Local company aims to meet all home service needs

As newlyweds Ahwatukee Foothills residents Casey and Nora Jones learned quickly how expensive and time consuming it can be to try and take care of their home, pool and personal lives.

Casey was constantly traveling between Tucson and Phoenix and Nora was a practicing attorney trying to manage two homes. They’d spend each week working hard and each weekend working even harder to catch up on all the chores they didn’t have time for during the week. Hiring a housekeeper, pool keeper and all other service providers to take care of the work for them was out of reach.

“It was just too much,” Casey said. “We started looking around for other unmet needs in the economy. We realized from taking care of our two houses and getting people to help because it was something we didn’t have time to do, it was an industry that it seemed didn’t have a lot of professionalism. It had a lot of opportunity for efficiencies.”

The two came up with a model to combine many of these services into one person. That one person could be hired to clean the house, the pool and fulfill other concierge-type services, and because it was only one person it would be easier for a homeowner to manage and afford. That person might even be considered as useful as a spouse — so that’s what they decided to call the company: House Spouse.

House Spouse provides each homeowner with one point of contact. That person is trained in the best and most efficient ways to clean a house and a pool. They can also help run errands like picking up dry cleaning or taking care of pets for a flat fee. It’s a lot of training for the employees, but Casey and Nora say training is where their company excels.

“My former career was the operations manager of a high-tech equipment manufacturer,” Casey said. “It was very detailed work. The way you’re successful in that industry is you have standard operating procedures. You have a specific way that you do every single thing. We’ve translated that from other industries into the cleaning business. We have a very specific way that we do every single thing.”

The couple researched for months the best products, tools and technology to use to properly clean a house. Their products are all environmentally friendly and their tools are all top of the line.

For now, House Spouse only has a few employees but they’re growing quickly. Because training takes time Casey estimates they may hire a new employee every few weeks to a month depending on growth. So far, they’ve seen more interest in their company than they originally expected. The duo say the key to their success is their professionalism. Their prices are clearly listed online, a person answers the phone and all employees show up to their job in a clean and pressed uniform.