I've just cleaned before the cleaner comes today...

[BundyLancroft]

...the main bits in the kitchen and bathroom, so she doesn't think realise that I am a filthy sloven.

This is why I can't bring myself to get a cleaner. It would stress me out too much

I’m genuinely thinking about hiring a team of cleaners for my “sister” who has been ill of late. It’s not it’s me. Then I could hire a different firm to do a weekly clean starting immediately so they’d never know. I can keep it presentable for visitors. It’s when you pull back the curtains as it were

I have cleaner-ready standard

Nooooooo as a cleaner I hate cleaning things that are already clean !!!!! Give me a nice dirty room. Much more interesting. I promise I don’t judge either. You should see my house !

I do the same thing..good sweep around and quick wipe down of loo before she arrives.

I do this too - but only so the cleaner can make the best use of her time when she is here. Mostly I just make sure that absolutely everything is put away so there is nothing on the kitchen surfaces and no clothes or toys out but I do sometimes wipe down surfaces or scrub a loo while I do it so she doesn't think I am too much of a slattern... I love coming home to a clean & tidy house once a week though (lasts about 10 mins...)

Sometimes we have a cleaner and sometimes we don't. Having one is definitely more work for us because it forces us to tidy up all the time . I have never and will never expect a cleaner to do the more personal jobs for us (like cleaning the loo or changing beds).

DP does this. We're only recent to the 'enough spare cash and not enough time' class, we've just had the cleaner round four times now.

Every time DP has gone and cleaned something the day before, then come back from work and slightly resentfully said "She's cleaned it again" after not telling her there's no need to.

Well don't bloody do that then, you nitwit! Honestly.

That goes for the rest of you too. Stop mithering about it! Listen to Monkeys. Mum spent years as a cleaner when we were little, said exactly the same. Doing a pre-clean is (a) pointless since it'll be gone over again so is just wasting your time and energy and (b) driven by the most pathetic middle class guilt. Be strong and confident in your middle-classness!

The most prep you should be doing is moving stuff out of the cleaner's way so they can work, or popping a postit on your mid-construction thing on the table saying "please don't clean this".

Yes. Move stuff so I don’t have to. Every min I have to move stuff is a min I can clean something else. Not leaving your house a complete mess is helpful. But don’t clean. I really don’t mind cleaning the loo either. After working with children for 25 years I have seen much worse and I’m pretty immune.

I used to be a cleaner when I was a student. My favourite job was in the baker's oven bread shop. I would go I and it was FILTHY. I would walk out and it was SPARKLING.
I hated doing houses that were already clean. I felt like there was no point and it honestly bored me and made me more inclined to cut corners.
Honestly, cleaners are not judging you. We all know that things need cleaning after a while. You're not a filthy person, you paid someone to clean for you.
Like I don't look down on myself because I get a nice chimney sweep to clean my chimneys!
Honestly, relax. Dirt happens. You're dealing with it. Don't clean before the cleaner comes out of shame

P.s. I love your name

Basghetti thanks! Yours makes me think of Honey Boo Boo!

monkeys good advice 're tidying. I have some small Areas of Doom but I do a quick tidy round and the rest isn't too bad. My cleaner is lovely and doesn't judge! It's just me.

spoon middle class guilt, lol! I'm def not middle class. Maybe that says more about me. My mum was a cleaner for years. I would hate to have to clean someone else's shit off a toilet. So I do mine before the cleaner comes. She still cleans the toilet.

A580 you wouldn't expect your cleaner to clean the toilet? That's weird. Weirder than me anyway.

Marsha good way of putting it. I like that. cleaner ready standard

Other than never leaving dirt dishes i have no shame... my cleaner must think i was raised by wolfs! She is a saint!

What Doyoulike said.

@Parsleyisntfood some cleaners will insist on a full on spring clean to get your house up to standard before then taking you on as a weekly client. Makes sense.

I tidy, always have done and it’s a great incentive to do it. But I don’t clean!