So Who The Heck Runs A Cleaning Company For A Living?… And Why?!

Meet the Team

Ivan (he/him) - Lead Cleaner & Equipment Manager

Ivan is a professional artist, sculptor, illustrator, and author of a visual novel. Ivan reads approximately 5 books per month and is a huge film nerd.

Check out my art!
Antoinette (she/her) - Lead Cleaner, Equipment Manager, Trainer

Antoinette is a professional artist and illustrator and author of three visual novels. Antoinette is learning how to speak two languages, and spends most of her free time with her 12 year old yellow lab, listening to music.

Check out my book!
Tracy (she/her) - Lead Cleaner

After a 20+ year career as a social worker, Tracy is happy to be pursuing a new chapter in her life. She's the proud momma of three terrific children and a volunteer tutor. In her free time, she enjoys staying physically active, gardening, cooking, and a quixotic pursuit of NYT Crossword mastery.
ZJ (he/him) - Cleaner

ZJ is finishing his final year of high school as a homeschooler. He does track and field, swimming, and loves to cook in his free time, particularly Chinese, Indian, and Japanese food. He’s currently studying Mandarin and ASL.
Miles (he/they) - Commercial Cleaner

Miles is from Oak Park, Illinois and is a recent graduate of Elon University in North Carolina with a degree in Cinema and Television Arts and Creative Writing. Miles loves all forms of art but particularly film, literature and music. Recently he made a short film entitled "Absentia" which you can check out on his website!

Check out my website!
Reed (he/him) - Commercial Contract Manager & Cleaner

Reed plays piano, saxophone, and sings. He’s an avid vinyl collector and spends his free time practicing and playing gigs with his band, Bardware.

Check out my band's Instagram!

Meet the Owners

Symphony

Hi, I’m Symphony, Co-owner of Naturally Thorough Cleaners. When you call the business, I’m the one you’re about to become friends with.

When my parents put me in time-outs as a kid, I secretly thought joke’s on you mom and dad, I’m going to pick crumbs out of the carpet by hand! That was entertainment for baby Symphony. When I wasn’t on time-outs, I didn’t understand how to play with my dolls, so I would grab the Q-tips out of the bathroom and clean them instead. Care for the environment has also been a long term passion of mine. When I was in the 5th grade, I created a petition at my grade school that demanded that they institute green practices. I didn’t know what those practices were exactly, but I knew they needed to be better!  
With some cleaning know-how and extra time, I started cleaning my parents’ friends’ houses with all-natural products for extra spending money.  I was raised by two entrepreneurs, so quickly decided that I should make a business out of this.

While attending college to become a psychotherapist, I was juggling cleanings with a couple other jobs. I was miserable. My goal was to get out of cleaning entirely and just hire employees to clean for me (one of the first people being Tannah, my life-long friend). I was still passionate about non-toxic cleaning, and horrified at the amount of waste that normal cleaning practices create. I just didn’t know how I could continue this work and not burn myself out. Tannah’s management skills came to the rescue.

Tannah

I’m Tannah, Co-owner of Naturally Thorough Cleaners. I’m the one who makes sure our cleaners do their jobs right.

While I was attending college in Wisconsin, I heard that Symphony was running her own business. I was pretty jealous. How is she making money while I’m sinking into debt? I dropped out, came home to Chicago, and started working for Symphony for some extra cash. She taught me professional cleaning practices, about the dangers of toxic cleaners, and how well natural cleaners work. Additionally, she brought my attention to the waste that normal cleaning creates. She inspired a passion for environmentalism that I didn’t have before.

Eventually I left and Symphony closed the home cleaning business shortly afterwards. I was working a corporate job and attending Northwestern at the time, and the culture and work environment in this corporation were very poor. This really got under my skin because I was studying Organizational Behavior and was taught the value of proper employee management and quality workplace culture. So I quit, with dreams of one day creating a workplace that met my expectations and education.

Our Story

The day we decided to start a business together, we took this photo.

One day in May of 2019, Symphony called Tannah

“Hey Tannah, I’ve got an opportunity if you’re interested. A friend of mine works at this huge facility and they have all these big time executives coming in. They need someone to make the place shine before they come. Can I get you in on this project and we’ll put together a team?”

Tannah had no current income and plenty of time.

“Let’s do it!” we agreed.

The place was a disaster. It looked like the place had never been dusted. The fridges were splattered with food. Mold was everywhere. On the floors, on the walls, in the fridges, in the sinks.

“So… does this place just never get cleaned?” Tannah asked Symphony

“Get this, dude. They have people clean here every single day.”

We didn’t know it could be like this. You would think that if a business has a company coming in every day, the place should be spotless, right? Tannah had a flash of inspiration. “Symi, what if we created a cleaning company exclusively for businesses with completely environmentally safe practices that does a killer job every single time? If this Fortune 500 company has a terrible janitorial service, I bet a lot of other companies do too!”   

It took a fair amount of convincing. Symphony was not keen on cleaning again. But with Symphony’s cleaning experience and Tannah’s knowledge of workplace culture and employee management, maybe it’d be worth the effort. Symphony agreed. Thus, Naturally Thorough Cleaners was born.    

For the first 9 months, we had only one client whose bathrooms we cleaned for $60 a week. Those were rough times. But we started gaining the attention of some local businesses. Some clients simply valued eco-friendly practices. Others were large companies with multiple group homes and learning facilities, whose clientele were sensitive to harsh chemicals.  We refined our techniques over months and months and taught employees our standards and practices, eventually creating a team that we could rely on to deliver a beautiful, non-toxic clean every time. 

After a while, we got so many requests for home cleaning that we eventually added that as a service too. Now, we strive to deliver an impeccable clean every single time to homes, businesses, and residential facilities alike.