- What kind of experience do you have? We are a husband and wife team that owns Debi Does Houses residential and office cleaning. We have handled several clutter situations ranging from just a few hours to several weeks. We routinely do deep, spring, and move in/out cleans on properties. We are bonded against theft for $10,000.
- When was Debi Does Houses and East Texas Hoarding Cleanup started? Although, they are one and the same we started Debi Does Houses in Early 2011. Hoarding Cleanup came around several months after starting the residential cleaning business.
- How do you complete the job? How long? Depends on the level of the situation. We do a walk through and sit down to work up a bid on the property. We look at overall square footage. Level of clutter, trash removal, determine number of hauling days involved. A one room situation could most likely be done in a week. A 2,000 square foot house with a garage may take 2-6 weeks. We do hoarding cleanups generally in the hours not serviced by our regular clients. We determine how many people we may need. If the situation needs to be done very quickly then we would consider hiring additional help in order to speed the process up.
- Do you clean the property? Yes, we do a deep cleaning of the property after removal of the hoarding or clutter situation. This involves doing baseboards, window seals, bathrooms, kitchen, living areas, and bedrooms. If there is a garage in question we also sweep as much dirt, bugs, etc out of the area as possible. (please keep in mind that some older homes need restoration to look visually better)(paint, new carpet)- please check www.debidoeshouses.com under Services for what comes with a Deep Clean.
- Do you carpet clean? No, however we can help you locate someone that best fits your needs and work out something to get your carpet cleaned.
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Are there any properties you will not service? Yes, any properties with bio hazard situations. This would be crime scene cleanup, fire restoration, animal hoarding, excessive amounts of feces, or blood.
- What are your service areas? We currently service Longview, White Oak, Gladewater, and Hallsville for Hoarding and Estate Cleans. Because these jobs are essentially done during our off hours or weekends. We may literally work on them for a few hours to all day. We need these to be within a reasonable driving distance in order to get to the property daily for upwards of 5 weeks.
- How are these jobs priced? Hoarding jobs cost like $10,000? Although, most extreme hoarding jobs can be expensive. We are unique because we charge for supplies, labor, and gas. All worked into a hourly estimation and then priced via flat rate. We are generally more inexpensive because we do work on these more spread out than a service that is going to complete it in 2 or 3 days (they hire 10-20 people and charge you for it). That being said we can hire additional help and if our schedule warrants will work to complete them very quick if needed. We tend to be around 50% of a lot of services. Because we use flat bed trailers, trucks but, not big expensive equipment with a load of people. The quicker you need it done will influence price.
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What forms of payment do you take? Using our website at www.debidoeshouses.com a person can pay via PayPal (Visa, Mastercard, ECheck). We also accept cash or check. We do require half payment upfront on the labor, all gas up front, and supply expenses at the end of the job.
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Do I have to throw everything away? No, we can donate to Goodwill, Salvation Army, or if it books your City Library. We ask that you tag large items that will stay on the property if your able to reach them. Then we ask that everything else be either thrown away or donated. Pre-tagging items can greatly save on time and money! It saves a lot of unneeded sorting. Which can cause much more added time.
- Will I need to rent a dumpster? Maybe. Depends on several factors. How much trash your City allows for pickup (Longview Texas generally has no limits however, we have been limited). If the City has a 5 bag limit then you most likely will need dumpster rental or trash haul off. We can take the trash to a dump site at a added cost. Generally it is around .75 cents per bag. Keep in mind a large job could have several hundred bags of trash. Generally, a dumpster may cost around $300-$500 a week.
- Why should I hire anyone? Can I not just do it myself? You can. However, you are looking at a enormous amount of free time lost. The reason that people hire us is to save on free time. That's whether it's house cleaning, estate cleans, or hoarding cleanups. Most of these jobs take several hundred man hours. If there is only one person then it can take you every free weekend day for 6 months to do what we can do in several days or a few weeks. And in most cases it becomes over-whelming and people hire someone anyway.
- How can I possibly afford this? We can work with you in a few different ways. We could do half payment up front. And then we could agree to work several hours a week, a month, every other month until it is completed. 10 hours of labor with 2 people each month for several months can help. The point is to NOT let it continue to grow. And worsen.
- Why do you require half payment up front? It is simple. We have to get paid for gas, supplies up front. We may have to travel to your location to work on the job for 3 hours every day for a 30 days straight. I have to pay my hauler/trailer up front. I have to pay for garbage bags. And I have to pay for cleaning supplies. Also, these jobs are extremely hard and taxing. I have to know we are going to get paid for at least some of our labor. We try to minimize paying a hauler for more than just a 2 or 3 days. We use hauling days. Get everything ready to be hauled and have him come get it. However, we could also charge you in segments. In other words. If you want us to come for 12 hours in a week. I will charge you the hourly rate, gas, and supplies for just that week. Then if you want to wait and month and have us come back we can.
- Are hoarding jobs the same as estate clean ups? Many hoarding cleanups are in fact estate clean outs. People living out of state inherit a house. It's full. Needs to be cleaned out to be flipped, sold, or rented. However, they can not travel here and put in 300 hours to get it ready. We do that. The difference between us and a actual estate clean up company is we WILL NOT work for the items in the house as payment. We can move certain tags items to a location in the house so you may sell them or auction them later. Remember something important. People see coffee makers, CD players, old TV's and believe there is money there. There is very very little money in these items. Pennies on the dollar. Go to any garage sale. It's easier to get rid of it or donate it. These kinds of items are time consuming and there is little pay off. Be weary of old records and books. Most people believe if they find a record from the 50's it's worth money. Maybe $1.50. It's got to be something really rare to be worth something. You may easily become a hoarder yourself if you choose to keep items here and there.
- We come out to the location. For hoarding or estate cleans we will remove our signs from our vehicles. We want this to be a discreet cleanup.
- We will walk through the property room by room. We will take notes. We will begin a process to determine how many trash bags are needed. Is a dumpster needed? We determine with you what can or do you want donated. We determine if there will be a trailer and hauler needed.
- We determine how many man hours it will take to rid the property of the clutter. Then we determine how long it will take to do a deep cleaning on the property after the clutter/junk has been removed.
- We will determine how long would it take if you chose to try to handle the situation on your own. The benefit to hiring us is you keep your free time. (Our last situation took 300 man hours. 4 people. Working over the course of 5 weeks) - If one person tried to tackle that kind of work level they would have to work for 18.75 weekends to complete the job. Almost a half of a year.
