It is one of the most common questions a cleaning company gets asked, and one of the least honestly answered: will the cleaners do the laundry? A lot of websites dodge it, or bury the answer three clicks deep in a terms page. Happy Maids has cleaned homes in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago since 1985, and the answer is short enough to give you in the first paragraph.
Do house cleaners do laundry?
Most house cleaners do not do laundry, and Happy Maids does not. Washing, drying, folding and ironing clothes are published exclusions, as is cleaning inside the washing machine or the dryer. The laundry room itself is cleaned on every visit. Changing bed linens is available as an add-on.
That is the whole answer. The rest of this page explains why the line sits where it does, what a cleaning service will do with your dishes and your bed linens, and who you should hire instead if laundry is the thing you actually want off your plate.
It is worth saying plainly that this is not a Happy Maids quirk. Nearly every insured cleaning company that sends a team into a home draws the same line, for the same three reasons.
Why will a cleaning service not do your laundry?
A cleaning service will not do your laundry because a wash and dry cycle outlasts the visit, because garments are easy to ruin and expensive to replace, and because laundry has no fixed size. A cleaner standing at a dryer is a cleaner not cleaning, and you would be paying for the wait.
- The clock does not fit. A wash and a dry run a couple of hours between them. A cleaning team is in and out of most homes in less than that, so anything folded at the end would mean someone sitting in your laundry room waiting on a machine.
- Clothes are easy to ruin. A wool sweater in a warm wash or a silk blouse in a hot dryer is gone, and no apology fixes it. Happy Maids handles incidental damage as a credit toward future service and sends anything larger through insurance, which is a fine policy for a lamp and a poor one for a closet.
- Laundry has no edges. A kitchen is a kitchen every week. A hamper is not — it is empty one visit and overflowing the next. Scope that swings that far cannot sit inside a flat recurring rate without somebody being treated unfairly, and usually that somebody is the cleaner.
Honest limits are worth more than a long list of promises. A company that says yes to laundry on the phone and then quietly runs out of time is a worse experience than one that told you no in advance.
Do cleaning services do dishes?
Happy Maids can assist in loading the dishwasher and will clean around dishes left in the sink. Cleaners do not hand-wash, dry or put away dishes, and do not clean inside the dishwasher. If the sink is excessively filled, the sink itself cannot be cleaned, because there is no way to reach it.
This is the one preparation step that changes the result of a visit more than any other. The sink and the faucet are the most looked-at surfaces in a kitchen, and they are where the local hard water shows first as a dull film on the chrome.
When the sink is empty, that basin gets scrubbed, the drain and disposal collar get cleaned, and the faucet gets dried by hand so it does not spot. When the sink is full, none of that happens. Running the dishwasher the night before is a small habit with an outsized payoff.
Will a house cleaner change the sheets?
Happy Maids makes beds on recurring and deep cleaning visits as part of the standard service. Changing bed linens is a separate add-on with a per-bed fee, requested at least one business day ahead. Leave a fresh set out on each bed you want changed. The used linens are left for you to wash.
That last sentence is the important one. The bed gets stripped and remade with the clean set you have left out, and the used sheets are folded and left in the room or in your laundry room. They are not washed, because that is laundry.
Bedding is genuinely worth staying on top of. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recommends washing sheets and blankets weekly in hot water to control dust mites, along with allergen-barrier covers on mattresses and pillows. A linen change on the visit day is a useful way to anchor that to a schedule you already keep.
What does a cleaning service actually do in the laundry room?
The laundry room is cleaned on every visit, the same as any other room. Happy Maids wipes the washer and dryer exteriors, tops and control panels, scrubs the sink and faucet, dusts shelves and horizontal surfaces, clears cobwebs, wipes the light fixture and switch plates, and vacuums then mops the floor.
- Washer and dryer exteriors, tops and control panels
- Utility sink and faucet scrubbed
- Shelves, counters and horizontal surfaces dusted
- Light fixture, switch plates and ceiling-corner cobwebs
- Window sill and blinds dusted
- Bin emptied, floor vacuumed and then mopped
Nothing goes inside the machines. The drum of a washing machine, the lint housing of a dryer and the interior of a dishwasher are all excluded, and that is a published exclusion rather than a judgment call on the day. The full room-by-room breakdown is on the house cleaner checklist, and every exclusion is listed on the policies page.
Who should you hire if you want a housekeeper who does laundry?
If laundry is the job you want done, hire a private housekeeper you employ directly rather than a cleaning company. That arrangement carries obligations most homeowners do not expect. The IRS treats a housekeeper whose work and methods you control as your household employee, with payroll and tax filings attached.
Neither choice is better in the abstract. They are different arrangements, and it is worth knowing which one you are actually buying.
- A private housekeeper can be asked to do laundry, run errands, wash dishes and put things away. Many are excellent. You become the employer, which means payroll, taxes and the paperwork that goes with them, and it means one person's calendar is your whole coverage.
- A cleaning company sends trained teams, carries its own insurance, and has an office that reschedules when something goes wrong. A company has depth to draw on and someone who will call you; when an individual is sick, there is simply no clean that week.
- The trade-off is scope. A company works from a defined, published list so that the price, the time and the standard are all predictable, and laundry sits outside that list.
Some homeowners run both, and that works well. A company handles the recurring clean, and a separate person handles the personal tasks around it.
What should you do about laundry before the cleaners arrive?
Clear the floors. Happy Maids asks that toys, shoes, clothes and other items be picked up before a visit, because a cleaner who is tidying is not cleaning. Clothes on a bedroom floor mean the floor underneath them does not get vacuumed, and the time spent moving them comes out of the clean.
- Get clothes off bedroom floors, out of the tub and off the bathroom floor.
- Empty the kitchen sink, or run the dishwasher the night before.
- If you have booked a linen change, leave a fresh set folded on each bed.
- Put anything you would rather not have handled somewhere out of the way, or tell the office to skip that room entirely.
The published policy is direct about the consequences: not clearing floors may result in longer cleaning times and potentially additional fees, and excessive clutter may result in service being refused. That is not a threat so much as arithmetic. If you want a hand getting ahead of it, our guide to decluttering a home room by room is a practical place to start, and the living room reset covers the fastest version.
So what is actually included?
Everything Happy Maids cleans is published room by room, and the list barely changes between a recurring visit, a deep clean and a move-out. What changes is the verb. A baseboard is dusted on a recurring visit and hand-washed on a deep clean, and that difference is the entire reason a deep clean takes longer.
Recurring service is a flat rate set by the size of your home, the services you choose and its condition. Deep cleans, move-in and move-out cleans and post-remodel work are priced by the time they take, charged hourly and pro-rated every ten minutes. If you want a number for your own home, call 847-382-0082 and someone will walk through it with you.
You can compare the whole scope on the room-by-room checklist, read what recurring service covers on the maid and housekeeping service page, or see what a first visit looks like on the deep cleaning page. Happy Maids serves Barrington and the surrounding Northwest suburbs.
Frequently asked questions
Do maids do laundry?
Most do not, and Happy Maids does not. Washing, drying, folding and ironing clothes are published exclusions. A private housekeeper you employ directly can be asked to do laundry; a cleaning company works from a defined list, and laundry sits outside it.
Will Happy Maids clean inside my washing machine or dryer?
No. Cleaning inside the washing machine, the dryer and the dishwasher is a published exclusion. The exteriors, tops and control panels are wiped on every visit, along with the sink, shelves, light fixture, cobwebs and the floor.
Is there a maid service that does laundry and dishes?
Some individual housekeepers will do both. Happy Maids can assist in loading the dishwasher and will clean around dishes, but does not hand-wash, dry or put away dishes and does not do laundry. If the sink is excessively filled, the sink cannot be cleaned.
Can Happy Maids change my bed sheets?
Yes, as an add-on with a per-bed fee, requested at least one business day ahead. Leave a fresh set out on each bed. The bed is stripped and remade with your clean set, and the used linens are left for you to wash.
Do I need to clean before the cleaners come?
No cleaning, but do clear. Pick up toys, shoes and clothes from the floors, and empty the kitchen sink. Not clearing floors may result in longer cleaning times and potentially additional fees, and excessive clutter may result in service being refused.
Do you tip house cleaners, and how much?
Gratuities are never mandatory, and Happy Maids cleaners are W-2 employees, so nobody's wage depends on one. If you would like to recognize the work, Happy Maids suggests 10 to 20% of the cleaning cost, given through the Add a Tip form, the post-clean survey, or cash in an envelope marked for the cleaners.
How is house cleaning priced?
Recurring cleaning is a flat rate based on the size of your home, the services you choose and its condition. Deep cleans, move-in and move-out cleans and post-remodel work are charged hourly and pro-rated every ten minutes. Call 847-382-0082 for a figure on your own home.
What happens if something is broken during a clean?
Incidental damage is handled as a credit toward future service, and anything larger goes through insurance. Happy Maids is not liable for inherently unstable or fragile items, or for old window blinds. The full wording is on the policies page at happymaids.com/about-policies/.