We clean Boise homes and businesses

We clean old and new Boise homes

Boise's oldest neighborhoods, the North End and the East End, are full of houses with painted wood trim and deep window sills. Every ledge in a house like that holds dust, and the sills collect a gray line of it fast. Old wood floors scratch easily when grit gets ground into them. So floors get vacuumed before they are mopped, and trim gets wiped with a damp cloth. A soaked rag and a harsh spray can lift old paint right off a sill.

On the Bench, many houses are single story ranch homes, and west Boise adds long streets of split levels and newer subdivisions. These houses have more carpet than the old North End homes. Carpet hides dust well, so a room can look clean and still kick up a haze when someone walks through it. Slow vacuuming with overlapping passes pulls out what a quick run leaves behind. Hallways and bedrooms get the same care as the living room.

Newer houses in the foothills and out toward Harris Ranch have big windows and open kitchens that run into the living room. That much glass and countertop shows every smudge and fingerprint. Much of Boise's tap water is hard, so faucets and shower doors build up white spots that a quick spray will not touch. Those spots come off with the right cleaner and some patience. We would rather spend the time there than leave a shower that still looks cloudy.

• Trim and window sills wiped with a damp cloth
• Hard floors vacuumed first, then mopped
• Kitchen counters and the stovetop wiped down
• Bathrooms scrubbed, tub and shower included
• Hard water spots worked off faucets and glass

Boise's dry climate brings dust inside

The air in Boise stays dry most of the year, since the city sits in high desert. The foothills north of town are covered in dry grass and sagebrush, and the wind carries fine dust off them into the neighborhoods below. It comes in on shoes and through window screens, then settles on every flat surface as a thin gray film. A dry duster mostly pushes it around. A damp cloth picks it up and keeps it from floating back onto a shelf that was just cleaned.

Summer brings its own mess. In early summer, the cottonwoods along the Boise River drop their white fluff. Homes near the Greenbelt find it piled in entries and stuck in sliding door tracks. Later in the season, wildfire smoke often drifts into the valley and hangs there for days. Smoke leaves a fine gray grit on window sills and blinds, even with the windows shut. After a smoky stretch, each blind slat needs its own wipe, because a quick pass with a duster leaves most of the grit behind.

Winter is a different mess. Snow and slush come in on boots, along with the grit spread on icy roads. It dries on the entry floor and on the carpet just inside the door. On inversion days, cold air traps a gray haze over the valley, and people keep their windows shut and stay inside more. That often means cleaning with the family at home. A customer with a newborn wrote this about Angie. "Angie is so sweet and thoughtful, she always checks with me before starting the vacuum as we have a newborn."

We also clean Boise businesses

Along with houses, Jean's Cleaning does janitorial work for businesses, and Boise has no shortage of offices and storefronts that need it. In an office, the restrooms and the break room get the most attention, because that is where mess builds up fastest. Trash comes out every visit. Floors get vacuumed or mopped depending on what they are. Door handles and light switches get wiped too, since everyone in the building touches them all day.

In a Boise business, the entrance gets the dirtiest. In winter, staff and customers walk slush and road grit straight onto the lobby floor, where it dries into a pale, gritty film. In summer, foothill dust does the same thing, only drier. Grit left on a hard floor scratches the finish every time someone steps on it. Keeping the entry clean stops that grit at the door, before it gets carried down the hall and into every office.

No two businesses need the same thing. A downtown office with a busy lobby needs different care than a quiet back office in west Boise. We ask what you need cleaned and how often, then put it in a free quote so nobody is guessing later. Call us during our hours, Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, to talk it through.

Getting a price in Boise

Call Jean's Cleaning at (208) 321-4595, Monday to Friday between 8:30 AM and 5:30 PM, or leave your name and number on this page. Tell us whether it is a house or a business and how often you want it cleaned. Mention anything that needs extra time, like hard water buildup or an entry full of winter grit. You get a free quote before any work starts, so you know what is covered and what it costs.