I've used various cleaning services over the years.  Typically they last about 6 months to a year before either they move on to other things or until their quality of service declines to the point you have to get rid of them.

Prior to moving into my current house, I used a service from Des Moines.  My last house had hardwood floors, and when they first started cleaning my home, my floors were actually dangerously slick from their deep cleaning.  By the time I moved (and stopped using them), there were often dust bunnies rolling around my floors.  And so it goes.

I've used the same person now from when I moved into my current home 3.5 years ago until now, and for the first 2 1/2 years or so she did pretty good, her quality fairly steady.

Then she got divorced.

After that she tended to miss certain rooms, ignore cleaning counters if there were anything on them, and the like.  She actually dropped and broke a sculpture of mine, then said "Oh! Don't tell me how much it cost - I don't want to know!"  But she had done so well for a long time and was going through something so we gave her the benefit of the doubt.

But it kept going downhill.

When we returned from our San Francisco vacation last week, she had cleaned the house on Friday (we got home on Monday), in what was supposed to be one of her "full cleanings".  We were surprised, though, to find our dresser still dusty, a clothes tag still on the floor in a bathroom, and the like.  Of course her check we left was gone, so she at least cleaned that.

Kim called her to ask about it, and she got all defensive.  "I clean those floors on my hands and knees!" she said.  "Of course I cleaned them.  On my hands and knees!"  Well, that is what we pay her to do.

My sister uses the same cleaning person, and she had also noted a quick decline.  Where her house once took four hours to clean, the cleaning person was now cleaning it in just under an hour - unrealistic for a large home with four children.  Misty left a note for her a while back asking her politely to pay particular attention to certain areas in the future - and the cleaning lady actually showed the note to Misty's father-in-law when he was over one day asking "can you believe that?!"  Yes we believe it - you are paid to clean the house!

Misty finally let her go today.  A short while later I received a voice mail from the cleaning lady saying that she wasn't going to clean for us any longer, that she knows we were unhappy with her last time, and that we should find someone who we think will do better.

So there you have it.  Anyone know a good cleaning person?