What makes a cleaner really great?

[Ohmnomnom]

I'm starting my new job as a cleaner on Monday. I lied on the application form and said I have domestic cleaning experience because I'm desperate and need the money.

So, I've spent the last week learning everything there is to know about cleaning and ironing. I've practiced top to bottom cleaning, the grid method, eye level test, and learnt how to use different products. The job is perfect for me in terms of hours so I'd really like to do well and build up a client list.

If you have a cleaner that you love, what do they do that makes them really good at their job?

My brilliant cleaner is fun and full of energy and helps me do anything I want. She loves projects, so we often turn out cupboards together. She does absolutely everything - sweeps out my greenhouse, changes the beds, washes the windows, takes out the bins, etc. But I'm always home when she comes - maybe you'd be on your own. My advice would be to go round every room systematically, starting from the light switch and working your way in a clockwise direction, making sure that everything LOOKS clean. You'd be amazed how many cleaners just don't seem to see dirt in places because they're so focused on a list they have in their head. I had one cleaner who used to shake the dusters over the bath, so that it was always dirty after her visits! Sorry, I don't know if any of this is any help.

I tidy before that arrive but it's still great when they move things rather than cleaning round things - placemats , coasters etc.
Ours are the best I've ever had but the most expensive.
They take time and are honest with what they can get done in the time so don't promise the world and find you can't deliver in the time you have quoted.
Don't leave early or if you do be honest and don't charge them for it .
Always be completely honest with them if you damage something or similar

I would love someone who cleans.

My cleaner (who is a lovely person and I can't find another one) spends a good amount of time chatting to my retired DH and happily accepting his offer of a coffee. She spends a lot of time moving various ornaments about and re-arranging cushions. She loves to line up my shampoos/conditioners/bath oils into lovely little groups. She takes everything she can find off the kitchen worktops and shoves it into random cupboards so it all looks nice and tidy when you walk in. She brings dog treats for the dog and makes a fuss of him.

What she doesn't actually do is clean anything properly. Everything is given a half hearted swish with a wet cloth/hoover/mop depending on area - and nothing is actually clean.

Cleaner here...
Be on time or a few mins early..
Be interested in any dpets!!
Accept a cuppa - makes it a personal experience not just having staff in!
Show willing - I have done way more than just clean.
Remember dc's names if you meet any!
Been self employed 9 years and love it!

I think it will depend on the customer, if you filled in an application form is it for a company?
They will probably have a list of tasks included in the service and tell you what each customer has paid for.
I like cleaners who listen to me, I don't need someone to clean the kitchen countertops as I do that daily anyway, I want bathrooms and floors done well.
Done well means cleaning the drain, shower basin, shower head and taps, around the toilet as well as the bowl, dust shelves/radiators etc.
Floors move furniture (I'll have cleared anything else) to hoover and mop. That takes two hours in my house and a stranger walking in might not even know they had been. But I would be delighted to know it was cleaned properly and I didn't have to do it!
Best of luck, I was a commercial cleaner when I was young and I enjoyed it but it's physically demanding. Could eat chips daily doing that job 🤣

Every other week my amazing cleaner will do something I wouldn't expect. For example she recently took all the hair out of my hairbrush, and got rid of an empty bottle of shampoo sitting in my shower.

Furiously taking notes!

@Easterbunnyiswindowshopping How do you approach a very cluttered home? I met my first client on Friday, a lovely lady that uses a wheelchair. Her home is not dirty at all but is filled with with lots of ornaments, picture frames, knick knacks and general stuff! I plan to carefully remove everything from surfaces, clean, disinfect and polish, and then replace it all. I'm worried it will take so much time to move the things that I won't get a lot done in the time.

Good luck I just like a cleaner to notice the dirt and clean it so for example I love my cleaner but there’s been a splash of tea in the wall forever she must notice it. She also doesn’t clean the microwave but makes the bed. All cleaners I have ever had only mop the floor in a cursory way is love it if once a month it got a good proper clean but I suppose I should really say that. Overall though she is fab and the Ken thing I love is she makes up the cushions in my couch and sometimes she moves a new ornament somewhere else and is almost always a better place :-) or just rearranged some objects again always in a pleasing way nothing too much or too big just the odd thing.

@MadMadMadamMim She sounds more like a mil than a cleaner! 😂

I lucked out with my first cleaner and didnt realise that I would never replace her despite trying for years

Things I loved about Kasia were. She asked for a list and a tour and really listened to what was important to me.

I was often out when she was there but rather than leave early having finished the list, which she could easily have done as she worked quickly and efficiently , she would do something extra.
That woman took such a weight off at such a difficult time ❤️
I kept my house tidy day to day and she appeared once a month and cleaned for 4hrs and it was like being in a fresh bed in the whole house once a month!

The people who came after her didn’t give a fuck and did the minimum they could get away with. The most expensive ones the most!
I went with a agency because if so many disappointments and they sent two people who were clearly both hiding behind each others very little work.

They would spill things and not clear them, would wipe the surfaces but have left the few items on them in the unwashed sink, not clean round the floor of the toilet or round the back of it, I’m pretty convinced they just put bleach in it tbh and didn’t wipe any of it or the lights switches, door handles etc

Omg I have an old couple. Not a finger space between nik naks!! Duster and lift up
, dust, down. Don't move them or you wil forget where they went! And they WILL know if they go back wrong!!

All the cleaners I've had say it will take longer the first few weeks (or they can do less rooms) as they are deep cleaning. It makes sense. Once the house is relatively clean, it's much easier for them to keep on top of it quickly. So, I would suggest you start with more hours and reduce or just do upstairs one week, downstairs the next and then you can start trying to do whole house.

Not too much fragrances and don't use half a bottle of bleach! Now I don't have cleaners my products last probably more than 10x as long!!

Ps. Best cleaner I had was just a bundle of energy. She got so much done in the time, but she was about 20 I think! She never moved/ rearranged stuff so I couldn't find it. She was like a whirlwind through the rooms!

Actually cleaning the kitchen floor on hands and knees was the most amazing thing my lovely cleaner used to do. I do it now but she was proper old school and did everything so thoroughly

My cleaner tidies as well as cleans, when she's been you know because the house is immaculate. I love her so much 🙌🏽

Look up! Check what's above eye level and see what needs cleaning up there! Personal touches elevate you. You have to be good at the basics but little flourishes make all the difference (PJs folded under the pillow, loo paper folded, towels perfectly square on the towel rail, remote control left in the right place etc).

Dont move things and not put them back. My cleaner moved my bed so i couldn't open my wardbrobe doors!

The best is someone who cleans as per my priorities and then does a bit of deep clean each time. Someone who manages their time well and is professional. And, since we are at at home, is on time and doesn’t mind working around us.

I love the wonderful lady who cleans my house!!

The first time she came we properly decluttered- like emptied the kitchen into boxes, bathroom etc. it was an clean slate. From there we started putting things back and now she has a proper idea of what things are like week on week.

She clearly works exactly the time we pay - I can tell when things have taken less time because I will notice the play area looking tidier than usual or the girls toys will be sorted nicely. She clearly looks for work to do.

I recall once she came when we were on a long weekend. We had put the dishwasher on before leaving. When we got back she had thought to open and empty it and out everything away. She had never been asked to do anything with the dishwasher. It was so lovely to get home and find literally nothing to do.

Be reliable. If you can't make it any day, let them know well in advance, don't just not turn up.

Tidy up after yourself, don't leave the hoover/dusters/rags etc out, put them away.

Ask what they want done, what's the most important areas to clean, what's nice to get done but not essential.

I don't have a cleaner currently but I'd say that doing what you've agreed to do and not less each week is an important thing, and not leaving earlier each week than the last. I'm sure you won't, though. Other than that, I think it depends on the 'contract', as it were. I'm sure you'll be great.

I adore my cleaner.
The main thing is she isn’t afraid to manage my house. So she will happily recommend products / cleaning items she think will work well and I’m more than happy to oblige.

She also likes a general chat and works for the full three hours we ask her to clean. She is super reliable and actually cares - she will have a plan where she does windows one week, cleans the fridge the next etc etc

I like a cleaner that opens their eyes and thinks. Spots what I have missed or cobwebs or thinks I'll do that to help out sort of thing.

We had one previously who if I'd used the slow cooker and the base was sat out (bowl in the dishwasher) she's give the inside of the base a good clean, where you get some rust from condensation. Or take the crumb trays out of the toaster and wash them. Or if I'd left the washing machine going, she'd have hung it out for me. Now she was with us years, cat sat, sent my DD birthday and Christmas gifts etc.

Current one is shaping up to be similar but there's been loads in the middle who simultaneously claimed to run out of time and leave early, missed anything above their eye height (and we're all tall) or were terribly unreliable.

• Listening. If I say please don’t go in the bedroom, then don’t go in there and strip off all the bedsheets, wash them, then leave them wet so I have no bedsheets.

• Don’t cancel at short notice but if you do, please don’t make up bizarre excuses.

• Spend the time cleaning, not tidying. I don’t care how my cushions are arranged, or if there are toys on the floor. I want the bathroom and kitchen spotlessly clean.

• Don’t break stuff.

• Don’t assume that if something is lying on the kitchen floor nearish the bin, it’s ok for you to take it away and keep.

• Don’t spend the time chatting with your colleague.

• Don’t insist on holding my baby and when I say no don’t argue with me.

Manage to do the above and you’ll be waaaaay better than any cleaner I ever had!

A new clients house can take a few visits to get clean, so progress can be slow initially as you are cleaning under and behind, on top and finding dust bunnies that have been missed for a long time. Once you are going regularly it's more of a top up than deep clean so more can be achieved.