Smart thermostats, video doorbells, smart locks, voice assistants, robot vacuums — more homes across Arlington and Northern Virginia have some version of this setup now, and it changes a few things about how a cleaning visit needs to go compared to a fully analog house.
Why Smart Devices Need a Different Touch
Electronics and sensors don’t respond well to the same cleaning approach as a wood shelf or a tile floor. Moisture near a speaker grille, spray cleaner on a touchscreen, or a cloth catching a button the wrong way can cause real problems that a normal surface wouldn’t. The general rule with any smart device is less is more — a dry or barely damp microfiber cloth for dusting, no direct spray, and no pressing buttons or touchscreens unless it’s obviously meant to be wiped like any other surface.
What We’re Careful Around
Video doorbells and interior cameras are worth mentioning specifically — some clients prefer to disable or cover them during a cleaning visit for privacy, and that’s entirely your call to make; just let us know if that’s something you’d like discussed ahead of time. Touchscreens (smart thermostats, tablets mounted on walls, smart displays) get a dry or very lightly damp wipe at most, since household cleaners can damage screen coatings over time. Smart speakers and hubs generally just get dusted around, not wiped directly, since moisture near the internal components is a real risk.
Smart Locks and Entry
A growing number of clients use smart locks or keypad entry instead of a traditional key or lockbox, which actually makes scheduling easier in a lot of cases — a temporary code can be set up for the cleaning window without you needing to be home or coordinate a physical key handoff. If you use a smart lock, let us know how you’d like access handled — a code, a shared app invite, or you opening the door directly — so there’s no confusion on cleaning day.
Robot Vacuums and Automated Devices
If you run a robot vacuum or mop on a schedule, it’s worth pausing or rescheduling it for your cleaning day so it doesn’t start mid-visit and get in the way. We won’t operate, reprogram, or troubleshoot automated devices ourselves — that’s outside what a cleaning visit covers — but we’re happy to just leave it wherever it’s docked if you let us know to work around it.
Talking to Us About Device-Specific Instructions
The easiest way to handle a home full of smart devices is a quick note before your first visit (or anytime your setup changes) listing anything that needs special handling — which devices to avoid touching entirely, which ones are fine to dust around, and where the more sensitive equipment lives. Our guide on How to Prepare Your Home Before the Cleaning Team Arrives covers this kind of pre-visit setup in more detail.
What We Don’t Do
To be direct about it: we’re not electricians or IT technicians, and we don’t troubleshoot, reprogram, reset, or take responsibility for the settings or connectivity of any smart device in your home. Our job is cleaning around them carefully, not configuring or maintaining them. If a device needs technical attention, that’s a separate call to make outside of your cleaning visit.
Coordinating Access
If your smart home setup ties into how you handle entry while you’re away — traveling for work, out of town for a while — our post on How to Handle Cleaning Access When You’re Out of Town covers the logistics side of that in more depth.
Have a specific device or setup you want us to know about before your next visit? Mention it when you book through our booking page, or call 571-350-0866 and we’ll make a note on your account.