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By Hanna Loberg |
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Buyer’s remorse is served with a lemon twist for professional house cleaners, so a little common sense when dusting can go such a happy long way. Some of our most expensive dusting moments have been those during which we were making a special effort, because most often, it’s not about the table tops. For example, the risk / reward associated with taking apart light fixtures for cleaning is absolutely horrific. So the general rule for those cleaning details with which our cleaners have had little practice must be to leave such tasks to the wealthier novices, or their husbands.
This doesn’t apply to dusting high ledges. But even for those, clean them while the homeowner is home. While you might notice that fine line of lint along a high ledge, to a less practiced eye, a ledge cleaned and unseen looks peculiarly a lot like a ledge un-cleaned and unseen.
My mother warned me against marrying any man who hangs a picture which falls from the wall. When you are dusting a wall hanging, assume it was hung by a man not suitable for marriage, using a nail intended for paneling, pounded into half inch dry wall (by the heel of his shoe). Dust the picture with one hand, steady it with the other, and I’ve heard so many earfuls about it that I just can’t stop myself from saying, please straighten it when you are finished.
You can be the most honest maid in Mile High City, and your name will still be first on the lips when next that ivory hairpin for five minutes goes missing. Don’t blame them for this—they can’t stop themselves. So, leave any surface with valuables altogether untouched and any misplaced coin on the nearest table or counter.I’m not actually cynical about dusting, or anything else which involves opportunity. In fact, there is no fruit so low hanging as a predecessor’s poor dusting. That fine line I mentioned earlier? Find it, wrap it in a promise, present it discretely to the homeowner, and you will improve your closing rate by quite a meaningful percentage. You’ll know you are getting too good at it when you can’t stop yourself from noticing dusting flaws every time you walk into any house, including homes of friends and family. I am, of course, cursed for life