Winter cleaning has begun

December first is the start of the miserable winter cleaning routes where I spend most of my time cleaning entries of stores and hospitals on a weekly basis. They are just a quick 45 minute job, but I'll cover 6 of them per week....pays about $850.

It is hard to call it cleaning as it is mostly just rinsing away all the ice melt, but it helps pay the bills and does one heck of a job at product placement as you are blocking the entrance each time. I always have a container of business cards mounted on the side of the van as well as a few in my pocket...normally had out several each week.

It is crappy work though as they are all evening jobs when the temps are at their lowest and sucking salt is not real rewarding as they end up looking like crap after just a couple of days. These guys must buy ice melt by the tanker truck!

My goal is to try a new ice melt remover each week to see which one works best for the money and post the results. I don't really expect any surprises, but there might be a real secret out there waiting to be exposed....I would love to find one that did the job well, inexpensive, and smelled clean.

First stage will be on Friday...might test a few (thanks for the suggestions) on that date since the temps will be in the upper 20's at least. There will be weeks where it is single digit temps and you are essentially working outside the whole time...tough on the body and tough to get heat to the carpet.

Once again...hate winter.

You know as bad as a lot of that sounds, the sound of that steady winter income sounds good to me......be Grateful you have it. I've had the steady income before but no longer do, and I'd rather put up with the crap it takes to have it, and the not worrying about how to pay the bills, than not.

Davey Cracker wrote:You know as bad as a lot of that sounds, the sound of that steady winter income sounds good to me......be Grateful you have it.  I've had the steady income before but no longer do, and I'd rather put up with the crap it takes to have it, and the not worrying about how to pay the bills, than not.

Thanks for the reminder....winter is always a nervous time for business and not having the holiday crush this year makes it feel even worse. You're right, having some steady work is a good thing, but I will be singing for my supper. I just can't help but think back to my California days cleaning in Laguna......big difference, lucky bastards.

Yea, I don't mean to sound like an ass here, but for whatever reason the holiday season has always been slow for me, and the reason I say I know that steady income is nice.......especially now that I don't have it.

It always seems to work out, but the worrying about it happening, sure seems to age me.

so its 850 a week??? for 6 accts at roughly 45 a piece??

yea thats pretty good clean up during the slowest part of the year

Floorguy wrote:so its 850 a week???  for 6 accts at roughly 45 a piece??

yea thats pretty good clean up during the slowest part of the year

I often spend too much time on them the first couple of weeks before getting the system worked out, but after that, about 45 minutes. I wish it was all gravy, but they are located in 2 towns about 20 miles apart, so fuel costs eat into the contracts more than I would like.

Still, I am thankful for them, I know a lot about worrying and I didn't get these grey hairs from nothing.

dealing with the cold here too Mil, not really bad but its been getting into the 20s.

I used to not mind it at all but its annoying when I have stuff all over that I have to worry about freezing. No chance of heating my shop it would cost me a fortune.