Seiche Sanders' portraitI spent a good portion of my free time last month cleaning. Not only did I clean two apartments in my recently acquired investment property, but I also participated in my third Operation Clean Sweep since joining SM.

I think it’s safe to say that cleaning is not glamorous — it is hard work (and I have the back pain to prove it). The payoff, however, is that when you witness a facility’s — or an apartment building’s — transformation into something more attractive, and more sanitary, you feel an amazing sense of accomplishment.

That “high,” no doubt, is one of the things that gets your customers up in the morning (or evening). Giving them the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently is expected; if you go a step further and make their jobs noticeably easier — and the cleaning crews themselves more cost effective — they won’t soon forget it.

For me, it would have been an exercise in futility if I would have had to wash the smoke-stained walls in my apartments with anything less than a commercial-strength degreaser. Similarly, if we didn’t have an arsenal of cleaning products for Clean Sweep — wipes, cloths, disinfectants and deodorizers, to name a few — we wouldn’t have made nearly the impact we did. The right products for the job, combined with our window-cleaning crews, floor-cleaning and power-washing equipment, allowed us to facilitate a profound tranformation for our chosen facility.

We had 71 Clean Sweep volunteers from southeastern Wisconsin on September 18 — a record for our group. We finished that day knowing that we’d made a difference. To read about the impact made by Clean Sweep participants throughout the United States, click here.