Cleaning services are bustling during the pandemic

As soon as the pandemic hit, Christine Gilmer got calls. Lots of them. Many homeowners and, especially, business owners wanted her cleaning staff to scrub out any possible trace of COVID-19.

Gilmer is president of Mopology, of Woodstock, and COVID-19 spurred so many new jobs that she opened a satellite business in Peru last summer. Gilmer already was busy and not necessarily looking to expand, but her existing clients had properties in Starved Rock Country with no one to clean for them.

“They found, as we did, that a lot of cleaning services decided, ‘Oh, this virus is not for me. I don’t want to do this,’ ” Gilmer said. “So a lot of people dropped out of the cleaning business.”

Those who stayed in the cleaning business often work dawn to dusk. Gilmer said she’s lost a few longtime residential customers since the pandemic – elderly and at-risk clients want no visitors – but that for every cancellation, there are new clients who want their homes or businesses virus-free.

“It’s been a wacky year,” Gilmer said. “I’m really looking forward to this summer to see if some of the state restrictions are lifted and for our (residential) customers to see that it is safe.”

Her competitors expressed similar sentiments and observed that with the soaring workload, big headaches have come. Staff shortages are a problem, supplies are harder to replenish, and the costs of keeping clients and workers safe have cut into the bottom line.

Andy Kunkel, owner of Andy’s Karpet Kleaning in Seatonville, said he had to get an industrial disinfectant to spray down his equipment before and after every job.

“So it’s taking a little more time, and it’s a little more costly,” Kunkel said, “but you can’t pass along all those costs to the customer.”

Teresa Anderson owns the Illinois Valley Clean Team Inc. in La Salle, and she’s spending more time on the phone with customers discussing how to reduce infection. Anderson last year added a 10-point protocol to disinfect high-touch areas such as light switches and doorknobs at the end of each cleaning.

As with Gilmer, Anderson expects business to pick up this summer. Not only will elderly clients get vaccinated and open their doors again, but Anderson believes that “as children return to sports and clients go back to their offices, we will be needed even more,” she said.

Cleaners also are working amid full households. Before the pandemic, Illinois Valley Clean Team would be greeted by a lone homeowner who’d step out of the way for staff to begin scouring. Now houses are full, and staff members work around kids with tablets.

“There was an adjustment period for both our technicians and clients,” Anderson said. “Our staff has learned to work around our clients and their children who are working and learning remotely from home. We have learned to be flexible in operating our equipment so that our clients can quietly continue their work.”

Challenges remain, including maintaining her inventory of cleaning supplies.

“Another change is the wait time, limited availability and pricing of supplies,” Anderson said. “Supplies are limited and are back-ordered for as long as two months. We have learned to keep a close watch on our supplies and closely track all orders.”

Cleaning products aren’t merely vanishing at the industrial level. Retail cleansing products have sold briskly, as well.

Cash-back platform Ibotta has charted cleaning supply purchases and found that Americans generally have bought cleansers and antibacterial solutions in larger volumes since the pandemic began.

Ibotta took the analysis a step further and calculated which states had the highest year-over-year sales increases, finding that Illinois cracked the top 10. Perhaps because Chicago and the Metro East were among the first urban areas to record hospitalizations and deaths, Illinois had the ninth-largest increase in sales of cleaning agents.