SIMON Hempenstall, 44, and wife Clare, 51, were both getting tired of having to endure the daily commute.

He worked in recruitment, she in office management.

Long days often meant they were leaving home at 7am and not returning until 8pm at the earliest and 9pm the latest.

Simon said: “We were pulling our hair out. We thought that there must be more to life than this.

“It was all work and sleep. Then we came to a crossroads.

“We had used five cleaning companies in 18 months to clean our house and we didn’t feel comfortable giving a stranger our set of keys.

“That was a lightbulb moment. We had a bad experience so we decided to take the plunge and set up business ourselves.”

This was back in 2007 and from that moment Why Bother Cleaning was born.

Simon said: “It was very scary for months. We both had healthy London salaries and we had no cleaning business experience.

“We carried out a thorough appraisal of the market and decided to give it a go. It started off simply by leafleting houses.

“We were clear that the quality of our staff had to be the main selling point and that remains the case today.

“We have built up a nice client base across Brighton and Hove. Our customers are people like us and we never forget that.”

Initially Simon and Clare didn’t want to mix private clients with commercial ones.

He said: “We didn’t want to grow too fast too soon but four years ago we decided to approach businesses too. Now it’s a 50/50 split and Simon said it works remarkably well.

“We do not want to lose our domestic touch but clearly there are so many offices in the city.

“Ninety-five per cent of our staff are women but we do not discriminate. All our staff have different skills.”

The change to their lives has been amazing.

He said: “We are both happy and motivated in what we do. We miss the social aspect of London and the corporate world but we don’t miss the commute.”

He said he realises above all that customers are looking ‘for a reliable cleaning service that will save them time, and ensure their home or office is a clean and enjoyable environment to be in.’

He said: “With the modern day pressures of increasing work hours, family commitments and long commutes, cleaning is something often neglected; there just never seems to be enough time for it.”