Cleaner keeps going in the condom pot!

[FarterChristmoose]

We have had a cleaner for 3 weeks, never had one before. When she comes I keep out of her way. She does upstairs on a Tuesday and downstairs on a Friday. I stay downstairs when shes upstairs and upstairs when shes downstairs.

My husband and I keep our condoms in a trinket pot at the back of the drawer in his bedside table.

Last Tuesday I went in the drawer for something and noticed the lid was off. Its not possible for the lid to be just knocked off.

Yesterday I checked the drawer after cleaner had gone and whist the lid was on, the condoms had been messed with, they weren't in a pile. I'd left them in a pile on purpose to see if they were messed with. None had been taken out.

I am pregnant so we're not using them! DH has been away since last Wednesday and is home today so I know it,s not him. The only explanation is the cleaner.

But why???

Wow! Some people on her have very odd views of having a cleaner. That effectively you employ them and instantly convey complete trust - the minute you notice anything maybe amiss it must be because:

1. you have too much time on your hands and should be cleaning yourself
2. you are paranoid
3. you are baiting the cleaner
4. you shouldn't have the cleaner if you can't allow yourself yo trust them.

FFS! She's employing someone to dust and hoover, not tamper with personal effects, particularly those within an box within a drawer within a bedroom.

OP - I think you should tell the cleaner you have noticed the items in the drawer were disturbed. That you understand it may have happened unintentionally but want to remind her that you don't want her to open the drawers/cupboards in x,y,z rooms.

As others have said - they've probably moved the bedside table/chest of drawers to vacuum the skirting boards/ under the cabinet/bed or the cabinet itself has been knocked with the Hoover. I doubt she's deliberately doing it for a laugh. Don't set traps for the love of Christ, I've cleaned, I've had clients set traps, I've known each time and thought less of them and tbh when I've needed to lose a few clients they've been the first to go. That kind of mistrust was the main reason I moved from home cleaning to commercial.

If you don't like her work, stop using her as your cleaner, don't second guess.

She's just moved it to dust, or knocked it when dusting. I think your doing a bit dramatic.

I'm mum of 6 with twins on the way. We've employed a cleaner to help me out.

I only stacked them to see if they were messed with again.

There is no way they could be knocked over from the outside. I have given it a big shove and they stayed in a pile.

Have you tried (or asked dh to) picking up or dragging the table backwards and then shoving it back? I would be surprised if lid didn't come off.

Of course you have to trust a cleaner, unless you intend to stand over them as they work (and who wouldn't love that?) they will have the potential to steal from you. So you work from a position of trust, but bearing in mind that people aren't always honest; don't leave money or jewellery lying around, for example. But if you can't bear the thought of a stranger having access to your things, latex or otherwise, employing one as a cleaner probably isn't going to work.

I think you need to keep yourself busy with other things op... It seems very very odd how much you're thinking about this.

I cannot picture a scenario where the pot has got knocked about by accident. The cleaner has been nosing.

Look - something has alerted OP to the fact that a person who is coming into her home in a professional capacity is looking through her personal belongings.

Exchange the details from cleaner to plumber. Change the condom pot to a folder of personal letters. Are people still thinking OP is over reacting?

I wouldn't like this either OP. I'd have to say something or let her go.

Bollocks.

You have 6 kids so could it have been one of them?

Could they be being used, erm, elsewhere?

(By a member of the household, that is, not the cleaner - although I suppose the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive ).

Exchange the details from cleaner to plumber. Change the condom pot to a folder of personal letters. Are people still thinking OP is over reacting?

If the plumber had reason to pull out a cupboard containing letters during the duty of his job then yes, the same why not? In neither case is there proper proof. Nor is laying a hair across the tin going to achieve it.

Either way it's a conversation. Not a flat out accusation until you hear more.

'Did you go in my drawer ?' It ends it one way or another. Or the OP can sack someone based on a pile of condoms falling over.

Mum of 6 with twins on the way.... are you sure you know what condoms are for

Perhaps she's pricked holes in them because she doesn't think 8 babies are enough

In what way is taking the lip off a pot in the back of a bedside drawer part of a cleaners duty? The OP has said the lid doesn't come off without being taken off.

I have to say, i was wondering how OP knows it wasn't one of the kids though.

I am just at the way everyone is using the term 'condom pot' like it is an actual thing scurries off to type into Amazon to see what comes up!

Nope, it's very def not a thing...

How old is your oldest child?? Maybe him/her checking them out??

It wouldn't even need to be the oldest, it could be little ones innocently looking in pots and seeing multicoloured things.
It could just be she is shoving the dresser when she is vacuuming. I am slovenly busy and so I shove my dressers just enough to avoid dust by the edges. Then I shove them back. My stuff rolls everywhere.

Totally one of your kids. One of my absolute favourite pastimes as a kid was sifting through my parents' drawers as soon as they went out!

Since the "Mum of 6 with twins on the way" revelation I am struggling to understand why yo bother keeping condoms in the house as you must have used them only rarely in the last 10 years...

One of your 6 kids checking/using them?

This is absolutely tangential to the condom pot, but I'm deadly curious about how anyone manages (either practically or financially) with EIGHT kids including 2 newborns

I found ONE newborn alongside a 3 year old bloody hard work and genuinely cannot even begin to imagine how I could have taken care of a brood like yours.

Do you have help (nanny, GPs?) or are the other DC old enough to muck in? Apologies for my blatant nosiness curiosity but I am genuinely as to how one manages a family of that size?

I think OP is a possibly mum of 4 with twins on the way so theoretically a mum of 6. Still challenging.