AIBU to expect my cleaner to put stuff from the dishwasher in the correct place

[lurkerspeaks]

I'm going to get flamed as I'm daring to criticise the person that I pay, a not inconsiderable amount of money, to each week to make my life easier.

She just doesn't seem to be able to put stuff from the dishwasher away in the correct place.

Tonights frustration - all the bloody cutlery is mixed up again. I have "big" cutlery and "small" (desert/ salad) cutlery. It all has separate slots in the kitchen drawer but every bloody week she just shoves all the items into one slot (so all forks into the "big" slot regardless of size) despite the fact the small forks are sitting winking at her neatly arranged in the next slot along.

Or the fact that she actually moved all the bloody cereal bowls (12) to stack the serving bowl underneath them (which must have taken ages and probably endangered them in the process as she is pretty clumsy) when in fact in the next cupboard along the serving bowls buddy is sitting unencumbered on a shelf waiting to be reunited with his twin.

She has been cleaning for me for six months so it isn't like she is new here and apart from the cutlery the misplacements aren't consistent.

I do miss my old cleaner who shared my obsessional traits about cutlery organisation!

Just the title of this thread reeks of privilege. Get over it OP.

Leave her a note - short and to the point if her written English isn't great. At the very least, she'll ask you about it when she sees you.

And for they naysayers - I didn't ask my cleaner to empty my dishwasher; she just did it. Same as my washing. I put a load on one week before I left for work, thinking I'd hang it out when I got home but my amazing cleaner (who I generally refer to by name but don't wish to on an anonymous board) had hung it out for me. I adore her for making my life easier.

I'm not sure it is unreasonable to expect an adult to match the item coming out of the dishwasher up with the same items already in the drawer/ cupboards.

i fully agree with you but some just seem to not understand, at work people will put 3 dinner plates on top of a pile of side plates, and they wobble and take up far more space.

Just the title of this thread reeks of privilege. Get over it OP.
this comment reeks of jealousy, just get over it

Thanks to everyone who has grasped the importance of cutlery drawer order.

I apologise to those who are jealous. As I'm afraid that is how I've interpreted some but not all of the negative posts.

Quite frankly, I work hard in a stressful job where my slightly obsessional behaviour is a positive attribute. I choose to spend some of my income on a cleaner. My cleaner is also a person who needs a job which she generally does well and it allows her to support her family.

Cleaning for me in my tiny house is a damn site easier than cleaning my friends huge, messy, family house and she doesn't have to navigate mountains of toys or do 4 lots of ironing (to put it in perspective because of the minimum hours thing she has 3 hrs here and 6 hrs there - they have 3 times as many loos as me, there are an extra 4 bedrooms and my entire house would fit in the down stairs living space alone. Ergo I think coming here is an easy ride and in return I expect her to put the stuff from the dishwasher away properly....

I never quite understand the thinking on mumsnet that having a cleaner is only acceptable if you have a big house, or lots of kids. I don't reall like cleaning (and in the past I've worked as a cleaner) so I pay someone to do it because I can and economise elsewhere to afford it.

I acknowledge that I've BU by not explaining to her what I want her to do and I suspect that when I do that all will be fine.

Next time I'm recruiting a cleaner I'll have to I ask about obsessional traits as my last two cleaners (who both stayed with me for years until I move house , so I can't be that bad a boss) just "got it". My last cleaner still cleans for my Dad and takes great glee in arranging all bathroom products by height order on the sink top. Even I'm not that obsessive but it makes me smile when I go to stay.

I'm with you OP. Some people 'get it' re putting things away, makings things look neat and some people really don't.

We actually ended up changing to a different cleaner as it was getting increasingly irritated to come home and find our tidy flat looking messy after being cleaned. She wasn't great at cleaning either really.

Ps I have a one bed flat and no children and still don't do my own cleaning. Why should I? Don't like it, have little time a home and can afford to pay someone else. Just like I don't clean the car - it goes through a car wash. And I don't cut my own hair. Or wax my own Brazilian.

Surely rather than start a thread mocking the person you have hired (I expect my friends 4 yo to be able to match up big forks and small forks ...etc) it would be better to actually tell her what you want.

I would have though it would have been obvious to an adult that if you want a person to do something a certain way telling them would be the answer. A four year old would know that.

I think you sound unpleasant.

You think that the negative comments are because people are jealous you have a cleaner?

Some of your comments about the person who cleans for you are just unkind and unreasonable. I think that's why people are being negative.

Yanbu to have a cleaner or even want things done in a specific way, but considering you haven't even spoke the her about it and decided to bitch about her, that makes you a really unpleasant person.
You seriously turned to the internet first before addressing it with her

Wow..... I actually thought your post was a joke at first.
Rather that post on here perhaps communicate your wants and needs to your cleaner

Do you know what language she can best read?

If so, google the translation for "Big forks, please", "Small forks, please", etc etc.

Make little inoffensive cards, cutlery slot size, with each set of words on. (I'm not sure how you would make them 'inoffensive' ... maybe draw a pretty little flower on each with coloured pencils)!

Place each card in the appropriate place!!!

Jealous? Who said jealous? Of what? Not liking cleaning so much you pay someone else to do it? Naaaah.

Oh please, how many trivial posts are there are MN? AIBU to leave DH because he ate all the Jaffa cakes, my colleague doesn't blow her nose and it annoys me, MIL always dresses DD in pink etc etc.

OP YANBU in that I have the same. But it just whizz round and sort it out when I get home after she's been. It's a 2 min job and she saves me a lot of other work.

YABU in not speaking to her. Leave her a note saying "I found the kitchen is getting a bit cluttered so I've tried arranging the bowls here and the cutlery here". Leave door to bowl cupboard open so she can see. "Is it okay if you do the same? Thanks! :) "

I leave my cleaner a note every week. We scarcely see one another but write to one another every week and have done for a few years now. She will always mention if she has had a nice weekend, when her neighbour died, when her cat went to the vets etc. it's nice, and a useful habit as if something is wrong I can point it out without it being weird, in an "oh btw" manner.

Also OP you have encountered the massive hypocritical MN cleaner snobbery.

It is okay to pay someone else to mind your DC. It is okay to not like cooking and buy ready meals. It is okay to not make your own clothes and buy Primarni which has been made by a woman in a seriously deprived situation in another country.

But it is not okay to pay another woman a decent living wage to do a job she is good at. This makes you The Scum Of The Earth. Hth!

Wondering if op is my ex client

(I used to be a self employed cleaner)

I left as couldn't be arsed with putting away her fucking pots, I was there to clean not painstakingly put 100s of pots in specific places that HAD to be adhered to. Oh god used to take for ever

And before anyone says it IMO putting pots away is not the job of a cleaner, I had dozens of other clients who never asked / expected me to do it

Gubbins You are quite right - I used cow-towing when it should in fact have been kowtowing. I stand corrected.
Just to let you know - I think with the size of my arse I probably could do the former. Next time I'll try and not speak out of it!

I love cleaning threads as I want to get a cleaner but I'm not sure what they do. Mind you I'll have to sort my budget first.

I own a professional cleaning business however we don't offer washing up or other housekeeping jobs just high quality cleaning but I do feel if that is included in your cleaner's services then it should be done to a professional standard especially if she is charging you a professional rate.

A professional cleaning person should provide a professional standard of work.

I am hoping this person is insured and registered as self-employed (ie a professional and not working under-the-table) otherwise I would get shut as there is too much liability for yourself its super-risky, plus you will receive crappy standards of work by an untrained person and probably have to provide all their supplies and equipment yourself!

We have been hired in many times after clients have suffered from an uninsured 'cleaning lady' type working for cash and the clients cannot believe the difference when cleaners are properley trained to care for their property and fully-equipped to do their jobs professionally.

Ohhh proclean

I know you're not in my area but you could help. Do cleaners expect to do the same thing every week or do clients tell them what they want done that day?

Hi Staywithme!

I wish we could help you! :-)

How our service works is that we quote a home based on the rooms needed cleaning (only the one quoted for will be included in the cleanings but we can add on more rooms if the quote can be adjusted.

We will provide a service list of all the jobs which we include in the original price as standard and also a price list of which jobs can be purchased as 'additional extras' such as interior of fridge, bedding changed and we also offer a professional oven cleaning service, these are add-on services to be booked when needed.

We then do an 'initial clean' of all areas agreed on (usually the whole house but not always depending on budget) this brings the house up to professionally clean standards which we then maintain with detailed 'maintenance cleans' either weekly or fortnightly.

We are pretty detailed compared to many services around but then a lot just do basic cleans and expect you to direct them to do the details, we are a little different because its a fully managed service so the client can just hire us and then forget about the cleaning.

I used to have a different kind of service, more the basic kind mentioned above but I always knew I wanted to offer a better quality, more detailed service one day - it is a bitch to train staff though, much easier to just train the basics but I think its worth it and clients love it.

proclean

That's a brilliant help as one of the things that was putting me of is the fact that the house needs a good first clean but i didn't know if that was common. I just don't have the energy and when I do, I don't have the time! You've given me a good idea of what I should expect from a professional company.

People separate their forks?

I have the metal forks, the forks with blue plastic handles AND the forks with pink plastic handles in the same slot in the cutlery drawer. Of all shapes and sizes.

Staywithme - all professional services should offer an initial clean, some will charge a lot for it ie same as they would charge for a full house spring clean but we don't we just charge a percentage extra and take a loss on the rest that day, simply because it wins us the client's loyalty and more referrals come to us plus it gives us a clean 'base' to maintain from then on.

Some services work in the same way as us but some do charge a lot for initial cleans the industry seems divided on this issue but each to their own I say!

My cleaner would not empty my dishwasher, nor would I expect her to.

"My cleaner would not empty my dishwasher, nor would I expect her to"

Oh! Do you have a 'cleaner's assistant' to do that? A sort of modern day scullery maid?