Albuquerque’s holiday season is short and crowded. Thanksgiving lands on November 26 this year, the Old Town Holiday Stroll and the Twinkle Light Parade fill the first weekend of December, the River of Lights at the ABQ BioPark runs most nights through the end of December, and on Christmas Eve half the city is out walking the luminarias. Somewhere in there, people are coming to your house. This is the checklist we give our own clients, in the order that actually works, with the Albuquerque-specific parts called out.
Three weeks out: do the deep clean first, not last
The mistake most hosts make is saving the big clean for the day before. By then the fridge is full, the guest room has luggage in it, and nobody wants a crew moving furniture while the turkey brines. Flip it. Book a deep clean (we also call it a reset) for the second or third week of November, while the house is still empty of guests and groceries. A reset takes every room back to baseline: baseboards, doors and trim, window sills and tracks, ceiling fans and vents, inside the microwave, the full bathrooms, and the floors done last so nothing is walked back over. After that, holding the house for the holidays is light work.
Pricing is by the labor hour, the crew’s combined time, so three cleaners for two hours is six labor hours. Within 15 driving miles of our office at 2901 Juan Tabo Blvd NE, a deep clean starts at 8.5 labor hours ($500.23 plus tax), or 6 labor hours ($353.10 plus tax) for homes 700 square feet and under. Larger or heavier-buildup homes price above that, and the online estimate shows your starting price the moment you enter your square footage. If the home needs more time than was booked, your Team Leader asks you first, in blocks of up to two labor hours at the same rate. Nothing is added without your yes.
Two weeks out: glass, and the hard-water problem every Albuquerque host has
Company notices glass before anything else: the shower door, the kitchen window over the sink, the patio slider everyone stands next to. Albuquerque water runs moderately hard to hard according to the Water Utility Authority, which is why spots come back a day after you wipe them. Interior glass, mirrors and shower doors are part of our deep-clean scope, and we work them with the right product for mineral film rather than a general-purpose spray. If you want the outside of the windows done before the lights go up, that is a separate trade; Sandia Window Cleaning handles exterior glass, screens and tracks here in town. Book exteriors before the deep clean, not after, so the crew is not re-wiping sills.
One honest note: glass that has been etched by years of hard water will not come clean with any cleaner, ours included. Spots and film wipe off; etching is in the glass. We will tell you which one you have rather than charge you to find out.
The week of Thanksgiving: kitchen, guest bath, and the oven question
If the deep clean is done, the week-of visit is a standard cleaning with three priorities: the kitchen, the bathroom your guests will use, and the floors. Tell us those priorities when you book and the crew works them in that order within the hours you approved.
The oven is its own decision. Cleaning inside an oven properly takes about an hour of labor, and inside a packed refrigerator is similar, so they add time to the visit rather than a separate fee. Ask for them when you book so the time is scheduled. If you are roasting on Thursday, have the oven done on Tuesday or Wednesday, not the Friday before, when you will only have to clean it again.
We bring all professional equipment. We use eco-friendly, green-certified products as our standard; cleaning products are $15 plus tax unless you prefer to provide your own, and a standard commercial brand is available on request.
Fireplace nights: soot, ash and the burn/no-burn rule
Albuquerque restricts wood burning on certain winter nights to protect air quality; the city posts each day’s status on its Burn / No Burn page, and it is worth checking before you promise guests a fire. When you do burn, fine ash settles on the mantel, the hearth and the nearest shelves within a day, and it smears if it is dry-wiped. Damp microfiber lifts it; a dry duster spreads it. The same goes for the dust the furnace stirs up once the heat comes on, which we covered in detail in Why the House Gets Dustier When the Heat Comes On.
Trash, recycling and the morning after
Holiday weeks change the city’s pickup days, and the rules differ by holiday, so check the Solid Waste Management news page or call 311 before you roll the bin out on Thanksgiving or Christmas week. Break down boxes early; a full recycling bin on the wrong day sits on the curb for a week.
For the day after a big gathering, the fastest recovery is the same one we recommend after Balloon Fiesta guests: a maintenance visit that resets kitchen, bathrooms and floors in a few labor hours. Our post-guest reset checklist walks through it room by room if you are doing it yourself.
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s: hold the line with recurring visits
Five weeks of parties, deliveries, pine needles and tracked-in sand is more than one clean can hold. Hosts who start weekly or every-two-weeks service after the deep clean get through the season without a second big push; weekly service is 15% off and every-two-weeks service is 10% off, Tuesday through Friday, with the same crew on your home whenever the schedule allows. Recurring visits are for homes within 15 driving miles of our office; farther out, every visit is a deep, reset or move-in/move-out clean at the starting rate on our pricing page.
Book before the calendar fills
We have cleaned Albuquerque homes since 2005, more than 36,000 cleanings, with W-2, background-checked crews in marked company cars, covered by workers’ compensation and insured to $2 million. The two weeks before Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas fill first every year, and Mondays are reserved for our commercial accounts, so pick your dates now. Get an instant estimate online or call 505-379-3154, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. No deposit is required to book; a secure card request holds your appointment and you are billed after the cleaning. If we missed something within the approved scope and hours, tell us by text or email within 24 hours and we’ll make it right. Details are in our Warranty & Booking Policy.
Keep reading
Why the House Gets Dustier When the Heat Comes On (And What Actually Helps in Albuquerque)
Cleaning After Guests: The Post-Balloon Fiesta Reset Checklist for Albuquerque Homes
