Cleaners across the Illawarra: one coast, three councils
Between the sea and the escarpment
The Illawarra is a coastal plain, narrow in the north and wider in the south, with the escarpment along its western edge. Wollongong alone runs from Helensburgh to Windang, so your postcode matters more than the region's name.
Damp up the hill
On the wettest high ground, rainfall tops 1300 mm a year. If your home sits up against the escarpment, check wardrobes, bathrooms and shaded rooms for a musty smell before anyone quotes.
The same renting rules everywhere
All three council areas are in NSW, so the moving-out test doesn't change: reasonably clean, given how the home started. A NSW agreement can't make you pay for a professional carpet clean unless the landlord agreed to an indoor pet and it's reasonable for that pet.
Different bins
Each council runs its own waste service, and big rubbish works differently in each. The table below sets it out.
The Illawarra's three council areas side by side
| Wollongong | Shellharbour | Kiama | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes rented, 2021 Census | 31% | 27% | 18% |
| Separate houses, 2021 Census | 68% | 80% | 76% |
| Flats and apartments, 2021 Census | 19% | 5% | 9% |
| Big rubbish | Two on-call cleanups each financial year, booked before anything goes out | On call through REMONDIS Harbour Cities, booked first | User pays, one booking per household each financial year, plus drop-off days in March and September |
House cleaning in the Illawarra: units here, houses there
The council figures hide big swings. In the 2021 Census, 86% of occupied homes in the Wollongong East census area were flats, and 54% were rented. In Kiama Downs and Minnamurra, 92% were separate houses and only 13% were rented.
Those are two different jobs. A unit needs the lift and parking sorted, and in Wollongong complexes of nine units or more, the property or strata manager books the cleanup. A house needs the real room count, plus the garage or laundry if you want them done.
Which clean to ask Illawarra house cleaners for
For a home you live in, ask for a regular clean or, in a block, apartment cleaning. A deep clean is the one-off catch-up.
Moving out, the Wollongong end of lease page has the NSW detail, and it holds across the whole region. Shellharbour has a page of its own.
Find your Illawarra council before you set a move-out date
Work out which council you're in before you lock in a move-out date. The clean is the same across all three, but the rubbish isn't: Wollongong's booked cleanups can take up to four weeks at peak times, and Kiama's is once a year and user pays. Get the big rubbish gone first, then set the clean for after it.
