What is acceptable to ask a cleaner to do?

I have a big house, my cleaner does 2 hours a week. What I do is I have an Excel spreadsheet that I print off every week with all the different rooms and jobs on it and I tick what I want doing each week, because obviously certain areas don’t need doing weekly as previous posts have said, that way everything gets done on a rotation

Yes, the value judgements sometimes placed on women are appalling. Paying someone decently for honest work is a good thing and the op is far from idle!! I think Girojim100 may be a little envious!

The cleaning company we hired a few years ago was very good but did not do ovens or Windows so I tend to think of these as extras. If your lady is happy to do them, fine but maybe talk to her. I do think your list is a lot and some tasks need rotation. But sounds great and your house will be spotless!

I started off thinking your list was a bit excessive for every week (mainly the appliances, windows etc) but on further clarification on what you actually want and how long you expect it to take your cleaner, I think it’s fine. A full days work at one house may well be preferable to your cleaner, particularly in a rural area, given there’ll be less travel time and expenses, less ‘setting up’ time etc.

How obnoxious. Why is there always at least one of these replies on threads against having a cleaner? What have you got against women (because let’s face it, no one ever says this to men) outsourcing some of the domestic chores? And also, ‘bone idle’? Did you actually read OP’s list of what she’s been doing herself?

This is a deep clean type list. Fridge ans freezer are probably you tasks. Fine to ask for them to be done but it will take a lot longer than the average clean and you will need to specify . I don’t think I have ever done the top of door frames…

Generally it's fine to add deep cleaning if you pay for it. We have bed changes, laundry and ironing included. Windows are done by the window cleaner, and you can't include the oven, I wouldn't ask about the kettle descaling either - that's something you need to do. Figure out what works for you; we have deep cleaning done when we go away in the school holidays so then she'll spend a full day and do every room, it's better than paying for her to clean a clean house. Sometimes an area seems mucky and then we ask for something extra (variable hours). We tried lists on rotation to try to mimic what my old amazing cleaner used to do, but it didn't work really, nobody will be perfect and it got a bit annoying for the cleaner so just accept 80% of the job done well is good and clean anything else you see as you go.

This is an utterly mental level of cleaning. You sound like my long gone aunt Dorothy, in the end nobody ever visited because she was batshit about cleaning and it was just horribly uncomfortable feeling like she was eyeballing the carpet because someone walked across it, and god forbid you should ever drop a crumb. It sounds like you might have issues tbh.

I’ve been a cleaner. Some of the kitchen appliances can take ages, so I’d be specific on how you want these things done. I used to clean posh holiday cottages so had to be sparkling.

To descale kettle use a tablet then boil twice with fresh water. Trays and metal shelves in dishwasher for a intensive wash, spray on oven cleaner leave for twenty minutes wipe then rinse type instructions. It doesn’t need to take long but it’s about time management so you can work on other things whilst chemicals fo their job.

Surely most cleaners don't care. They'll clean as much as they can in the allotted time?

I wondered what you meant when I first read your title OP, as I used to do cleaning for a particular client, and she just generally left me to my own devices. I think she was more than happy with my standards, and then on the odd occasion she'd ask me to take down all the ornaments that she had on a beam in her kitchen, wash them all and put them back, do the odd windows, etc. However then one morning, she left me a note asking me to do all the usual, and could I also rinse through the bits she'd left in soak in the utility room. When I looked it was underwear! I was gobsmacked that she had the nerve to think I would wash her undies for her, and fumed the whole time I was there. Then, just before I left, I wrote her a note which said:

Cleaning lady, yes.
Washer woman, NO!
Sorry!

Later that afternoon, I had a call from a member of her staff at the business she ran, who I was friendly with. She couldn't stop laughing when I picked up the phone, but eventually managed to tell me that my client had gone home and was 'FURIOUS', at the note I'd left her.

As I didn't NEED the job, I didn't feel obliged to wash someone else's underwear, but I just wanted to let you know that that is one step TOO FAR just in case you were thinking it was something you could expect.

Of course, now I've read your thread, I can see that you're a far more reasonable person, who is happy to pay for the work that is done.

Tops of the door frame...what are you a sergeant major?

What OP left out is that her husband is 8' tall and can see the tops of all the door frames. 😉

Ah! I recognise a fellow houseproud person…

First of all, well done on recognising that you need some help and purchasing it, rather than being a martyr to your own high standards (I speak from experience).

As others have said, you are entitled to get exactly what you want from the service you are paying for, but just a couple of observations, mainly related to the four hour a week thing…

Inside of windows - really, every week? Unless you have pets or poorly trained toddlers who lick the insides of the windows, is this really necessary?

Marks on walls to be removed - how long would it take for the cleaner(s) to look up and down all the wall surfaces to check for marks? Sounds time consuming.

Light switches…do they really get filthy enough for weekly cleaning? Same with skirting boards tbh, once done I would consider fortnightly to be enough.

Descaling of kettles and other appliances…I don’t live in a hard water area so don’t know what it’s like, but weekly does sound a lot.

Final thought - good cleaners are like gold dust and so hard to find and from what you have said about yours, she sounds like a diamond. Don’t piss her off at this stage if you can help it🙂. You sound like a very nice, and very reasonable person though so ease into it gently x

I think it’s all about being fair. I’d tell her this and say that it would be great to have an idea how long it would take her to do this list each week - if she has the time and you pay her fairly, I can’t see any issue. The issue would be you expecting her to do this in 4 hours for example.

Yes, this is what I did too. It depends how much time she has and if you can pay for it, if you want that done weekly, but it does sound excessive

Our cleaner does 3 hours, large 4 bed detached. She does a very thorough clean of the 3 bathrooms, hoovers and dusts everywhere and then mops through the hard floors after cleaning the kitchen. She doesn't touch the fridge/cooker/microwave other than cleaning the fronts of them and the cooker top. I'm always amazed she acheives what she does tbh. I certainly don't expect walls cleaned or any appliances or windows!

This often isn't in cleaning services. It's housekeeping

It depends on how many hours you're paying for and how much dust/dirt there is.

It's a long list, but there's nothing on there that isn't achievable if given time.

One customer I did 2 days per week in 2 hours slots, which covered downstairs on one day and the upstairs the next visit.

Although I used to do inside windows and certain downstairs outside one's, many cleaners won't. When doing this I wasn't expected to do as much general housework.

I think things like the windows and fronts of units are fine to ask. But cleaning your fridge freezer and descaling the kettle? I think that's a you job x

If you are happy to pay her for the time it will take to clean your oven, descale the kettle and so the inside of the windows, and she is happy to do it, then I don't think you are being unreasonable.
These are not things any of my cleaners have ever done.

You need a short list of ‘every week’ and then a rotating list of other jovs
eg W1 all door frames, window frames, woodwork, banisters, skirting boards to be wiped down with Cif
W2 all cushions to be lifted from sofas, deep vacuum
W3 oven, microwave, kettle, dishwasher clean