A Client Talks

David Wright, founder and owner of Mr. Wright’s Window Cleaning LLC. A clients appraisal..

This guy bats a thousand at cleaning windows (by Jerry Zezima) - I do windows. Unfortunately, I do them every couple of years, which gives the windows plenty of time to get dirty, and even then it is clear that I don't do them very well because I have always considered the job a pane in the glass.

This year, I let a professional end my losing streak, which was, of course, in each window. Enter (through the front door, not a window) David Wright, owner of Mr. Wright's Window Cleaning of Centerport, N.Y.

Not to be confused with the New York Mets slugger of the same name ("He doesn't do windows as well as I do, but I can't hit a baseball as well as he can"), Wright was a lawyer, a financial analyst and a monk before devoting his life to letting the sunshine into the lives of others by cleaning their windows.

"I want to make people happy," Wright said. "And a lot of people are happy when their windows are clean."

I knew I would be happy if my windows were clean because it also would give happiness to my wife, Sue, who had been after me for the past two years to use Windex and a roll of paper towels, not to mention a little elbow grease, to clean the windows.

"Elbow grease is a prime source of smudges and streaks," I told her. Sue wasn't buying it, which is why I ended up buying a reasonably priced cleaning package (10 windows for $49) so she could finally meet Mr. Wright. "I'm David," he said, introducing himself to Sue. "I'm here to clean your windows." Sue swooned. "Thank you," she replied. "They could use it."

Wright started on the outside, where he told me that his wife, Joanne, likes the way he does the windows at their house but wishes he would do them more often. "I'm working seven days a week," he said, adding that he started the business last year and will be joined next year by his son Collier, a U.S. Army Ranger who is serving in Iraq. "So I don't have the time to do our windows too often."

"That excuse isn't going to work for me," I said. "You'll have to think of another one," Wright said as he used a water-fed pole with a nylon brush to clean the outside of the windows in the living, dining and family rooms. "Nylon?" I said. "Theoretically, I could clean windows with my wife's stockings."

"Theoretically," Wright responded, "it wouldn't be a good idea." What would be a good idea, he added, is to use resin instead of soap. "I'm using it now," he said. "It's much more effective."

As he worked, Wright, who is 53, told me that he started out as a lawyer ("If you go to the bathroom, bring work with you so you can bill your clients"), then got into financial services before giving up all his material possessions and spending time in a monastery, where he decided he wanted to make people happy for a living.

"I am doing my second-favorite thing," he said, referring to cleaning windows, which allows him to meditate while he works. "What's your favorite thing?" I inquired. "I'd like to be a professional poker player," Wright said. "But my wife doesn't think it's a safe bet."

When we moved inside, Wright said that customers always kid him about having the same name as the Mets star. "They'll say, 'When you finish with my windows, are you going to Citi Field?' Maybe I should give them my autograph," said Wright, who cleaned the windows with a long razor blade encased in a scraper. He also used a squeegee and a scrubber made of lamb's wool and AstroTurf.

"And I use Dawn," he said. "Who's she?" I asked. "The person you can get to clean your windows," said Wright, though he really meant the dishwashing liquid. "Don't tell your wife, but most windows are dirtier on the inside than they are on the outside."

I didn't tell Sue, who was nonetheless amazed when Wright was finished. "Wow!" she squealed. "These windows have never been so clean." "The trick," Wright said, "is to keep them that way." "I'll do my part," I said. "In two years, I'll give you another call."

I’m David Wright, founder and owner of Mr. Wright’s Window Cleaning LLC. We provide professional, hand washed window cleaning services to fine homes and businesses in New York’s Nassau and Suffolk Counties, particularly in the North Shore (“Gold Coast”) area of Long Island.

People often ask me when I’m on a job how long I’ve been cleaning windows. I actually started cleaning windows over 25 years ago to put myself through Indiana Law School. I was raising my family at the time- both my sons were born while I was in Law School. When I graduated, I practiced corporate law in a leading large law firm before eventually becoming an in-house executive and Chief Legal Officer for a financial service firm client. Eventually I started my own financial service firm, which quickly grew into a national company. After the sale of that company, I started a few more ventures before semi-retiring for a number of years. In 2014, my wife and I decided to downsize our home when the last of our combined 6 kids were either married or in college. We sold the home in Manhasset and moved further east to Centerport.

I spent February and March of 2014 developing lists of various business ventures I could pursue. The list was quite long, and, surprisingly, window cleaning was my second choice. Of all the jobs and businesses I’ve had in the past, I enjoyed window cleaning the most. Being in a position to do almost anything I wanted, I chose to do the thing that most appealed to me. When I tell my customers this story, they always want to know what was first on my list of potential things I wanted to do. Actually, it was to become a professional poker player, but my priest advised me that my second choice might be better for me!

I’m building this business now with the intention of having my oldest son join me in it in 2016. Right now he is serving in the US Army, currently deployed throughout most of 2015 in Iraq. When he moves back to Long Island with his wife and my grandson, we intend to grow the business together into the most successful window cleaning and home service company on Long Island.

No other window cleaner on Long Island provides the old fashioned service at a price you can afford like our window cleaning system. Our window cleaners will meticulously clean your windows inside and out using advanced squeegee window techniques and sophisticated water fed pole technology and tools. If I am not doing the service myself, then I am personally supervising another of our window cleaning professionals, all of whom have been trained in our window cleaning system.