What Preparation Is Needed Before Treatment?

The Baseline, Whatever the Property

• Bedding stripped, hot washed and hot tumble dried, then sealed and kept out of the room
• Under-bed space cleared, contents kept in the same room
• Furniture pulled off the walls
• Floor line clear all the way round
• Bed reachable from all four sides
• Nothing carried out of the room, nobody sleeping elsewhere

That list applies everywhere. Everything below is what gets added on top of it.

If More Than One Room Is Involved

• Prepare all of them to the same standard, and together. A prepared room next to an unprepared one is half a job
• Do not stage things between rooms. Each room's contents stay in that room — there is no shared holding area
• Laundry from different rooms should not be combined in one basket on the way to the machine
• Allow considerably more time. Three rooms is not three times the work, but it will not fit into one evening either

If There Are Storage Beds

Divan drawers and ottoman bases are the single biggest preparation variable in a house, and they are the one most often left.

• Empty every drawer completely, into bags or boxes that stay in the room
• An ottoman base has to be emptied too — it holds far more than a drawer divan
• Nothing goes back in until you are told
• If the base cannot be lifted or moved, say so before the visit

A full storage bed cannot be inspected or treated properly, and emptying one takes an evening rather than ten minutes.

If the Property Is Cluttered

This is said without judgement: a room with a lot of belongings in it needs more preparation, takes longer to treat, and gives a population more places to be.

1. Prioritise the floor line and the perimeter, then under the bed, then the furniture edges
2. Consolidate into fewer, larger containers within the room rather than many small ones
3. Do not use the opportunity to sort things out — that is how belongings end up in three other rooms
4. Say honestly what has been possible. A technician who knows a room is difficult can plan for it; one who finds out on arrival cannot

If the Property Takes Guests or Tenants

• Prepare rooms that are not currently occupied to the same standard as the ones that are
• Make sure whoever cleans the property has the aftercare instructions too
• Block the rooms out for the exclusion period, and for a little longer than you think
• Keep a written record of which rooms were prepared, inspected and treated

Newbury: How Long To Allow

Rough guide, for the household side of it:

• One room, no storage bed, tidy: an evening, plus the laundry
• One room with a storage bed: an evening for the room and an evening for the drawers
• Two or three rooms: a weekend, realistically
• A larger house with several beds in use: start earlier than feels necessary, and do the laundry first