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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

it's only poo or aibu?

179 replies

ancienthistrionics · 17/05/2012 21:47

We've recently moved and got a cleaner. She's very nice but I'm not that impressed. She scours the kitchen within an inch of its life and skims the rest. For the last 3 weeks I've noticed that DP's toilet and the teen's toilet have poo stripes. SHe has cleaned the toilet but not scrubbed the stripes. Is this not a bit out of order? We can't have loo brushes because DS loves them and charges round the house with them aloft.

I once worked for a woman who left her pads in her pants when she put them in the wash, so I do know what it feels like to think, jesus, meet me half way.

But still, is a bit of a scrub not part of being a cleaner?

OP posts:

HeartsJandJ · 18/05/2012 08:02

Why all this vitriol at the OP? She's already said it's not her bog. She doesn't have a loo brush for a very good reason (OP if you put bleach inside the brush holder it makes it marginally more hygienic, although admittedly a damn sight worse if your toddler gets hold of it!).

I tend towards the way someone else mentioned, clean up ad hoc and once a week put some bleach down and scrub the handle, seat, bowl etc.

However, like you, I leave DH's loo up to him - me and DD share another bathroom. I don't have a cleaner so I take care of the cloakroom but fortunately no-one other than DD (3) takes a crap in there.

GinPalace · 18/05/2012 08:06

Personally I am not at all a fan of the loo brush, when stuff gets stuck to it you can shake and shake under the flush but it won't get it properly clean, so you have just moved the poo - eugh. So I don't have one.
I have separate gloves and cloth (not sponge either - also eugh) which are different colour to the ones used for dishes. Kept by the toilet so just as handy, and the cloths are boil washed after every use.
When I was a cleaner in a hotel I cleaned more poo than you could shake a stick at so I would have done it as your cleaner cos I am pretty inured to that sort of thing now (could tell you some stories) but I also clean my own as we go along.
I am always grateful for a clean loo should you ever get caught poorly and have to use the loo for being sick a clean loo is always something to be grateful for in an otherwise bleak moment.

MustControlFistOfDeath · 18/05/2012 08:14

Ye Gods the thought of being sick into a dirty toilet makes me need to have a lie down any excuse

HeartsJandJ · 18/05/2012 08:23

Once had to puke in a train bog when v drunk. Fell asleep on said bog. No amount of counselling can make that go away.

ErikNorseman · 18/05/2012 08:26

I had to puke in a toilet on a train with no water supply when I was pg. I vommed on top of someone else's shit and couldn't even wash my hands or face

shewhowines · 18/05/2012 09:11

See thats why I wouldn't want a cleaner. I wouldn't want my toilet being cleaned and then the cloth being used elsewhere. How do you guarantee how it is all done - even if they say the right thing to appease you?

Another one who thinks loo brushes are skanky. Never had one and never will.

There should be a toilet cleaning manual for cleanersand i might learn something too.

Off topic - I know of people who use viakal to clean limescale off the ouside and lip of kettles. I wouldn't dare do this although it would save me replacing kettles so frequently. Any ideas how to do this safely

shewhowines · 18/05/2012 09:13

By the way you should clean your own poo stripes like I do. Not fair to make the cleaner.

Original poster

ancienthistrionics · 18/05/2012 09:24

If I was paid 13 quid an hour to clean kitchens and bathrooms, I would not leave a loo anything less than spotless and I'm being absolutely honest when I say I might tut a bit at some caked on crap but I would be more bothered by leaving something looking dirty. I just don't understand all the prissiness about poo though, maybe because DS is still in nappies (which by the way, get changed by babysitters and even the teen).

I absolutely agree they should clean their own bowls, DP even has one of those bum hoses so there's really no excuse.

I don't get why everyone is saying I should somehow make them clean their own loos. Like a poster upthread, I clean my own and the downstairs cloakroom but I don't go into the teen's room unless I have to - he has cilit bang which you can pour down and it will remove everything without any brushing at all. He cleans his own shower too.

Actually, chipping dried on weetabix off cereal bowls is a more annoying job.

OP posts:

Iggly · 18/05/2012 09:29

I was a bit at poo stripes being left regardless of who's loo it is.

When DH and I used to have a bathroom each in our previous place, I'd clean "his" toilet then bollock him for leaving wee all over the seat

Goldenbear · 18/05/2012 09:30

Clean you're own shit, better still clean you're own house!

GinPalace · 18/05/2012 09:35

Ancient I agree with you, also think you're getting it in the neck in a pretty unfair way tbh.

EdlessAllenPoe · 18/05/2012 09:35

a scrub in time saves nine.

in a house, the person that makes the poo, should scrub it too.

you need to hide the loo brushes somewhere your Ds won't get them. i have a similar problem solved by leaving the bathroom door closed when not in use.

it is unreasonable to expect cleaning lady to scrub something that would have been much easier to remove directly after creation.

GinPalace · 18/05/2012 09:37

yuck to loo brushes. invention of the devil. each to their own though. :)

EdlessAllenPoe · 18/05/2012 09:40

and i think teenagers should be trained to this for the benefit of their future spouses/ housemates! it is just not kosher to leave it.

Original poster

ancienthistrionics · 18/05/2012 09:45

"clean you're own house"

Why? I don't file my own tax returns or cut my own hair and I eat out sometimes, all of which I could potentially manage for myself. Or is there something intrinsically feminine about scrubbing and I'm letting the side down?

Actually, if you have a cleaner once a week, you still spend an awful lot of time clearing up, cleaning etc.

And anatomically speaking, what comes out of DP's arse is not my shit.

OP posts:

Petsinmypudenda · 18/05/2012 09:47

Its not your shit and its not the cleaners either.

HeartsJandJ · 18/05/2012 09:58

But the cleaner is being paid to clean the house - not choose what bits they want to do. It isn't ancient's to deal with - it is her DPs, he doesn't clean it up so it's a toss-up between ancient and the cleaner who does it. And only one of them is getting paid.

Slightly off-topic but regarding your last comment about filing tax returns, I had a shock with a tax bill once and posted about it. I got a reply from an actual accountant saying they couldn't understand why people who employed accountants didn't know basic accounting so they already knew what was coming. Well, mate, possibly because I'm paying some other bugger to do it for me as I'm busy working on my stuff and not telling my clients they need to learn how to do it themselves! Arse.

CaseyShraeger · 18/05/2012 09:59

If you advertise in some... specialist magazines you may find someone who will pay you for the opportunity to come and scrub your toilets by hand. This could be the ideal solution for everyone...

kitsmummy · 18/05/2012 10:02

Excuse me, but has no-one noticed sophisticatedknickers confession that she scrubs poo off, bare handed?

Original poster

ancienthistrionics · 18/05/2012 10:07

hearts Amazing that an accountant should say that - it's not like you get a dog and then spend all day yapping at the postman yourself is it .

OP posts:

Original poster

ancienthistrionics · 18/05/2012 10:07

Casey

OP posts:

GinPalace · 18/05/2012 10:15

It seems some people think it is strange to have a cleaner.

But my friend works as one so she would be out of a job if we thought like that. It is a task, one of many which maybe delegated to someone employed for the purpose. Hardly end of world stuff.

I don't have a cleaner, but I would. I definitely would. though I would be an awful employer as cleaner would never do it to my standard, my staff turnover would be horrendous

Original poster

ancienthistrionics · 18/05/2012 10:20

I think it's important to teach your children to clean up after themselves, and cook etc. I do (too late for DP but hey). But it's also important for them to know that some women go out to work and organise their life in the best interests of their family and their finances. That's equality too.

OP posts:

cantspel · 18/05/2012 10:21

No one over the age of 5 should be leaving visable poo in the bowl regardless of whether they have a cleaner or not.

It is just skankey to leave a loo in anyless than a spotless condition after you have used it. I have a husband and 2 teen boys and not even a dribble is left on the seat. My son did a trucker size poo the other week that wouldnt go round the u bend. He came and asked me how he gets it to flush away so i taught him the trick of covering it with loo roll and using the brush to push it around and then give a couple of flushed with the brush left in the bowl.

And if your toddler plays with bog brushes it it time to teach him the word NO.

Mishy1234 · 18/05/2012 10:25

YABU I'm afraid.

I wouldn't expect our cleaner to clean poo from the toilet, that should be done by the person who made the mess imo. I always give the loos a clean before the cleaner comes, as on occasion DS1 has left a stripe in the loo without me realising.

We don't have a loo brush either OP for the same reason, but I do have a disposable toilet duck thing we keep in the cupboard for the nasties incidents!

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