Cottage and lake house cleaning in Northern Michigan | Exclusive Housekeeping
Cottage and lake house cleaning in Northern Michigan
🏞️ Waterway homes

Cottage and lake house cleaning in Northern Michigan

Sand in the entry, wet towels on every hook, and a kitchen that worked all weekend — cottages along the inland lakes and rivers.

How this service is run

Waterway homes

Lake houses up here are not downtown condos. Burt Lake weekends fill the great room and the bunk wing. Mullett stretches far enough that two “nearby” cottages are still a real drive. We cluster waterway work so your checkout is not the last stop after dark.

The Indian River corridor, Crooked River toward Alanson, the Cheboygan River into town, and Sturgeon River cabins toward Wolverine all collect the same pattern: grit at the door, damp gear, extra refrigerators, and guests who used every bath. The checklist follows that, not a franchise apartment script.

Seasonal owners usually want an open-up deep clean, a mid-season maintenance visit or two, and a close-down before the water system gets winterized. Rental cottages use the same crews as our STR program, with linen rotation when you keep spare sets.

Walloon and the Petoskey-side water are on the radius when the route makes sense. Ask. We will not invent a Tuesday we cannot staff.

Who it is for

  • Family cottages on Burt, Mullett, and the inland waterway
  • Seasonal owners who are not standing in the kitchen at checkout
  • Hosts who rent the lake place part of the summer

How to prepare

  • Write down dock, sauna, bunk, and extra-fridge notes
  • Tell us how we get in — lockbox, hidden key, neighbor
  • Say whether this is open-up, mid-season, close-down, or a guest flip
  • Flag wells, septic quirks, and rooms that stay shut

We live on this waterway. The work is scheduled like lake traffic actually behaves, not like a spreadsheet in another time zone.

House cleaning pages for Petoskey, Indian River, Harbor Springs, Cheboygan, and Gaylord.

Entries & mudrooms

  • Sand and wet-gear floors
  • Hooks and benches wiped
  • Trash out

Kitchen & baths

  • Weekend reset after lake days
  • Showers that see hard water
  • Extra fridge if you tell us it exists

Bunk rooms

  • Beds made when linens are out
  • Floors
  • Notes for which bath guests actually use

Optional add-ons

  • Wash-and-fold: on-site machines or $18 a load at our 8-machine shop
  • Dishes and a reset sink when you ask for it on that visit
  • Linen change and beds made with the sets you leave out — or the duplicate sets we bring back
  • Pet-hair pass on furniture and floors (we are not a groomer; this is extra vacuum time)
  • A real tidy-up of toys, mail piles, and couch clutter before the clean starts
  • Hand-wipe of marked walls and door kicks — not a full paint-prep wash
  • Grout and tile extra dwell in the worst bath or entry
  • Blind wipe, priced per blind so a lake-house wall of slats does not surprise the quote
  • Interior window glass and sills, priced per pane
  • Screens washed when they come out without a fight
  • Front entry, porch, or deck sweep so sand does not walk back in
  • Patio furniture wipe after a lake weekend
  • Oven interior, fridge interior, or both
  • Inside cabinets and drawers on an empty or move-out day
  • Garage, mudroom, or bunk-wing extra time
  • Ceiling fans and reachable light fixtures
  • Extra refrigerator or freezer in the garage or bunk house
  • Hot-tub cabinet wipe and cover dust-off (not a spa service)
  • Key pickup / key return when the lockbox is not an option
  • Eco-minded products on that visit only
  • Same-week holiday or open-house reset on top of the standing plan
  • Customer Portal access so you stop texting for the next date and the invoice
  • Residential carpet shampooing — about $50 per average 10×15 room, chemicals included

What we do not include

  • Hoarding or biohazard situations
  • Exterior windows on tall stories or icy roofs
  • Commercial carpet extraction for offices and restaurants (residential shampooing is a separate, priced add-on)
  • Moving furniture heavier than we can safely shift with two people
  • Washing dishes stacked in the sink unless the quote says so
FAQ

Questions about Cottage and lake house cleaning

Will I see the same people?

We keep notes on your house and try to send familiar teams on recurring routes. Peak summer on the lakes sometimes means a trained backup crew — the checklist stays the same.

Can I leave special instructions?

Yes. Put them on the booking form or in the Customer Portal. Alarm codes, lockboxes, rooms to skip, and product preferences all travel with the job.

What if I need to cancel?

Give us as much notice as you can — 48 hours helps the route. Same-day cancels may still be billed when we cannot fill the slot. Call 231-290-0737.

Do you serve only Petoskey?

No. Home base is Indian River (49749). We work Indian River, Petoskey, Cheboygan, Gaylord, Harbor Springs and the lake towns inside 30 miles of 49749.

Serving every town within 30 miles of 49749

Cottage and lake house cleaning is available in Indian River, Topinabee, Burt Lake, Mullett Lake, Alanson, Wolverine, Brutus, Ponshewaing, Cheboygan, Onaway, Pellston, Vanderbilt, Petoskey, Bay View, Harbor Springs, Levering, Boyne Falls, Walloon Lake, Carp Lake, Mackinaw City, Afton, Bay Harbor, Boyne City, Millersburg, Conway, Johannesburg, Elmira, Gaylord, Aloha, Cross Village.

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Local, insured Exclusive Housekeeping. Book online or call — we cover Indian River, Petoskey, Cheboygan, Gaylord and the lake towns in between.

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