The question almost never gets asked out loud.
It shows up instead as a small hesitation before booking. A glance at the framed photographs on the hallway wall. A thought about the vase that came from a grandmother, or the marble that the previous owners warned you about, or the television mounted on brackets that have always seemed slightly optimistic.
You are about to let people you have not met move through your home with vacuums and cleaning products while you are somewhere else. Wondering what happens if something breaks is not paranoia. It is the reasonable question of someone who owns things.
Here is the honest answer, including the parts most companies would rather not put in writing.
Yes, Accidents Happen
Any company that tells you nothing ever gets broken is either new or not being straight with you.
Cleaning is physical work performed at pace in a space full of objects. Over enough homes and enough years, something will eventually go wrong. A shelf gets bumped. A cord catches a leg. Something slips on a wet surface. This is true of movers, contractors, plumbers, and every other trade that works inside occupied homes.
The relevant question is never whether accidents occur. It is what stands behind the person when one does.
That is the entire difference between hiring a company and hiring an individual, and it is worth understanding before you need it rather than during.
Insurance Is the Whole Answer
When a cleaning company is insured, a broken item becomes a process. There is a claim, a record, a resolution, and a company with a reputation and a policy that has an interest in closing it properly.
When a cleaning company is not insured, a broken item becomes a conversation between you and whoever happened to be in your home. Their account may not match yours. They may or may not have the means to make it right. They may or may not answer the phone the following week. Nothing about that situation is a good use of your afternoon.
This is the single highest-value question you can ask before booking anyone, and it takes about four seconds. Are you insured.
A professional company answers immediately and without hesitation, because they have answered it a hundred times. Ask before the first visit. Ask before a key or a code changes hands. The answer is not more useful after something has already happened.
Most of the warning signs that a company is not built to stand behind its work show up during booking, well before anyone arrives at your door. Insurance is the first of them, and the easiest to check.
What Actually Gets Broken
The damage that occurs in real homes is rarely dramatic. It is small, specific, and fairly predictable.
Items on unstable bases. A vase on a runner, a frame on a narrow ledge, a lamp on the corner of a table that gets bumped when someone reaches past it.
Things hung on inadequate hardware. Pictures on pins rather than anchors. Shelves mounted into drywall without support. These come down when the wall is wiped, and they were coming down eventually regardless of who touched them.
Surfaces reacting to products. This is why a professional cleaner asks about stone, sealed wood, and specialty finishes rather than assuming.
Objects already compromised. A hairline crack in a ceramic piece. A joint that has been loose for two years. Handling reveals these rather than causing them, which is an uncomfortable distinction when it is your object and it is now in two pieces.
Appliances and fixtures with quirks the household knows and nobody wrote down. The drawer that sticks. The faucet that has to be turned a particular way.
Almost none of this is carelessness. Most of it is the intersection of ordinary movement and something that was already fragile, already mounted badly, or already known to be temperamental by everyone except the person cleaning.
What Maid It New’s Policy Actually Says
Vague reassurance is not useful, so here is the specific version.
Secure valuables and fragile items yourself. Irreplaceable pieces, heirlooms, and anything with sentimental value beyond its replacement cost should be put away before a cleaning. Not because a cleaner is likely to break it, but because no resolution process gives you back something that cannot be replaced.
Report damage within 24 hours of the appointment start time, with photos and a description. The window is short for the same reason quality concerns have a short window. Homes are lived in. After a day or two nobody can establish when something happened, which serves neither side.
Where damage is caused by the team, Maid It New may repair or replace the item where appropriate.
Two things fall outside that. Damage tied to improper installation, which covers pictures hung on pins, unstable fixtures, and mountings that were not adequate for the object. And pre-existing conditions, meaning damage that was already present before the visit.
That second category is where most disagreements in this industry live, and it is worth being direct about why the exclusion exists. A cleaning company cannot reasonably be responsible for the chip that was already in the countertop, or the frame that came down because it was hanging on a thumbtack. Standing behind your team’s work is not the same as insuring the condition of the entire house.
Knowing this in advance is more useful than discovering it during a claim.
The Case for Photographing Your Own Home
This sounds excessive until the first time you need it.
Before a first professional cleaning, particularly in a home with stone, hardwood, specialty finishes, or valuable items, walk through with your phone and photograph the surfaces and pieces you care about. It takes five minutes.
You are not building a case against anyone. You are removing ambiguity from a conversation that may never happen. If something does come up, both sides are looking at evidence rather than trading recollections. That protects the cleaner from being blamed for a pre-existing chip just as much as it protects you.
For the same reason, professional companies often photograph their own work. Maid It New may take before and after photos for quality control, documentation, and training. Those photos may be used in marketing without identifying a client or an address, and if you would rather they were not taken at all, saying so before service begins is all it takes.
Prevention Is Mostly Communication
Most damage in cleaning is preventable, and almost all of the prevention happens before anyone arrives.
Put away what is irreplaceable. The rule is simple. If losing it would genuinely upset you, it should not be on an open surface during a cleaning.
Say what is fragile or unusual. The wobbly shelf. The drawer that has to be lifted. The pendant light that swings. The cleaner cannot work around a hazard they do not know exists.
Name your surfaces. Marble, granite, quartz, sealed hardwood, unsealed stone, specialty tile, and painted cabinetry all behave differently, and the wrong product on the wrong one causes damage that does not appear until months later. Professional cleaners carry products chosen for residential surfaces, and they will use a specific one if you ask. If a surface in your home has a rule, tell them the rule.
Mention what has already been damaged. Pointing out the existing scratch removes it from any future conversation. It costs you nothing and it protects everyone.
Give the alarm instructions. If your home has a security system, provide clear disarm instructions and any codes before arrival. Maid It New is not responsible for false alarms or dispatch fees that result from missing or incorrect instructions, and a police dispatch fee is a genuinely annoying way to learn that.
The questions worth asking before you hire anyone cover the vetting side of this. Insurance and background checks are what protect you structurally. The list above is what prevents the situation from arising.
What Professionals Will Not Do
Some risk is managed by scope rather than by care, and knowing the boundaries explains a few things homeowners occasionally find surprising.
Maid It New’s cleaners do not work at heights above two ladder rungs. They do not move items over twenty pounds. They do not perform specialty work such as restoration, grout restoration, mold remediation, or structural repairs. They do not provide childcare or pet care.
These limits are not a lack of willingness. They are where the probability of injury or damage rises sharply, and where the right answer is a specialist rather than a cleaner being helpful.
If a task in your home falls outside those boundaries, a professional will tell you rather than attempt it. A cleaner who agrees to move your armoire is not doing you a favor. They are creating a situation where somebody gets hurt or something gets damaged, and neither of you wanted that outcome.
If Something Does Get Broken
The process is short.
Report it within 24 hours of the appointment start time. Include clear photos of the item and the surrounding area, and a plain description of what happened.
Send it to the office, not to the cleaner. Notice to an individual cleaner is never valid at Maid It New, and the same is true at most professional companies. The office is where the record lives and where resolutions actually get made.
Say what you would like to happen. Repair, replacement, or something else. Being specific moves things along faster than waiting to be offered something.
Then let the process run. A professional company will tell you what it will do and when. If part of the situation falls outside what the company covers, you should get a straight explanation rather than silence.
What matters most here is tone, on both sides. A homeowner who reports a broken lamp calmly and with a photo will have a better week than one who opens with an accusation. And a company that responds without defensiveness has told you something worth knowing about every future interaction.
The Uncomfortable Category
Suspected theft is a different situation from damage, and it deserves its own answer rather than being folded into a general reassurance.
If you suspect theft, notify the company promptly and file a police report. Maid It New may cooperate with law enforcement as appropriate, and is not responsible for unreported or unsubstantiated claims.
That reads as clinical, and it is meant to. Allegations of this kind are serious for everyone involved, including a cleaner whose livelihood depends on their record. A formal process protects the homeowner who has genuinely lost something and the cleaner who has genuinely done nothing, and informal accusations protect neither.
Background checks are the front end of this. Every cleaner Maid It New sends into a home is background-checked before assignment. That is why the question of whether a company vets its people is worth asking before you hand anyone a key.
Final Thoughts
The honest summary is that damage during professional cleaning is uncommon, mostly small when it happens, and largely preventable through a conversation that takes five minutes before the first visit.
What actually protects you is not a promise that nothing will ever break. It is a company that is insured, that background-checks its people, that puts its damage policy in writing where you can read it before booking, and that responds to a problem with a process instead of a silence.
Ask about insurance. Put away what is irreplaceable. Name your surfaces and your fragile things. Photograph what you care about before the first clean. Then hand it off and stop carrying it, which was the point of hiring someone in the first place.
Book your First Time Clean and tell us in the notes what needs careful handling. We would rather know before we walk in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are professional house cleaners insured?
Reputable ones are, and it is the first thing worth confirming before booking. Insurance is what turns a damaged item into a process with a resolution rather than a dispute between you and an individual. Ask before the first visit and before any key or code changes hands.
What happens if a cleaner breaks something in my home?
At Maid It New, report it within 24 hours of the appointment start time with photos and a description, sent to the office rather than to the cleaner. Where the damage was caused by the team, the item may be repaired or replaced where appropriate.
What damage is not covered?
Damage tied to improper installation, such as pictures hung on pins or unstable fixtures, and pre-existing conditions that were present before the visit. A cleaning company stands behind its team’s work rather than insuring the overall condition of the home.
Should I put my valuables away before a cleaning?
Yes. Secure valuables and fragile items yourself before any visit. This is less about the likelihood of damage and more about the fact that no claims process returns something irreplaceable. Anything with sentimental value beyond its replacement cost belongs out of the way.
Should I photograph my home before the first cleaning?
It is worth five minutes, particularly in homes with stone, hardwood, specialty finishes, or valuable pieces. It removes ambiguity from any future conversation and protects the cleaner from being blamed for pre-existing damage just as much as it protects you.
Can cleaning products damage my surfaces?
The wrong product on the wrong surface can, and the effect often does not appear for months. Professional cleaners select products by surface rather than by habit, but they can only do that for surfaces they know about. Name your marble, stone, sealed wood, and specialty finishes before the first visit.
What will professional cleaners not do?
Maid It New’s cleaners do not work above two ladder rungs, move items over twenty pounds, perform specialty work such as restoration or mold remediation, or provide childcare or pet care. These limits exist where the risk of injury or damage rises sharply and a specialist is the right answer.
What if I think something was stolen?
Notify the company promptly and file a police report. Maid It New may cooperate with law enforcement as appropriate and is not responsible for unreported or unsubstantiated claims. A formal process protects both the homeowner and the cleaner, which informal accusations do not.
Who is responsible if the alarm goes off?
The homeowner should provide clear disarm instructions and any needed codes before arrival. Maid It New is not responsible for false alarms or dispatch fees caused by missing or incorrect instructions.
Maid It New serves Princeton, West Windsor, Plainsboro, Pennington, Montgomery, Lawrenceville, and Hopewell, NJ. Every cleaner is background-checked, trained, and reviewed after every visit. Call or text: 609-372-5291.