I’m so appreciative that my wife and I were able to open our own antique shop a couple years ago.
It’s something we wanted to do for years.
We both have full time jobs as well. In our free time, we’ve always liked to browse flea markets and estate sales. This led to us having too many treasures. We eventually started to sell online. The plan of opening a little shop came about organically. We didn’t realize how much work it would be. We eventually had to hire a commercial cleaning crew to keep up with appearance and maintenance. Initially, we tried to do most of the easy janitorial services ourselves. Emptying the waste baskets, dusting, cleaning, sweeping and vacuuming was no big deal. However, we were getting stretched thin. Between our regular jobs and hours at the shop, there was no extra time. The shop is good sized. The floors are a combination of carpet and hardwood. The weather in our area means that foot traffic tracks in mud, slush and rock salt. Floor cleaning is constant. We would mop and the floors would look dirty. They tended to get scuffed up and appear dingy. I rented a commercial cleaner and tackled the floors myself. This was a waste of time and energy. I finally realized that we needed to hire a cleaning company to come in on a weekly basis. We couldn’t keep up with the necessary cleaning and lacked the knowledge and tools to do it properly..