What We'll Do, What We Won't Do, and Why We Stopped Trying to Be Everything

When we started Streaker's in early 2025, we said yes to everything. Someone needed a power washing? Sure. Gutters? Sure. Mold removal? "We can probably figure it out." Junk haul-away after a cleaning? We had a truck, why not.

That was a mistake. Not a fatal one, but a real one. Here's what saying yes to everything actually cost us, and what we do — and don't do — now.

The cost of an undefined business

The first problem with doing everything is that you do nothing especially well. The second is that you can't quote it consistently. The third is that you can't train anybody to help you, because the job description changes every week. We were running ragged and our pricing was guesswork. Our recurring cleaning customers were great, but the random one-off jobs were eating our schedule and our margins.

The fourth problem is harder to talk about. When you say yes to a job you're not equipped for, the customer ends up disappointed. Even if you do your best. Even if you charge less than you should have. They wanted a professional. They got an enthusiastic amateur. That's a small failure that hurts a small business more than people realize.

What we do, today

Here's the clean list. If a service is on this list, we'll quote it, we'll stand behind it, and we have the standards documented.

Recurring residential cleaning. Weekly, every other week, or monthly. Kitchen, bathrooms, all living areas, primary bedroom, and the floors that matter. This is the heart of what we do.

Deep cleaning. A full reset of a home — every surface, baseboards, light fixtures, inside the microwave, the works. We recommend this as the first visit before any recurring service, and as a once-or-twice-a-year refresh.

Move-in and move-out cleaning. Inside the oven, inside the fridge, inside every cabinet and drawer, all interior windows, all baseboards, every closet, every blind. The full property-manager-approved scope.

Post-construction cleanup. After contractors finish, before tenants or owners arrive. Drywall dust, paint over-spray, sticker residue, polish, and inspect. We do this regularly for builders in St. Mary's and Calvert counties.

Recurring commercial cleaning. Small offices, medical-adjacent administrative spaces, fitness studios, and a couple of churches. Nights or early mornings. We're building this side of the business carefully — we'd rather take three contracts we can serve perfectly than ten we can barely hold onto.

Vacation rental turnovers. Solomons, Chesapeake Beach, North Beach. Short windows, photographed before and after, predictable scope.

What we don't do — and why

Biohazard and trauma cleanup. Not yet. This requires OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens training, an Exposure Control Plan, specific PPE, a biohazard waste disposal contract, and ideally IICRC TCST certification. We're working on all of it for this year. Until those are in place, we will not take a biohazard job. We will refer you to a properly credentialed company. Calling a residential cleaner for a biohazard scene is unsafe for everyone involved.

Hoarding-level cleanouts. These need specialized intake, structured haul-away, and often a mental-health-informed approach. We can do a heavy deep clean. We cannot do a true hoarding cleanout. We'll tell you who can.

Mold remediation. This is a regulated remediation specialty (IICRC AMRT). We are not certified. We will clean a bathroom that has surface mildew. We will not chase a mold problem inside a wall — that's a remediation job for someone with the right credentials and insurance.

Exterior power washing, gutters, window-exterior cleaning at height, roof cleaning. These are real trades. They're not cleaning, they're property maintenance. We don't have the equipment, the ladders, the insurance riders, or the safety training. We've referred enough of these out to know who's good at it locally.

Carpet shampooing and upholstery deep cleaning. We can vacuum, spot-treat, and refresh. We do not own the truck-mounted equipment that real carpet cleaning requires. If your carpets need genuine restoration, we'll point you to a partner.

Pest-related cleanup. If you have an active rodent problem, an active roach problem, or any infestation, we'll wait until pest control has cleared the issue before we clean. Cleaning around an active infestation just hides the problem.

Why this matters to you as a customer

The promise of a clear scope is that we can actually deliver what we promised. When we tell you we'll do a move-out cleaning at $400, you get a complete move-out cleaning at $400 — done well, on time, photographed at the end. We don't have to fudge the scope because we don't have to invent a process on the fly.

It also means our prices are honest. A company that does ten different services badly has to overcharge on the ones it does well to cover the ones it loses money on. We don't have that problem. Our prices are tied to actual labor and supply cost on a service we've done hundreds of times.

What's next

Our roadmap is intentional, not random. We're adding biohazard cleanup and trauma scene response this year, behind the right training and certifications. We're growing the commercial side carefully — one new contract per quarter, not five. We are not adding services for the sake of "we can do that too." We've tried that. It didn't end well.

If you need something on this list, we'd like to be your call. If you need something off this list, ask us anyway — we probably know someone in Calvert or St. Mary's who's good at it. That referral is free, and it's how we want to be remembered when you do need a cleaning company.