apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

These guys, er elves are GREAT!! They actually did an official cleaning of my apartment post Sept. 11th when I was given the okay to move back inside. Being that my windows were wide open, there was a LOT to clean. They even cleaned out the INSIDES of my kitchen drawers!!

I have never had a more bizarre experience in my life. Being a former house cleaner myself i can tell you its not an easy job so when i hire someone i make it as nice and easy for them as possible, offering water, tea, coffee, a snack, music, cleaning products, etc. When I called LIttle Elves I was not making a lot of money, but needed my home professionaly cleaned as I am about to sublet it. I specified I needed a cleaner who would do an excllent, efficient job. Of course they said "all of our cleaners are excellent". So when the cleaner showed up, I stayed for an hour, offered her water, tea, cookies, etc, showed her my list of things to do. She called the agency and they translated into English what I asked for on my list. She said it seemed she could do all of it, no problem. I ran out for 10 minutes to get cash to pay her. On my way back, Little Elves called and told me (AND I QUOTE) "your place is too filthy for her to clean it".[First of all this place is FAR FAR from filthy-and how unprofeesional is that?] I said "I've been a house cleaner myself and this place is FAR from Flithy". ( It needed some cleaning but hello--isnt that YOUR JOB?). Her response? "THEN CLEAN IT YOURSELF CUZ WE AREN"T DOING IT". What in GODS NAME kind of business are these people running? I came home to find an over heated woman with head in her hands. I gave her asprin and more cold water. She apologized and left my place in ruins. DO NOT CALL THESE PEOPLE> GOD KNOWS WHY THEY ARE IN BUSINESS?!!!!!I"m reporting this as many places as i can.

I wish I had read the other review before I called this company, as I had an eerily similar experience, including Spanish translators (Diego) and insults from the owner (Barbara). New York's Little Elves service was so horrible, their behavior so unprofessional and abusive, that I am flabbergasted they are still in business. The people I dealt with, from the appraiser (Barbara's French son-in-law), the actual cleaner, to the owner were duplicitous and grossly unable to come through on their promises to expertly clean a 4,000 square foot townhouse. They sought to take advantage of the owner of a large space, and had no intention of managing the expectations they so adamantly agreed to regarding particulars of cleaning the house. After much discussion of certain stray antiques to be avoided, after much note taking and fawning, their actual cleaning performance in contrast resulted in irreparable damage to a valuable antique. The company's response was then insult and ridicule for the customer whose needs they professed to know too well a few hours before. So much for indulging perfection or professionalism.
Perhaps recent praise elsewhere has contributed to such arrogance, but I chose this company because of that praise. New York Magazine has been contacted for their false representations of the quality of this service; they should be ashamed of their lack of attention to such a complaint.
Several companies who provide testimonials on the Little Elves website have been contacted, and will be withdrawing their recommendations, as they have received similar negative feedback.
Hiring this company meant misrepresentations, disregard and rudeness. I see now that mine was not the only household to have been jeopardized by this company.
New York magazine -- what are you thinking??

I have had only positive experiences with Little Elves over the past 5 years, and have used them after 3 seperate renovations. Barbara has been professional, charming and delightful. The teams have been hard working, respectful of the apartments' contents and most importantly have done an exemplary job. Every single inch of the apartment was sparkling and spotless. I have recommended them to no less than 3 friends who had similiar experiences. I am shocked to hear that anyone had anything less than a positive experience. I would be very surporsed to know if there is anyone better.

this place is neither as horrible or as fine as the above comments suggest. this place — as my great-grandmother used to say — will at best "do in a pinch."

$31.50 an hour? I'm a college graduate, who's been in the TV business for over ten years and I'm not making that kind of money. Insane.

That's a crazy amount of money. Just ask around your neighborhood/social circle and you'll find someone for a much more reasonable price. You'll be supporting someone better than whomever NYMag has determined is "in" to have clean your space. And you can form a better relationship/trust. Most of the people that I know in my neighborhood pay less than half, love and trust their cleaning person, and aren't getting involved in the garbage that it sounds like at least some of you are.

well... you get what you pay for, (or sometimes not ) truthfully, if it were something not worth paying for, we'd all do it without question. but it's really a lame time consuming task that no-one wants to do. same with moving. the real problem is that i hear the stories of broken stuff, missing stuff and rising costs, and well, it makes me cringe just enough to know that i need to do it myself whether i want to or not. hell, i decorated it myself, i should be able to handle cleaning it myself. whatevah!

Sigh. Good help is sooo hard to find, isn't it?

College graduates don't make that kind of money.
The owner gets most of the money and probably pays slave wages to the cleaners who don't speak or understand english,
Do they really need a car service to get to you when there is great and cheap public transporttion?



New York is full of great cleaners for much less money.

it has nothing to do with whether or not you went to college - if you are in the service industry (or any industry really) you charge what you think your services are worth to the people you hire you. To me, hiring someone for $30 an hour to clean my apartment is completely worth it... why? Because I don't want to do it!

That said, I've never used Little Elves, so no opinion there. Just find someone you like and trust and stick with them. Hopefully if they're unavailable in a pinch they can recommend someone else.

I used them once years ago, and they did a nice job.

However I was shocked by the bill. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was like $100-200 MORE than I expected b/c they charged some sort of fee (that I wasn't told about) for transportation & bringing supplies. Very upsetting.

After having read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, I will never, ever use a cleaning agency. There is no guarantee that the owner is paying the people who do the actual work a living wage or providing them with decent working conditions. Seriously, do what it takes to find an independent person to do your cleaning. You know that they are their own boss and that the money you pay is going in their pocket. And in NYC, an excellent house cleaner should be making about $20/hour... 1/3 less than that ridiculous rate of $31.50.

I use Murphy Maids, $65 for 4 hours and I usually tip on top of that. I've had a few duds over the years but most of the cleaners have been really good.

When my girlfriend and I unexpectedly had to move to the West Coast, we had a very short time to find a buyer for our condo in HK. We had half our lives in boxes when we decided we needed to hold an open house. Problem is, we both had to work that day. I remember chuckling at the name when I went online to research cleaners. I called, and talking directly to Barbara (the owner who must be in her 60s and still helms the ship) had me sold in minutes. She was super sweet and funny and said they would come in before we left for work that day and they'd have it showroom ready by the time we got home. The crew was on time that day, listened intently to our concerns, and sure enough, when we got home with only an hour before guests started to arrive, our home looked like a model. They even rearranged the half-populated shelves to make them look intentional. And all of our boxes were tucked neatly out of sight. I truly felt like they had treated our home and special need as if it were their own. Worth every cent.