Any cleaners out there? Intrigued

[Shadow1986]

Following on from another thread about tipping your cleaner at Christmas, and someone asking about whether they clean off skid marks in toilet I am genuinely intrigued at how houses are left when you are expected to clean them?

My cleaners come once a week. Prior to them arriving I tidy every where. Empty bins, make sure the toilets are flushed and clean from the kids etc! I usually change bed sheets but they make my beds (tuck in nicely), so essentially the have a very tidy house and they just do dusting, hoovering, clean bathrooms, mop etc - it takes me a good couple hours (with a toddler) to get the house straight for them before they arrive. Does anyone else bother? If you clean yourself, what do you come across?

I tidy up.as I pay them to clean, not tidy. I wouldn't empty the bins though. Our change our beds so I don't do that although we do strip them.

Me! What you do is the very upper limit of what people do before I come and some people do nothing. I don't mind how people leave there homes I just let people know that the tidier it is the more cleaning will actually get done. I've dealt with the odd poo disaster. I'm not a queasy person.

I used to be a cleaner in a care home, skids were nothing!

Ignore my many grammatical errors.

I change the bins due to sanitary stuff going in there, even though it’s wrapped up I still didn’t think it’s that nice for them to deal with but interested to know how far other people go!

Tmi alert.
Last week I found 4 different brands of lube and a crusty pair of boxers in the bedroom of a regular customer.
I had informed him I would be a day earlier that week.
He had forgotten...
His face when I saw him told me he was mortified.

Snowwontbelong luckily my cleaner always messages the night before as a reminder, not that I have any lube or crusty boxers to hide but I would be mortified if they turned up and it was a shit hole!

I tidy as I go in some houses so far I've located a lot of money a cash card washing up and loads of dirty laundry I chuck in the washing basket

IHavebrilloHair I can imagine!!

I do the same as you OP. I spend an hour before I head out to work making sure loos are skid free and tidying up. I would be embarrassed to do anything less. She's a brilliant cleaner and can get the house much cleaner than I can and she deserves some respect.

Oh wow you do a lot before your cleaners come!

I’m a cleaner. I find houses in all sorts of states. Some people don’t create a lot of mess between my visits (elderly people tend to be the tidiest) and some people just seem to drop things wherever they please at any given moment and hope I/someone else will lift it. Including rubbish/nappies (which I think is rude tbh) I change beds, empty bins, put things back where they belong or as close to where they belong as I can guess they go. Some toilets have skids. Some toilets are very clearly freshly cleaned before I Arrive.

I was a cleaner and always emptied the bins (it’s actually quite common to do this tbh),I used to clean for 2 ladies that shared a house and they always asked me to tidy up (putting dishes in the dishwasher, folding clothes from the dryer, picking up stuff off the floor and placing on the side) if there’s a mess I would usually put it in the right place if I knew, if not, make a neat pile in an area that the owner could sort out. Tidying up never usually takes long and I find it makes a massive difference to how I leave the house. The states of some houses I have been in I never expected the owners to clean up before I got there! Some people are just super neat and others live like animals and wait for your presence every week for you to clean a lot within a small time frame.

Short answer; don’t feel the need to tidy up for 2 hours before, 9 times out of 10 cleaners don’t expect this (if you’re living room floor is covered with toys, it’s cleaners instincts to pop these in the toy box).

I've never cleaned people's homes, but did spend a few years as a cleaner in the hotel industry. That was an eye opener! Unlike a PP, I can be pretty squeamish sometimes. I learnt to do everything in rubber gloves including changing the beds!

Slightly off topic but I wish there were tidy'er uppers as well as cleaners. It's the keeping tidy so I can clean that I need help with!

I'm a cleaner and I have a mix of clients. Some leave their house generally nice for me to clean. And others just don't.

I know which I prefer and which ones I'd get rid of first if I had a choice.

Obviously I give allowance for those with small children, or very elderly or have a disability. But a single man or a family with an adult child, well they have no excuse.

I’m a cleaner and expected to tidy up too. Time to tidy is included in the hours. I do three hours but if they only wanted cleaning done it would only be two hours iycwim. I empty the bins myself. However I often find wet and dirty nappies lying around and am expected to pick them up too. I think that’s extreme and wouldn’t expect someone to do that for me. I think they are just caught up with changing the baby and then getting to the toddler and just leave it lying around.

I can’t believe people leave dirty nappies and dirty clothes out for the cleaners to pick up. Wow.

Got a cleaner coming for the first time on Wednesday. I’ll make sure to tidy before she gets here!

Hadn’t thought about the bins, but I’m fairly sure I could manage to empty those ;)

I was planning on popping the vac around downstairs quickly too.

Cleaner here, personally I'd rather walk into a slightly messy house than one that is already sitting spotless. At least with the messy houses you see a difference when the 2/3hrs are up.

Stephisaur - don't do the hoovering, that's what you're paying for!

I tidy for my cleaner - it's cleaning that I hate, tidying is par for the course with three kids! I make sure that the floors and surfaces are clear so she can hoover and dust, she changes our beds so I get the linen out, I make sure that there's no washing up in the sink so she can clean our kitchen. Basically I do what I can to make sure she can do her job as efficiently as possible when she comes.

I always leave loos clean after they are used and so does DH - I think skid marks are gross and completely unnecessary. Takes ten seconds to get rid of after flushing. Our cleaner now comes twice a week and we are reasonably tidy and try and make sure there isn't loads of clutter left out. Sometimes I don't quite manage it and she very sweetly tidies and folds things and leaves them in a neat pile. I love her and am planning on giving her a decent Christmas bonus next week!

I tidy so they can clean properly. The way I see it is they can't clean a surface if it's covered in my junk!

I only empty bins that contain nappies or sanitary products.

I always make sure the kitchen is very tidy and all the dishes are away as that's the area I want deep cleaned as much as possible!

We have a cleaner. Our toilet never has skid marks as we clean them as they are created (if that makes sense). Toilet is always flushed and we clean it regularly. Bath is also rinsed out properly after each use.

All rubbish into the bins, which we empty ourselves, ditto recycling. All washing into the laundry hamper. Strip the bed and put the sheets into the laundry hamper (we do our own laundry, but cleaner will iron clean shirts and school uniform). Cleaner makes the bed.

We collect cups, glasses and plates from the coffee table, etc., but cleaner does the washing up.

Cleaner here. I don't mind if the house is untidy. I love seeing the difference when I am finished. It's very satisfying. I do empty bathroom bins and take rubbish out. I am being paid to clean so that's what I do!