Cleaning is a skilled job

[fecojem]

Just posted in a community group looking / cleaner for a one off clean. My regular cleaner doesn’t work in school holidays and I need some help preparing for guests this weekend.

In this day and age, I cannot blame anyone wanting to make some extra cash- but I have been inundated by people are who not cleaners who obviously want to come and make £80 for a few hours work.

It’s a skilled job knowing what products to use, physical work to do properly and all of my cleaners have come with so much experience and tips/tricks for a really good clean. If I wanted a non-professional clean (I am a terrible ‘housewife’) then I’d bloody well save my money and do it myself. If they destroy a worktop or a sofa for not reading a label properly, then that would be a very expensive mistake to make.

I’m not suggesting it should be a regulated industry- but I don’t offer myself up as a plasterer or a yoga teacher when I want to earn £££ so why should it be different with cleaning?

because the massive majority of us clean day in and day out 😐

yoga analogy is utterly daft

It’s a skilled job knowing what products to use,

what are you on about

How much were you going to pay by the hour for this “skilled” work? Same as having a private yoga teacher come to your house? I think not

The need to read a label doesn’t make it a skilled job. Anyone can clean. No disrespect for cleaners - it’s a labour intensive job - but all of us who don’t pay for their services manage it.

If you regular house cleaning then no, it's not skilled work. I did it as a student and it was very straightforward, hard work but not skilled.

All jobs are skilled, tbh. Lots of jobs feel unskilled because we're paying someone to do something that we could do ourselves, but in most cases, we want someone who is paid to do a better and/or quicker and/or safer job than we could do.

It's the same with things like window cleaning or dog walking.

To be honest, I think I'd be better off with a smarter non-experienced cleaner than the current woman I employ.

Cleaning definitely involves a small degree of skill - I've been one before myself. So does setting yourself up as self-employed.

But if say that it's really hit and miss as to whether cleaners are a) good enough in the first place or b) stick to the same standards.

I pay my cleaner more than I earn an hour. It is a job that requires skill. Awful cleaners are abundant.

No it isn't. The definition of a skilled job or trade is something that requires lengthy training which results in a qualification or certificate of competence of some sort. Carpenter, hairdresser, barber, chef, welder, bricklayer, carpet fitter, etc.

Anyone can be taught to clean properly and be made to understand which products are most suited to which tasks, in a matter of hours. That's not to say that a really good cleaner is not a valuable asset who is great at their job, but it's not a recognised skill in the true sense.

I don't think cleaning is 'skilled' in the way most people think of skilled jobs eg carpentry, dressmaking, baking that most people could become good at with enough practice. Not professional, but better than most of us.

Cleaning is mostly common sense, a conscientious approach - and experience. Even if experience doesn't make you better at cleaning a room, it'll make you faster and more efficient.

@fecojem you said yourself that you don't expect it to be a regulated industry, so therefore there are bound to be variations in standards. If to become a cleaner, a person had to pass theory exams on cleaning products and processes, and undergo practical assessments, have KPIs and so on, then it would be different. I can't see cleaning ever becoming like that though because it's something we all do. Some people choose to outsource it but many of us do our own, fitting it around our own employment.

Of course it’s not a skilled job - that’s not to say the people who do it well aren’t rare and fabulous, but anyone can learn how to do it with minutes of training or following a check list.

Cleaning for someone else is hard work. They wouldn't do a thorough job. I helped clean a new house before it went on the market. I was knackered. I was told to re do bits.

What makes a cleaner professional? Insurance? Experience? A degree?

I agree with you but I guess it's semantics to know whether it is a 'skill' in the traditional sense of being apprenticed, earning a qualification etc.
Most of us can push a hoover round, do a bit of dusting and wipe surfaces but true cleaning is hard work and needs a lot of knowledge and initiative and not having to be told what to do.
But a lot of jobs are considered 'unskilled' and sneered at ... I work in retail and the difference between a hard working, motivated retail employee and 'someone who just turns up for their shift' is huge. Yet retail is often looked down on with the attitude 'I'll just get a jobs stacking shelves' especially on Mumsnet.

No it's not a skilled job. The vast majority of people clean their own houses, with no training or instruction. It's not remotely difficult to know which products to use. Just read the labels on the bottles.

It’s very easy to damage natural stone

using bleach products incorrectly

using ‘the wrong’ cloth can make a job take twice as long if it just moves dust and fibres around

just a few

You posted in a community group - what did you expect?

Why not contact an agency that has been set up for the specific purpose of providing cleaners?

people have very different standards of cleanliness and when a job is done

its not the same as a professional clean

Because I was looking for recommendations for cleaners or agencies to contact- not a free for all of ‘come and clean my house for £22 per hour’

so I expected that…recommendations

Most of us can push a hoover round, do a bit of dusting and wipe surfaces but true cleaning is hard work and needs a lot of knowledge and initiative.

What do you mean by 'true cleaning'? Are you actually suggesting that most people would be incapable of doing any cleaning more involved than hoovering and a bit of wiping? So fully cleaning a bathroom, an oven, kitchen appliances, washing down walls, cleaning skirting boarfs etc should be left to the professionals?! It's boring and hard work, but it's not difficult unless you have physical reasons why you can't do it.

OK, and you haven't received any, just people offering to come and do it themselves. How do you know whether they are good or bad cleaners?

Cooking and childcare are also skilled jobs. There is some skill involved in cleaning. Cleaning isn't just other peoples houses in the same way you would do it yourself. Hospitals, care homes, professional environments. Waste has to be disposed of correctly. Correct procedures followed to keep everyone safe. There's some time management involved. All of this is part of a skilled job.

You right to some extent... anyone can hoover or wipe up a spill. But a truly experienced can clean both effectively and efficiently and that's what you want to pay for.

I was a cleaner in the evenings for several years through college and uni. God knows how I kept my job because I was frankly dreadful 😅. Anyone can push a vacuum cleaner around and do some dusting but that's not the same as doing a proper job! By contrast I now have a cleaner who is absolutely epic and worth every penny of her £20 an hour - I could never clean the way she does. It is a skilled job!