Love2Clean

Remember those shower tiles from our last Cleaner's Eye post.

The ones that looked fairly clean....

Until we started removing layers of built-up soap residue and discovered the actual colour of the tiles underneath.

Well, we promised we'd show you the finished results.

No magic product.
No five-minute miracle.

Just the right products, the right tools, plenty of detailed work and a fair amount of patience.

This is exactly why bathrooms can take so long during a deep clean.

Sometimes it's something that looked clean enough, until you see what clean actually looks like.

Cleaner's Eye
Behind the scenes at Love2Clean.

It Started With One. It Became Us. 💗

When I started these posts, I wanted to open the door a little on Love2Clean.

Not just the cleaning.

Not just the before and afters.

But the part of the business that people don't really see.

The experiences that shaped me.

The things I've learned.

And the kind of company I'm trying to build because of them.

Over the last few posts, I've talked about what it felt like to be an employee.

Why appreciation matters.

Why I'll choose attitude over experience.

And why I believe that if you expect people to care about your business, you have a responsibility to care about them too.

Which brings me to probably the biggest thing I've learned of all.

Every business starts as someone's idea.

Love2Clean started as mine.

Just one person, one idea and absolutely no way of knowing where it was going to lead.

In the beginning, it was just me.

I answered the phone.

I did the cleans.

I sent the quotes.

I worried when the phone didn't ring... and then when it wouldn't stop.

But somewhere along the way, something changed.

It stopped being just mine.

Because no business truly exists because of one person.

It exists because of the people who choose to believe in the idea and help bring it to life.

Every person who has put on a Love2Clean T-shirt and walked into a client's home carrying our name with them has become part of what this company is.

They've brought their own personalities.

Their own strengths.

Their own ideas.

Their own terrible jokes.

They've supported each other through hard days, celebrated the good ones, learned together, laughed together and helped Love2Clean become something I could never have created on my own.

And maybe that's the part of building a business nobody really tells you about.

You start out thinking you're building your company.

Then one day you look around and realise...

you're building something together.

I'm proud that I started Love2Clean.

I'll always be proud that I took that first chance on an idea.

But what I'm most proud of today isn't that I built it.

Because I didn't.

We're building it.

And I think that's where I'll finish this little chapter behind the scenes of Love2Clean.

Back in one of my first posts, I talked about two words that would have meant so much to me when I was an employee.

Funny enough, they're the same two words I want to finish with now.

To every person who has put on our T-shirt, worked their backside off, made me laugh on the hard days, cared about our clients and helped turn my little idea into our Love2Clean...

Thank you.

It Works Both Ways

In the last couple of posts, I've talked about appreciation, attitude and the kind of people I want around me as Love2Clean grows.

But there's another side to that.

It's very easy as an employer to talk about what you expect from your team.

Work hard.

Be reliable.

Care about the customer.

Take pride in what you do.

Respect the business.

And I do expect those things.

But somewhere along the way, I realised I have to be willing to give those things back too.

If I expect loyalty, I need to give people a reason to feel loyal.

If I expect respect, I need to show respect.

If I expect someone to care about Love2Clean, they need to know that Love2Clean cares about them.

Because I've been on the other side of it.

I've worked in places where so much effort went into making sure the customer had a great experience, while the people working behind the scenes sometimes felt forgotten.

And I never want to forget what that felt like.

Of course our clients matter enormously. Without them, none of us have a business.

But I've come to believe that looking after your customers and looking after your team should never be two competing things.

They're connected.

A person who feels respected is more likely to take pride in what they do.

A person who feels appreciated is more likely to care.

And a team that genuinely cares about the company they're part of will carry that into every client's home.

I'm still learning how to be an employer.

I'll make mistakes. I'll get things wrong.

But there's one thing I hope I always remember...

You can't ask people to care about the company you're building if you don't show them that they matter within it.

Because while Love2Clean may have started as my idea, I've learned that building a company takes far more than one person.

But that's probably a story for another day...

To be continued...

Attitude Over Experience

In my last post, I talked about something I learned long before Love2Clean existed — how much it matters to feel appreciated for the work you do.

But being an employee all those years also taught me something else.

The people you work alongside can make or break your day.

We've probably all worked with someone who would see you struggling and jump in without being asked.

Someone who could make you laugh on an absolutely rotten day.

Someone who took pride in what they did and never left the hard jobs for everyone else.

And we've probably experienced the opposite too.

Those things stay with you.

So when the time came for Love2Clean to grow beyond just me, I knew the kind of people I wanted around me.

And surprisingly, experience wasn't top of the list.

Cleaning can be taught.

Our products, equipment and methods can be taught.

Our standards can be learned.

But I can't teach someone to care.

I can't teach someone to be kind.

And I can't teach that instinct to see your teammate struggling and just get stuck in beside them.

That's why attitude will always matter so much to me.

But just like appreciation, I believe respect works both ways.

If I expect someone to care about Love2Clean, then they should know that Love2Clean cares about them too.

As we grow, I don't want the biggest team.

I want the right team.

Good people who work hard, care about what they do, respect each other and can still have a laugh together at the end of a long day.

The cleaning can be taught.

The experience will come.

But the right attitude?

That's something you bring with you.

To be continued...

Meet Tilli 💗

After a full week with Love2Clean — deep cleans, bathrooms, floors, lifting, scrubbing and generally being put through her paces by me — you'd imagine Tilli might spend her Saturday with her feet up.

Apparently not......

While the rest of us normal people were enjoying the thought of a day off, Tilli and her fiancé decided to casually climb Carrauntoohil — the highest mountain in Ireland.

Yes. For FUN.

I'm not sure whether to be impressed by her energy or slightly concerned that I'm clearly not working her hard enough Monday to Friday.

All joking aside, this is our Tilli.

Always up for a challenge, always smiling, and apparently still capable of climbing a mountain after a week with us!

Huge well done to you both — what an achievement. 💗👏

Although Tilli... if you've that much energy left on a Saturday, we may need to have a little chat about next week's rota. 😂😂

Sometimes 2 words are enough.....

Long before I started Love2Clean, I was an employee.

I worked for different businesses, different managers and alongside different teams.

Like most people, I had good experiences and not-so-good ones.

But it's funny the things that stay with you.

I remember one particularly hard day many years ago.

We had worked incredibly hard. Everyone was exhausted, and I remember thinking how much a simple "thank you" would have meant.

Just two words.

Not more money.

Not some grand gesture.

Just an acknowledgement that the work we'd put in that day had been noticed.

At the time, I probably didn't realise how much that experience would shape me.

But looking back now as an employer myself, I do.

It taught me that people need to know their effort matters.

That being paid for a job and being appreciated for doing it well are two completely different things.

And that sometimes the smallest things in a workplace can have the biggest impact.

I'm still learning what it means to be a good employer, and I'm sure I always will be.

But one thing I hope I never forget is what it felt like to be the employee.

Because sometimes...

**two words really are enough.**

Thank you. 💗

To be continued...

Over the next little while, I'd like to do something a bit different on this page.

You'll still see the before and after photos, the deep cleans and the transformations. That's a big part of what we do.

But I'd also like to let you behind the scenes.

Not just of cleaning...

But of building Love2Clean.

The decisions.
The lessons.
The mistakes.
The funny moments.
The challenges.
The values that shape every decision we make.

Because Love2Clean has never been just about cleaning homes.

Every experience I've had throughout my career has taught me something.

Some showed me the kind of leader I wanted to become.

Others showed me the kind of leader I never wanted to become.

Looking back now, I realise every one of those experiences gave me a choice.

I could repeat them...

Or I could choose to build something different.

Love2Clean is the result of those choices.

I'm still learning every day, and I'm sure I'll continue to make mistakes along the way. But one thing I hope never changes is this...

I want Love2Clean to be a company that cares.

A company that cares about the people who trust us in their homes.

A company that cares about the people who wear our logo.

A company that stands by its values, even when nobody is watching.

So if you'd like to come behind the scenes with me, I'd love to share a little more of that journey over the next few weeks.

Because we're not just building a cleaning company.

We're building the company we always wished we'd worked for. 💗

It's been a busy few weeks here at Love2Clean

From deep cleans to end-of-build cleans, we've had the privilege of helping families at some really important moments in their lives.

There's something incredibly rewarding about walking into a home that's feeling overwhelming and leaving it as a space where our clients can finally breathe again.

Sometimes it's helping someone fall back in love with their home after life has simply got in the way. Other times it's transforming a building site into the place where a family will soon make memories together.

Every before and after photo tells a story. Behind every transformation is hard work, attention to detail, and a team that genuinely cares about getting it right.

To every client who has trusted us with their home, thank you. We never take that trust for granted, and we're incredibly grateful for every opportunity to do what we love.

Here's to many more transformations. 🩷

From all at
Love2Clean
We Love the Jobs You Hate.

Two weeks back after annual leave and it's got me thinking...

When I first started Love2Clean, I thought success meant being fully booked.

That every slot in the diary had to be filled.
That I had to say yes to every enquiry.
That working longer hours meant I was doing something right.

Three years later, my idea of success has changed.

Success is having clients who trust us with their homes.

Success is having a team who genuinely care about the standard of work they deliver.

Success is being able to step away for a short break and know everything won't fall apart while I'm gone.

Success is coming back to work feeling grateful, not overwhelmed.

Running a small business isn't always easy. There are long days, difficult decisions, and plenty of moments where you question yourself.

But then you look around at the people who support your business—clients, staff, family and friends—and you realise just how far you've come.

Two weeks back and I'm feeling incredibly thankful for all of it.

Thank you for supporting Love2Clean and allowing us to do what we love every day.

Nichola