Do most cleaners take the piss a bit?

[Cubberley]

Have had three and all started well but started leaving early and the quality of the clean wasn’t great. could really do with some extra help but fed up of the stress they cause!

Do you have a good cleaner, and how did you find them?

But cleaners are self employed not employed so there are differences. If a cleaner came and broke something then I would not expect to foot the bill. A company paying to replace equipment is totally expected and factored in as a business cost but that's not the case with a private home. I don't pay my cleaner £17 an hour then also put money aside for other costs of her cleaning my house.

Most employees in every profession do.

I have a friend with a cleaning company and that seems to be the way to go instead of hiring an individual. They have a boss to be accountable to and you can contact them with complaints. They have insurance for any possible damages. And if you're anything like me, you can look up reviews for them online.

@Tighginn this.

I had a cleaner who was v dependable on
timings etc but had a habit of zooming through the cleaning ( like cleaning only the fronts of taps but not the back) and would finish at 3.5h instead of 4h . Don’t have an issue with leaving early if things were properly cleaned but they weren’t!
my new cleaner is amazing and very thorough..

I didn’t expect it - but my previous cleaner did, saying she had insurance which covered it

Same experience OP. I’ve lost count of how many cleaners I’ve tried, 4 I’ve stayed with. Of those four they did a good job until they moved on (they all got different jobs in the end). My last stayed for two years and was amazing at the start, cleaned right up until it was time to leave finding odd jobs to do, towards the end she’d leave 30mins early and miss the basics.
Current cleaner is 6 months in and staying strong 🤞🏻

It is really difficult. In theory it shouldn’t be a problem to say you’re not happy but it sours the relationship and you put such trust in people coming into your home. The last cleaner we had left the house filthy. I think they wiped the bathrooms, did a quick hoover and left.

I've had the same cleaner for years. She does work hard but has the odd blind spot (dusting the skirting boards!) which tend to not matter for the odd week but do build up and then I need to remind her. I think we all forget the less regular jobs and then suddenly realise it needs dealing with.

During Covid we had another cleaner (same agency) who was much older and she was very thorough (did things like removed the sofa cushions and gave it a hoover) which was lovely.

My cleaner has offered to replace things she's broken (twice in the last decade) but since what she broke wasn't valuable I said not to bother.

It’s so difficult finding anyone decent. I find it quite stressful as it’s really awkward. I had one who was really offended when I said I didn’t want her to clean again. She’d left paw prints on the lounge floor, crumbs on the hob, excused herself from cleaning the shower and a dirty mop on a new cream carpet that she’d forgotten to put away. I just couldn’t fathom what she had done.

A bad cleaner is worse than no cleaner!

That’s hilarious 😆

My friend has a cleaning company and she would tell you it’s very difficult to get good staff because the job often attracts a certain kind of person.

Over the years I had a few bad cleaners:

1. damaged stuff, turned up and spent half the clean on her phone (usually crying about her boyfriend), left early and lost our house key (final straw)
2. an unreliable alcoholic but she did clean well when she turned up!
3. arrived for a 4 hour clean, did the bare minimum, left after 2 hours and claimed payment for 4
4. cleaned all our windows and mirrors/mirrored wardrobe with polish/wax and then refused to rectify 5)6)7)8) and beyond - do a good job first clean then standards slip

The best cleaners according to my friend are often students.

My current cleaners are great - my friend (who cares!) and one of her employees who absolutely loves the job and is a lovely person.

IME the vast majority are fairly mediocre in this country. I've had some really awful ones (cleaning the banister with a cloth they just used on the inside of the toilet for example 😨, or an end of tenancy clean which massively over charged and didn't do a professional clean of the carpets like they said they would) and I had one that was amazing, but most are just ok. You just appreciate them because they're doing chores you don't want to do and I suppose we all have mediocre days at work.
Often the best cleaners are newish ones to an agency who are looking to get private work so when they come round they are trying to impress.

We used to have one and then lockdown happened and we decided not to get her back. She was contracted for a certain number of hours but we could see from the Ring doorbell that she would arrive late and finish early - not massively, but eg if she was due to start at 9 she'd arrive at 10 past, and finish at 10.50 if she was meant to finish at 11. The time soon added up and we were effectively paying her for hours she wasn't there, which narked - if you're working set hours and being paid for them then you should be there for them, that's normal workplace practice.

I can’t really justify having a cleaner as I hybrid work and my house is manageable otherwise.

I did have 2 cleaners who were both great but one went back to her home country and the other moved away.

Some of the ones I’ve had since definitely cut corners. One I asked about it (bathroom) and she lied to me about how/why she’d done it. They also tended to leave early but think I didn’t notice. So I gave up on them.

I’ve had mixed over the years. Former cleaner stole 2 duvet covers (denied it) another trod on my kitten (denied it) vet said she was definitely trodden on and only cleaner had been in house. Kitten was fine thankfully! Cleaner was sacked obviously. My latest cleaner was recommended and is fab so far but expensive!

Hate to say it but the older cleaners do tend to be more thorough.

An ex colleague of mine had a lovely older cleaner who he treated like family.