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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Cleaner keeps going in the condom pot!

102 replies

FarterChristmoose · 20/01/2016 09:18

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???

OP posts:

rainingsleepingbags · 22/01/2016 03:09

The minute I saw this thread my first thought was oh god, don't tell me condom pot is going to become another MN thing a la penis beaker.

If the cleaner is going through drawers it is not likely to be the condoms they're looking for, it's going to be cash.

I've had experience with cleaners stealing, in our case jewellery. We didn't even notice until a few months after they left (unrelated) when the manager of the company returned the stuff to us after they'd caught the cleaners doing it with a lot of their clients.
So I would err on the side of caution and call it quits. You can't live with being uncomfortable with someone in a position to be trusted. If you're not comfortable with asking outright then say a family member has offered to do your cleaning for free or at mates rates. No harm done really, it's not as if you'd be slagging them off on Twitter accusing them of all sorts.

TheDowagerCuntess · 22/01/2016 04:48

I don't understand why a grown adult would spot a, um, condom receptacle - and then open it, rifle about in it, and then go on with their day.

And not only that, but do it more than once. Go in and have a good old rifle amongst the condoms, without taking any.

Nobody would do that, who wasn't a 15 year old boy.

TheDowagerCuntess · 22/01/2016 04:51

Cross-posted - but even then, a rifle in the drawer would throw up any cash/jewellery/gold doubloons. If there wasn't any there the first time, it'd be unlikely there would be any there the subsequent times, so why keep rifling?

And who keeps cash about the house these days anyway? Even my wallet is devoid of cash in this day and age...

HortonWho · 22/01/2016 07:03

Pretty simple. Don't stay upstairs when she's cleaning downstairs and don't stay downstairs when she's cleaning upstairs.

If the contents are still messed with, then it's her cleaning. (She could be opening every single drawer to dust the top bit you otherwise couldn't get to)

JackandDiane · 22/01/2016 07:05

If she's stealing sack her

Hissy · 22/01/2016 07:24

Isn't it riffle?

DisappointedOne · 22/01/2016 08:25

She's posted elsewhere that she's expecting 7 and 8. I find one challenging enough!

OhShutUpThomas · 22/01/2016 08:43

No it's rifle Hissy.

FairyDustDreamer · 22/01/2016 09:06

Have you a teenager?
That would be a whole new worry!

YesYABU · 22/01/2016 10:48

Think the number of children the OP has chosen to have is irrelevant and think it's a bit unkind that some people are coming across as shaming her for having 'so many'.

Suggesting she doesn't know how to use contraception is a bit of a leap and just plain rude. Thought MN was supposed to be a supportive forum?

DanglyEarOrnaments · 22/01/2016 11:09

I agree Yes, the size of her family has not the slightest relevance to the point and it's rather rude of people to be discussing and judging this instead!

NoSquirrels · 22/01/2016 11:17

I vote it being a kid too - I definitely stole at least one of my Dad's and blew it up like a water balloon!

Also, even if your cleaner was dodgy enough to look in the pot the first time, then by the second time she looked, she would also almost certainly have clocked the arrangement of the condoms in stacks, and made sure to leave it that way. Dodgy people doing dodgy things usually make sure to replace stuff the way they found it to avoid suspicion.

Kids, not so much. Start closer to home, OP. Size of your family totally irrelevant other than the fact that you have a lot of possible suspects!

JessieMcJessie · 22/01/2016 11:48

I agree Yes, the size of her family has not the slightest relevance to the point and it's rather rude of people to be discussing and judging this instead!

It was the OP who brought it up! It's absolutely impossible to be lighthearted or engage in a bit of gentle ribbing on MN these days without someone getting offended on the OP's behalf.

timeforabrewnow · 22/01/2016 11:54

Size of the family is relevant as the condoms don't seem to be very effective. Perhaps the cleaner has been sticking pins in them?

Hissy · 22/01/2016 16:59

Yep... It's riffle

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/riffle

As you all were... :)

Hissy · 22/01/2016 17:01

And rifle... :) I stand corrected..

TondelayaDellaVentamiglia · 22/01/2016 17:06

I think she may have been riffling with intent to rifle

Hissy · 22/01/2016 17:08

I think you might be right...

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 22/01/2016 17:11

No I think she was rifling through.

Riffle is kind of flicking through things like cards/sheets of paler/book pages etc. I guess you could riffle through a stack of condoms but would be a bit fiddly.

shovetheholly · 22/01/2016 17:43

I agree ItsAll - the huge OED says that to riffle is to flick or browse casually, e.g. a book, whereas to rifle is to conduct a more thorough search (possibly with intent to plunder).

SoThatHappened · 22/01/2016 18:00

My sister was a nosy bitch who used to look through my drawers.

I started putting notes in my drawers saying things like "nosy fucking bitch" ....I was a teenager though so my choice of words was a bit rude to my sister.

I agree you shouldnt have a cleaner. But put a note in there saying, I know you are looking through my private drawers and belongings, stop it!

Or something along those lines. She wont tell you off for it or she will have to admit looking

ShesAStar · 22/01/2016 18:12

If the cleaner was being nosey she would have put everything back as it was. Condoms aren't interesting to look at - what on earth would be the point in looking in this pot? Next time she cleans the bedroom watch what she does and you'll probably get your mystery solved.

KoalaDownUnder · 22/01/2016 20:07

It's one of your kids. Obviously.

AnyFucker · 22/01/2016 20:12

well, this is very silly isn't it ?

Sparklycat · 22/01/2016 20:16

It's definitely one of your kids and not the cleaner.

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