Being a 'Molly'

Sandy DeTar and her employees get a peek into their customers lives that is different from most other business people. While other employers go off a resume and conversation with the people they work with, DeTar and her staff are in residents homes.

DeTar and her husband, Curt, the owners of a Molly Maid franchise in Sparks, are in the business of housekeeping and find the service-oriented career is an opportunity to be their own boss while providing some much-needed help for customers who may be more concerned about keeping food on the table than keeping their house squeaky clean.

Its interesting, DeTar said. During the holidays you get to see all the homes decorated and its a nice sight. But you do get a glimpse into a wide variety of living situations.

DeTar personally consults with customers who can have all of part of their house or apartment dusted, vacuumed, cleaned, scrubbed, polished and straightened as needed. Employees work on baseboards, fixtures, appliances and floors of all surfaces. DeTar declined to give a range of prices because competitive nature of the industry, but said she determines her prices based on the amount of time needed to complete the requested cleaning. Cleanings can be on a one-time basis or fixed on a monthly or weekly basis, depending on need.

She has nine full-time employees and one part-time, on-call person to cover during vacations or special days.

We have (customers with) very large homes that might be two-level and they want their whole house cleaned, she said. We will clean anyone who needs and requests for it. No job is too much.

The only impediment to Molly Maid accepting a customer would be for health reasons, she said.

Were not going to clean a home that would not be safe for our employees, whether its a health or hygiene issue, DeTar said. Theres rarely an incident where that happens, but we would not go in and clean a house where theres drug paraphernalia or a blood or safety hazard.

The job is not without its challenges, DeTar shared.

I had done an estimate on the house and the owners said they would pick up the house, DeTar said. But when we got there, it was totally in disarray and there were kids toys and clothes, dishes in the sink, the stoves were not cleaned up and had spills.

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Being a 'Molly'