Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Cleaning company run by, for Bruins

Class in the morning, cleaning an apartment at 3 p.m. followed by research, then baby-sitting at 9 p.m. – all in the day of Claudia Sandoval. For this Bruin and her colleagues at the KC&M cleaning company, odd cleaning jobs are nothing new and are in fact a part of her daily schedule.

Sandoval, a fourth-year political science student, and her friend, Kency Cornejo, a fourth-year art history student, head their own domestic cleaning service for UCLA students, which they founded two months ago.

Though they also take non-student clients, they’ve been mostly catering to Bruins who have never seen AJAX or who haven’t touched a vacuum in months.

David Ha, a fourth-year psychobiology student, fits this profile perfectly.

“We are all too lazy to clean and the mess doesn’t really bother us,” Ha said, referring to himself and his apartment-mates.

College students have no time and no desire to pick up after themselves after a long day on campus, Sandoval and Cornejo said.

Both of them said they know how to clean well because Sandoval used to watch her mother clean houses and Cornejo is a self-proclaimed neat freak.

“We get asked by clients how and where did we learn how to clean like this,” Sandoval said, “but most of this is just common sense.”

KC&M cleaning service was founded when Sandoval and Cornejo were strapped for extra cash to cover the numerous expenses of attending college. Living on a strict budget meant there was no time to wait for the weekly or monthly paycheck, Sandoval said.

The need for fast cash is understandable and reasonable, but the two students’ parents still question why Cornejo and Sandoval had to take up domestic cleaning.

“My parents did it to prevent me from ever doing this,” Sandoval explained.

They respond by arguing that the domestic cleaning of apartments is economical in capital and flexible in time.

“Most of the supplies we use are from our own apartments,” Cornejo said, “and if we do run out – they don’t cost much anyways.” The cost of the supplies is then split between the two, just as the fees collected are split.

In addition, running the service does not take a lot of time – Sandoval takes the calls, sets up the appointments, and gives the client an estimate of the service.

Together Cornejo and Sandoval figure which week of the quarter would be best for their already busy schedules.

Like baby-sitting, which Sandoval is also doing in her free time, and tutoring, which Cornejo has just taken up, the KC&M cleaning service fits in their schedules whenever and however many times they want it to.

The students take their jobs seriously, they said, and when the apartment is finished it is “eat-out of-the-tub clean,” Cornejo said.

Cleaning one standard two bedroom, two bathroom apartment takes a little over five hours and on average costs the client $100, Sandoval said.

The two founders said that the service they provide is worth every penny.

In a regular service trip, clients have their kitchens and bathrooms entirely scrubbed with strong cleaners and blinds and windows washed, on top of the standard vacuuming and mopping.

The service is a top-to-bottom seasonal cleaning which will leave clients pleased and guests impressed, they said.

A stay-at-home dad who KC&M cleaning service cleaned for, hired the company so that he could say to his working wife that he cleaned and was deserving of hosting a poker tournament at their apartment, Cornejo and Sandoval said.

But when the wife found out from the couple’s small daughter, she was not impressed – the only negative remark about the cleaning service.