Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 15, 1994 TAG: 9405130070
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE MILLER RUBIN CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``Well, you can eat off mine, too,'' said the Oak Park, Ill., secretary and mother of two. ``There are Cheerios over here, a piece of toast over there and some bacon under the high chair.''
It's America's dirty little secret: Ever since women entered the work force en masse, there has been a general lowering of standards of household hygiene. Cleaning services know it, real-estate agents know it, even allergists know it.
These days, few people point to their floors as a source of pride. In fact, most people are just happy when the linoleum does not suck at the soles of their shoes.
Except in the spring. That's when even the most casual housekeepers long for the scent of Lemon Pledge and the roar of the vacuum cleaner. From some inexplicable place comes the primal urge to beat rugs, wash windows, scour bathtubs and organize closets - or, at least, pay to have someone do it for you.
Mike Isakson, president of Merry Maids Inc., the nation's largest residential cleaning service and a unit of Downers Grove,Ill.-based ServiceMaster Co., agreed that some kind of nesting instinct takes hold in the spring. The company, with 720 franchisees in the United States, including one in Roanoke, and another 70 abroad, has seen sales more than triple since 1987, to $114 million from $37 million. Isakson said the company does almost 25 percent more business between late March and mid-May than the rest of the year.
``I think it has to do with starting over after the harsh winter,'' said Isakson, waxing poetic from his Omaha, Neb., headquarters. ``It's like the green shoots coming up in the garden ... A clean house is like new life.''
But to clean the house the way Mom did took about 25 hours a week. And with 66 percent of women back in the labor force only one year after having babies, it just isn't getting done.
Even women who are full-time homemakers don't want to spend their days scrubbing toilets; they're just as likely to be volunteering at their children's school or working out at the health club. And that is why the residential cleaning market has burgeoned into a $7 billion annual industry in the United States.
``Our values have changed,'' said Linda Waite, a sociologist at the University of Chicago. ``Years ago, the mark of a good homemaker was the cleanliness of her house; today, it's more the interesting and creative things she does with her children.''
The time crunch has driven the cleaning business like nothing else. Once a luxury reserved for the upper crust, housecleaning - by someone else - is now viewed as a necessity, not a luxury. The average Merry Maids customer has a 2,000-square-foot home and an income between $50,000 and $175,000.
According to Keith Carlson, who owns a Merry Maids franchise in Tinley Park, Ill., with 16 workers, only one or two of his 200 regular clients are bona fide millionaires.
``The last guy I signed up drove a beer truck,'' Carlson said. His prices start at $35 per visit.
``It has nothing to do with money and everything to do with time and energy,'' he added. ``Everyone is putting in long hours at work, and everyone is just too tired to take care of their homes.''
In 1965, women reported that they spent about 6.6 hours per day on domestic chores, including food preparation, housecleaning, laundry and child care. By 1985, that figure had shrunk by two hours per day, Waite said.
And while men's contributions around the house have inched up over the years, a real increase on their part is an illusion, said Waite, who has two children, 9 and 15, and hires a cleaning service twice a week.
``What's really happened is that men may be giving the same one hour a week they've always given, but women are not spending as much time cleaning, so the men's share is larger. But they're not doing more, we're just doing less.''
Still, there comes a point when someone's disgust threshold has been crossed - perhaps it's the zucchini in the refrigerator that has turned from solid to liquid - and tempers flare.
George Yacup, another Merry Maids owner, said he closes 30 percent to 35 percent of his sales by making follow-up calls on Saturdays between 9 and 11 a.m. That, he said, is ``prime time for arguing over the fact that the house is a mess.''
It isn't just aesthetics. Poor housekeeping can be hazardous to your health, said Cheryl Lynn Walker, an allergist at Northwestern Medical Center.
Walker has been seeing more patients with dust-mite allergies, which are caused by the microscopic bugs that live in carpets, mattresses and upholstery and cause asthma-like symptoms. ``The increased exposure to dust and animal dander certainly makes allergies worse,'' she said.
Walker can claim an antiseptic environment. But that's only because her mother - visiting from North Carolina - spent three days cleaning her townhouse. ``She even moved the refrigerator,'' she added, with a mixture of respect and awe.
Such elbow grease almost qualifies as nostalgia. One real estate agent, who asked that her name not be used, said that nothing in homes shocks her anymore. ``Every agent has a story. I've seen it all ... including dead rodents.''
Memo: ***CORRECTION***