of the last group's mess. Bathrooms and the kitchen take the most work. The sand that comes back from the bay on every pair of feet adds more. A rental owner said it best. "They service my short term rental property and I trust them to take care of everything in my absence."

A Flanders house that sits closed through the winter needs more than a quick wipe when you open it for the summer. Dust settles on everything, and the bathrooms and kitchen need a deep clean before anyone sleeps there again. We can also stock the house with food and supplies and help with errands, so the fridge is full when you arrive. And if a summer weekend ends with a houseful of guests, post party cleanup is one of our services too.

When an older Flanders cottage gets an addition or a new kitchen, the cleanup afterward is its own job. Construction dust is finer than everyday dust, and it keeps drifting down onto ledges and light fixtures for days after the work stops. Post construction cleaning is one of our specialties. We also do move in and move out cleaning when a house changes hands. After one sale, a customer wrote that the crew "left the entire home very clean for the purchaser."

Getting a price in Flanders

Call us at (631) 875-8993, or send us your details through the request form on this page. Tell us where the house is and what kind of cleaning you need, from a weekly visit to a post construction job. We put together a free free quote, so you know the price before anything is booked. For a bigger job, we may come look at the house first. We are open every day of the week.