Vancouver eco-friendly cleaning service sees huge COVID business bump

May 4 2021, 6:57 pm


Made in Vancouver is a collaboration between Vancity and Daily Hive. Together, we’re turning the spotlight onto local businesses, organizations, and individuals who are helping to create a healthy local economy.


It’s ironic that many of the supplies we use to clean our homes are the most damaging to the earth.

So many cleaning products — including the ones used by many professional cleaning services — have toxic chemicals and are difficult to recycle.

In 2009, Balbina Dabrowski started her own cleaning business — Life Maid Easy — right here in Vancouver, with a hope to elevate the perception and expectations from a cleaning business.

Dabrowski has since expanded to nine different locations across Canada.

Vancity has been supporting people in our communities since 1946, like local business owners. As part of our Made in Vancouver series spotlighting local businesses and artists, we talked to Balbina Dabrowski, about her success and continued passion. 

We knew there would always be a need for a service like ours,” Dabrowski told Daily Hive.

There were already cleaning services, but she knew a way to make it better, in a way people would respond well to.

“We wanted to go green, at the time, this was a new concept in the cleaning industry.  From the Eco-friendly products we chose, to the hybrid cars we drove, we were determined to keep our carbon footprint low while we zipped around town all day long,” she added.

A cleaning service may have been a new concept for the industry and its customers, but they still needed to provide excellent service.

To succeed, the cleaning needed to be top notch, and the passion had to be there. A great idea can only go so far without it, and Dabrowski knew that.

We were inspired to give people back the time to do what they love most,” said Dabrowski.

“Like spending time with family, loved ones, friends, whatever makes you happy, while Life Maid Easy takes care of the dirty work.  Our clients, as most of us, have very busy lives, juggling work and home life can be very stressful.  We get to brighten up people’s homes and lives on a daily basis. It’s pretty amazing!” she added.

Whether it’s at a time when we are rarely home, are too busy, or spending too much time in our own homes, a cleaning service can be an affordable luxury for many. It’s emotionally satisfying to see you’d home in gorgeous condition, and you feel like you’ve taken a little vacation from daily chores.

Everybody’s needs are different so we customize each service to our clients and their requests,” said Dabrowski.

“You can even customize the scent of the cleaning products we use by infusing our non scented cleaning solution with the essential oils of your choice,” she said.

It’s this approach that has inspired so many renters and home owners to seek out the services of Life Maid Easy.

I don’t see Life Maid Easy as a cleaning company, we are a customer service company that happens to do an amazing job at cleaning,” Dabrowski tells Daily Hive.

“Our clients trust us in their homes with their most prized possessions.  Our job is to respect their space and their time; it starts from the first hello and goes to the follow up call to make sure that we did in fact, make your life easy,” she added.

Being an entrepreneur and building a business from scratch is incredibly difficult work. It’s inspiring to hear Dabrowski speak about the effort her and the team have put in, but even more so how much fun they seem to still have while doing it.

We’ve always had a playful approach to our brand, check out our name; we think we’re pretty punny around here,” she said.

“We couldn’t have done it without determination, hard work and long nights – but the laughter, positive attitude and amazing team that share those values is really what brought us here today.”

The brand is now in its 12th year in operation, and the Life Maid Easy team doesn’t seem to be showing any kind of sign they are slowing down. Dabrowski definitely still have concrete goals in mind for her company.

To continue to expand through Franchising,” she said.

“Helping people achieve their dreams of owning a successful business has been such a blessing.  Creating opportunity and growing together as a national team has been very fulfilling,” she added.

COVID brought hardship and uncertainty to so many Vancouver local business over the past year, and Life Maid Easy was no exception.

At first, the biggest challenge was the uncertainty of what tomorrow may bring,” she said. 

But a cleaning company, and an environmentally friendly one, seems as important as ever right now.

“Now the challenge is keeping up with the demand of our services due to the heightened awareness around cleaning and sanitizing. I know this is a good problem to have but our focus around health and safety has been paramount which requires us to move forward and grow very cautiously,” she also told us.

It’s not the consequence of the times that got Dabrowski where she is today. It wasn’t luck either. Like every great business owner, it was her ability to adapt, and it’s a story Vancouver can be proud to know that Life Made Easy started here.

“Never give up and be willing to adapt and change.  We’re a different company today than we were when we started out.  We remained open to new opportunities and directional changes which in turn has led us to where we are today,” said Dabrowksi.

Daily Hive

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