Natural Home Clean news

Five years of dirt, dust and born-again sofas
What’s it feel like after five years of cleaning? Near death experience? Life sentence? Not a bit of it, it’s time to celebrate, laughs Watford and Rickmansworth dry carpet cleaning specialist Debi King.

Commissioning of a particularly large chocolate and caramel cake in the eco-friendly company colours of brown and green has marked five years of hard work, carpet makeovers, and building a long list of clients. Many are often surprised how dilapidated-looking floor coverings can be turned back into the magnificent pile carpets they once were.

What began as a chance meeting between Debi and a dry cleaning machine owned by a friend is now a thriving business across west Hertfordshire and south Buckinghamshire. She has worked in a wide range of venues since 2009, including schools, offices, sports clubs/centres, hundreds of homes, and even a canal barge.

Upholstery service expands
Debi's company, Natural Home Clean, has numerous regular customers. But this year Debi hopes for a substantial rise in upholstery clients, now that she has bought an Aridex deep cleaning machine. It cleans most fabric coverings and mattresses, using a quick-drying, eco-friendly foam cleaner. A vast majority of sofas are dry within two hours, and dining room chairs can be dry in as little as 15 minutes after cleaning.

Debi says it’s the relationships with customers that really make her job worthwhile. ‘I want to thank everyone who has supported me and my staff. I’m eternally grateful for all those clients, particularly my regulars, who have stuck by me and got my business to where it is today.’

Garden walls, boats and dust to die for
Red-faced, she recalls knocking over the garden wall of her very first customer, Diane Clarke, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. ‘I was backing out of the drive and nudged the wall which fell over in one piece. I was incredibly embarrassed and paid for the repair.’ Three months later, though, she was asked back to clean for one, then two of her client’s daughters, and later the family’s investment flat.

The most unusual venue was a canal barge at Aston Clinton, Bucks, premises for a sandwich delivery service. “It took two hours to empty all the contents onto the bank, then just minutes to clean the carpet! We began cleaning his kitchen regularly and, shortly after, my customer got a five-star rating for hygiene from the food inspectors.”

Her worst assignment was an end-of-tenancy clean of a town house after a year’s occupation by three young men, who’d never picked up a duster. “Every surface was thick with dust. We were ill for a week after breathing it all in. It was awful.” Despite heavy evidence of curries and chip-frying in the kitchen, “they’d never used the oven, which was spotless!”

Key role of regular customers
But regular clients are what make the business tick over. Chrissie Jenkins runs Country Life insurance brokers (www.countrylifeinsurance.co.uk) in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire. Two months after a chance meeting with Chrissie at a business networking group, Debi began regularly cleaning the Country Life offices. She took on a second client in the same building, started cleaning Chrissie’s house and carpets, then her mother’s carpets, and later her cousin's. ‘I have a lot to thank regular clients like Chrissie for,’ says Debi. ‘My customers are what makes it worth getting up in the morning. Here’s to all my clients – and the next five years!’

Get a dry-clean date in your diary now. For a free quotation, call Debi King on 07967 372005; (Herts office) 01923 510914; (Bucks office) 01296 319744. Email: naturalhomeclean@yahoo.co.uk

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