Sota Cleaning Co.

09/07/2026

We're closed today. 💛

This summer was a lot.

Our team worked weekends. They stayed late. They rearranged plans and showed up when the schedule got crazy. There were days when I knew everyone was tired, but they kept going because there were houses to clean, vacation rentals to turn over, and clients counting on us.

I saw how hard they worked.

They gave up pieces of their own summer to make sure everyone else could enjoy theirs.

It's their turn for a little R&R.

No houses. No turnovers. No squeezing in one more job.

I hope they're sleeping in, sitting by the lake, spending time with their families, or doing absolutely nothing at all. They've earned it.

I'm incredibly grateful for this team and everything they gave Sota this summer.

We'll see you tomorrow. Today, we're resting. 💛

09/06/2026

8 YEARS OF SOTA: THE RECEIPTS 🧾

We've been getting a little sentimental about eight years of Sota.

But today, we're bringing the receipts. 😂

Since 2018…

👥 91 employees have been part of our story
🏡 840 clients have trusted us with their homes and businesses
🧹 358 recurring cleaning schedules have kept us coming back
💛 33 Cleaning for a Reason patients have received free cleaning while undergoing cancer treatment
🏆 5 Best of the Lakes Area wins
📍 And one little Alexandria cleaning company grew enough to make its way to St. Cloud

Plus thousands of miles driven, countless loads of microfiber washed, more vacuum bags than I care to calculate, and approximately 14 billion pounds of dog hair. 😂🐶

But behind every one of those numbers is a person.

Someone who worked here. Someone who trusted us with their home. Someone who needed a little help. Someone who recommended us. Someone who voted for us.

91 employees. 840 clients. 358 recurring schedules. 33 patients. 5 wins.

Not bad for something that started with just me and Mark. 💛

2018 → 2026

09/06/2026

8 YEARS OF SOTA: THE PEOPLE 💛

You can't tell the story of Sota Cleaning Co. without telling the story of the people who have worked here.

Lori has been with us for 5 years. Anna for 4. They've grown right alongside this company through changes, new employees, new systems, crazy schedules, growing pains and plenty of moments when I'm sure they wondered what I was getting us into. 😂

And then there are all the people who aren't in our current team picture anymore.

People come and go. Lives change. Goals change. Some stay for a season and others for years.

But they were here.

They wore the Sota shirt. They cleaned the houses, trained new people, survived the crazy days, celebrated the wins and helped us become better.

They're part of our story, too.

And then I look at the team we have today—the personalities, friendships, laughter and people who genuinely care about each other.

That's one of the things I'm most proud of after eight years.

Sota isn't a logo or an office.

It's people.

The ones who started with us. The ones who helped us along the way. And the ones who are here now.

To everyone who has ever been part of Team Sota—thank you. You are part of our history. 💛

09/04/2026

🎉 8 YEARS. 8 THINGS WE’VE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY.

Eight years of Sota Cleaning Co. has taught us a LOT.

Some lessons came from experience. Some came from mistakes. And some came from cleaning the same mystery substance off a kitchen floor and deciding we really didn't need to know what it was. 😂

So, in honor of 8 years, here are 8 things we've learned along the way:

1. You don't have to clean before the cleaners come.
Seriously. We're coming because the house needs cleaning. You're not going to shock us. We have seen things. 😂

2. The little things aren't actually little.
The faucet. The edge behind the toilet. The crumbs hiding under the toaster. The dust collecting on the bottom of a chair. Those details are what make a clean house feel clean.

3. Dog hair has no respect for physics.
It can be under the couch, on top of the refrigerator and somehow inside a room the dog has never entered. After eight years, we've stopped asking questions. 🐶

4. Faster isn't always better.
We've built systems to work efficiently, but there's a difference between working efficiently and rushing. Quality takes time—and we've learned that lesson more than once.

5. A great cleaning company is really a people company.
We may sell cleaning, but this business runs on people. Clients trusting us in their homes. Employees trusting us with their careers. Coworkers showing up for each other. Relationships matter more than we ever realized when we started.

6. You can't make everyone happy.
Oof. This one took a while. 😂 We've learned to listen, fix what we can, own our mistakes and keep improving—but we've also learned that Sota isn't going to be the right cleaning company for everyone. And that's okay.

7. There will ALWAYS be more dirt.
You can clean your entire house and someone will immediately make toast. A child will spill something. The dog will walk across the freshly mopped floor. Life happens in our homes. That's kind of the point.

8. We were never just cleaning houses. 💛
This might be the biggest lesson of all.

We're giving someone back their Saturday.

Helping a family breathe a little easier during a busy season.

Creating jobs.

Building careers.

Showing up for people when life gets overwhelming.

And being trusted inside thousands of homes along the way.

Eight years ago, we thought we were building a cleaning company.

Turns out, we were building something much bigger.

Here's to 8 years of learning—and plenty more lessons ahead. 💛

09/03/2026

8 YEARS OF SOTA: WHY “SOTA” FELT RIGHT 💛

When we decided to rename the company in 2022, choosing the new name felt like a really big deal.

We weren't starting over.

We were trying to find a name that fit what we had already become and where we wanted to go next.

And Sota Cleaning Co. just felt right.

We are a Minnesota company.

We clean Minnesota homes.

Homes with muddy spring entryways, lake sand everywhere in the summer, leaves tracked through the house in the fall, and approximately 47 pounds of salt on the floors all winter. 😂

We clean lake homes and family homes. Businesses and vacation rentals. Homes with kids, dogs, piles of shoes by the door and real people actually living in them.

There was something about Sota that felt local without tying us to just one town.

That mattered to me.

I loved Alexandria, and this community is where we built our business. But I also didn't know exactly where this company might take us someday.

I wanted a name that could grow with us.

Something simple.

Something Minnesota.

Something that felt like home.

Four years later, we've grown beyond Alexandria and into the St. Cloud area, and I'm really glad we gave ourselves a name big enough to come along for the ride.

It wasn't just a rebrand.

It was us finally putting a name to the company we were becoming.

Sota Cleaning Co. 💛

09/02/2026

8 YEARS OF SOTA: WHERE IT STARTED 💛

Looking through these old pictures is a little surreal.

In the beginning, it was just me and Mark.

No big team. No fancy office. No real idea what Sota Cleaning Co. would eventually become.

Just the two of us working, cleaning, answering messages, trying things, changing things, and figuring out how to run a business as we went.

And believe me…we were VERY much figuring it out as we went. 😂

Then COVID happened.

It was such a strange and uncertain time, but unexpectedly, it became a turning point for Sota.

Suddenly keeping homes and businesses clean felt more important than ever. People were paying attention to what was being touched, what was being disinfected, and who they trusted to come into their spaces.

So we kept cleaning.

There's something about the picture of Mark cleaning in his mask that really takes me back to that time. We didn't know what was going to happen with the world, much less our little cleaning company.

We just kept going.

These pictures are pieces of a version of Sota I almost forget about sometimes.

Our first logo.

Our first uniforms.

Our first little office space.

Mark and me doing whatever needed to be done.

There was no master plan that said eight years later we'd have a team of people I care deeply about, an office downtown, clients who have been with us for years, and a company that has grown beyond anything I pictured in those early days.

We just kept taking the next step.

Some of them worked.

Some of them REALLY didn't. 😂

And somehow, all those little steps brought us here.

I don't ever want Sota to get big enough that I forget this version of us.

Just me and Mark, trying to build something good. 💛

09/01/2026

🎉 8 YEARS OF SOTA CLEANING CO. 🎉

This September marks 8 years of Sota Cleaning Co. 💛

Eight years of cleaning homes.

Eight years of growing a team.

Eight years of learning what works…and occasionally learning the hard way what absolutely does not. 😂

Eight years of families trusting us with their homes, employees trusting us with their careers, and our community continuing to recommend our little cleaning company to their friends and neighbors.

What started in 2018 has grown into something we never could have fully imagined.

And we know exactly who we have to thank for that.

You.

Our clients. Our team. Our families. Our community. The people who hired us when we were brand new. The people who told their neighbor about us. The people who left reviews, shared our posts, encouraged us, and continued inviting our team into their homes year after year.

So this year, we wanted our anniversary celebration to be about the community that made these eight years possible.

Introducing:

✨ 8 YEARS. 8 HOMES. ✨

In honor of our 8th anniversary, Sota Cleaning Co. is giving 8 local households up to 3 labor hours of professional cleaning, completely on us.

That's 24 hours of cleaning being given back to the communities that have supported us for the past eight years. 🏡💛

And we want you to help us choose the eight households.

Nominate someone who could use a little help at home.

Maybe it's a caregiver who is always taking care of everyone else. A busy family going through an especially hectic season. Someone who could use one less thing on their plate. A friend, neighbor, parent…or even yourself.

You don't have to share anyone's personal circumstances publicly. Simply fill out our nomination form and tell us who you're nominating and why.

🏡 8 households will be selected
🧹 Up to 3 total labor hours per household
📍 Alexandria & St. Cloud service areas
💛 No purchase necessary

Nominations are open through September 13th, 2026.

👉 Nominate someone below:

Eight years ago, we set out to clean houses.

Along the way, we built something much bigger than that.

Thank you for trusting us, supporting us, challenging us to be better, and allowing Sota Cleaning Co. to be part of your homes and communities for eight incredible years.

Here's to what comes next. 💛

8 Years. 8 Homes.

Where the destination is home.

In honor of Sota Cleaning Co.’s 8th anniversary, we’re giving 8 local households up to 3 labor hours of professional cleaning, completely on us. We want you to help us choose the recipients. Nominate someone who could use a little help at home. It could be a caregiver, a busy family, a friend go...

08/31/2026

🎓🧹 I have it on VERY good authority that college kids want cleaning gifts. 😂

Do you have a college student in the Alexandria or St. Cloud area whose definition of cleaning is moving the dirty dishes from the desk to the sink? 🍕🥤➡️🍽️

Or an adult child you have absolutely NO IDEA what to buy for anymore? 🎁🤷‍♀️

Here’s something we’ve learned about young adults:

💸 They HATE spending their own money on necessities.

Mom and Dad’s money?

✨ Absolutely no problem. ✨ 😂

So buy them something they desperately need but will probably never purchase themselves:

🧹✨ A professionally cleaned apartment. ✨🧹

No more visiting your college kid and immediately wondering:

😳 Is that supposed to be growing there?
🚽 When was this bathroom last cleaned?
🧦 Why is there a sock in the kitchen?
👃 And WHAT is that smell?!

It’s technically a gift for them… 🎁

But we all know who this gift is REALLY for. 😏😂

Give your college student the gift of a clean apartment—and give yourself the gift of visiting them without immediately reaching for the Lysol. 🧴🤣

📍 Alexandria + St. Cloud
🎓 College kids welcome
🧹 Questionable apartments also welcome

08/29/2026

🎉 Happy 1-Year Anniversary, Hailey! 🎉

Today we’re celebrating one year of Hailey at Sota Cleaning Co.!

Around here, Hailey has earned a very special title: our resident old lady whisperer. 😂❤️ She has a way of connecting with our older clients that is truly something special. They love her, trust her, and quite frankly, some of them might keep us around just so they can keep Hailey.

She’s kind, patient, dependable, and brings a warmth into our clients’ homes that goes far beyond cleaning. Those relationships are such an important part of what we do.

Hailey, thank you for a wonderful first year and for taking such great care of our clients. We’re lucky to have you on the Sota team!

Happy Sota-versary, Hailey! 🥳

08/28/2026

🔥 HOT BUTTON ISSUE: Why We Don’t Wash Walls 🔥

Gather ’round. It’s time for a little Sota Cleaning lore.

And before anyone gets worked up in the comments, just know: people have surprisingly strong feelings about wall washing. 😂

We get asked all the time if we wash walls.

And listen… washing a wall isn’t hard. I understand the concept. I wholeheartedly believe walls occasionally need to be washed.

But walls and I have a history.

Many years ago, I cleaned for a woman in her 90s. She asked me to clean the wall around her telephone. No problem. I grabbed a gentle cleaner—just a little Dawn—and carefully cleaned the area.

It came out beautifully.

✨ Too beautifully. ✨

Because now there was one perfectly clean patch of wall around the telephone… and it did NOT match the rest of the wall.

She noticed.

She was not pleased.

And, by extension, I’m pretty sure she hated me for the remainder of our time together.

Wall Washing Lesson #1: Sometimes clean is the problem.

Then came the Magic Eraser Incident.

A client specifically asked me to use a Magic Eraser on her walls. I did exactly as requested.

The dirt came off.

So did the sheen.

Now we had clean spots that caught the light differently than the rest of the wall.

Wall Washing Lesson #2: Paint holds grudges.

And DON’T get me started on freshly painted walls.

Fresh paint needs time to cure. Just because it feels dry does not mean it’s ready for someone to come along with a wet microfiber and start scrubbing fingerprints off of it.

You cannot simply wash freshly painted walls!

Wall Washing Lesson #3: Dry and cured are NOT the same thing.

And then there’s the economics of the whole thing.

Properly washing walls is incredibly labor-intensive. To wash the walls throughout an entire home takes hours and hours of careful work.

For what a professional cleaning company would need to charge you to wash all of your walls…

you could probably have them repainted.

And frankly, we would rather you spend your money on the painter.

Fresh paint. Even finish. No mysterious clean halo around Grandma’s telephone. Everybody wins. 😂

And thus, a Sota Cleaning policy was born.

It’s not that we can’t wash walls. It’s that we cannot guarantee good-quality results because paint is fickle.

Flat paint. Old paint. Fresh paint. Touch-up paint. Builder-grade paint. Mystery paint from 2007… you never quite know what you’re dealing with until you touch it.

Sometimes you remove the dirt.

Sometimes you remove the sheen.

Sometimes you create one spectacularly clean spot that makes everything around it look worse.

After years in the cleaning business, I have learned to respect my enemies.

Paint is one of them.

So yes, I believe in wall washing.

I just believe it’s best done by the person who also knows where the leftover paint is stored. 😂

Please direct all wall-washing grievances to the paint manufacturers.