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October 13, 2025
EAGLE RIVER – Cleaning up after other people’s messes isn’t something that likely ranks high on a preference list for many of us.
But for Abby Pires, owner and operator of Aim to Shine LLC, she said cleaning for residential and commercial properties unlocked a way of life that suits her just fine.
The Eagle River-area resident said she originally began cleaning professionally, in addition to her part-time restaurant work, to fit her work schedule around her newborn son’s needs.
Starting with Saturday-morning vacation rental cleanings, she said she steadily grew her business to serve residential clients as well.
“When my son reached school age, I knew I needed to work within school hours and take leave of the restaurant work, which was typically a second-shift schedule,” she said. “I decided to see how it would go and thought, ‘You know what? I’ll start taking these referrals coming my way.’”
Pires said the business initially grew solely through word-of-mouth referrals.
“I didn’t start advertising until a year and a half [to] two years ago,” she said. “All the work I had in the beginning was through referrals.”
From there, Pires said she secured work for a local property management company for vacation rentals, and they asked her if she’d be willing to expand and grow a team so she could take on more homes.
“They saw my management style and my organizational skills,” she said. “They obviously loved my cleaning outcome, and they said, ‘We’d like to see more of that.’ I thought it was scary, but I took it and started doing it.”
Soon, Pires said she hired a team and began building an online presence.
“I got my LLC and got insured,” she said. “It’s been growing ever since and expanding and blossoming – and here we are.”
Building a business amid vacation rental market
Pires said currently, about 50% of Aim to Shine’s work is residential or recurring clients.
Typically, she said that’s year-long residents in the Northwoods who want a weekly, biweekly or monthly maintenance cleaning to keep their house in order.
Pires said another 30-35% of her clientele own vacation rentals or second homes.
“Aim to Shine also does post-construction cleans, which is anywhere from 5-10% percent of our base,” she said. “The remainder are businesses and commercial jobs or one-time deep cleans.”
As the tourism housing market has changed, Pires said so, too, have the opportunities for businesses like Aim to Shine.
As the popularity of Airbnb, VRBO and other vacation rental websites rose, she said the opportunities for professional cleaning businesses also increased.
“Weekends are pretty busy for us,” she said. “We can have back-to-back turnovers, which means the guest is checking out that morning and a new guest is arriving later that day… Summertime is obviously our busiest season. Up here [during the summer months], we’re functioning and operating seven days a week, mostly just for vacation rentals.”
With mid-week cleans a popular choice for homeowners whose second homes need a refresh after a long weekend, as well as the commercial work her team does, Pires said her diversified clientele has created “a very full schedule for everyone on the team, all around, whether that be through weekends, evenings or midweek work.”
“It’s not just summertime cleaning needs that keep us on our toes,” she said. “Fall colors bring vacationers and visitors back to the Northwoods, just as snowmobiling and ice fishing do during the wintertime. Though springtime may be slow for tourism foot traffic, homeowners request spring deep cleans before opening their homes for the season.”
Pires said the Aim to Shine team’s level of cleaning runs the gamut, though they will not clean any biohazards or handle cases where hoarding is the source of the uncleanliness.
“Many of our clients are busy families, where cleaning has slipped down the priority list due to overwhelming career obligations and kids’ activity schedules,” she said. “I recently met with a new client – she [and her husband have] a baby, and… they each own and run full-time businesses. They’re parents, they have a busy lifestyle and they’re like, ‘You know what? We kind of let the house go.’”
With the help of Aim to Shine, Pires said they’ll help the family regain order and reestablish a good routine.
“They just need help getting caught up and getting back into a good routine with their house and getting things back in order,” she said.
Services designed to fit any need
Pires said the team from Aim to Shine, which was recently accredited by the Better Business Bureau, works with homeowners to find a good fit for how their services can best be applied – noting there is no one-size-fits-all approach to their services.
“One homeowner may need help with deep cleaning, while another simply wants bathrooms and floors cleaned or weekly dusting done,” she said. “It depends on the person and the situation in the home. Everybody has things they prefer to do and not do.”
Pires said everyone creates a different level of mess.
“Everyone’s home layouts are different, and then the amount of personal items in their home [varies] and whether they have pets or kids…,” she said. “All of those greatly affect the frequency [with which] you need to clean, what type of cleaning you need and what’s difficult for you.”
Because everyone’s situation is different, Pires said she always does a walk-through before putting somebody new on the schedule.
“I like to meet with them and look at their house personally and discuss what’s difficult for them,” she said.
The gift of time
Though hiring professional cleaners might seem like an extravagance to some, Pires said she sees time as a precious commodity, and it’s one she loves being able to give back to people.
“We are here to help you buy your time back and live your life…,” she said. “Getting your time back and freeing up your mind to focus on things like the kids, running your business, chasing your dreams and partaking in your hobbies more.”
Pires said once Aim to Shine gets a house into maintenance mode, it doesn’t take that long for clients to maintain it and keep it in order.
“It doesn’t take as long as the amount of time you spend stressing about not cleaning your house regularly,” she said.
Pires said a common misconception of her industry is that it’s low skill or low effort.
“It’s actually very demanding on our bodies,” she said. “It is a real job and very time-consuming. I think people who are good at cleaning care a lot about their job, more than it might seem on the surface.”
Pires said she loves seeing the before-and-after comparison following a cleaning and knowing she or her team made an immediate difference for the residents of the home or owners of the business.
“I think I speak for all my girls, too, when I say that,” she said. “I imagine that’s probably the biggest satisfaction they get out of their job, and secondarily, it really is making such a difference in someone else’s life. We like taking that burden off people’s shoulders. We enjoy making a house a home through our cleaning services.”
And though it was a career that she may have started out of convenience – as she raised her young family – Pires said she now loves how it’s grown and has allowed her to be an entrepreneur.
“The career is truly not what I thought I was going to be doing, but I haven’t looked back once,” she said. “I love it. I’m very excited and happy about where I’m at right now.”
