History       Windsor Today       Our Values      Privacy    Pricing 

History    Windsor Home Cleaning started back in the mid 70’s as a response to the growing number of homes where both adults worked all day. A local business couple, Patrick and Lillian Irwin, recognized that households needed more support, when no one worked full time as a homemaker. The Irwins discovered that, although private house cleaners had been around for generations, no one had set up residential cleaning as a structured service. Windsor became the first organized service to offer regular cleaning to homes, not just in Ottawa, but in all of Canada.                                                       From the outset,  Windsor matched one cleaner per household.  The customer set the routine.   The cleaner left a record of the start and finish times.  The cleaner left a check list of what was done.   By the end of the first year in business, after a period of very rapid growth, the company realized that house cleaning was a real trade, involving a complex set of skills. A stable, well-trained staff would be essential to maintain growth and success.   Lillian Irwin had a background in Domestic Science from her schooling in England. Patrick Irwin taught with the Carleton Board of Education for several years, before going into business. Together, they devised a comprehensive training  and certification program for residential cleaners.  (See job opportunities )   It has been primarily Windsor's recruitment and training programs that have made the company the largest residential cleaning service in Metro Ottawa.      When compared to other services across Canada, Windsor's success stands out as a singular achievement, both in terms of dollar volume and customer retention. OVER 2,0 0 0, 0 0 0 HOURS OF QUALITY RESIDENTIAL CLEANING DELIVERED TO OTTAWA AREA HOMES SINCE 1 9 7 8   Back to Top      Today     Most of Windsor’s customers are very busy working couples who want to reduce stress and have some time free on the week-ends.    Our service is very popular with senior citizens as well as young single apartment dwellers. Windsor also cleans several large estate homes. In addition to regular service, we offer light cleaning on a one time or occasional basis.   Back to Top

Our Values   We have been called, "paternalistic; old-fashioned; .....an anachronism".  If these terms reflect the values of our company, we don't mind one bit.   At Windsor,  we try our best to follow these principles:   Honesty:    We must always speak the truth Responsibility:    We must accept responsibility for our own actions Commitment:    We must always try everything possible to follow through on  promises made    Respect:  We must always show respect for others and their possessions The Golden Rule:   We must always try to be fair to ALL concerned Our strength is in the character of our cleaning staff. Most have been loyal employees for several years. All are skilled, hard-working and honest. Above all, they really do care about their customers. Back to Top            Privacy   At Windsor, we have never solicited prospective customers via "tele-marketing". Rather, we rely heavily upon word-of-mouth.   All information supplied to us by customers and prospective customers is considered by us to be confidential.  We do not sell, exchange or give mailing lists, names or phone numbers to anyone else for any reason.   All of our cleaning staff are trained to consider any information about any customer totally confidential, even to Windsor management staff (unless the employee considers them self in harm's way).   Back to Top          Pricing      At Windsor, our prices are always published (see SERVICES & RATES ), and are the same for everyone. Our prices do not vary seasonally or in the event of sudden demand (such as flooding). Nor do we run discounts or "specials". Our regular customers are guaranteed price stability for up to 12 months at a time.   Our pricing is not determined by  a "market driven" formula. Rather, we set certain quality standards and performance criteria based on what our customer base has indicated they want.    To arrive at our rates, we take our labour costs (we pay our cleaning staff as skilled trades people), associated remittance costs, and our administration costs. We then simply add on a reasonable per centage for company profit. The result is our rate to you, the customer.   This explains why, in certain categories of service,  our rates can appear to be higher or lower than other services.  In general, we are competitive with other "complying" * services.   * Services operating within the legal limits of federal and provincial law with respect to employment standards, vacation pay, statutory holiday pay, source deductions, health insurance, employment insurance Canada pension plan coverage, and the workers compensation board   Back  to Top