Am I expecting too much from my new cleaner?

[QuiteContraryMarie]

Trying to figure out if I’m being unreasonable in what I expect from her.

We live in a fairly standard London terraced property. I hired a new cleaner to come once every 2 weeks for 3 hours.
Last week, first week, she cleaned and vacuumed the hall, stairs and landing of which there are a reasonable amount and they were very dusty.
So this week I decided to be more explicit.
I left a list:
-Clean our en-suite bathroom,
-family bathroom,
-downstairs loo
-kitchen surfaces and mop floor (which is reasonably large)
-clean master bedroom surfaces.
No vacuuming.
Is this unreasonable?
When I showed her the list, her comment was “wow that’s a lot” so I advised her to do what she could in the time allotted.

She cleaned
-The en-suite back room
-The family bathroom
-Our bedroom.

In 3 hours.

How long does it take you to clean it?

Did you not set out expectations before employing her?
I don't think what you're asking is unreasonable at all, tell her if she can't do that it isn't working out and find someone else.

How many bedrooms do you have and how much does she have to tidy?

I’d expect 3/4 bedroom house to be hoovered, dusted, bathrooms and kitchen cleaned and floors mopped in 3-4 hours. We are a bit cluttered but I don’t expect her to tidy, just work around any heaps on surfaces.

Yeah she’s taking the piss. Next!

My house is a fairly standard suburban semi detached, so possibly the same size or a bit bigger. In 2 hours, I'd expect a cleaner here to be able to clean both bathrooms, vacuum throughout, mop kitchen-diner and lounge and probably do some dusting but it would be main bits only.

My old cleaner used to come for 4 hours and would also clean the kitchen, do more comprehensive dusting/polishing (ie every surface!), change bedding, change towels and wash them and put them in the dryer. She'd usually also do one extra thing a week eg clean fridge or do some of the windows.

We have smallish 3 bedroom house.
Our cleaner does exactly the same as yours- 3 hours every two weeks.

She hoovers the whole house and empties bins, dusts skirting boards/mirrors/radiators/pictures in each room, cleans and mops kitchen and cleans and mops bathroom. That's in the first 2 hours- she then irons for the remaining 1 hour. This is not due to any pressure from our end- I've actually never raised any expectations with her at all.

Having said that she is a complete whirlwind and does break stuff sometimes.

She's lazy, get rid. A professional experienced cleaner should achieve far more in that time.

Ours comes for three hrs once a week and cleans a 5 bed house in that time altho quite often I say don’t bother with one or other of the bedrooms as they don’t need cleaning. She’s really good and thorough. So I think yours could do more!

Ps before she comes we lift all stuff off the kitchen floor and tidy up like toys and things out the way. My view is she’s there to clean and not waste her time tidying so I don’t mind taking ten mins beforehand making it a bit easier for her to clean.

Depends how dirty they are to start with, and cleaners (good ones anyway) tend to clean to much higher standards.

How dirty was it all? I would say a normal sized bathroom can take up to an hour especially if it's dusty and dirty and it's being done properly. I could clean a 3 bedroom house in 3 hours but everything would get a quick once over. But as a "first" clean if it hasn't been done for a while it would take much longer.

I can clean my 3 bed from top to bottom in 3 hours (not including things like oven, windows or fridge).

She sounds useless

I’ve just written a very similar post in aibu! I have a three bed semi (the cleaner doesn’t do the bedrooms) x2 hours a week and I couldn’t notice any difference when I got back today! I hate the awkwardness of letting people go but someone made a good comment - if it was an object you have purchased you would take it back to the shop as faulty!

I think the first clean in a new house always takes longer as you're getting used to the layout of the place as well as learning where cleaning products, cloths, vac etc are kept. Eg if I was going to clean a house for the first time for 3 hrs I'd probably allow 3.5hrs (but only charge for 3 iyswim)
Also it depends how thorough she is. Did she take a bowl of soapy water up to wipe over skirting boards etc? Some people expect their skirting boards cleaning and others don't mind if you just run the vac around. Also stuff on dressing tables, 50 bottles of perfume etc takes time to move if dusting under them - and a good cleaner will not simply dust around them.
I usually meet with clients beforehand to discuss what they expect from me and vice versa so we can work out what is reasonable in the time frame or whether they'd be better adding an extra hr or me coming twice a week - not because I'm trying to rip anyone off but because I want happy customers. I take pride in my profession.

Do you have "stuff" on the surfaces ( eg bottles/ toothbrush holders) and have they been wiped over too? Has a really thorough job been done? Could the cleaner be wanting to start out knowing a "spring clean" has been done, so in future they can rotate the "extra" jobs? Have you explained whether you want a thorough clean, or whether you would prefer every area is moved through doing as much as possible/ important stuff,? Are they familiar yet with everything?
I wouldn't decide not enough is being done until you explore the thoroughness you require.
Are there stains or marks the cleaner may have tried to remove not knowing they're permanent? Have corners and edges been done/ do you expect them doing as well as main mopping? Skirting boards?

@Yerroblemom1923 I think our points are quite similar!

I used to do my neighbours 4 bed 3 bathroom, utility, cloak room kitchen and dining, vacuum all the way through clean floors.

In four hours

Cut your losses and get someone else. Make it clear that you are looking for someone efficient with a good work ethic and get them to tell you what they will generally achieve in 3 hours.

Before Covid I thought our cleaner was crap, and now she can’t come anymore I see how much dusting she was actually doing! Before kicking off I would do all the things you want done and time yourself and see how long it takes to do them properly. It you’re just after a quick wipe around rather than a “deep clean” then specify this, as maybe she is taking a long time as she’s dusting the ceiling and cleaning all the nooks and crannies etc.

Hmm, it’s tricky, I wouldn’t say it was especially dirty although it gets a bit dusty. I am a bit slovenly in that I don’t do much cleaning myself (😳). It was perfectly tidy though as I love tidying and I prefer a cleaner to spend their time cleaning rather than tidying. So no clutter to work around.
To a poster who asked, we have 5 bedrooms but I only asked her clean one of them. We only use 3 but if I ever wanted her to clean all 3, I’d probably tell her not to bother with one of the bathrooms.
I never ask or expect ironing, or bedding to be changed.

I do think what I asked in the first post was perfectly reasonable for a 3 hour period ie clean 2 bathrooms, 1 loo, 1 kitchen and 1 bedroom, but I wanted to garner some opinions from others’ to see if I was expecting too much.

Your list sounds like a lot. But she didn't get through very much. I think you'd be better going with an agency that sends two or even three cleaners. They might be more expensive but they get through a lot more work. I do agree its easy to think they dont do much till they stop coming.

It still depends on the level of cleaning expectation as to whether 3 hours is enough for that first clean.
I think it has to be clear whether you expect all areas done to the standard time allows or all areas done to a high standard.
3 hours would not allow a proper clean in those areas to my standard, but we all vary in our expectations

By the way to the pp who said that she’d spend an extra 3.5 hours the first week to do the job that, once she was used to the lie of the land, would take 3 hours, that I get. Which is why I had her back this week after 2 weeks ago she spent the 3 hours just doing the hall stairs and landing vacuuming. (Although in your case, I’d absolutely have paid for 3.5 hours, wouldn’t ever feel right having a cleaning professional in my house for more hours than I was paying for, if that makes sense).
The 3 rooms she has done absolutely look clean, albeit in the alcoves behind the bedside tables, there’s still lots of dust. The point being she’s done a good job in the 3 rooms (I don’t mind so much about the behind the bedside table area because they’re hard hard to reach without moving them) but 3 hours?
Also, not sure if she went around with soapy water as I was out for most of the time she was here.

For reference, mine comes weekly for 3 hours and:

• she cleans the two bathrooms (one just cloakroom downstairs)
• she dusts 2 bedrooms, living room, hall, kitchen and conservatory
• she vacuum and mops all of the above
• she cleans the kitchen surfaces
• she changes the sheet on our bed
• she irons about half of a laundry basket
• she takes the bins out
• she dusts all the venetian blinds

She also does some random things like if she notices the oven door is particularly dirty she cleans it, or the microwave or if we accidentally happen to leave a couple of mugs in the sink etc.