A company that started by accident, and then decided to stay small.
Chloe's was never meant to be a business. It grew, one doorstep at a time, because the people who hired us told other people. Nine years in, we still hold the line at one studio, one team, and one town.
The first client was a neighbour two doors up — an elderly man whose daughter lived in Sheffield and worried about the kitchen. Chloe cleaned it on a Thursday morning and took home £40 in a folded envelope. On the Friday he called and asked if she'd come every week.
By the end of that year there were eleven houses, a battered Nissan Micra, and a growing conviction that the people cleaning homes for other people were undervalued almost everywhere. When Chloe started hiring — first Rita, then Małgorzata — she decided to employ, not contract. To pay above the living wage. To train for three weeks before trusting anyone with a key.
That felt slow. It still does. It's also why we've kept clients for seven, eight, nine years — and why the same cleaner who does your house in June will, most likely, be the one doing it in December.
We'll probably never open a second branch. We'll certainly never franchise. And if you ring on a Tuesday, Joanna will answer by the third ring, because that's how she likes it.
- Houses are personalA cleaner is a guest in someone's life. We train for that, not just for skirting boards.
- Small on purposeGrowth is an option, not an obligation. We choose the ceiling we can still see over.
- Employ, don't contractOur cleaners are salaried, holidayed, sick-paid. Yours always will be.
Eleven of us, counted.
We don't hire in bulk. Each new cleaner joins for three weeks of training, shadowing, and studio lunches before they hold a client key.
Started the company on a Thursday in March.
Runs deep cleans and trains new starters.
Our holiday-let expert — 40 changeovers a month.
Is the reason the glasswork always looks like that.
The voice on the phone, most Tuesdays.
Joined after ten years running a café kitchen.