Jane Brook sits at the bottom of the scarp on the eastern edge of the City of Swan, and cleaning a home here is genuinely a different job in July than it is in January. That is not a poetic observation. It changes what a visit should spend its time on, and it is the main thing we ask about before quoting.
A lot of homes on this side of Perth run a wood heater or an open fire through winter, and ash does not stay in the firebox. Fine grey dust settles on the hearth, the floor in front of it, nearby shelves and the top of anything within a couple of metres. Over a season it also leaves a faint film on the wall above the heater and on the glass door itself.
That work is straightforward once it is expected. The hearth and surrounds get done properly, the heater glass gets cleaned rather than smeared, and the room the fire is in gets more time than it would in summer.
One thing we will not do is empty a firebox that has been used recently. Ash holds heat for days, and there is no safe way for a cleaner to judge that from looking at it. If the ash bucket needs emptying, tell us and we will do it when the fire has been out long enough that it is not a risk. If in doubt we will leave it and say so.
The other winter reality here is what comes in on shoes and wheels. Wet ground on larger blocks means the entry, the hallway and the laundry take a beating in a way they do not for six months of the year. A mat inside and outside the main door does more than any amount of mopping, and if that is not practical for you we will just plan more time at the entries.
Come summer it flips. The problem stops being mud and becomes fine dust through screens and open doors, insects on sills and light fittings, and the tracks of sliding doors filling up. Same house, different job.
If your reticulation runs on a bore, you will already know what it does. Iron in the water leaves an orange or brown stain on glass, window frames, rendered walls, paving and anything else the sprinklers reach.
It is worth being straight about this. That staining is a mineral deposit, not dirt, and ordinary cleaning does not shift it. What we can do is keep the inside of the glass clean, keep it from getting worse where sprinklers are hitting a window, and tell you honestly when a mark needs a specialist product rather than another pass with a cloth. What we will not do is charge you for scrubbing something that was never going to come off.
Fortnightly works for most households. A number of participants out this way run a tighter schedule through winter, when the fire is going and the ground is wet, and stretch it out again over summer. That is easy to arrange and it is a sensible use of funded hours rather than paying the same rate for a house that needs less.
Weekly suits homes where very little gets done between visits. Monthly is enough if you manage the everyday jobs yourself and only need the heavier work.
A deep clean at the end of winter is a genuinely useful booking here. It clears out a season of ash and soot film, gets into tracks, skirtings and door frames, and covers inside the oven and behind what can be moved safely.
We also do one-off cleans after illness or a hospital stay, and vacate cleans at the end of a tenancy.
Washing, hanging or drying, folding, putting away and changing the bed can all form part of a visit. Winter is the harder half of the year for it here, because getting a load dry on a wet week is not simple, so if laundry is part of what you need help with it is worth planning the day around the weather rather than the calendar.
Not every NDIS plan pays for cleaning. Where it does, help with household tasks was approved as a support connected to the participant’s disability, decided from their goals, their assessed needs and the supports already in the plan. It is an individual decision, so nobody can tell you the answer by looking at someone else’s situation.
We are a Registered NDIS Provider, registration number 4053371406. We are not able to approve funding or promise that a plan covers cleaning. Your plan manager, support coordinator or NDIA contact is the right person for that conversation.
Where a participant shares the home with family or housemates, funded cleaning relates to that participant’s disability-related support needs rather than the household’s general housework. We write down the rooms and tasks so the boundary is visible rather than assumed.
Self-managed participants book with us directly and receive the invoice. Plan-managed participants pass on their plan manager’s details and we invoice there instead. NDIA-managed participants need a registered provider, which we are, so the claim goes through the agency.
We work through it with you at the house or over the phone: the rooms, the heating, the entries, how we get in, who else may be home and anything that should not be touched. You get a written quote before any work starts, and a time that fits around the rest of your week.
We also clean in Swan View, Stratton, Midvale, Koongamia, Bellevue, Middle Swan, Woodbridge, Viveash, Herne Hill, Red Hill, Baskerville, Millendon, Upper Swan, Brigadoon, Caversham, Malaga, Mundaring and Gidgegannup.
See also our Perth NDIS cleaning page and the full Western Australia suburb list.
Yes, that is a normal part of a winter visit. Emptying hot or recently used ash is the part we will not do without knowing the fire has been out for a while.
Usually not with ordinary cleaning, because it is mineral staining from bore water rather than dirt. We will tell you what we think it needs instead of pretending otherwise.
Yes, and out here it often should. Tell us and we will set it up that way.
Yes. If you would rather we used your vacuum or your products, leave them out and tell us, and we will.
Call 1300 525 336 or email info@smurfettescleaningservice.net, tell us whether you run a wood heater and whether the reticulation is on bore water, and we will quote a Jane Brook visit that suits the season you are actually in.
Phone: 1300 525 336
Email: info@smurfettescleaningservice.net
