Tips for getting a cleaner

[Wobblyheart]

I am a mess, my life is a mess, my house is a mess. I am thinking about a cleaner as I can't keep up. But. I am a germaphobe. I also don't use any harsh chemicals at home as i think they are harmful and also give me awful headaches. There lies my conundrum. How can I be sure that they won't say use the same cloth as on the toilet and then on the surface of the bathroom vanity where my toothbrushes are? Are there any cleaners that are open to low / no chemicals cleaning?

Cleaner here... Lots of customers leave their preferred products out for me.. I have lots of cloths and am meticulous.
One of my ladies has ASD and her mh team suggested she got a cleaner... She feels better when I have been she tells me.
Speak up when you find one op. Any decent cleaner will follow your wishes...

I provide all items: cloths, dusters and cleaning products. I use eco friendly products and I explain what's used where.

I recommend you declutter as much as you can.

Thank you for your reply! It is so useful to know. I think this is definitely where the problem lies, is that it is not something I am used to do - voicing the preferences. And I am not like OCD at all (many things do not bother me) but I am worried about cross-contamination and if I let my husband do the cleaning, oh my! :) I would love to find a cleaner like you!

If you have any concerns about how the cleaning is carried out, then getting a cleaner is not for you. There are great cleaners out there and not so great cleaners. Some will know how to clean properly without cross-contaminating, and some won't.

You could always leave your cloths out rather than let them bring their own...but do be aware there are plenty of customers out there who never ask us who do how we are actually doing it...they just let us carry on. I like those types the best.

Haha, thank you! I am not really overly controlling, although I understand that my post might have come across like that. However, for health related reasons i avoid a lot of cleaning products and wouldn't want them to be used in my house, especially since I have a small child and a pet who are always on the floor.

I suppose my question would be - how can you tell if it is a good cleaner and how can you avoid having not so good one, who doesn't understand cross-contamination? I'd be perfectly happy letting a capable diligent cleaner get on with things how they see fit.

how can you tell if it is a good cleaner and how can you avoid having not so good one, who doesn't understand cross-contamination?

You ask your friends, family, and neighbours for a recommendation. If you were in my area (and you may be) and I had space (which I don't) I would happily allow you to trial my services and show you what I do.

There is nothing wrong saying to a potential cleaner that you've not had one before, and that cross-contamination is one of your touch-points (every client has touch-points, whether it's having something left a certain way, or something which pisses them off daily and they like to know it's done - with my late mother, it was knowing the sofa and beds had been moved with regularity, as she couldn't do that any more, but knew what lay underneath if not moved to vacuum). Ask them to talk you through how they clean, and you will know from their response if it's going to be a good start. Or not.

^ agree. I colour code them for different rooms & wash with zoflora

that said, my experience is most cleaners do a good job first few times then it tails off after 2-3 visits - so I don’t bother and clean myself using the ‘little and often’ approach

A monthly deep clean might be an option to look into ?

Ps - I know zoflora isn’t eco, you could also boil your cloths

My point is : you can hire a cleaner and ask them to do it your way, they might for a bit.

No blame as tbh cleaning is pretty dull and I wouldn’t be making the same effort after the first few weeks either - just sharing that from my experience it isn’t as great as I’d hoped

My cleaner uses different coloured cloths for different jobs, think red for toilets, blue for bathrooms and white in kitchen. She also uses a steam cleaner which doesn't use chemicals. She has a bucket by the backdoor and throws all the dirty cloths in their to take home to boil um. She doesn't use same the same cloth in different rooms if that makes sense. We also have different floor cleaners for bathroom, kitchen and wood floor (which our mine) but space isn't a issue here. If theirs a product She wants She just tells me.

The idea of using different coloured cloths is an interesting one, because as long as a cloth is only used once in one area before being chucked out or washed at 90'C in a washing machine, it really doesn't make any difference. All my cloths are white, and I will use any cloth in any room on any surface, knowing that I won't be using the cloth again until it's been bagged-up and taken home to wash.

I have a washing machine I only use for washing my work cloths and mop-heads. I use a scoop of big-box powder and a long 90'C cotton wash. They are then tumble-dried on a high setting. If anything was to survive that process then it would be some kind of super-bug which was about to take over the world...There shouldn't be anything alien to us in a domestic setting, and if a surface has been cleaned properly then the bacteria et-al should have been mostly washed away as part of the cleaning process, or else killed with the cleaning product used.

Domestic cleaning is all about "targeted" cleaning, that is to say unless someone in the home is sick or has a compromised immune system (where great cleaning regimes are needed), it's about being incredibly aware of the areas which are high-risk for dirt and bacteria (e.g. bathrooms and kitchens) and cleaning them well & safely, and then being more relaxed about everywhere else, so that we get chance to pick up small amounts of those things which help to boost our immune systems.