to expect a cleaner to hoover under the armchair?

[stella1w]

Not being facetious.. genuinely don't know. Am considering hiring a cleaner for a few hours fortnightly. Had a woman come round for three hours and she did the kitchen, bathroom, hall, landing and living room in my small house. She finished around 15 mins early so it's not like she ran out of time. But she didn't move things to dust and didn't move the armchair to hoover underneath it. And left smears on the mirrors.
What's reasonable to expect?

I wouldn't be happy with that.

not moving things to dust is my bugbear. It's fine if im doing it for myself and i cant be arsed but when someone is paying me to clean then im going to do it bloody well properly. I remember I used to find small pieces of paper or coins underneath things that were obviously placed there to see if I moved them to hoover underneath!

It is a good idea to make a list of the things you want done, and to what level, and then to walk round with the cleaner, discussing it and listening to their suggestions, so you are in agreement.

The list should have things to be done on every visit (e.g. hoover the stairs, bl;cklead the grate), things to be done once a month (e.g. wash the door handles, polish the brass knocker) and a list of things to be done in rotation when they can be fitted in, one of them to be done each visit, start at the top and work down, (e.g. dust the cobwebs off the ceiling with your special long brush).

It is important to walk round with the cleaner annotating the list. Some will, and some won't. e.g. clean the oven; take your sheets off the bed and put them in the washer, change the towels, iron your shirts, polish the silver, put clean things in the drawers. Some won't dust your glass and china ornaments, either because they are too fiddly, or they don't want the blame for breakages. IMO you need, for example, to keep the loo clean yourself so they are not expected to do vile cleaning, and I think you ought to collect up the washing and put it in the machine, they may not want to handle your family's grimy stuff.

Wouldn't be impressed with cleaner, don't use her again. Piglet is on the right track, write out very clear checklist and walk new one round the house the first time they are over. At least you have a cleaner dh refuses to let me get one wish I could hire my mums old cleaner she was amazing and became a family friend.

Just ask her to move the arm chair next time

Having worked as a cleaner and still do the odd job here and there i have to say piglet has the right idea. It is always best of have a clear idea what is expected of you as a cleaner.

I would hoover under an armchair, yes

What i can't stand though is the householder adding extra jobs every time!!!

Yes, agree with Shire. A new, very large job i started took me six hours to start with!! Now, thankfully, got it down to three hours. Still get paid the same as it is a massive and very detailed house to clean.

my mums cleaner is not allowed to move furniture, elf an safety doncha know! an is scared she might damge ornaments so does move them either, fuckin useless cleaner IMO as she is never there the full 2 hours and the place is just licked over rather than cleaned but mum is 85 and dare not complain, I however am not 85 and next time I am oop north visiting, i will!

I never see my cleaner so we tend to leave physical hints, e.g. leaving the microwave door open when that needs a clean, leaving the washing baskets in the middle of the room for her to clean the alcove where they usually live. She is not good at moving things to clean but she generally does a pretty good job and irons well too, so we are sticking with her.

Tell her what your levels of cleanliness are and what is expected weekly as set cleaning jobs.

It's quite bloody simple when you think about it,you just have to vocalise what you want doing.

I would expect her to move things to dust unless you had an excess of expensive & breakable nick nacks. The armchair - depends if it has legs - if she can see underneath I would expect the Hoover to go under there & it be moved to facilitate this. However furniture without legs is probably heavy & I would not expect this to be moved if you had not both agreed this beforehand.

As others have said, I'd expect that too.

However, you need to communicate your expectations.

Write down what you do and don't want doing, and how often.

Then she'll be able to tell you whether it's realistic (in the time you are paying for) and/or if she'll do all the tasks you want.

If there's a problem that can't be re-arranged, then you'll know you have the wrong cleaner. Easier for everyone if you just find another.

Honestly just be direct about what you do or don't want, she'll probably like the straightforwardness of defining what you're wanting (and if she can't provide it, you're not going to be wasting her time by firing her after getting annoyed or something).