Things that have shocked me as a cleaner

[CleaningDiscoveries]

I have 15 clients a week

95% use ‘disposable ‘ wipes

90% don’t recycle (I root through their bins & recycle but it’s obviously only 1 day a week)

Re cloths for cleaning, it's recommended to wash them at 60 degrees, not very environmentally friendly. Bacteria also gets transferred between washes, so you're meant to add disenfectamt, again not eco-friendly or you could boil them up like my mum used to in a big sauce pan😂

Oh... I use disposable wipes 😬 I love them for DS1 highchair. I do recycle, though. Hopefully that makes me a better person

I use cloths to clean the loo seat, separate one for the rest of the bathroom and a brush inside the loo. The cloths get bleached every couple of days. Not sure what everyone’s worried about, there’s no Poo or wee on my toilet sears! We’ve become ridiculously germ phobic.

I did some cleaning for a local company to make a bit of extra cash when the kids started school. It amazed me how some people lived - some houses I had to tidy before I could clean, clothes and food wrappers strewn over floors they expected me to hoover. Used sanitary towels placed on bedside tables was one of the worse ones. Screwed up crusty tissues left in a pile on sofa or floor. So glad I gave it up - it was eye opening!!

Geez... what a judgement going on in this thread...

Why don't we all just stop, wait and take a look at ourselves in the mirror... are you seeing a perfect human being in it? If so then yes go ahead and spread the word but if you are not perfect in every way yourself just shut your mouth (or stop your fingers) and let people do what they can in their personal lives that we know nothing about.

This includes OP and everyone else who has spoken any type of judgement on this thread on how other posters do or don't recycle, use reusables, use bleach and what not..

There is absolutely nothing wrong with making judgements. We have critical faculties for a reason. Other people might judge me for a number of reasons... I like going to the supermarket in activewear, I never do anything to my brows. Do I give a shit? No.

Just a kind word of advice as you are not a native speaker and I was an English teacher in a past life- "shut your mouth" is unnecessarily aggressive. "Keep your thoughts to yourself" is a bit milder.

I use disposable wipes...but they go into the bin, not down the loo. They are especially useful for cleaning around the dishwasher.

What shocks me is that despite providing many kinds of cloth, my cleaner gets through rolls of kitchen towel each week.

I have a cleaning business and Oh the tales I could tell

The most recent was a giant, ornately carved wooden cock just casually left on the dining table. Resting In a fruit bowl, specifically

The wipes and lack of recycling wouls shock me too.
Find it quite vile really in this day and age, for anyone to have such a lack of regard for the planet, it's not as if lack of education or know how is a good enough excuse. I'll likely get attacked for saying that, but I fully agree with you OP.

Sounds like the type of thing Fleabag’s step mum would have @SapphireBattersea

For one term I helped clean student rooms in halls at the local uni.
Cold used leg wax complete with hairs left on the bed and carpet.
Wet sheets stuffed under the bed and in cupboards
Greasy, unremovable shower and bath gel stains.
Hair dye everywhere
And these are the things I can bear to speak of! Scarred for life I was.
Their parents would have been so proud.

@PaulHollywoodsSexGut that was my immediate thought too!

MrsBadcrumble123 I'm a cleaner and like you am amazed how some people live.
Big houses, luxury cars on the drive, but inside looks like they've dropped a bomb...in every room.
I have to tidy before I can clean, and some rooms like bathrooms are so cluttered it makes it impossible to do the job well.
We have maybe two, three or four hours to clean, so if a chunk of that time is spent clearing rooms first it means less time cleaning.
There's only so much you can do in the allotted time given.

Ha ha I’ve never watched flea bag @paulhollywoodssexgut (horrific user name by the way, I hate Paul Hollywood and so it makes me feel slightly ill)

Perhaps I Should 😆

We are all responsible for the planet, no excuses . Suspect excuses are made by those who know deep down that they should take more care. The rest of us do what we can. Wipes should not be flushed down loos . You can keep cloths clean by leaving in a small Milton or similar filled lidded bucket out of harm somewhere if you don’t want to wash them. My Scandinavian friends think British house wives are quite slobby and a French girlfriend said same thing. Now I wonder as Scandinavians are supposed to have superior mental health is this why they keep their homes clean? The people I know who can’t, wont don’t clean ( apart from students) are often very stressed and not overly happy.

Great post - enjoyed it

My Scandinavian friends think British house wives are quite slobby and a French girlfriend said same thing.

Yes, men are simply incapable of keeping their own habitat clean.

My Scandinavian friends think British house wives are quite slobby and a French girlfriend said same thing.

What to they say about the housekeeping skills of British men? Or Scandinavian men?

Reading this, it strikes me that some people are bordering on obsessive about germs.
I had my own cleaning business for years. I had a couple of customers that I eventually gave up on because of their dirty habits. When, every week you clean the same thing that has been left disgusting, leaving it looking pristine, to find exactly the same thing the next week, you begin to think that, if they don't care, why should you?
I also found that people who didn't have bog brushes often had shit stained loos, and week old dried shit is a bugger to remove.
Not much shocked or surprised me, except moths! Quite often I would take on a new customer and discover a massive carpet moth infestation. You'd move a piece of furniture and find a few telltale holes, then you'd start investigating further and find the casings stuck to the walls, and of course, actual moths flying about. One poor woman (it was a one off deep clean) - I was in a spare bedroom, saw evidence of moths and started moving the furniture so that I could get a better look. The carpet under each piece of furniture that i could actually shift was eaten back to the backing weave. She was horrified when I showed her. It was the worst moth damage I have ever seen
I am now always on the lookout in my house, just in case!

Suspect they think the same about British men’s cleaning abilities too😂

Now I wonder as Scandinavians are supposed to have superior mental health is this why they keep their homes clean?

Their higher suicide rates are a bit unhelpful to your argument here but never mind, you crack on with your mad, sexist theory.

Yes, all Scandinavian countries have a higher suicide rate than GB does

Because the people who have cleaners are lazy bastards who don't give a shit about the planet.

Yes that's me

Onegifted How does having a cleaner equate to not caring about the planet?

Do not use wet wipes!!

Plumbers are not overly expensive round here- £120 a day. But my bill when my DD used wetwipes a couple of years ago was £360 . Yes, 3 days to clear wetwipes, and tiles had to be broken, a pipe through the bathroom wall moved, and finally a day to access drains in the garden. Even power hoses and dynarod can't help with them.

So use them at your peril. It certainly taught me a lesson.