Even though most of us don't live at Tara or Twelve Oaks plantations, we still take our homes pretty seriously.

More important to a Southerner than his or her home's physical beauty, writes Frances Schulz, is its history, heritage or colorful stories, and next in line is a hoped-for graciousness, warmth, eccentricity, hospitality -- a welcoming design.

We like porches, dogs, kitchens, the outdoors, decorative iron, gardens, good food and niceties, like hand-embroidery, monograms and antique (preferably inherited) silver, says Schulz and her co-author Paula S. Wallace in "A House in the South" (Clarkson Potter: New York).

Many of these fascinations say something about our love for hospitality and warmth and also about our attachment to the past, but sometimes the past and the warmth can be anything but neat.

"So we track a little sand or mud inside, and there's dog hair on the sofa," Schultz says. "A chair might need covering or the silver a little polish. We'll think about that tomorrow. Meanwhile, what can I fix you to drink?"

So sometimes we warm and fuzzy folk of the South need a little help keeping our hearths swept and our homes sanitized. That help may take the form of "missionaries" to the home, or sometimes it requires us to find a plan and some time once a week and clear a path through the shoes and magazines to keep that "welcoming design."

Dynamite to the rescue

A lot of heavy-duty house cleaning, with a little ministry on the side, is the idea behind TNT Cleaning, the business formed by two resourceful Orangeburg women, facing unemployment after their factory jobs disappeared several years ago.

"Oh, that's a story! Me and Toni worked at Hughes Aircraft, and when the plant shut down, we lost our jobs," said Terry Pensel, one half of the TNT team. "For six months we enjoyed ourselves. When the time came, we knew we had to do something, we wanted to avoid day care. Toni had three in day care and I had one. So we were trying to avoid the day care fees. We needed to do something that we could take the kids to school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon."

That was seven years ago and, while the children are grown and no longer in need of afternoon care, Pensel and partner, Toni Smith, are still at it.

Cleaning as a ministry

"This is not only a business, but a ministry," said Smith. "We pray with them and cry with them and listen to their stories. It's really allowed us to minister to a lot of people."

According to Pensel, the two T's "decided in the beginning -- we're both born again Christians -- that this was not just going to be work or a job, but a ministry as well."

Along the way, "We have met some characters doing what we do," she explains, "and, we've met some really nice people."

Back when they got started, Pensel says, "We'd do anything for a buck. We painted a building inside and out; we squeegeed a double-wide in the rain. We pretty much did it all just to get started. Now we don't paint and we don't squeegee double-wides."

Working Monday through Friday, the team -- including Pensel's daughter, Leslie McCollum, and Smith's future daughter-in-law, Lyndie Walling -- clean between 30 and 40 residences and one business. They follow a well-practiced routine.

TNT's routine

"Usually, we start at one end of the house and each person has a different task. One dusts, one does the mirrors and glass, one does the bathroom and one vacuums," said Pensel.

"Whoever is done first picks up the mopping. ... We go room-by-room and make sure everything is done. We go behind each other, so when we leave a room, it's finished."

The single biggest thing a client can do to make their housekeeping job easier is to keep the clutter picked up, Pensel says. Since "some people have a problem with picking up," she says, TNT does offer some organizational help, as well.

"If they give us that freedom, we put things where we want them to go. If things are in the living room that belong in the bedroom, we move them," she said. "Sometimes we leave a note telling people where to find things."

Shoes on the floor are a particular pet peeve for Smith.

"Shoes don't belong on the floor; they belong in the closet," she said. "Shoes are my thing, and floors. I even pick the fuzz off the floors. Everything has its place. ... I love floors. There's a satisfaction when there's all that dirt on the floor, and, when you vacuum, you can see the result."

Shocker homes

Both T's laugh when asked about particularly messy homes they've cleaned.

"We had one in particular who bragged about how much money she had and all the brand-name clothes her kids like to wear and when we walked in the house -- it was a disaster!" said Pensel, describing how those very same brand-name clothes were hanging all over the furniture and piled on the floor.

"That was a real shock," she said. "We've been cleaning there for six months now and the clothes are still on the couch. ... People try to appear to be one thing and when you walk in the house, it's a totally different thing."

"Oh, yeah," Smith adds, "we've had some pretty gross places."

"And, actually, some of our worst places are for nurses. There have been used condoms and cat poop piled up," she said. "We had to scrape dog poop up because someone had left dogs in the house for weeks."

That's the case that still stands out in Pensel's mind as "the worst job we've ever seen." They were helping a woman who owns a mobile home park clean up after a renter skipped town and left a filthy trailer strewn with dog waste.

"That's probably the worst we ever had to encounter," she said. "We hauled out the junk, so she could get it ready to rent it out again."

Homes that are blessings

Cleaning for the elderly especially appeals to Smith.

"We have one lady, bless her heart, and you just open up the PineSol and she says the house smells so nice," she said. "There's more gratification with the elderly. A lot of times, they just want you there for the company. One man lost his wife and he just wants us to visit. We've taken him out to lunch."

TNT cleans houses for people who are handicapped as well.

"We've prayed and cried and laughed and encouraged them. It's a ministry, as well as a way of making a living," Pensel said. "We've even gone into homes, when led by the Lord, and done them for free, if the person was sick or had lost a job. Because of that, God has blessed us."

T&D Government Writer Tucker Lyon can be reached at tlyon@timesanddemocrat.com or by calling 803-533-5545.

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