Lakeway Cleaning and Home Services

The Texas Governor’s Mansion has been home to every Texas governor since 1856. For the past 20 years, it has also been home to stain-free fabrics thanks to the team at Austin Specialty Cleaners. Using steam and an arsenal of eco-friendly products, staffers lift stains from the historic mansion’s antique rugs and furnishings, saving the governor the hassle of cleaning all day as other governors do.

Since 1978, the company has cleaned civilians’ homes with the same vigor. Technicians lift dirt off delicate upholstery, such as chenille and velvet, and scrub grime off tiles and grout. Alternatively, the carpet-cleaning team—composed of experts with a minimum of 15 years of industry experience—rejuvenates area and wall-to-wall carpets with a variety of techniques, from dry cleaning to full immersion.

The team at Texas Lawn Services will sweep away the dead leaves, twigs, and brambles that are hiding your ribald azaleas from cute horticulturalists. They'll lop off the tree branches that snatch small children ($80–$300), chase the bison from your shoulder-high hedges, and tame any feral lawn that's started snacking on neighborhood cats (mowing averages $40). They'll also inspect your sprinkler system ($70), install your favorite plants, mulch the heck out of everything not rooted down, and test your slip-n-slide before its annual summertime unveiling.

Late one Friday night, clients of Mayday Pest Solutions, Inc. heard a strange knocking. Having relied on Mayday for three years to route brown, recluse spiders from their garage and spray their property for rodents, they didn’t hesitate to call, despite the fact that it was 10 p.m. A technician uniformed in a white polo arrived first thing the next morning and followed the noise to discover a bewildered possum hiding inside the garage. Instead of shrugging his shoulders and referring the couple to animal control or the local pied piper, he trapped the visitor, bid adieu to the unwitting hosts, and left to re-release it into the wild.

That kind of aplomb is the result of more than a decade of experience in pest control. The family at Mayday opened its business in 1998, and since then, the business and its technicians have demonstrated a rare dedication and lack of squeamishness if the job extends beyond normal requirements. Mayday’s primary targets are winged, stinging insects such as hornets and wasps, as well as ants, small rodents, fleas, and ticks, which technicians will valiantly pursue to the edge of any property line or backyard moat.

Blue View Window Cleaning's professional techs have been scaling homes and businesses to banish streaks from windowpanes for more than seven years. Washers arrive at clients' buildings professionally dressed and ready to clean, keeping wayward drips at bay with drop cloths, shoe covers, and gravity-reversal devices. Before erasing dirt and smudges, the staffers grant free quotes on each job's potential cost over the phone to ensure that customers know what to expect when they arrive.

Sparkle Cleaning's staff provides both commercial and residential cleaning services, sanitizing living and working spaces with safe, green products. These eco-friendly cleansers are used to scrub bathrooms, scour kitchen ranges, dusts windowsills, and restore the luster of taxidermied Irish setters. Sparkle's services are always tailored to your needs, and many patrons opt for regular cleanings on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. You can also select à la carte services, such as a refrigerator cleaning, window washing, or grout cleaning.

Using a full-time staff of licensed and insured team members, Keep Moving LLC guides moves from start to finish. Its full-service movers can aid in packing tasks with their own provided moving materials, undertake the heavy lifting of loading and unloading, and even oversee unpacking once boxes reach their final destination. Beyond traditional moves, the team also handles challenging items such as pianos, pool tables, gun safes, and invisible furniture, and performs handyman and maid services such as painting and furniture repair. They also encourage word-of-mouth recommendations: clients receive up to $50 for each referral. Such discounts seem to be frequent occurrences if the chorus of positive feedback is any indication—one customer even raved that the movers were nice to her dog, who was anxious about the relocation.