Am I justified to ask my cleaner to do these things ?

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Cleaner has a long journey on public transport plus we are the last call of the day twice a week.
I have asked her to take shoes off in the house, please wash hands on arrival and to not hoover the doormat first as then she is hoovering round the rest of the house with the hoover head having been all over outside bacteria ? I’ve been rolling up the mat after she arrives as she kept doing it despite me asking !

I offered to provide some indoor shoes if she wanted but she declined. Am I being over the top?

Plus all the germy door matt air that gets blown out the back of the hoover.

No but he was so unwell and in Nicu for a long time and they told us constantly that cleanliness was so important, taught us about the dangers of bacteria on our hands showed us a specific way to wash and we had to remove all jewellery watches etc. he had repeated infections and was really unwell (24 weeker) we’ve been warned about the first winter so much about how difficult it can be so yes i probably am over anxious.
I need a cleaner as dh works away often and I have to work 2 days a week (luckily dm comes here to look after ds for me)

I think you need help OP, and I mean that nicely.

What's bonkers about expecting a person coming to your home with a purpose to make it cleaner to wash their hands?

And about the hoover - majority of viruses/bacteria won't survive on the hoover until the next usage, so there actually is a difference there.

We don’t and never have worn shoes in the house and the only people who do are when we have building work done for the safety of the workmen. I think you’re sensible but myself would have a hoover for indoors and not use it on the doormat at all. Washing your hands when you get home is perfectly normal, as is after cleaning a bathroom or before cleaning a kitchen. She sounds like she’s not a good fit and more of a “looks hoovered” cleaner than actually cleaning.

Oh bless you, that must be so difficult. How old is he now?

I think you are being massively unreasonable with regards to the front door mat request and the way you disinfect your hoover. Totally over the top, paranoid and anxious. I understand you are concerned for your baby, but that’s just life, they will pick up bugs and infections throughout their life ( which will ultimately increase their immunity)

you are not unreasonable about the hand washing and removal of outdoor shoes. I’d say they are pretty standard precautions. If she refuses to remove her outdoor shoes that is most definitely a dealbreaker

Kindly, get some help. Way over the top, the doormat thing is utterly bonkers.

I wasn't going to log in to this site again as people from here have stalked me around other places on the Internet like Facebook and Instagram but I'll do a cleaning thread as I am a cleaner.

Lets start here: The most harmful germs in your home aren't around your front door. They are in your kitchen and bathroom

Unless you properly sanitise your hoover after each clean, your hoover is always germy. Part of the reason that knowledgeable cleaners prefer to use a client's hoover is because you really have to decontaminate the machine by cleaning, a new bag and new filters after each client and that costs time and money.

It's less of a health risk if everyone uses their own hoovers in their own homes.

So you starting out knowing that the hoover is essentially spreading germs from one room the other. But most of the cleaning you do in a home isn't actually to disinfect the home. You're not trying to kill all bacteria amd viruses at every stage of the clean and you'll rarely achieve that anyway.

The ways you can minimise contamination is by having separate machines for separate areas. So perhaps keep one just for the living room.

The other thing is that after you vaccum, you disinfect the floors anyway. You can buy a fabric disinfectant to spray around on carpet but all hard floors will be cleaned anyway, right?

I vaccum bathrooms and I keep an attachment that I only use for that. That doesn't protect the hose and pipes from miniscule amounts of urine and faeces from the bathroom, but it does mean I don't have to clean the attachment before I use it in other places in the house. Sweeping your bathroom is typically not enough to consistently keep it hair and dust free.

You need to clean your vaccum often. All parts. Probably about once a month or 6 weeks max.

This 👆

How did you get 24 hour bug from flushing a toilet? That's really not a thing😂

Good grief. Poor cleaner.

This is absolutely nuts. And it is not helping your baby. If your baby can’t even be exposed to tiny amounts of bacteria in a clean home they are really going to suffer when they go into the outside world.

this is extreme 😵‍💫

I’m with you on this. First thing I do when I get in is wash my hands. Even my 4yr old understands this is the first thing to do when coming inside after touching things. Especially gross if cleaner has been on public transport. Imagine the germs 🤢

Can’t believe you’ve had to ask her to take off her shoes! Also agree on the doormat issue too, just stupidity. I’d find a new cleaner if I were you.

When my kids were toddlers I was surprised how many people thought it was fine to walk through my house with shoes on despite seeing the baby on the floor. My mum still complains that I have slippers here for her as she’s sure her shoes are clean. We live up a muddy track FGS, of course they’re not bloody clean! Then she stands on the mat with her slippers where all the muck has tracked in instead of stepping onto the clean floor 😭

This is the exact reason we ask family , friends who are going to be staying awhile to remove their shoes. This started after DD walked dog poop all through the house 😣

Everything else wouldn’t bother me though . If she’s doing her job properly I’d just leave her to it .

OP some germs/dirt are ok. Some are actually good for our immune system. We are becoming too sterile and clean. My daughter has a nut allergy and the allergist said one school of thought on the rise of allergies is that children aren't exposed to enough dirt and germs anymore (when we were young we were out playing in the muck). She said children born on farms are statistically much less likely to have an allergy (I thought it was interesting 😂). Life is too short to worry about things that you actually don't need to worry about.

Washing hands is fine as is removing shoes, but the thing about the doormat is really weird.

Have to confess I have never disinfected my hoover 😳

The outdoor "germs" will be on the hoover head for next time if you don't clean it every time. Over the top!

I’m sorry you’re struggling but this sounds like a bad fit altogether. You are super anxious and she doesn’t or can’t do things the way you’re picturing.

It sounds like you had a rough time of it so maybe this is a good opportunity to take a break from having a cleaner - it seems to just be another source of stress for you. Or pay a lot more for a housekeeper who will be there more often and do things exactly as you want.

(as an aside I had no idea people cleaned hoovers. Genuinely think you could consider not doing that and spend that time cleaning your home yourself. But aware this really isn’t the point)

You know, everyone should be doing this every few weeks just to maintain the vacuum cleaner. Every time is excessive but it is what good cleaners who bring their own should do between each job.

Sounds like you need to be doing the cleaning yourself!!

If you’ve got time to micromanage the cleaner, you could just be doing it.

I suggest it’s time to do your own cleaning then.
Also, emptying a dishwasher isn’t a cleaning job.

Really???