Before someone comes to your house to clean, have a direct conversation about pricing and expectations. Some companies charge an hourly rate, others by the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Whatever the case, you want to get a ballpark estimate in advance.

You should also have a clear understanding of the tasks you can reasonably expect the service to handle. Some cleaners will wash dirty dishes or do laundry, whereas others consider those to be add-ons. If you have outdoor areas, such as a deck, that you want included, make sure you specify as much. (Yes, cleaners field complaints from clients that patios or garages have not been swept, despite those chores not being a part of your typical house-cleaning package.) For specialized services, such as organizing closets or deep-cleaning rugs, you almost certainly have to call someone else.

Then there are tasks that take exorbitant amounts of time, such as scrubbing the walls. Zeynep Mehmetoglu, co-owner of Maid Bright in Herndon, Va., says this is a frequent ask: “We’ve had so many requests, ‘Can you clean all my walls?’ And that’s [its own visit] for us just to do that,” she says. “We’re not going to do it during a regular cleaning.” This preliminary conversation is also an opportunity to discuss cleaning supplies. Some services provide their own, whereas others use yours. If you prefer the house cleaner to use yours, make sure you have all the supplies you say you do.

Maria Buendia, owner of New York City cleaning cooperative Up & Go, recalls one homeowner who told her they had a vacuum for her to use. “The house had not been cleaned in a while, and they had a pet, and they gave us a hand vacuum,” she says through an interpreter. The small device was not strong enough for the job. “I had to be bent over and crouched the whole time,” she says, adding, “If she had told us that she didn’t have a vacuum, we would’ve brought one.”

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