Okay, so let me tell you about this whole cleaning company thing in Berkeley. It was a real process, let me tell ya.

It all started a few months back. My place was just getting out of hand. Between work and trying to have some kind of life, the dust bunnies were basically staging a takeover. I kept telling myself, "I'll deep clean this weekend," but yeah, that never happened. Finally hit a point where I just couldn't stand it anymore. Decided I needed to bite the bullet and hire someone.

Finding a company wasn't as straightforward as I thought. You hear names, people mention places, but getting solid info felt like pulling teeth. I spent a good chunk of time just trying to figure out who actually served my part of Berkeley and seemed, you know, reliable. Asked a neighbor, they gave me a name, but that company was booked solid for weeks. Back to square one.

Eventually, I landed on one company. Making the first call was… an experience. The person on the phone sounded like they were doing me a huge favor just by answering. Trying to get a clear price quote? Forget about it. It was all "it depends" and vague estimates. I just wanted a ballpark, you know? Finally managed to schedule a time, though I wasn't feeling super confident.

The Actual Cleaning Day

So, the day comes. They gave me a window, like "between 1 and 3 pm." Okay, fine. 3 pm rolls around, nothing. 3:30 pm, still nothing. I called them back. "Oh yeah, they're running a little late." A little? An hour and a half? They finally showed up close to 4 pm. Two people.

I had some specific things I wanted them to focus on:

• The kitchen grout, it was looking grim.
• Dusting the high shelves, the ones I can never reach.
• The bathroom floor needed serious attention.

I walked them through, pointed stuff out. They nodded, said "okay, okay," and got started. Honestly, they worked super fast. Like, suspiciously fast. They were in and out in maybe two hours, tops. Paid them – and yeah, it was definitely at the higher end of that vague estimate they gave me earlier. Figures.

After they left...

At first glance, things looked okay. Surface level shiny. But then I started noticing stuff. The kitchen grout? Looked exactly the same. Those high shelves? Still dusty. I ran my finger across one, pure dust. And the bathroom floor still had some weird spots near the tub. It felt like they just did a quick wipe-down, not a real deep clean like I thought I was paying for.

I thought about calling them back, complaining. But honestly? I was just so tired of the whole thing. The hassle of finding them, the weird booking process, them being late, the rushed job… I just didn't have the energy to argue. Ended up grabbing my own cleaning supplies and tackling the spots they missed myself that weekend. Defeated the whole purpose, right?

So yeah, that was my adventure with hiring a cleaning company in Berkeley. It wasn't exactly a smooth ride. Maybe I just picked the wrong one, who knows? But it definitely made me think twice. Sometimes, you really do just gotta do it yourself if you want it done right. Or at least, be prepared for a bit of a runaround. Lesson learned, I guess.