Are geting to old to be cleaning carpet?

It always amazes me when O/O talk about cleaning 4-7 jobs a day. How the heck do you guys do it? If do 3 jobs one day I am beat. I noticed that as I start to age I pace myself a little more and let my body rest. I had a few jobs this weekend along with some maintenance on the van and it just wiped me out. I had the option of cleaning today but decided I was going to let my body rest, life is too short to be working your ass. Don't get me wrong I'm a beast when working but I just don't recover like I used to. Anybody spare some Geritol?

Maybe you just to start over? I restart my clock after each return from the dead, so I am only 7 years old right now.

I don't think anyone is doing 4-7 full houses a day by themselves, at least not very often. I clean mostly empties and after the 3rd house, my 7 year old body is done for the day.

The secret is being very efficient or having some helpers do the labor intensive stuff (loading / unloading, moving furniture and blocking, etc.). Then those 4-7 houses aren't so difficult.

One of the secrets of being efficient is investing in the right tools. When I first started there were very few TM's. I used an old Clark drag machine hooked up to a faucet with a drain hose to the toilet. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! You've probably never heard of a Bates 1511 portable. Looked like R2D2. Worked great but heavy as hell. Here's my list of things to make my cleaning life easier.

RX-20 for super dirty jobs.
Inline sprayer for nearly everything.
The right pre-sprays
Wands with glides, even the stair tool.
Power take off TM (Hydramaster)
Chevy Express Access van.
Electric re-wind suction hose reel
Live pressure hose reel
Live water hose reel
Four to door filter
I'll think of more give me time

Excellent list....I was considering one of those Access vans, really like the concept.

How could I forget the Cimex? One of the best investments I've made.

I'm with you, Mo! I'm too old n tired to be doing that many jobs a day!! The last time I did 5-7 jobs in a day was 15+ years ago, and like Rob I was doing a lot of vacants then........making money by doing volume.

But I've always prefered to make money by what I consider the easier way. Doing one or two Residential jobs a day, because that's where the money's at for me.

When I was doing 6 vacants a day, I was probably averaging $4-500 cleaning and repairs/re-stretching here and there. Today and two days last week I did 1.5 to 2 times that amount$$ doing one res. job that I spent anywhere from 5-7 hrs at (all day for me). ....To me that's the easier way, less driving and setup just once, which is less fuel burned, & being less time & money spent.

I've never had a problem giving prices, selling, or just asking for money for my service so doing $600-1,000 jobs is common, so a couple of those a week, and then the smaller $400 and less jobs, one or two a day works for me......make more work less, the older I get the better that works.

If you're afraid to ask for the money to do big jobs, then I guess you're forced to do it by volume, which I think is the norm in this biz.

Am I getting too old to be cleaning??...........Yes I think so!!

Hey I hear you but I think it keeps you young in a way, I watched my grandpa decline very very fast after he stopped doing the grind of work. I also see it in my dad, He has not worked in years now but he has lost touch with reality in a way,
I honestly think that we all have a routine and once you break that things start to go down hill.
I am not saying that I like going out and busting my butt but and killing myself but or routine keeps us going maybe not as much as when we were younger.
I tell my wife I don't know how I worked like I did when I was in drywall, I think my body would fall apart if I even attempted to do what I did back then, I held the record of 100 boxes of taping mud in one day. We have a picture of my kids and I back then and I honestly looked sickly I was so skinny.
Tomorrow 8:30 am doctors appointment, after that 6 jobs I have to bust out.
We just got back from a trip down to Tony's shop in so cal have a awesome time, Just got back this afternoon.
I have to say Tony treated us ( Wife and I ) to a very very nice weekend and it was really awesome to see his shop. I wish I could have had lunch we Gerson but he had a full weekend.
Tony said he had meet some of you and said you all were really great and enjoyed meeting all of you.

I love my job, it feels me with great joy when customers tell me that I did a great job. I don't really think of retirement yet,my wife thinks of that for me, but I feel I will die working, I enjoy the times I do get to take a break from work, more as I get older, but I also get pumped up when I know I have a full day ahead of me.
I love my job so much more than my drywall company

What's ironic is I got into this business because I want to do physical work after sitting on my ass for most of my working life.

You're doing those six jobs by yourself or with a helper?

Are they all home, apartments" Six different locations? How many miles are you logging for those six jobs?

2 residents the rest are empties. By my lonesome.
We map them so we just keep heading up the Valley and end at the top. No back tracking if that happens it throws everything off.
Also if they are not ready we don't wait we don't come back. They get set up to next available time, when we get busy we just can't afford to wait for them, all of or PM work is set up that way and they have always been very understanding, They have lock boxes so I can just start out earlier the next day or fit them in the next day. I have only had one that had to wait for 3 days to get back to it.

On the way home today we had two text in and say unit # is ready to do after 1:00 pm.
The other unit # is ready for carpet clean tomorrow
Little do they know I am jamb packed so they will have to wait but it is just the way we are with them, they will send texts at 11:30 at night letting me know they need me to come clean.
It is more like a friendship biz with them. They have just gotten so used to us getting things done that they call and text at all times of the night. I like it that way personally I like them to feel that comfortable to know they can just call and I will do my best to get them taken care of.
They have all told me that they really just like the fact that they can just give me a call, bs about life and whats been going on.
We go to there parties and biz get together's it is really cool.

Mo I really like the music bar so relaxing

That's the second person to mention the music in the last week, I thought it had been removed because I no longer see it, haven't in months actually........I wonder why.

Cool I didn't think it was working. Is the player at the top of the page or a widget on the side? Does it play if you close your browser and sign back in?

I appears like a tool bar at the top of the page. I like it so much I just open up a new tab page so I can listen to it while I am cruising the web:lol:
It doesn't just play I have to click it to play

I think that player is glitchy gotta find another one

SCCC wrote:I appears like a tool bar at the top of the page. I like it so much I just open up a new tab page so I can listen to it while I am cruising the web:lol:  
It doesn't just play I have to click it to play

Thanks Tom

Started late today around 1:30 pm left the house to help my crew, did a sectional on one job and 1 room and a hall ( 420 Sq ft ) on the 2nd job, then an office estimate, got home by 5, not bad for the amount of work to be completed in 3.5 hours including drive time, I can do 5 - 6 jobs by myself as long as I don't hit too much traffic and no high rises.
I agree with what Dave is saying, the problem with that is not that often people need that much work in one home, I'm all for higher priced work as long as they're available, if not I'll take what's available and coming at me

I just gave my son a raise to spur a little more interest in helping after school. Nothing beats a second hand when it comes to speeding up production time and extending the life of a cleaner. that cleaners being me.

Mo wrote:I just gave my son a raise to spur a little more interest in helping after school. Nothing beats a second hand when it comes to speeding up production time and extending the life of a cleaner. that cleaners being me.

That is very true...if they work well with you. Otherwise, it is like the old joke we used to tell in the Marines: If one person can clean a rifle in 30 minutes, then add another person to clean that same rifle and it will take twice as long.

Always have to factor in the goofing off component. Hard to goof off when alone.

I did notice he took a little bit longer to clean that upholstery after he got his raise

well my day has come to a end, after Doc's appointment
Do first job, go to second one get it done, get to third and lady asks me Hey I heard you do tile?... Yes I do tile, oh great go ahead and do entry,hall,kitchen,dining room okay....
OH boy, my butt is gonna be dragging tonight.
Half way through the job get a text to postpone next two jobs
Painter, and plumber didn't show up so its a no go for today.
moved to Thursday.
Get the tile done, head out to last one 3 bedroom town house
but it was left in really good shape so I was pretty easy to get it done but still 5:30 and had to go drop off some keys, Oh and while I was at town house one of my PM clients swings by and hands me some keys to some jobs she wants done tomorrow, Says to me I thought I would save you a trip and drop the keys to you....Her house is @ 1/4 mile down the road. I was very happy I don't have to track down keys tomorrow.

I am lucky the two got moved because no way I was walking away from the tile, that's the easy money.

^^

Hell of a day. Today is another day just gotta jube up the old bones and all be on my way