As with each passing year, the holiday cheer starts creeping around earlier and earlier. This year, I heard Christmas carols long before I saw Halloween decorations on store shelves. Now that is spooky! I have nothing against the holidays (known by whichever name you favor), not at all. I love the holidays, I create excuses to over-eat, over-sleep, and buy the $14 dollar wines instead of the $9 wines. Mostly, however, I love to give gifts to my family and try to surprise them with just how thoughtful I am when I gift them with the gift they asked for.
As we all know deep down, a gift wrapped in paper is not the meaning of the holidays.
Statistics Canada recorded $19,260,811.00 in retail purchases made in December 2018. If my math is correct, and it probably isn’t, that’s around $3.5M more than the monthly average ($15.5M) Canadians spent in retailers in the months preceding December. Maybe that isn’t a whole lot in the grand scheme of the Holidays, but it does make one wonder: where is my money better off, or, how can I enjoy my time and money more?
Below I have listed the only three items on my Holiday Shopping List this year, because I believe these gifts will bring joy to the giver and the receiver, and will be money well spent.
Here is my shopping list for December 2019:
I will trade as much of my time (work) as possible to gain time being with the family I love. I will treasure and remember this time because my memories will outlast all physical gifts.
Food is important to me. My mincemeat is already sitting in the fridge developing a Jamie Oliver approved flavor that will bring me more joy in sharing with my family than I would find in scouring the mall for just one more thing to put under the tree. You know, so it’s even.
I trade time every week for the experience of working with and assisting people in my community in one small way. During the holidays, it is easy for some to begin to feel forgotten. How could you send some love to your neighbor or community? Could you drop off at cheque at the Parkland Food Bank? Spend a few hours gifting your time as a volunteer in Spruce Grove or Stony Plain?
“In this final second of your life, I am going to tell you what I saw: I found the house clean, the table laid, the fields plowed, the flowers smiling. I found each thing in its proper place, precisely as it should be. You understood that small things are responsible for great changes.”
Gifts do bring joy, and they can hold meaning. A gift can lift you up and help you feel love when the intention is true. So, find your own meaning in giving and receiving, decide what is important to you and your family.
I encourage you to start this conversation. Whether it is just in your own mind or with your family, I invite you to add my shopping list to the top of your shopping list this year. After it is all said and done, let me know how your holidays were transformed after giving and receiving the gift of love.
Jen
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Queendom Cleaning Ltd. is based in Spruce Grove, Alberta. We work locally and provide jobs to people that are our neighbors, and yours, in an effort to invest in our community. We make earth, health, and safety conscious decisions in order to provide an ideal service to you and your family.
We serve Stony Plain, Spruce Grove, Acheson, Onoway, Calahoo, Parkland County and surrounding areas.
Our minimum charge is $100 for 2 hours.
A credit card is required to secure your booking and will be held on file. Your credit card will be charged once your cleaning is complete. Please note that we require 3 business days notice to adjust your service and we do not offer refunds. If something was not completed (eg. a certain room not cleaned by your request), we can add a credit to your next service only.
Your credit card information is securely stored by Stripe. Please visit https://stripe.com/docs/security/stripe for more information.
A minimum deposit of 25% is required for all first time bookings and all hourly bookings. We may occasionally require a 50% deposit depending on the length of the visit or the distance we have to travel. Any services quoted over $800 will be required to pay a 50% deposit.
If you need to cancel and cannot re-book at a later date, we will refund 100% of the deposit as long as 3 business days’ notice is given to cancel. If less than 3 days notice is given and we cannot fill your spot, 50% of your deposit is forfeited (we will pay the scheduled employees), and the remainder will be e-transferred to you. If we can fill the spot, we will refund the whole deposit.
If you cancel within 1 business day/24 hours of your appointment, the deposit will not be refunded.
Single Service: 3 business days notice by phone or email. Less than 3 business days: 50% of service rate invoiced. One business day or less: 100% of service rate invoiced.
Total cancellation: We require 1 month/30 days notice to cancel recurring cleaning services.
Stat Holidays: We are closed and will contact you for rebooking or skipping.
Any cleans outside of Spruce Grove or Stony Plain are charged a small travel fee to cover the mileage to and from your home or location. This fee is $0.50 per kilometer from either our Stony Plain or our Spruce Grove office, whichever is closer to you! Our employees are paid for driving time and are reimbursed mileage for drives outside of Spruce and Stony.
We have a 1 hour arrival window. We always aim to be on time but many factors can affect this. 8 am appointments allow for a 15 minute arrival window unless road conditions are poor, we may arrive later.
Please allow for up to 1 hour of flexibility in the arrival and start time of your cleaning.
Please secure or safely stow precious items or valuables prior to your service. This will offer you peace of mind and eliminate potential accidents. Loose change on the floor may disappear in a vacuum, and small jewelry should be stored away from dusted or wiped areas so we can efficiently clean the area without fear of knocking something down a vent!
If we break or damage something in your home, we will do our best to make it right. We limit our liability, at a maximum, to the total value of your cleaning service for ANY claims that may arise.
Any damages or concerns must be reported to our office within 24 hours, an email along with photographs of the issue must be emailed to info@queendomcleaning.com. We will work with you to determine a solution. If we do not receive supporting photos and/or email responses to any attempt to discuss any issue with you within 24 hours of our initial response, we reserve the right to waive the issue and will not provide any compensation or pursue the issue further.
Using Client Provided Tools and Products
We do not use client provided tools (vacuums mostly) unless a damage waiver is signed. This is because our staff are only trained in the proper use of our tools and equipment. It would be unwise to have multiple staff members using equipment they are not familiar with. If use of client equipment is agreed upon, we will not be held responsible for equipment failures, damages, or ANY damages resulting from the use of client provided tools, equipment, or cleaning products and your acceptance (signature) of the quote signifies your agreement to waive any liability to Queendom Cleaning for these instances.
We use Bliss All Purpose Cleaner for almost everything, including floors. We dilute this product as directed on the label. We also use a Shower, Tub, and Tile product from Bliss Cleaning Products Canada on tubs, showers, and sinks.
Other than those, we use Bliss cleaning powder and Bliss cleaning cream on hard, non-porous surfaces as needed for deeper cleaning. You can review these at www.cleanbliss.ca.
If you have specialty surfaces in your home, we recommend reviewing these products and their ingredients to be sure they will be safe to use in your home. We have used all of these products for many years and have not encountered any issues. However, it is not possible to anticipate every surface in every home, or to train all of our staff to be able to differentiate between the many, many types of surface we may encounter.
If you have delicate or specialty surfaces in your home (such as bronze, untreated stone, unsealed wood floors), please let us know if you would like us to use our products or if you have acquired some specialty product for your surfaces.
We use gentle products to significantly reduce the potential for damage, however, we must again note here that we do not accept liability for damage to surfaces from the products we use, as we require clients to disclose specialty surfaces and provide products for them. If nothing is noted or disclosed, we will be unaware.
Clients are welcome to leave cash tips and gifts for cleaners if desired. It is very much appreciated, but absolutely not expected or required. In the case of tips, cash is best. Please do not add tips to e-transfer payments.
Our online payment system through Jobber now has a tip function and that way tips easily go directly to your cleaner :)
All our our team members are fully trained for a minimum of 2 weeks, depending on experience (often 3 weeks). After that we perform quality checks routinely. Our staff are bondable, insured, and covered by WCB and everybody provides a clear/negative criminal record check.
For scheduling, we try our best to send the same cleaner as often as possible. This way they get to know you, your pets, your home, and your preferences. But, as you know, life happens. Your assigned cleaner may change without notice if somebody is sick, if weather is causing transportation issues, or if you cleaner finds an opportunity to change jobs or changes their availability for us. We will do our best to let you know of these changes, but sometimes we have to make changes quickly and do not have time to notify our clients. If we are swapping clients between cleaners due to weather or availability changes, your cleaner will call the replacement to give them all the details they want them to know!
We can do laundry and will offer more information during the quote process. Please note that we will assume ZERO liability for laundry and laundry machines. If you would like laundry done, please only leave laundry for us that is a simple wash and dry process and that you are certain your machines can care for properly. When we say that we assume no liability for the machines as well, that is because any issues that may arise would be unforseen and likely could have happened to you if you were running the next load of laundry.
Quotes are based on the normal occupancy of the home at the time. If the number of human or animal occupants increases, the quote may be adjusted. If an occupant is sleeping in a bedroom while the service is in progress, our team will not enter the room and no discount will be applied to the invoice due to the skipped room. We do not apply discounts for removing rooms from the service when we arrive to clean, your time slot requires full payment of the applicable rate used to hold the spot.
There is not a ton you need to do before we come. The whole point is for you to be able to take a break! There are a couple of suggestions we have so you can make the most out of our service:
The more easily accessible space and surfaces we have to clean, the more detailed we can be! Whatever the case is, we will always do our best.
Any obvious bodily fluids etc. (both animal and human) will be strictly avoided. Locations with pest infestations, including mice, will be vacated immediately. This also includes excessive animal feces or urine. If unsanitary conditions or items are encountered, we reserve the right to immediately vacate the premises and will invoice accordingly.
Some activities may require a second person or management approval. A single cleaner cannot clean beyond arms reach on a one-step stool. If a team is present and a small step-ladder is provided, the ladder may be used. We do not clean outside. We do not push, pull, or lift heavy items or furniture at all. If you request furniture to be moved that cannot be lifted by one person, we will not be held liable for any damage caused by pushing or pulling furniture (eg. scratching floors). We recommend protecting the floor by using felt pads or similar, as you see fit.
We do not clean television screens (we dust them and wipe the frames).
You must provide permission to move large furniture in writing and release us from any liability related to damages that could be caused by dragging heavy furniture. If you would like large/heavy furniture cleaned behind, please move the unit for our technicians. This includes stoves and fridges – they will only be moved if deemed safe to do so (we do not want to scratch the floor).
We love them! If you feel better having your pet secured during your service, please let us know or have them ready for us. We cannot accept any responsibility for any incidents arising while we are in the home related to your pet. Our technicians are not permitted to let your pet outside.
From time to time, our team members make videos or take photos in the homes we clean. We will never take a photo of something personal or sensitive. The photos we take are used to showcase our work and will be posted on all social media channels. If you do not want photos or videos taken in your home, please let us know and we will honour your request.
Flat rate services are based on the assumption that the occupants (human and animal) and use of the home does not change. We still set a time limit for our technicians for this type of service. If we find we require more time than originally anticipated, we will update your rate so we can ensure we have the time to reach our standards of cleaning. All services are charged at a flat rate unless you have requested hourly cleaning and provided a priority list or have indicated that we may clean for as long as it takes.
If we have not cleaned your location for longer than two months, your next service will be charged by the hour so we can spend the time needed to do a good job.
Our hourly cleaning rate is $50/hour per cleaner (2 cleaners is $100 per hour) as of July 19th, 2021. Flat rates for routine cleaning (on-going services such as monthly and bi-weekly) are scheduled at a rate of $50/hour, though occasionally a flat rate cleaning service may take more or less time than regularly scheduled. We do not adjust rates if this is caused by the speed of the assigned employee.
Initial, move in, move out, deep cleans, etc., are all estimated and charged by the hour. You will only pay for the time we clean.
Hourly cleaning is booked per cleaner plus GST and our hourly rate is subject to change at any time. If it changes, current bookings will not change. An hourly cleaning estimate is an estimate only. If you would like to set a priority list we can do that, and our team will clean those areas first and move on to other tasks after they are finished, but will only stay until your time limit is reached. Otherwise, our team will clean until the required tasks are complete, regardless of the time booked and of the estimated time. We are usually pretty close in our estimates, but when we get down to the deep corners we may find we have underestimated. Our team will attempt to notify you if this is the case.
We are happy to accommodate limited time arrangements, but must stress that we recommend allowing us to quote you for the full clean. We do not want you to be disappointed if you have expectations beyond what we can complete in your specified amount of time. This is why it is our policy that we do not guarantee the completion of any or all tasks requested if we are operating on a restricted amount of time.