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By Kiyoshi Higashibaba
Baba Homecare is a home cleaning and organizing company founded in 2023 with a single cleaner, Kiyoshi Higashibaba (they/them). Since then, we’ve grown to a team of five with three Homecare Techs, an administrative assistant, and Kiyoshi at the helm. Our mission is to provide safe, quality homecare for disabled, neurodivergent, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC in our communities and employment for those who face barriers to dignified and fairly compensated work.
Our services include deep cleaning, move-in/out resets, regular cleaning, and organization and home design. We believe that cleaning homes is a way to build community and normalize care for those who need it and fair treatment of workers for those who provide it. The residential cleaning industry can be harsh and deeply unfair. Customers are dehumanized when their homes are treated as nothing more than messes to be cleaned up and inconveniences for cleaners. And cleaners are dehumanized with low pay for heavy physical labor, few protections, and little support.
Baba Homecare is fiercely determined to push back against this norm and carve out a space that provides care and employment in a way that honors the dignity and humanity of everyone. We are determined to be a company where safety is not optional and kind, non-judgemental care is the norm.
Client Care
Client Care
We set ourselves apart by approaching each of our clients as individuals with specific needs and concerns. All new clients receive a Welcome Call where we discuss their needs and whatever accommodations might be required. We expect diversity; that’s why we work with clients to develop their cleaning plans customized for their needs.
We want to know if you need something specific from us while we clean your home.
We expect the homes to be lived-in and dirty. Why else would we be hired? While many cleaning companies have strict rules about mess that pressure clients to clean before their cleaning service, we teach our Homecare Techs how to manage a cluttered home, folding it into our cleaning service.
Worker Care
Worker Care
We believe that quality care and worker safety and support go hand-in-hand. Our Homecare Techs are trained in the most efficient ways to clean, of course. But we also teach communication, time management, ergonomics and self-care. We mandate our Homecare Techs take regular breaks during a service and refuel with water and snacks and call out when they are sick. Our Homecare Techs are the reason this service is possible; it is imperative that they receive the level of support and care we expect them to give.
Our commitment to our Homecare Techs goes beyond compensation. Homecare Techs are paid $22-25 per hour, above average in North Carolina and 100% of tips go to the Homecare Techs. We also reimburse mileage. But for a team of queer, transgender, disabled, and BIPOC people, we need more than just fair pay. Your home is our workplace and we are committed to ensuring that Homecare Techs have a safe work environment. In addition to the Welcome Call, new clients must sign a Client Agreement which outlines our expectations and fees. It clearly states what to expect from our services and our policy that all Homecare Techs must be treated with respect and courtesy.
More to come…
Our values at Baba Homecare are the convergence of a lifetime of cleaning experience rooted in the truth that working under white supremacist and capitalist systems turn our bodies into machines. This is very clear in service work, especially domestic work. We are proud of the inherited gifts of those who came before us; we are indebted to the people who fought, worked, and struggled so that we can do the work we do in the way that we do it.
Follow us on social media, or subscribe to our newsletter for the next installment of Who We Are to learn more about our historical and ancestral inspirations at Baba Homecare.
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