House Cleaning Union County, NJ

Where we work

Union County runs from about 560 feet up in the Watchung Mountains at Berkeley Heights down to sea level along the Arthur Kill. Elizabeth is the county seat, and the Rahway River winds through Springfield, Union, Cranford and Clark before it reaches the Arthur Kill. Our home base is in Kenilworth, so the county is our home ground.

The homes

The housing mix is wider than many people expect. Census estimates for 2020–2024 count 212,385 homes here: about half are single-family detached houses, and 42.6% of occupied homes are rented. The median home was built in 1956, and roughly a quarter of homes date from before 1940. One week can take us from a single-family house in Westfield to an apartment in Summit and a rental between tenants in Linden, and each one gets a checklist set to its own rooms.

Daily life here

The Watchung Reservation's 1,945 acres cross five of our towns, and Warinanco Park, planned by the Olmsted Brothers, spans Roselle and Elizabeth, so trail mud and pet hair at the door are part of the job. Commuters ride the Raritan Valley Line through Cranford, Westfield and Plainfield, the Gladstone Branch through New Providence and Berkeley Heights, and the Northeast Corridor through Elizabeth, Linden and Rahway. Our Monday-to-Friday daytime visits fit households that are out at work.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024; Wikipedia (county, park and rail-line articles); county parks website.

• Berkeley Heights. Incorporated in 1809 as New Providence Township and renamed Berkeley Heights in 1951; it has its own Gladstone Branch station.
• Clark. Named for Declaration of Independence signer Abraham Clark; Robinson's Branch (Clark) Reservoir crosses the township diagonally.
• Cranford. Nicknamed 'The Venice of New Jersey' for the Rahway River; UCNJ's 50-acre main campus is in the township.
• Elizabeth. Established in 1664, the county seat shares Newark Liberty International Airport with Newark and hosts part of Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal.
• Fanwood. A 1.34-square-mile borough whose 52-acre Fanwood Park Historic District was added to the National Register in 2004.
• Garwood. Covers just 0.65 square miles; the former Aeolian Company factory building is being converted to apartments.
• Hillside. Home to the Woodruff House museum, whose original section dates to 1735, and to Kean University's East Campus.
• Kenilworth. Incorporated in 1907; the borough holds the former Schering-Plough/Merck headquarters campus and part of Galloping Hill Golf Course.
• Linden. Borders Staten Island across the Arthur Kill; the NJ Turnpike crosses eastern Linden and the Linden station is on the Northeast Corridor.
• Mountainside. Contains Echo Lake Park and part of the Watchung Reservation, including Lake Surprise; Route 22 and I-78 cross the borough.
• New Providence. Nokia Bell Labs sits in its Murray Hill neighborhood, and the borough has two Gladstone Branch stations: New Providence and Murray Hill.
• Plainfield. Nicknamed 'The Queen City,' it has several National Register historic districts and two Raritan Valley Line stations, Plainfield and Netherwood.
• Rahway. Merck & Co., established in Rahway in 1903, has its headquarters in the city; the former Rahway Theatre is now the Union County Performing Arts Center.
• Roselle. Thomas Edison's electric lighting system using overhead wires began service in Roselle on January 19, 1883.
• Roselle Park. Incorporated in 1901 from part of Union Township, the 1.22-square-mile borough has its own Raritan Valley Line station.
• Scotch Plains. Incorporated in 1878 as Fanwood Township and renamed Scotch Plains in 1917; home to Ash Brook Golf Course and the Osborn-Cannonball House Museum.
• Springfield. Site of the June 23, 1780 Battle of Springfield; Baltusrol Golf Club hosted the 2016 PGA Championship.
• Union. Settled in 1667 as Connecticut Farms; home to Kean University's main campus and a Raritan Valley Line station that opened in 2003.
• Westfield. Incorporated as a town in 1903; its downtown has more than 200 retail establishments and won the Great American Main Street Award in 2004.
• Winfield. A 0.18-square-mile township built in 1941 as WWII defense-worker housing, collectively owned through the Winfield Mutual Housing Corporation.

• Median year structure built for Union County housing units is 1956 (ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B25035).
• 42.6% of Union County's occupied housing units are renter-occupied and 57.4% owner-occupied (ACS 2020-2024, table B25003).
• 49.7% of Union County's 212,385 housing units are single-family detached and 4.8% single-family attached (ACS 2020-2024, table B25024).
• 23.5% of Union County housing units were built before 1940 and 34.3% between 1940 and 1959 (ACS 2020-2024, table B25034).
• Elizabeth is the county seat of Union County, which was formed on March 19, 1857, from part of Essex County.
• Union County is governed by a nine-member Board of County Commissioners elected at-large to staggered three-year terms.
• Union County had 575,345 residents in the 2020 census on 102.77 square miles of land.
• The Union County parks system includes 36 parks covering more than 6,200 acres, with trails, stables, golf courses and nature programs.
• Watchung Reservation covers 1,945 acres across Summit, Mountainside, Berkeley Heights, Scotch Plains and Springfield, and includes Lake Surprise.
• Trailside Nature & Science Center, established in 1941 inside the Watchung Reservation, offers free exhibits on local wildlife, geology and Lenape history.