What to Do Before the Crew Arrives

Exterior: access is the only thing that matters

Unlock side gates or provide a code, secure dogs somewhere they won't be startled by a stranger walking through the yard, and move vehicles off the driveway if flatwork is being cleaned the same visit. Pause the irrigation controller for the day, because a zone firing mid-job puts hard water straight back onto glass that was just rinsed clean, undoing the work in one cycle and leaving fresh mineral spots where there were none an hour earlier. That is close to the entire list for exterior work, and a locked gate is by far the most common reason a whole elevation gets missed on the day rather than cleaned late or specially rescheduled for another trip out entirely later on.

Interior: clear the sills and the path

Take ornaments, plants, and photo frames off the sills, and make sure there is a route to each window from the doorway that does not require squeezing past a piece of furniture along the way. Crews will protect flooring with drop cloths as they go, but they will not move heavy furniture, and a window sitting behind a full bookcase or a bed pushed against the wall simply cannot be reached that day no matter how much time is available on the schedule. If a piece needs to move for a specific window to be cleaned, moving it beforehand is what actually gets that window done, rather than skipped and noted for next time while everything else in the room gets finished on schedule.

Why crews won't move heavy furniture themselves

This is less about effort than about risk, even though it can look like the crew is simply being unhelpful. Moving a dresser, a bed frame, or a large entertainment console is a realistic way to scratch a floor, tip something fragile off a shelf, or damage the piece itself, and if that happens while a crew is moving something that was never part of the window cleaning job in the first place, it becomes a murky question of who is actually responsible for what. It is simpler and safer for everyone involved if the homeowner identifies anything blocking access ahead of time and either moves it themselves before the visit or accepts that the window behind it gets skipped for that particular appointment and picked up next time.

Blinds, curtains and delicate things

Raise blinds and draw curtains back before the crew arrives so nobody has to guess how a particular set operates or fumble around with an unfamiliar mechanism. Very old, fragile, or expensive window coverings are better taken down by you than handled by someone unfamiliar with the specific hardware holding them up, since a decades-old cord mechanism does not always behave the way a newer one does and can jam or tear unexpectedly under the wrong pressure. The same goes for anything genuinely irreplaceable sitting near a window, a piece of art, a plant that has been in the family for decades, an antique table: put it somewhere else for the morning rather than trusting it to stay put safely during the visit.

What does not matter

You do not need to clean anything first, remove screens, or be present for exterior work at all, since none of that changes what a crew is able to do that day. You do not need to provide water, power, or supplies, since crews arrive fully self-contained with their own equipment and purified water. And you do not need to hover while the work happens or check in every few minutes to see how things are going. For interior work someone over 18 does need to be present, but they do not need to follow the crew from room to room, and normal household activity, kids doing homework, a dog wandering around, dinner cooking, during the visit is completely fine and expected.