Cleaner here ask me anything!

[CrispyAubergine]

(Hope hasn’t already been done!)

I’ve been loving the AMA threads and figured lots of mners would have cleaners

I have 8 years experience in mostly HNW households and have around 30 clients on my books

Although I have people working for me I still do a lot of cleaning myself

Hope I get some questions!!

how clean is your house

Very clean as one of my cleaning team clean my house 🙈🙈😳😳

Top cleaning tips

Zoflora!

Mr sheen wood floor spray for wooden and laminate floors

Very Dilute bleach to get rid of hard water stains on shower head and oxidisation on shower / bath tiles. Also brings up stainless steel lovely as well.

Clean toilet with kitchen towel (spray toilet cleaner all over then wipe off, chuck kitchen towel down loo, job done)

Baby wipes for leather sofas (water wipes work best)

Use a mop with a removable, washable pad not those awful stringy ones 🤮

Unless the floors are absolutely covered in dust and crumbs and bits, Mop before hoovering, cos if you hoover first more bits will nearly always come up when you mop

Clean toilet with kitchen towel (spray toilet cleaner all over then wipe off, chuck kitchen towel down loo, job done)

Please dont put kitchen roll down the toilet

Won't water baby wipes contribute to drying the leather out and making it prone to cracking? Leather needs to be fed to keep it supple (unless the owners do that.). I can understand the temptation to use baby wipes though.

@CrispyAubergine oooooo thank you great tip about mopping I have a lot of tiled floors and building work just finishing other than getting down on my hands and knees with a scrubbing brush any tips to remove harder stains like paint / sticky residue from masking tape etc?

Why can’t kitchen roll go down the toilet? Isn’t it just like toilet roll but a bit thicker ?

I have never had any issues doing it but if it’s bad for the environment or something I won’t do it ! 😳

Re the leather sofas I’m aware of that re baby wipes and always advise my clients to use the leather feed as well.

Do you expect the house to be tidy before you come?

It would stress me out having to tidy before the cleaner arrives each week so for that reason I haven’t got one!

Do you iron?

No, you're not supposed to flush kitchen roll. It doesn't break down in the same way as toilet paper and is a major cause of blocked drains and sewers. Some brands also contain plastic fibres for strength, apparently.

do you expect the house to be tidy

No definitely not!

do you iron

Yes I offer ironing and I actually like doing it 🙈🙈😳

I’m shocked about the kitchen roll

I’ll stop flushing it from now 😔

Definitely don't flush kitchen roll!

Do you instruct your cleaning team on how things should be cleaned and which products to use or does everyone just do their own thing?

How often do you clean doors & skirting boards & what cleaning product do you use?

How did you start your business off? What was the cost start up? Did you have to work elsewhere to top up your wages untill you got a good client base?

Have you ever walked in on the owners doing something embarrasssing?

fullerhouse I can't answer for OP but in March I left a job without a job to go to. I needed to work immediately and put an advert on Facebook. Within 4 days I had 6 customers .

Do you judge people who are just crap at cleaning? My cleaner is lovely but I always feel like such an idiot around her because I can’t keep on top of a two-bedroom flat. But I see her doing jobs (she comes on the day I work from home) and she somehow makes the bathroom sparkle in 15 minutes, whereas I can easily spend 40 trying to clean it and it still somehow looks grubby .

Very good thread. Thank you, OP

do I instruct my cleaning team what to do

Yes I do it’s essential they clean to my very high standards so I tell them exactly what to do even though it may seem very obvious

I provide a cleaning pack for them with every thing they need and replenish it when needed

how often do you clean doors and skirting boards

Doors, every week

Skirting prob once every 3 - 4 weeks but will look at them every week and spot clean if needed

Oh and re products for doors and skirting I use very dilute zoflora and a hot wrung out microfibre cloth.

how did you start your business off

I was working weekends in a call centre and DH was working in the week. We never had any quality time and I didn’t see the kids at the weekend who were 1 and 4 at the time. My brother asked me to clean his house a couple hours a week and it just gave me the idea to try and do it as a job. So i quit the call centre and advertised on gumtree and Facebook and within days I had 2 clients. I just used to take my own hoover and cleaning products just chuck it in my boot and turn up

By the end of the year I had 4 or 5 regular clients and I was starting to get recommendations

And it’s just grown from there, most of my clients are through word of mouth. I don’t even advertise now

have you ever walked in on the owners doing something embarrassing

😆 thankfully not

But I’ve heard people shagging 🤮

And as I said upthread I once found a butt plug just randomly in the middle of someone’s lounge

And also was witness to a horrible divorce between a couple I cleaned for, the wife was lovely but the DH was clearly an abusive twat. He would ogle me as well 🤮. When I came to clean they would either be passively aggressively sniping at eachother or one would go out while the other one stood there slagging the other off to me. I felt sorry for the wife. They were millionaires with a massive property company but she ended up living in a tiny house with the 2 kids and started work in an office. I don’t know how that happened 😔 I still think of her sometimes I hope she’s alright

donnajimena that’s brill well done x

Great thread! Do you have any tips regarding shining kitchen work surfaces? And if you could only pick one cleaning product what would you pick?