Laundry and linens
Washed, dried, folded and put away where they belong, and the beds stripped and made. Laundry is the first thing to slide: the most steps, the heaviest basket, and nothing bad happens on the day you skip it.
Housekeeping and Errands
Light Housekeeping and Errands, Handled
Nobody calls their daughter to report that the laundry has been sitting for two weeks. It is not an emergency, so it never comes up on the phone. Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home care services keep the ordinary upkeep of a house moving, and the errand list with it.
Quick answer
What do light housekeeping and errands include?
Light housekeeping is the ordinary round a house needs every week: laundry and linens, dusting, sweeping and vacuuming, the kitchen and the bathroom wiped down, the dishes done. Errands are the pharmacy, the post office, the bank, the dry cleaner and the card that has to go out today, run for your parent or with them along. Seniors Helping Seniors® Scottsdale provides both at home across Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, and the northeast and north Phoenix neighborhoods we serve. It is not a deep-cleaning service, and there is no heavy lifting.
Key facts
- What it is
- The regular upkeep of a house, plus the errand list, on set visits
- What it is not
- Not a deep clean, no heavy lifting, no ladders, no furniture moved
- Errands
- Pharmacy, post office, bank, dry cleaner, done for them or with them
- Who comes
- A Caregiver who is a senior too, the same one whenever possible
- Reach us
- Mon-Fri, 8 AM to 6 PM · 24/7 for emergencies · (480) 674-5400 · info@shsscottsdale.com
How It Adds Up
Why does none of this come up on the phone?
Ask your mother how she is doing and she will say fine, and she will mean it. Nothing has broken. The sheets simply go an extra week, and then two. The counter gets wiped and the bathroom does not. Envelopes get opened but never sorted, and the stack by the door quietly becomes furniture. Not one of those is worth a phone call on its own, which is exactly why the phone call never happens.
Then you visit. You see all of it inside the first minute and draw a bigger conclusion than the evidence supports: that things have got much worse, that a decision is overdue, that perhaps she cannot manage at home any more. Sometimes that is true. Often it is a pile of chores that outgrew one pair of hands, and hands are the easiest thing on that list to add.
There is a second reason this service matters out of proportion to what it costs. It is the easiest one to say yes to, because letting somebody run the vacuum is not an admission of anything. It gets a Caregiver through the door on comfortable terms, and the harder conversations, if they are coming, go better with somebody in the house who is already known and liked.
The Regular Rounds
What does a Caregiver actually do around the house?
The same rounds every visit, done properly, so the house never gets far enough behind to become a project. None of it is glamorous, and none of it is meant to be.
Floors and surfaces
Dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, and the tables and counters wiped down. A clear floor is a safer floor, which is half of why this work earns its place. More on that under safety and fall prevention.
The kitchen and the bathroom
Wiped down, the dishes done, the sink empty. These are the two rooms a visiting family judges the whole house by. If a meal is part of the visit, the kitchen goes back the way it was found, covered under meals and shopping.
The mail and the front hall
The pile by the door sorted through with your parent, not around them, into what needs opening and what needs recycling. A ten minute job that has been putting somebody off for a month.
Little of this has to stand on its own. One visit can put the laundry on, sit down over a cup of tea, and take the pharmacy run on the way home. The short version sits beside our other fifteen services on the care services page.
Not sure how many hours any of this would take?
The Errand List
Who runs the errands, and does my parent go along?
Both are on offer, and the answer can change from one week to the next.
- The pharmacy, and the refill nobody chased
- The post office
- The bank
- The dry cleaner
- The birthday card that has to go out today
- The return that has been in the trunk for a month
Run for them
You hand over a list, or better, your parent writes it. It comes back done. That is the right shape for a week when going out is more trouble than it is worth.
Run with them
The rest of the time, getting out is the entire point. A trip to the pharmacy is also a reason to be dressed, out of the house and talking to somebody. Because our Caregivers are seniors themselves, the outing reads as company rather than as being supervised.
An errand run is not a ride to an appointment. When the trip itself is the reason for the visit, that is transportation, where the same Caregiver drives, walks in and waits. When the list is mostly food, it belongs with meals and shopping.
How the paying works, whose money and whose card, belongs in the first conversation rather than in a pharmacy queue. Bring it up when you call, before anything is booked.
Pet care is available the same way, on request: the dog walked, the cat fed, the litter box kept up.
What We Leave Alone
What light housekeeping does not include
Better read on a quiet afternoon than discovered on a Tuesday morning. Four lines this service does not cross, and the last is about respect rather than safety.
It is not a deep clean
No carpet shampooing, no windows, no oven, no pulling the refrigerator out to get behind it. If the house has reached the point of needing a proper deep clean, hire a cleaning company for that job and let a Caregiver keep it that way afterwards.
No heavy lifting, no furniture moved
Caregivers do not shift furniture, carry heavy boxes or haul things out to the curb. If a job needs two strong backs it needs a moving or hauling service, because that is a different job from keeping a house. Our Caregivers are active, capable adults; heavy lifting is simply not what this service is.
A step stool is the limit
No ladders, no roof, nothing that means standing on something that was not made to be stood on. Anything at height is a job for somebody with the right equipment, and we will say so rather than have a go at it.
We do not decide what gets thrown away
Sorting, tidying and putting away, yes. Deciding that the stack of magazines is rubbish is your parent's call and nobody else's, including yours. The only thing worse than a cluttered house is one somebody has quietly been tidied out of.
If what your family needs is a cleaning company, a handyman or a hauling service, we will say so rather than sell you hours that were never going to fix it. And if the housekeeping is really a way of checking that somebody is all right, read about companionship, which is the honest version of that visit.
Getting started
How does care start?
You call, or book a free care visit.
Call (480) 674-5400 or Request a Free Care Visit. You reach Andy or his staff, not a call center.
We visit the home.
About an hour, free, no pressure. We meet your loved one, walk the house, talk routines, and check whether GUIDE or VA benefits might apply.
We match the Caregiver.
Personality, interests, pace, schedule. First visits usually happen within days, and we check in afterward to make sure the match fits.
On this service the walk through the house is mostly a conversation about what your parent wants touched, what they would rather nobody touched, and what they still want to do themselves. That list is theirs to write.
FAQ
Questions families ask about housekeeping and errands
Is light housekeeping the same as a cleaning service?
No, and the difference is worth knowing before you book either one. Light housekeeping is the steady upkeep that keeps a home comfortable between visits: laundry and linens, dusting, sweeping and vacuuming, the kitchen and bathroom wiped down, the dishes done. It is not a deep clean, so no carpet shampooing, no windows, no oven, and nothing that needs furniture moved. If the house has reached the point of needing a proper deep clean, hire a cleaning company for that job and let a Caregiver keep it that way afterwards.
Can a Caregiver run the errands without my mother going along?
Either way, and it can change week to week. Hand over a list, or let your mother write it, and it comes back done. Or she goes along, which is often the better version, because a trip to the pharmacy is also a reason to be dressed, out of the house and talking to somebody. Tell us which you have in mind when you call and we will build the visit around it.
How does paying for what gets picked up work?
This is one to settle out loud rather than from a web page, because it turns on the errand and on what your family is comfortable with. Put it on your list of questions for the free care visit, or ask Andy on the phone at (480) 674-5400 before anything is booked. It is a fair thing to want pinned down, and nobody will think less of you for raising it first.
Will the same Caregiver come every week?
Whenever possible, and it matters more on this service than it sounds. Somebody who already knows which cupboard the pans live in, and which shirts never go in the dryer, gets through a visit properly instead of asking about every item in the house. A standing weekly block is the easiest thing to keep consistent, so if you know you want Thursday mornings, say so early.
Can a Caregiver help with the yard or anything outside?
Ask on the phone rather than take an answer from a web page, because what a Caregiver will take on outside varies with the Caregiver. Any of them can be out there with your parent so the work is not being done alone in July. When a job needs a professional, we say so and stop.
Light housekeeping and errands from Seniors Helping Seniors® Scottsdale are non-medical services. They are not a substitute for a cleaning company, a contractor or any trade professional, and what an individual Caregiver takes on varies from one Caregiver to the next. The free care visit is where the specifics get settled, before anybody starts.
Andy Lask, Owner Meet Andy →
The Ordinary Things
Tell us what has been piling up.
Name the three things in the house bothering you most right now. We will tell you honestly whether a few hours a week would clear them, and what that would cost.
It is a small place to start, which is exactly why it is usually the right one.
There is no form to fill out. Andy and his staff answer Mon-Fri, 8 AM to 6 PM, and 24/7 for emergencies. Emails get a reply in under 4 hours.