We clean houses across Wilmington

Wilmington is full of ranches and capes

Much of Wilmington was built after the Second World War, when farmland on the edge of the Boston suburbs turned into house lots. What you see now is street after street of ranches and capes set back in the pines, with split-levels and newer colonials mixed in. These houses are well built. They also come with detail that collects dust without anyone noticing, like painted wood trim around every door and baseboard heat running along most walls.

Baseboard heat is the one people forget. The metal fins behind the cover catch dust and pet hair all summer. On the first cold night of the fall, the heat comes on and warms all of it at once. That is where the burnt smell comes from in so many Wilmington houses in October. We dust the covers and the floor right in front of them, because that is the dust the heater pulls in when the season turns.

Split-levels bring their own work: a short flight of stairs every few rooms, and grit from the driveway packed into the corners of each tread. Ranches are easier on the legs but tend to have long hallways and carpeted bedrooms that need a proper vacuum along the edges. Some older capes still have their original windows with storm windows over them. The tracks between the two fill with dust and dead bugs over a season, and we wipe those out as part of the window cleaning.

• Baseboard heater covers and the floor in front dusted
• Split-level stairs and landings vacuumed
• Storm window tracks and sills wiped out
• Mini blinds and ceiling fans dusted
• Inside of the oven and microwave cleaned

Road salt and pine pollen get inside

Wilmington sits inland, so winter runs colder here and the snow stays longer than it does in the towns on the coast. Every storm puts the plows and sanders out, and what they spread on the roads comes home on boots and dog paws. Salt dries into a white haze on hardwood and tile near the door. Sand is worse, because it grinds into the finish every time someone walks over it. After a few weeks of that, the path from the door to the kitchen looks dull.

Spring brings mud first and then pollen. Wilmington has a lot of pine in its woods, and in late spring a yellow film settles on every sill and deck railing. Open the windows on the first warm day and it drifts inside, onto the tops of the blinds and the ledges under the screens. We dust those surfaces on each visit. If you book window cleaning, we do the glass inside and out, so the film comes off instead of staying there all summer.

Summer is humid, and Wilmington has plenty of low ground, with brooks and wetland that feed the Ipswich River. Houses near that water often have damp basements, and in a lot of them the laundry room is down there too. Lint from the dryer sticks to damp surfaces. The tops of the machines and the floor around them pick up a gray coat, and the room starts to smell musty. We clean the laundry room on the same visit as the rest of the house, so the basement does not become the room nobody touches.

Wilmington remodels and moves need deeper cleaning

Mid-century houses in Wilmington get remodeled a lot. Owners take down the wall between the kitchen and the living room, or they finish the basement. Either way, drywall dust goes wherever the air goes. It settles on door frames and the tops of cabinets. It also leaves a fine layer on floors that look clean until you walk across them in socks. Our post construction cleanup works from the top of each room down, so the dust is not knocked onto surfaces we already did.

"Called for a one-time clean after renovations and they handled all the dust and leftover mess without complaining," wrote one customer after a remodel. A contractor usually sweeps up the big debris and moves on. The fine dust stays behind for whoever lives there. If you are finishing a project in Wilmington, book the clean for after the last contractor leaves. That way nothing gets tracked back in behind us.

Moving is the other big clean. A house that has been lived in for decades needs more than a sweep before it goes to a new owner. The buyer wants the kitchen clean before the first box comes in. Our move-in and move-out cleans include the inside of the oven and the microwave, which most people skip when they are packing. Once you are settled, recurring visits keep the house at that level. As one customer put it: "I work from home and having them come every other week keeps the place manageable."

Getting a price in Wilmington

Call (617) 803-6705 or request an online estimate, and tell us about the house. Let us know whether you want a one-time deep clean or recurring visits. Mention anything specific too, like a finished basement or dust from a recent remodel. You get the estimate in writing before we put you on the schedule, so you know what the visit covers. We are open seven days a week.