Frequently Asked Questions

Many hire a cleaning service to save time and escape the burden of cleaning, but the benefits actually go far toward promoting physical, mental and emotional health. Our clients often tell us they love coming home to a freshly cleaned house and that our cleanings bring them happiness, renewed energy and greater sanity in life. One client even told us that our cleanings do more for her mental health than a visit to her therapist. And it’s undeniable that reducing dust and allergens in the air, and disinfecting surfaces, promotes good physical health for you and your family.

Because you can count on us. We take pride in the quality of our work and the reputation we’ve earned for reliability, integrity and professionalism among our many loyal clients in New England. You can count on us to listen, and to really understand your needs. You can count on us to be flexible if you ask us to reschedule a cleaning, or accommodate a special cleaning request. And you can count on us clean your home with loving care, and with meticulous attention to detail. We hope you will come to trust us like members of your own family. We will work hard to earn your trust.

Home and Planet Cleaning has been serving clients since 2004. In the early days, owner Maricela Loring was a one-woman operation known for her cheerful good nature and solid work ethic. Today, she leads a dedicated staff that carries forward her tradition of cheerfulness and hard work. Many of our clients take satisfaction in knowing that Maricela pays her staff a higher wage than competing cleaning companies, and offers better benefits. Maricela believes that providing good service to clients starts with providing a good work environment for employees.

We’ve found that happy employees are more productive, more likely to stay with us, and more likely to master Maricela’s proven 17-point system for cleaning quickly and efficiently. There’s a right way to clean, and a wrong way. We are able to offer lower rates than our competition because we know how to clean quickly and efficiently, using the right cleaning products, and the right tools and equipment for every task and environment.

The cost depends on a variety of factors, including the size and unique characteristics of your home, the presence of pet hair, the level of clutter, the planned frequency of cleanings, and the cleaning Task List agreed between you and Maricela when you collaborate to create your Cleaning Plan. Every situation is different, so we prepare an individualized estimate and Cleaning Plan for every client after visiting their home and discussing their cleaning requirements in detail. On average, clients who schedule cleanings every two weeks pay from $100 to $170 per cleaning. We also give estimates for commercial cleaning, and for special cleaning projects including Spring Cleaning, Move-in/Move-out Cleaning, Last-minute (Emergency) Cleaning, and Construction Cleanups. Visit our Getting Started page or call 603-394-2075 to schedule a free initial consultation so we can discuss your cleaning requirements and give you our estimate.

Home and Planet provides an all-inclusive, worry-free cleaning solution. That means we take care of all the details, including workers comp, employment taxes, and personal liability insurance for protection against work-related injury. Some independent cleaning services may not give proper attention to administrative details, which could make homeowners liable. With Home and Planet Cleaning we are fully documented, licensed and insured for your protection and ours.

We are committed to maintaining lower prices than our competition but we do not offer additional specials or discounts – with one important exception: For new customers, we offer an initial “diagnostic cleaning” at a discounted price. More details are given below.

The first step is to invite us to visit your home for a free consultation where we will walk through your home, assess your needs, and discuss a range of cleaning options. The visit will allow us to prepare a written estimate and work with you to devise a Cleaning Plan that fits your needs and budget. The Plan will include a detailed list of tasks to be performed along with the cycle-time for each task. For example, you may decide that certain tasks, such as cleaning the inside of your refrigerator, are not necessary to be performed on every visit. Once we agree on a price and a Cleaning Plan we can schedule your first cleaning. Once completed, we will follow up to verify that you were pleased with our service, and to schedule further cleanings.

We recently began offering a $99 initial “diagnostic cleaning” for new customers. This is another path to getting our estimate and proposal – with an extra advantage that you get the immediate satisfaction of a freshly cleaned home plus the ability to see for yourself the quality of our work and our attention to detail. We call it a “diagnostic cleaning” because it helps us understand the unique challenges of your home toward giving you a smart estimate and proposal. It gives us an opportunity to scrub and clean the different types of floors and surfaces in you home, and get to know your fixtures and appliances.

Our diagnostic cleaning includes a full cleaning of an average size kitchen, living room and dining area, along with a full cleaning of one bedroom and one bathroom. The $99 price reflects a deep discount that we are offering as an incentive to attract new customers. In the cleaning business, an initial cleaning is traditionally priced at a premium, because cleaning workers are more likely to encounter “old dirt” for an initial cleaning, which is harder to remove than “new dirt” as is encountered for existing clients who schedule regular periodic cleanings. So, our $99 price for an initial cleaning is a very good deal.  Diagnostic cleanings are available for residential customers only.  The  total number of hours committed by Home & Planet to a diagnostic cleaning will not exceed three hours – a team of two for 90 minutes.  If more time is required, an additional fee will be assessed.

For residential cleaning, our policy is payment at the time of service. Most clients simply leave a check for us on their kitchen counter, made payable to Home and Planet Cleaning. We accept cash, checks and credit cards. We require that a credit card be kept on file to guarantee your cleaning appointment. If an appointment is cancelled with less than 24 hours notice, a cancellation fee of $35 will be charged to your card. For commercial clients who have established a relationship with us, we can bill against purchase orders.

We have been serving the Seacoast community since 2004. Click here to see a map of our service area.

No. You don’t need to sign a contract. Our client relationships are “at will” which means we must earn your trust and your continuing loyalty by ensuring your satisfaction with every visit. If you are not completely satisfied you can leave us at any time.

To help make us more efficient, we ask that you pick up clothing, toys and general household clutter prior to our visit. We also ask you to remove dirty dishes from countertops. As a rule, we do not wash dishes, but we are happy to rinse and load dirty dishes into your dish washer. Tidying up beforehand is greatly appreciated and also prevents us from accidentally putting away stray objects in the wrong location.

We generally send two people for each cleaning job, and we make every effort to provide continuity by sending the same crew for subsequent visits. Maricela, owner of Home and Planet Cleaning, spends quite a lot of time in the field and is likely to be on site for some of your cleanings.

No. Our crew comes fully prepared with all the supplies and equipment necessary. In addition, if requested and provided, we are happy to clean with your preferred products.

No. Most of our clients are at work or choose to run errands while we clean, and they enjoy returning home to a freshly cleaned house. So, you don’t need to be present, but you do need to give us access to your property. Most clients entrust us to hold a key, which, for security reasons, is coded, secured at our office, and handled only by cleaning team leaders for scheduled appointments. Some clients give us the code for their garage door, or leave a key for us under the mat, in the mailbox, or in some other pre-arranged location where we can return the key when we depart. We are flexible to accommodate different situations. If you have a security system, please make necessary arrangements to give us access on your scheduled day. Some clients establish a guest code or temporary code in their security system for our cleaning staff.

Accidents rarely happen. But if they do, we will make things right. We pay the cost of replacement or repair, and we carry insurance for valuable items.

We stand behind our work with a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. If you’re not completely satisfied, simply contact us within 24 hours to arrange for us to come back and re-clean the areas that did not meet your expectations.

Most clients set up a recurring service schedule but we are happy to accommodate stand-alone appointment requests depending on availability. We recommend booking at least three days in advance. Please note that Thursdays and Fridays are our most popular days, and they fill up pretty quickly.

We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Please try to call us 72 hours before the appointment you’d like to reschedule. We will assess a $35 cancellation fee if you cancel with less than 24 hours notice.

If a routine recurring service falls on a holiday, we will contact you in advance to arrange a make-up date. We’ll also ask if you’d like to schedule any additional services in connection with the holiday, such as an additional cleaning prior to, or after, a holiday party.

We do not clean on the following holidays when they fall on a weekday:

New Years Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day

Yes, we make every effort to honor our cleaning appointments even during heavy snow. Please ensure that driveways and walkways are clear and accessible for our cleaners.

No problem! Our cleaners love pets and work safely around them. If you have an aggressive pet, or a pet that likes to escape into the outdoors, we ask that you secure the pet in an area of your house where we will not be working prior to our arrival.

Tips are not expected, but our cleaners are always grateful for your praise and feedback. If you insist on giving a tip, team members are permitted to accept them.

We have a diverse, multi-cultural staff and most speak English. Good communication is important to us. A good practice is to contact Maricela with any special requests, and to leave written notes (in English) for our teams. All our teams are in touch with the office via cell phone throughout the work day. We can easily speak with team members to clarify work orders even while they are working in your home.

Yes, we were drawn into commercial cleaning when some of our residential clients asked us to clean their businesses as well. Please invite us to quote for your commercial business. We do very good work.