# Home Detailing Referral in Toronto



## mrcheap (Apr 4, 2009)

Years ago (2007) I hired some guys to renovate my condo and they offered a "detailing" service after the renovation. Basically they crazy cleaned the whole place. I'm not sure if this is always called detailing (might also be called industrial cleaning maybe?), basically I just want a VERY thorough cleaning.

I paid $200 for this for a 1000 sq. ft. condo back in 2007.

a) Is this a reasonable ballpark figure that I should be paying?

&

b) Does anyone have any recommendations for people / businesses who do this?

Thanks!


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

"Detailing" usually refers to car cleaning, but could also apply to condos, houses I guess.

In the past, I've just hired a regular cleaning service. It's not cheap, but who cares - it gets done.

I would think $200 is reasonable.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

You are looking for what's called a "deep clean" and/or a move/in out package:

http://www.torontomaids.ca/moveinoutcleaning.html

(Random link from googling "Toronto Maid Service" - this was the top paid link)


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## mrcheap (Apr 4, 2009)

Mike: Yeah, a regular cleaner might be reasonable... When I had it done before it was impressive how clean they got it.

MoneyGal: Thanks! Having a couple more terms to search for is helpful.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I would have thought a guy named "Mr. Cheap" would be cleaning it himself?


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

...I am astonishingly "into" housework. (It is kind of funny and scary.) 

I've always kind of dreamed of opening an extremely high-end laundry service - the kind of place you'd send the christening gown your great-grandmother made, or that antique quilt you want to salvage. 

Anyways. That "move-in/out" clean is pretty much what I do every week (I do the refrigerator about every month, and not every light is cleaned every week. But close to it). I'm not sure what to think about that. People don't "fully sanitize" their bathrooms every week?


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

MoneyGal said:


> ...I am astonishingly "into" housework. (It is kind of funny and scary.)


Busy this weekend? 

I'm not a fan of cleaning. Cooking on the other hand... just don't ask me to clean up after myself.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

ah, another one. It is eerie how many talented & creative women i know who think up their best projects while cleaning the house.

carol shields, one of the greatest novelists canada ever produced, was one. She was poetic about her orderly linen cupboard, dramatic about her waxed & polished stairway balusters, all of which she attended to personally, by herself, on a regular schedule.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

I'm allergic to cleaning of most kinds


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

MoneyGal said:


> 1. I am astonishingly "into" housework. (It is kind of funny and scary.)
> 2. People don't "fully sanitize" their bathrooms every week?


1. Not scary at all, but rather impressive! 

I'm not so much 'into' it, however, nobody does it better than moi, so it leaves me with little choice. For the most part, most hired help merely 'disturb the dust' as mom used to say & I end up redoing all. Some call me neat-freak, but I just consider myself clean, organized and tidy. 

2. Nope [I do 3x a week].


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

one can see that the talented & creative ladies are either at one pole or the other.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

I have ZERO moral judgement about this. My mom grew up on a farm, and she carried a lot of her farming ways into her life with her children. 

I feel happy and productive when I am doing physical labour around the house. I completely understand that other people don't get that feeling. 

I do get kind of upset when I can't meet my own standards for myself, because I really like that feeling of accomplishment and hands-on ownership of my physical space, and miss it too much when I can't get it. This is the main reason I will (almost certainly) never have a housekeeper. 

I'm not entering any cooking or preserving contests this year, though.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

Well I'm good at a lot of things not usually considered part of the female purview but I can honestly say that most things household are not part of my natural skill set. I just don't care that much and for the most part don't notice. 

Having said that I honestly admire the skills that many many ladies in my life had had of naturally and seemingly effortlessly restoring order. 

An ex of mine said that if I was thinking he could paint the ceiling black and I wouldn't notice. Unfortunately it's true. It's also true that I can use that "deficit" to sit on the floor in a crowded room and read a 400 page book in a couple of hours. Six of one and a half dozen of the other. 

In any case, as I get older, I really don't care about how different I am and how awfully I fit into the peghole of "being a woman" Honestly part of the problem with this is that traditionally, women's work is devalued. There is a real problem then calling it a skill set. I can assure you as someone who is not at all good at housekeeping that it is a valuable skill set. 

It's kind of like "being handy" lots of men are not particularly good at it, but the expectation is that you will be. Men who are particularly devoid of skill in this area get picked on as well. 

It's not really fair, skills and natural ability have almost nothing to do with gender. It's a ridiculous construct we should get rid of as soon as possible. Studies have shown that girls are just as good as boys in math for example until they are told they shouldn't be by our culture. I suspect boys good at picking curtains and tablecloths are also told they really shouldn't be good at that.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

MoneyGal said:


> ...I am astonishingly "into" housework. (It is kind of funny and scary.)
> 
> I've always kind of dreamed of opening an extremely high-end laundry service - the kind of place you'd send the christening gown your great-grandmother made, or that antique quilt you want to salvage.


Before I got married I used to take my laundry in a big hockey bag to this awesome high end cleaning service. Everything came back perfectly clean, folded and sorted into separate shrink wrapped bags (eg. white socks only with other white socks and boxers separate from briefs, etc). They charged by the pound and I think I used to pay around $30-40 for a big bag full. I loved that service and would still be a customer today but now I have a wife who washes my stuff and dumps most of the clean stuff on my bed for me to fold. Sigh...


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## mrcheap (Apr 4, 2009)

Ha ha, sorry for the delay in responding (my parents still have dial-up, what can I say, we're Cheaps).

I totally SHOULD do my own cleaning, but I hate it. With regard to the typical gender skills, I suck at cooking, cleaning, etc and I'm not at all handy. I'm lucky that I was born in modern times, I would have starved to death as a caveman...

Thanks for all the replies, and if any of the super cleaners in Toronto want to make some cash send me a PM! ;-)


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