Submitted photoDagen Anderson mops the floor of a customer’s house. 

VALDOSTA — When Dagen Anderson wanted a way to make more money than he was making at his job, he opened his business.

D&D Deluxe Cleaning Service opened in December 2017.

Anderson graduated from Lowndes High School in May 2017, and bought a duplex on his 19th birthday, he said. At the time, he was working for Daylight Donuts, but felt there had to be something else he could do to make more money while he was in college.

His mother has a cleaning service, and after talking to her about it, he decided to train with her and open his own cleaning service that specializes in move-in and move-out cleanings.

Along the way, Anderson reached out to his friend, Dalton Hart, to join him in opening the business, he said.

While the company specializes in move-in and move-out cleanings, Anderson and Hart also do one-time deep cleans, commercial cleaning and is beginning to dabble in residential cleanings.

The move-in and move-out cleanings are the crux of the business, but most of the cleanings take place at the beginning and end of the month, Anderson said. The deep, commercial and residential cleanings are a way to supplement the business income during the middle months.

The deep clean is similar to the move-in and move-out cleaning, Anderson said. It is a top-to-bottom cleaning of a house.

The commercial cleaning is similar to a janitorial service, he said. D&D takes out the trash, cleans the floors and other similar tasks.

Residential cleaning is more consistent, Anderson said. The customer would have certain days set up, where Hart and Anderson would come in and clean a resident’s house. The cleaning isn’t always a deep clean though, D&D will stagger its prices for different cleaning intensities based upon the customer’s requests.

Some of the tasks D&D do while cleaning include trash removal, fans and light fixtures, crown molding, baseboards, windows, doors, switch plates, electrical outlet covers, cabinets interior and exterior, floors (sweep, mopping, vacuuming), counter tops, appliances (inside, outside, underneath), sinks, tubs, showers, toilets, floors, air vents and any other special requests made by the customers.

D&D does not currently do any exterior cleanings.

“At this point, we only do interior cleaning,” Anderson said. “We would like to expand to carpet cleaning and pressure-washing-type cleaning outdoors.”

When a customer calls to have a house or business cleaned, D&D won’t make an estimate for the project by phone, Anderson said.

“We do estimates before the work, but we prefer to do it in person and not over the phone,” he said. “That way we can look at the work that needs to be done.”

The reason for wanting to see the house is that an extremely dirty, small house may take longer than a relatively clean medium-size house, Anderson said.

“It depends on the condition of the house,” Hart said. “It’s not about size.”

While Hart and Anderson have only been out of high school for one year, the two have worked hard to try and be successful.

Currently, Anderson is attending Valdosta State University and is double majoring in accounting and finance, and plans to graduate in fall 2019, he said. He did dual enrollment while he was in high school.

Hart is attending Georgia Military College and also took a few dual-enrollment classes in high school.

But the two didn’t stop with trying to get college credits, they looked into how to be financially successful.

“When we were in high school, we were always like: ‘What can we do to make money,’” Anderson said. “We’ve talked to financial advisors. We want to be set for the long haul, so we have been looking into investment opportunities and different things like that.”

But owning a business while being a full-time student can also be difficult.

“It’s hard to coordinate work and classes sometimes,” Anderson said. “We’ve had different jobs that we’ve had to do late at night and work until 4 a.m.”

Juggling houses to clean, homework and classes can make it difficult to find time for leisure.

“It’s definitely a tight schedule, for sure,” Hart said.

Ultimately, they hope by the time they graduate college, they won’t need the degrees, Anderson said.

“We would rather be owners,” Hart said. “You set your schedule. You are the deciding factor on any questions.”

But even with the struggle of being in school, Anderson and Hart said opening the business was a good idea.

“I’d say it’s pretty successful,” Anderson said. “The amount of customers we’ve gotten in three months is pretty good I’d think. We’ve worked for Exit Realty, Crown Property Management, Valdosta Sold and have worked with Stanley Steamers.”

To get into contact with D&D Deluxe Cleaning Service, call (229) 560-6097 or (229) 560-2548. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/ValdostaCleaningService/. The business is open 24/7. 

Jason Smith is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1257.