Emma’s Eco-Clean

I continue to be very happy customer of Emma’s Eco-​Clean. And pleased that our family is supporting such an impressive business. They have been cleaning our home for 13 years now. Originally I chose them because they used green cleaning products, had a management structure so that I did not have to be «the boss», their staff is bonded and insured and I could either practice my Spanish with our cleaning ladies or call or email the office. Emma’s uses cleaning teams of two ladies each and assigns your home its own «team» for consistencies sake.
Emma’s is a woman-​owned business cooperative that started and is still based in Redwood City. Emma’s provides its 27 Latina worker-​owners with benefits including health and dental insurance and flexible vacation time.
More about their origin:
Prospera was founded (as WAGES — Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security)

Are you kidding me:-) I really liked Emma/​that it’s a women’s cooperative, Environmentally friendly products, Did extra extraordinary work polishing silver and cleaning windows Which no one does and if they do it they usually do a crappy job. Maybe these gringos should learn to speak Spanish? It’s like you kidding me I don’t speak Spanish I had no trouble just kind of pointing and using sign language. One really funny thing that happened was one of the faucets/​syncs with kind of a mess and the cleaner And the cleaner made it look brand-​new :-) Also I like the miele vacuums/​in the way they do the hardwood floors Is great/​use white small towels when they get filthy they change them.

We’ve been using Emma’s every other week for six years, and I’ve been happy with the service. They are always on time, and call ahead to request schedule changes if they need them. They are respectful and kind, always sweet to my kids. The cleaners don’t speak much English, so we usually communicate through the manager over the phone, but that has never been a problem.
Over six years, two things got broken. Both times I got a call immediately from the manager, very apologetic, and they reimbursed me for the damage.
My favorite part is that they use non-​toxic cleaners (like baking soda and vinegar), so I’m not worried about any negative health effects on my kids.

I used this service for a little over a year. Emma’s is… fine.
I like the fact that they don’t use toxic chemicals, like many of the other commenters here. The women who cleaned our house seemed nice enough.
There was one episode where I am pretty sure they broke something and hid it. I came home one day and looked for my glass item and it was just gone. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I couldn’t say for sure that it was broken but it seemed reasonable to assume. I replaced it and no one (including me) said anything about it.
My only real complaint, though, is that it takes FOREVER for them to process payments. First I tried to give the ladies themselves the check, and they would keep it for a good week or two before turning it over to the office. That made me nervous, so I started mailing the check directly. It then took them two weeks to deposit the check, and it’s been that way for months. Kind of makes it hard to plan.
No real complaints about the actual cleaning, though, so I just put up with the payment issues. I had a hard time finding someone reliable and they were always prompt.

After trying several other cleaning companies in the area, we found a gem with Emma’s. We’ve had Emma’s clean our 2 story townhouse several times. The main reason I like Emma’s is that they are very thorough and take their time to leave everything addressed. Their green products are great, no chemical smells when I come home, just a clean, fresh smell. The ladies are always super nice and efficient.

We had had Emmas cleaning various of our houses on and off for over 3 years now and we are overall very pleased with their thoroughness and the results of their non-​toxic products. They always come on the day they say they will (we gave them a key and they come when we are out of the house for work so I don’t actually know what time they come and that’s fine with me) and when there is a need to reschedule we get prompt responses via email.
My only complaint is that it seemed like it took us a long time to convince them NOT to do certain things — they would empty the trash bins even if they only had a few things in them (thus wasting a trash bag and sometimes doing things like throwing the compost in the trash or recycling bottles that I had intended to save and reuse) and spend a lot of time dusting when we would rather prioritize things like wiping down counters, vacuuming, and cleaning the bathrooms. Really, my books just do not need to be thoroughly dusted every two weeks while the bathroom sink absolutely DOES need to be scrubbed.

We had scheduled a move-​in house cleaning service for 8:30 AM on the morning of Saturday, May 12^th. They called us back the day before the appointment, to confirm the time, as well as to request a re-​scheduling to 1 PM. Since this time did not suit us, we requested them to come by at 8:30 AM. They confirmed that the 8:30 time-​slot was still available, and they would come at that time as promised.
On the morning of May 12^th, the cleaning crew never showed up. There was neither a phone call, nor a response to our phone calls to their office. This level of (un-)responsiveness is completely unacceptable and unprofessional.
The company did contact us (in response to our multiple voicemails) on the following Monday, and they were very apologetic. However, they did not have any compelling reason for dropping the ball on the appointment, expect that the cleaning crew «did not want to clean at 8:30, and did not contact the office before deciding not to show up.»
The overall experience with this company was very unsatisfactory.

The first time it was great, and affordable. We had them come back every two to three months. My credit card bill started climbing (she didn’t invoice me or tell me any price over the phone, I just kept my card on file). We lived in a 2 bedroom, 1.5-bath apartment — less than 1,000 sqft. Started around $ 130, slowly climbed to $ 170, then suddenly was $ 350! When I called, she said she forgot to charge me for the previous time, so it was double. I looked back at my calendars, and that seemed plausible. Then it happened again… this time definitely was not to make up for an uncharged visit. Plus, the ladies they sent over didn’t speak much English, and the quality of the work was uneven — sometimes good, sometimes sloppy. I stopped using them when I didn’t get a response to my voicemails about the huge charge.

We used Emma’s for 2.5 years when we had an apartment, and sometimes we found things broken (a picture frame and a candle holder) but gave them the benefit of the doubt, and never said anything. In each case, they reported the damage to us and offered to pay for it. However, after moving into a new home with new appliances and furniture, after only a couple of months of rehiring them, we found damage to our home. We can’t prove if they did it, but scouring pads were used on our new oven, microwave, brand new tv, and new faucets. We found damage on our brand new dining table and chairs made with a sharp object. Our guest bathroom tiles were chipped, and we found holes in the walls that were not there before.

We had a pretty disappointing experience with Emma’s. It was a last minute service and we felt we were paying a premium because of that. We gave the 2 women who came some leeway. They didn’t speak English anyway, so it would have been difficult to instruct them. We stepped out to walk the dog and came back an hour later to discover that they’d spent well over an hour on one room! And we were paying by the hour. They actually took ~250 books off our shelves and dusted each one. They didn’t put them back in the same order either.
45 minutes before the previously estimated completion time, we got a call from the manager to let us know that they would need another 1.5 hours to complete the job because it was «dirtier than expected.» They were already getting paid 180 bucks for 3 hours and now they wanted 90 more. 270 dollars to clean a 1700 square foot house! We told them they would need to end by the agreed time and to focus on finishing the most important stuff (the bathrooms). They ended up not getting to one of the two bathrooms at all. The last thing I expected when hiring professionals was that I would have to end up cleaning part of the house myself.
The women who cleaned were nice. And the things they did clean seemed pretty polished. I think it was the management that was the problem. Lesson learned.

Used for the better part of a year on an every-​two-​week schedule.
Consistently late (sometimes by several hours).
Mediocre cleaning, though I appreciate the lack of chemically smells.
Always mis-​arranged things (like stacking unpaid bills on top of paid bills. Thanks for that.)
Kept closing my damn laptop despite my and my girlfriend asking them not to (EVERY time. WHY?! Why does it hurt you to just leave it alone?). Probably because there would often be different women cleaning and such requests were not passed on.
I should have stopped service long before I did, but sometimes mediocre cleaning is better than no cleaning.

You can’t beat Emma’s eco-​friendly cleaning for the price. Emma’s charges $ 75.00 to clean my roughly 300 square foot apartment for 1.5 hours, using 2 cleaners. I’ve timed their arrival and departure (I used to clean homes so I have certain things I look for) and they spent the entire 1.5 hours cleaning. I have white tiled floors in the kitchen and bathroom and because they did such a great job deep cleaning those areas, the floor stayed spotless for almost 4 days. The added bonus of hiring Emma’s to clean is knowing that I’m helping to support a green, women-​owned cooperative (for those of you who are, like I was, new to this term, it means that the women employees own the business and share in the profits earned by the business). Thank you Emma’s for doing what you do so well and charging reasonably for your services!

I just had Emma’s come out and clean our small house. The rates are about $ 25/​person-​hour which is about $ 125 for the house. Our house was really grimy and they did a great job in my opinion, using ‘green’ cleaning products, which left the house smelling fresh, rather than like a chem lab. The two women were nice, one spoke no english, but they were both hard workers, friendly and did what was needed.
I’m definitely using them again. My only reservations about giving them 5 stars is that I don’t have any other experiences with cleaning services. There were still a few dirty places left, but I imagine this is always true of cleaning services.

Great idea for a business and I wanted to support it. They have been cleaning our house every 2 weeks for 2 years. They are very reliable and I trust their staff, though I cannot communicate with them since I don’t speak Spanish. They do a good but not great job.
Seems like you have to negotiate the specifics with them. For example, for us they do change our sheets, but they don’t do the dishes if there are too many in the sink. They often pile /​relocate stuff to strange places while cleaning and don’t put it back in order like other housekeeping services have.
They got mad at me a few times because I didn’t pick up every single one of my kid’s toys before they came (I was pregnant on bedrest.) They wanted to charge me an extra half hour (two people) to pick up toys. My response — feel free to skip that section of the floor!

I’ve been using them for a few months now. A team of two people shows up to clean, and they stay about 2 hours or a little bit longer to clean my rather small 3 bedroom house, for $ 125.
The price is way higher than I would expect. The cleaning job has been consistently underwhelming, but adequate. They are not strong on being thorough or putting things away in logical places. Sometimes they run out of time and leave a sink full of dishes. They don’t do things like change the sheets. But, hey, my house is mostly clean and the cleaners are nice, so that’s fine.
I appreciate that there’s no bleachy or Lysol-​y smell afterwards, and I want to support women’s cooperatives, so I’m sticking with them for now.

I’ve been using Emma’s Eco-​Clean consistently for about half a year and have had nothing but great service.
On my quest to find a cleaning service on the Peninsula that doesn’t use chemicals, I tried the SF-​based Greenway maids for about a year and had bad experiences despite my calls/​complaints and attempts to request better service: they couldn’t find my apartment, lost my key, and broke picture frames and electrical outlets.
That’s why I’m so happy to have found Emma’s — they’re very reasonably priced ($ 75 for 2 women to clean my 1-​bedroom for 1.5 hours!), don’t use chemicals, don’t break stuff or move stuff around the apartment in weird places, do a lovely cleaning job, and are reliable. Their customer service on the phone has always been excellent — they promptly return my call and are flexible with scheduling.
And to top it all off — they’re a women’s co-​op!

I decided to use their house cleaning services because
1) I wanted to support this women’s co-​op
2) they use least toxic chemicals
They charge $ 25 per person per hour, 2 women come at a time. They cleaned my 1 bedroom condo after my tenant moved out for 3.5 hrs for $ 175.
I have no range of reference regarding costs or level of cleanliness as this is the first time I have ever used a house cleaning service. I wouldn’t say they did an excellent job. They did a good job with the stove top and the window sills and blinds which were very dirty and dusty. The bathroom was just so so. I actually re-​cleaned it. They did a decent job with vacuuming.
The house cleaners spoke very little English. They came on time. I would probably try other house cleaning companies just for comparison. At this time, I am unsure if I would use them again.

I’ve had 2 great experiences with Emma’s so far, both times 2 women arrived and cleaned for 1&½ hours for $ 75. I have a 1 bedroom apt. that we only have cleaned every other month to help with the deep cleaning. I have tried 2 other cleaners, both private, single cleaners found on-​line, who worked longer hours and did not leave such a nice result. Hopefully soon we can afford to increase the women’s time here, to include more detail and the windows, but so far I am really happy with their service, and I have never found anything to be even moved or misplaced. I also really like supporting a women’s co-​op, and my house never smells ‘bleached’ when they finish.

We’ve been using Emma’s Eco-​Clean for about three years, and have been very pleased with the service. They are respectful of our pets, do a thorough job, and are quite affordable. We’ve seen no need to change.
It’s nice they use eco-​friendly products as well. Be prepared for a slight vinegar smell in the house.

I called Emma’s and no one called me back. When I contacted them via e-​mail, they were very apologetic and straightforward about their costs. I told them I lived in Santa Clara and they offered me a cleaning appointment. When I called to confirm, they told me they didn’t service Santa Clara. Get it straight, ladies.
Emma’s is one of the WAGES (Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security) Cooperatives along with the terrible Eco-​Care (South Bay
) and Natural Home Cleaning (East Bay
).