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?

Yes, exactly.
'Anybody can clean' is a bit like saying 'anybody can cook'. Of course most of us can manage to a basic standard but not the quality and efficiency of a professional.
I can make the house spotless but it would take me a lot longer than my cleaners who zoom through yet somehow leave everything sparkling... yes even the corners.

Cleaner can only done one house per hour, yoga teacher's real hour rate has to be multiple by number of students per hour.

That was a stupid example though because anybody can set themselves up as a yoga teacher. Whether they get any pupils remains to be seen, but people don't care as much as they would for a plasterer.

That’s the most I have heard .

1 hour and 15mins andYou pay £45?

And you’re in Glasgow?!

I sort of agree. I would make a bad cleaner as I don't know how to clean properly - when to use bleach for example- and I tend towards good enough.

Am a bit bemused as to this cleaning of a sofa though. How? Why?

It's a reputable agency. You try proving that it was the cleaner who damaged the surfaces in question when she says she didn't...

I’d say there are some very skilled cleaners.

We got they keys to a rented house a few years ago but because the owner was delayed in moving out, the cleaner was booked for the day we moved in. I went over there in the morning at about 10am and the house looked a bit grimy, and dusty, carpets looked a bit dirty, hard floors messy. One lady doing the cleaning.

Went back at 1pm and it was absolutely pristine. No dust at all on skirting boards, tops of doors, behind toilet (I ran my fingers around!), kitchen cupboards and oven all clean. It was a big house too.

I have no idea how she did it but I’d love to know!

This post has reminded me of the time when I found someone to do some ironing through one of these people by the hour sites, set her up with a cup of tea, radio, pile of shirts and let her get on with it. Came back 2 hours later and she had done 2 shirts- I asked what had happened and she said that ironing is very hard and a shirt per hour is her normal speed 😭

Anyway, agree with OP that being a good cleaner is a real skill. Pretty much anyone can be passable cleaner though.

Exactly! It's like magic.
That's why it's worth paying a bit more, the most skilled cleaners get a lot more done in the same amount of time. It's a false economy really to pay less but need more hours.

Reading the pack of a bottle is not an indication of skill or professionalism.

I think this is all just bloody semantics now as people are desperate to claim that I am suggesting that cleaning is a regulated profession like being a solicitor.

in what world is someone using limescale cleaner on everything and destroying furniture when someone is paying you to complete a job NOT unprofessional?

I find it vile, and snobbish, that someone would claim that a chancer who sprays a cleaner product everywhere and smears cloth about apparently has the same ‘skill’ as someone who takes pride, care, maintains furniture and gives a brilliant finish.

the former does not have any place in a hotel, restaurant or hospital where cleaning IS seen as a skilful and important role. NHS domestics were fucking heroes over the the pandemic.

so either people are just cross with people daring to have cleaners hence them labouring the same dull semantic based point OR they actually, genuinely see no value in what they do.

You seem very het up op!

I fear for the one off cleaner 🙈!

I have a cleaner. I bloomin love her.

I don’t think being a good cleaner is a “skilled” job

I think being a good cleaner involves the absolute to read instructions and to care about your job.

Ability

so either people are just cross with people daring to have cleaners hence them labouring the same dull semantic based point OR they actually, genuinely see no value in what they do.

oh don’t be so extreme 😂

OR they have a cleaner but whilst they rate the work they do, it’s not a job they regard as skilled OR they don’t have a cleaner but they keep their home sparkling clean despite not being a “cleaner” and instead a completely different job

OR OR OR… I could go on

People who say it’s not a skilled job have never hired a cleaner! The way my cleaner does the house even pedantic me can’t - I don’t know how she does it but the house looks absolutely amazing after she leaves. I tried 3/4 other ones before hiring her and the difference is stark. I would never pay for something I can do myself better btw.

Many of us have cleaners and disagree

My cleaner is superb. She has a waiting list! But when she went to the US for 6 weeks and I got stuck in instead - my house was no less clean.

but I was bloody relieved and happy to have her back because I much prefer going to the gym and then catching up with a friend over coffee in the 3 hours she’s here!

Depends what kind of cleaning. I've been a cleaner for many years and now run my own business. I have 3 ' sectors. Residential, post construction & bio hazard
Residential- hard work, least skilled
Post construction- hard physical work, more skill required (more training req around chemicals, paint removal what can & can't be used on different surfaces materials etc)
Bio hazard - crime scene, death extreme hoarding, etc- very skilled work & definitely not for the weak of stomach.

I think there are a lot of cleaners out there who aren't particularly great and just go through the motions. They get the job done to a reasonable standard.

Anyone can do that.

I think cleaning a house well to a show home/ social media standard is a learned skill and those cleaners are likely in short supply and very sought after.

But there are a lot of so-so cleaners about because it's a job that can fit in around school hours and is usually cash in hand so unlikely to attract the attention of the tax man or the benefits agency.

Everything @Layinwait said on this page.

I've already said - as many others have on this thread - I have a cleaner, and I think she is wonderful. It is the best thing I treat myself to week after week. She is fantastic - quick, efficient, hardworking, as well as all the other things like honest, friendly, flexible and I can't recommend her enough. But she still isn't doing anything I couldn't do myself (and did do myself for decades, before getting a cleaner), which means it can't really be classed as a skilled job.

Nobody is saying it isn't a valuable job, or a much appreciated job. I'm also sure that people sometimes set themselves up as cleaners and aren't as thorough as others might be - the same in any job in any field.

But you really are getting quite het up over this OP, and I wouldn't want to be the cleaner unfortunate enough to answer your advertisement. Your posting suggests you are going to be so picky and not be happy with anything she does. Generally, if you have such specific requirements, then a 'one off' isn't going to cut it, as they are personal to you, and need 'walking through' in the first place before the cleaner works on her own, like an induction in any job.

Bloomin heck… I hope the OP’s one off cleaner escaped unscathed!