Most writing about green cleaning is about products. Which bottle to buy, which ingredient to avoid, which recipe to mix in a spray bottle. That is worth knowing, and we have written about it twice. But product choice is maybe a quarter of what separates a professional green cleaning visit from a Saturday afternoon with a bucket. The rest is equipment, sequence, and a few habits that are almost impossible to keep up when you are cleaning your own house in between everything else.
We are Green Earth House Cleaning, working in the Portland Metro Area since 2005. Here is what the crews on our eco-friendly cleaning services actually do differently, and where you are better off handling it yourself.
The vacuum is the single biggest difference
We bring our own vacuums and they use HEPA filtration. That matters more than it sounds. A vacuum without sealed HEPA media picks up the visible grit and can push the fine fraction back into the room through its exhaust. The fine fraction is the part that matters to anyone with allergies: dust mite debris, pet dander, pollen tracked in on shoes, and the fine soil that comes off a wet sidewalk. The EPA says a HEPA filter can theoretically remove at least 99.97 percent of particles at 0.3 microns, which happens to be the hardest particle size to catch.
Supplying our own machines also means we know they work. A clogged filter or an overfull bag turns a good vacuum into a dust redistributor, and we would rather not discover that in your living room.
It is also why dusting should come before vacuuming. Dusting knocks material down onto the floor, so vacuuming first only means doing it twice.
The same three products, every visit
We use Mrs. Meyer’s on general surfaces, Bona on hardwood, and Bon Ami for scouring. No bleach, no ammonia, no synthetic fragrance. The formulas are plant based and biodegradable.
The consistency is the point. A lot of homes have a collection of partly used bottles under the sink, bought at different times for different problems, and nobody remembers which one is safe on what. That is how a sealed hardwood finish gets dulled by something acidic, how a stone counter gets etched, and how two products that should never meet end up in the same basin. Bleach and ammonia together produce a toxic gas, which is why the American Lung Association says to never mix bleach with any cleaner containing ammonia. We do not carry either, so that particular accident cannot happen on our watch.
Bona is on the cart for one reason: sealed hardwood wants a pH neutral cleaner and very little else. Vinegar, the internet’s answer to everything, degrades that finish over time. Bon Ami is a mild abrasive for a sink or a tub, used where scrubbing is genuinely the answer and no amount of chemistry will substitute for it. If you want the longer version on reading labels and which certifications mean something, that is in our post on green cleaning.
Dwell time is where home cleaning usually falls apart
Watch someone clean their own bathroom and you will see them spray a surface and wipe it about five seconds later. Plant based surfactants work by loosening soap scum and grease so it can be lifted away, and that takes contact time. Soap scum is largely fatty acid residue bonded to the surface. It comes off with a surfactant and a few minutes, or with a great deal of scrubbing and a bad mood.
A crew handles this by working a loop. Spray the shower, go do the toilet and the sink, come back to the shower. Nobody stands there waiting for a product to work. Sequence beats effort in almost every room of a house, and it is the part that is hardest to sustain when you are cleaning your own place and keep getting interrupted.
Cross contamination is the habit nobody keeps at home
We clean with washable microfiber cloths rather than paper towels. The principle worth copying at home is that a cloth used on the toilet should not then be used on a counter, and rinsing one out in the sink to carry into the next room defeats the point.
Keeping cloths separated matters whatever is in the bottle, and microfiber lifts and traps a good deal mechanically. Cleaning and disinfecting are also two different jobs: if you want a surface genuinely disinfected, that is a separate step with a product rated for it, and no amount of enthusiasm about plant based formulas changes that.
The same crew, usually
We send the same crew back to the same home wherever we can. It is practical rather than sentimental. A cleaner who has been in your house half a dozen times knows which door sticks, which floor is real wood and which is laminate, and that the desk in the office is not to be touched. Illness, time off and staffing changes do break the pattern, and we do not call ahead when they do. A substitute arrives with the full current notes on your home instead.
What Portland actually does to a house
Two local facts shape the work here. The first is that most Portland homes get Bull Run water, which the Water Bureau rates at 7 to 11 parts per million total hardness. That is soft, so the limescale that dominates cleaning advice written for hard water cities is a minor issue in Portland. The white film on your shower glass is more likely soap scum than mineral deposit, and the two respond to different treatment.
The second is the damp. For most of the year the recurring problems are mildew in grout and window tracks, and grit tracked in on shoes. Grit is the one that quietly costs money. It is abrasive, and walking it around on a hardwood or vinyl floor sands the finish down. Frequent vacuuming does more for the life of a floor than mopping does.
Mold is where we stop. We do not clean rooms heavily affected by mold, or homes with a heavy infestation. That is remediation. It needs containment and equipment we do not carry, and wiping the surface without fixing the moisture just resets the clock.
The other things we will not do
Worth knowing before you book anyone, since most of these have nothing to do with green products and everything to do with training and liability.
- Pet messes and body fluids: litter boxes, bird guano, blood, urine, feces, overflowed toilets. Handling those calls for bloodborne pathogen procedures and training we do not maintain.
- Carpet shampooing. Different machine, different trade.
- Anything above 8 feet, chandeliers, unsecured artwork, heavy hanging mirrors, or furniture over 20 pounds.
- Dishes.
- Outdoor areas: patios, decks, garages, unfinished basements, exterior windows.
- Inside fireplaces, and homes after fumigation.
- Stripping beds. We will make them if the sheets are laid out.
- Oven interiors, unless you run the self clean cycle a day or two beforehand. We also do not remove oven doors.
A cleaner who says yes to all of that has either not thought about it or is planning to do it badly.
Where you are better off doing it yourself
Between visits, the daily few minutes belong to you, and they are worth more than they sound. Squeegeeing or wiping the shower after use is probably the highest return habit in a Portland bathroom, because it removes the standing water mildew needs. Same with leaving the fan running for a while afterward instead of flipping it off on your way out the door.
If you like mixing your own cleaners, we went through which homemade recipes hold up and which ones do not. The short version: vinegar dissolves scale and soap scum and is not a disinfectant, castile soap and vinegar curdle into a mess, and vinegar plus baking soda mostly produces fizz and salt water.
What to ask before you hire anyone
- Does the crew bring a vacuum, and does it have HEPA filtration?
- Can they name the products they use, by brand, before the first visit?
- Do cloths get laundered between houses, or rinsed out on site?
- What is the minimum charge, and what is the cancellation window?
- What will they refuse to do, and will they tell you before you book?
Our own answers, so you can compare: the minimum service charge is $133 and the minimum visit is two hours. Quotes are free with no obligation. Cleaning visits run Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and crews may arrive within an hour either side of the scheduled start. Cancelling inside 48 hours is charged at half the service. We are licensed, bonded and insured, and every cleaner is screened before hiring. If something gets missed, tell us within 24 hours and we will come back and touch it up. We do not discount for it.
For a quote on recurring house cleaning, a deep clean, or a move out, call 1 888 404 7930 or email info@greenearthhousecleaning.com.
