Bismarck Tribune

By VIRGINIABy VIRGINIAGRANTIER

It was quite the shower scene, unexpected, emotional. Eyes started to get moist.

"She (the shower owner) almost started crying,"remembers Kathy Braun, 42, of Bismarck.

Braun, a local independent cleaning professional who has about 20 clients, including homes and businesses, remembers being surprised at the intense reaction the woman had after seeing that Braun had been able to somehow, some way, rid the woman's shower stall of a substantial amount of accumulated soap scum.

"It took a lot of work (to clean it)," Braun said.

She told her client what the solution was to rid her life of scum forever:Don't use bar soap. Use liquid soap.

Braun and other local cleaning pros shared some of the their cleaning tips with the Tribune recently.

Those interviewed all came from different backgrounds. But there was at least one similarity.All said the same thing about their energy level: They've got tons of it. Braun, for example - a 118-pounder wearing a gray knitted cap on top of a headful of long streamers of blond curls. She, in some of her free time, also races motorcycles and placed fourth in the 2005 state motocross competition.

Energy is good to have when just one expansive executive-type home can take up to five hours to clean and then it's on to another house.

Braun went to college for a while in Fargo studying early childhood education and then started working in day care. But she turned to cleaning for a career when she realized there was more money in it. And now, Braun, who's single with two Pomeranian dogs, said her clients are more like family to her. "They treat me like family,"she said.

Some of her tips for people who want to make cleaning less burdensome:Do it regularly.

"You can't let it go too long,"she said. "If you clean every two weeks, it's easier to keep up on things."

So she said that at least every two weeks, get the basics done - floors, vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, kitchen.

Braun also doesn't believe in all those things and products that make cleaning faster. Like mops.

Braun, with her knee pads, gets down on hands and knees with a sponge to clean floors.

"You get every little speck (that way),"she said. "With a mop, you're just swishing it around."

Braun will use the products her clients want her to use, but for those who give her freedom to choose, she prefers to use this:a quarter of a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water.

She said it works beautifully on hardwood floors, which she then wipes dry with a soft cloth. Vinegar doesn't leave a lingering odor like chemical solutions, and it works on other floors, surfaces and about everything else.

"You could use vinegar to clean the whole house," she said.

And baking soda can be used to clean sinks and other areas in place of abrasive cleaners.

"I don't like harsh cleaners because I have to breathe that in,"she said.

Another thing: She also uses vinegar water or olive oil to take streaks off of stainless steel appliances.

"Someone told me about the olive oil and I didn't believe it, but it works,"she said.

Her clients ask her how she gets their water fixtures so shiny. Her secret: Braun uses window cleaner on the fixtures, she said.

Here's another one:Braun said she knows a lot of people buy expensive paper towels, but don't - for window cleaning, anyway.

Pricey towels leave lint on the windows. Cheap paper towels don't. And, once again, she's recommending her vinegar water - and a squeegee.

She said basic ammonia is good for tough cleaning jobs, but don't get it close to woodwork "It's kind of harsh" and don't use it on ceramic tile.

"I found out it dries out the grouting in ceramic tile."

Another local cleaning pro is Carlene Dockter, 58, of rural Burleigh County, who has about 30 years of experience and a waiting list. She starts at 8 a.m. and isn't home until late, usually. Her husband once told her he was going to have to hire a cook and cleaning lady.

"I'm awfully busy," said Dockter, who cleans about 15 houses and does upkeep in the hallways of about 30 apartment buildings. She got into cleaning after a career as a "beauty operator" wasn't lucrative enough - back in the day when they only worked for commissions.

The cleaning business has its awkward moments - like when she went outside to clean the glass door and locked herself out at a time when the homeowner was asleep and not easy to wake up.

She has her own way of doing things. She said she uses the vacuum on floors instead of a broom. That keeps down the dust.

And she uses nylon sponges that have a nylon net on top instead of wet rags. "They're smaller, and they're less cumbersome for scrubbing down areas … countertops in the kitchen, vanities."

And she always dries off surfaces to prevent streaking. The best towels for that, by far, are terry cloth, she said.

Cleaning pro Mandy Vollmer, 65, of Bismarck, said her essential supplies include knee pads and an old toothbrush for toilet hinges and other hard-to-reach spots.

Cleaning pro Threasa Tillery, 35, of Bismarck, advises getting a small container to carry all supplies in so everything is on hand as you clean.

Like Dockter, she also uses a vacuum with a hose attachment on the floors instead of a broom.

Tillery, who's been in the cleaning business for seven years, said she never knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. But even before she got into the cleaning business, she was always the "cleaner" type, liked to keep things ship-shape. "I'm like my grandmother," she said.

One not-so-fun cleaning day was when she discovered a Minot house's lower level, which was maintained, somewhat, by the couple's children, had an impressive amount of cat feces dried to the carpeting.

"I've run into a couple of bad ones," she said.

One homeowner had her cleaning the outside of a sliding glass door in the winter with a windshield washer type mixture.

"The temperature was maybe 10 or 15 degrees," she remembers. "That was going above and beyond. … It was too cold."

She advises that when someone begins cleaning a house, get the big stuff out of the way first - and for her, that's the kitchen and bathroom, the rooms that tire her out the most.

She uses a well-known brand of biodegradable products. "They're better for the environment."

Last, and maybe most important, Tillery said she knows people who can spend a whole weekend cleaning their home. So, her biggest piece of advice would be the following:

"Hire a cleaning lady,"she said, and laughed.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)