Housegreening hiring, launching pedal-powered green cleaning service

"We've about doubled in size since last year," says Greening Sensei Michael Eck, who founded Housegreening in 2006 with Jesse Lee Gray, Ringmaster.

Based at Green Spaces Colorado, the company has 14 "Greeners" who work part- and full-time and about 140 repeat customers, most of whom pay $80 to $240 for a cleaning every other week. Eck expects to hire seven more by the end of 2013, bringing the company to 23 total employees.

Eck attributes the boom to moving from contractor-based labor to employees. "It was really because of that change in our business model. All of our systems have really fallen into place."

Systems include everything from transportation to cleaning supplies. "We make our own solutions using basic ingredients like baking soda, vinegar and essential oils," says Eck. "It's as natural as it can get."

"Pretty much every cleaning service is green nowadays, but usually they're just using stuff in a bottle that says biodegradable -- they don't know what's in it," he adds. "We know what's in what we use."

The company also cleans woodwork and flooring by hand. Mopping "is just pushing around dirt," says Eck.

Housegreening is launching a bicycle-powered service for downtown residents. Eck says he is working out exactly how to mount a Dyson vacuum on the bike trailer. "We really try to keep driving to a minimum," he adds.

The company serves Denver but not the suburbs, and just launched in Boulder County in spring 2013.