Cleaning Tutorials, How-To's & Instruction

About Melissa Maker

President of Clean My Space & Cleaning Expert

Melissa Maker may be young, but she has mopped, scrubbed, sprayed and swept her way to success. Being an entrepreneur and seeking an opportunity to inject her recipe for integrity, quality, brand development and service usefulness, she started Clean My Space at the young age of 24 back in 2007.

Clean My Space is a successful boutique cleaning company that provides detailed and reliable cleaning and housekeeping to urban and suburban homes across the GTA. CMS caters to the lifestyle of professionals, executives, working families and retirees who are looking for a trusted name to provide relief from household work. Melissa built the company on four pillars she knew clients would require in order to retain service on an ongoing basis: quality, reliability, consistency and honesty. Melissa worked for a few well known companies prior to starting CMS and saw that the most successful ones were client focused, offered great value and cherished relationships with staff, clients and suppliers.

Melissa has always known hard work, but hasn`t always known cleaning. After working 2 jobs through university (at a small business being the `gopher` and as a server/bartender on weekends) and receiving her Bachelor of Business Administration through the esteemed Schulich School of Business at York University, she interviewed for a few jobs at some choice large companies for a marketing role, and that never panned out for her. She took the first job she was offered, which was a role in commercial banking at the Business Development Bank of Canada. While she learned a lot that year at the Bank, she knew for sure two things: first, banking was not for her, and second, she needed to fulfill her lifelong dream to be an entrepreneur. Young, without children or mortgage, Melissa quit her job and went back to waiting tables to finance her life and build a business. The question was what business to start?

With literally no prior knowledge of cleaning, Melissa kept seeing her friends who were now auditors, assistant brand managers, sales people and the like move in to great spaces in the city away from mom and dad and who were completey focused on their career and couldn’t care less about cleaning and housekeeping. Yet, when people came over they were panic-stricken at the state of their living space. Melissa knew that this was the route for her to take, even though she knew nothing of it, nor really liked cleaning herself (hence, her own perfect client).

She researched, planned, studied, practiced and then launched the business with the help of her then boyfriend (and now future husband), Chad Reynolds, who designed all marketing and website material. Clean My Space started out with Melissa cleaning during the day and waitressing at night, and grew 500% year over year in the first year alone.

Since then, the business has faced its share of joys and challenges, and almost 5 years later still forges ahead as an industry leader because of Melissa’s stern commitment to upholding the four pillars of the company, and Chad’s ever brilliant marketing strategies. Together, they ensure their staff embody the pillars and stand proud of their company wholeheartedly each day.

Melissa is a media-friendly personality and has been a cleaning expert for the Slice Network’s Princess, a guest on CBC’s Stephen and Chris Show, and featured on CityTV and Rogers Television as well. Melissa is often called to be quoted in articles and publications to provide an expert opinion. Further, she has been a key presenter at trade shows and because of her dynamic and informative presentation style, has launched a successful YouTube channel demonstrating solutions to client and viewer cleaning questions. cleaning videos, operates a popular twitter account offering cleaning tips and news, and has recently launched a company blog upon popular demand.

In fact, she’s been featured in a variety of media to discuss the fascinating world of cleaning. Melissa has contributed twice to Tridel’s Condominium Life, has been featured as a growing business in the Toronto Star, has a monthly article posted on Naturallysavvy.com, provides countless tips, tricks, and articles on her own website, and has been a guest on CBC’s very own Steven and Chris Show, has been featured twice on CityTV and will be appearing in the Slice Network’s new show this fall called Princess, which teaches women how to do things they’d rather not. Her information is fascinating, funny and useful.

Melissa Maker | Media Appearances: