We walk the house before we start

We put your house back in order

After a party, the mess is in every room at once. Glasses sit on every flat surface. Food has dried onto the counters, and the trash is full in more than one place. The floors carry whatever came in on shoes, and in Hampton Bays in summer that means sand. We start by walking the house with you. That way we know what matters most, and where things normally go, before anyone picks up a sponge.

The order of the work matters more than people expect. Trash and empty bottles come out first, because you cannot clean a counter that is still covered. Then the kitchen: dishes washed or loaded, the sink scrubbed, spills wiped off cabinet fronts, and the stovetop cleaned. Bathrooms come next, since guests use them hard and nobody checks them during a party. Floors go last, vacuumed and then mopped, so nothing we carry out gets tracked across a clean floor.

Done right, the house looks the way it did before anyone arrived. The furniture is back in place and the rugs lie flat. The step people skip is the sticky layer under a spill. A drink wiped up with a dry towel looks fine at first. Then the floor feels tacky under your socks for a week and collects dirt in that spot. We wash every spill with warm water and a clean cloth, then dry it.

• Trash and bottles bagged and taken out
• Dishes done, counters and stovetop scrubbed
• Bathrooms cleaned after heavy guest use
• Sticky spills washed off floors and tables
• Furniture moved back where it belongs

Weekend guests leave more than dishes behind

A weekend of guests leaves a different kind of mess than a party. It is spread across the whole house instead of piled up in the kitchen. Beds have been slept in and towels hang on every hook. The guest bathroom has been used for days without a real cleaning. Thomas Fallen wrote on Google: "I called on short notice needing a deep clean after having guests, and the crew showed up ready to go."

Wet towels are the first thing we deal with. Summer air on the East End is humid, and near Shinnecock Bay it carries salt too. A pile of damp towels on a bathroom floor starts to smell sour fast, and the grout or the wood floor under it stays wet. We get towels and bath mats off the floor and into the hamper. Then we open a window or run the fan so the room dries before we clean it.

Beach sand comes in with every guest. Houses around Hampton Bays sit close to the bay beaches and the ocean. A weekend of beach trips brings sand in on feet and beach bags. On hardwood, sand under a shoe works like sandpaper and dulls the finish in the walkways first. So we vacuum before we mop, under the beds and along the baseboards too. Mopping over sand only pushes it into the corners.

We can help before the party too

A cleanup goes faster when the house was ready for the party. Before guests arrive, we can clean the kitchen and the bathrooms and clear the counters so there is room to set out food. We also empty the dishwasher and the trash, so both start the night with space in them. An empty dishwasher at the start of a party is one of the biggest helps to the cleanup the next morning.

We also stock the house and run errands, which matters when a big weekend is coming. That can mean food in the fridge and hand soap in every guest bathroom before anyone pulls into the driveway. You tell us what you want on hand, and we get it into the house. Chris Ewan, a client in Quogue, wrote in a Google review: "Always asks for special instructions and his crew are very timely and friendly."

Kitchen and party help during the evening keeps the mess from piling up. Plates and glasses get cleared as they empty, and the dishwasher runs in loads instead of all at the end. Trash gets bagged before it spills over onto the floor. The host gets to be at the party instead of at the sink. Tell us how many people you expect and how the house is laid out, and we plan the help around that.

Summer parties in Hampton Bays move outside

Summer parties around Hampton Bays rarely stay indoors. Most houses here are wood frame, many with cedar shingle siding and a deck or patio off the kitchen. The deck is where drinks get set down and where food drips off plates. We clear and wipe the outdoor tables and pick up cups and napkins from the lawn. Then we sweep the deck, so spills do not bake onto the boards in the next hot afternoon.

Wood decks need a gentle cleanup after a party. A pressure washer is the wrong tool for spilled drinks. It can raise the grain on cedar and strip a stain or sealer the owner paid for. Warm water and a soft brush lift soda and wine without hurting the wood. Grease from the grill is the one to get to quickly, before it soaks into the boards and leaves a dark mark.

Parties do not stop when the summer crowd leaves. A holiday dinner in winter brings a different floor problem: road salt and slush tracked in from the driveway. Salt dries into a white film on hardwood and tile, and if it sits it dulls the finish. After a winter gathering we damp mop the entry and hallways with plain water first to lift the salt. Then we clean the floors the normal way.