To ask cleaner to change the bedding?

[museumum]

Is this a real no-no?

I've never had a cleaner before. Bed changing is my least favourite job. I'd love her to do it.
I wouldn't mind stripping them, i it would be more acceptable to just ask her to make them up?

What do you think?

[venusinscorpio]

And yes, I have also worked as a cleaner as a holiday job. It was my job at the time, I didn't do it for shits and giggles, I did the best job I could.

[venusinscorpio]

Harsh, you do realise that your repulsive little friend could have made someone seriously ill don't you? But no, you weren't a professional cleaner, you were only a uuuuuuuni stuuuuudent, so you clearly don't think you were required to act in a professional manner. When you are in someone's house to do a cleaning job and you're getting paid for it, you're a professional fucking cleaner. Grow up.

[user1464519881]

Our used to come 5 mornings a week (now 3 times). She has always changed the beds and the towels and tea towel. She has some kind of rota (she's been coming at least 15 years so I forget the original plan but I think it was half the beds one week and the other half the next and change all the towels once a week which she usually sticks to). So yes if that's agreed it's fine and I find when she's away in the summer I really miss that aspect and she also puts all the washing away (and puts the washer on if there is stuff to wash) which again is very very helpful even if some of the clothes end up in the wrong person's wardrobe.

I do wash the children's sports wear for school etc separately myself and dry it so it goes in the right PE bad as that's quite a complex system.

As for menstrual blood she has occasionally changed my bottom sheet (who menstruates in their mid 50s - I am fed up, I obviously have the secret of eternal youth or something) when she's seen it stained but if I had seen that I would take it off and soak it (she tends to put the washing machine on for a shorter cycle than I do as she's not here long and it doesn't get stains out as well but it's very very helpful she's here at all and I am privileged to have her working for me). If sheets were in an awful state I would not expect her to wash them. if the children had vomit then of course I'd clean that up and wash them myself.

[harshbuttrue1980]

Dangly, we weren't professional cleaners. We were uni students. And the boy in question cleaned the houses of lovely clients impeccably. Many of the clients were old people who were filled with gratitude, and we used to stay on at the end while they gave us slices of home-made cake. We all went the extra mile for them, and would do extra bits for them unpaid. However, people in the service industry have always had ways to get back at those who fancy themselves to be above the server.

Museumum, you seriously don't have time to check the toilets for skiddies before the cleaner comes? What would you do on days when the cleaner isn't there?? Surely everyone who goes to the loo can check after they have washed their hands, and use the loo brush if there is anything unpleasant in there - it takes 1 second to get the skiddy off. Then the cleaner can do the bleaching.

Asking the cleaner to change the beds is fine if they are clean. If you've left evidence of shagging in your bed, have period blood in it or anything else gross then, yes, it is disrespectful to leave that for the cleaner.

Just be a human being and recognise that your cleaner is a human being too. If you wouldn't like to deal with other people's shit (literally), then don't expect others to deal with yours. If you treat her with consideration, then you'll find she will go the extra mile. Imagine that your child did some cleaning as a uni student, and think about how you would like them to be treated.

[DanglyEarOrnaments]

Our company's service agreement terms are that the house must be prepared for the cleaning service for the day of the visit, ie reasonably tidy and picked up etc, there must be no bio-hazard substances around such as dog/cat excrement or sharps, sanitory waste must be inside a bin liner within the bin in order to be taken out with rubbish etc.

If a home owner requires help with picking up the house before we arrive we can add an extra half hour/hour to the bill and do this for them too as long as the health and safety issues as per above are taken care of by the home owner. If a home owner says they will pick up the house before visits and then stop doing so we need to add a charge for the increased labour costs. It all depends on what level of service has been purchased as to what can be delivered within the price we set.

I don't think changing sheets should present much of a health and safety hazard but I suppose there is a small potential for this. If they really are that filthy with stains etc then yes I would say to remove them yourself.

As for the 'toothbrush' incident, that is absolutely unprofessional and disgusting. I have never yet after 20 years within the industry, even as a lone cleaner found a client to be rude enough to warrant ANY kind of 'retaliation' if I did feel that way I would remove myself, most treat us like treasure and send lovely feedback to pass on to the cleaning staff to let them know they are valued. If you work for a company and find a client to be rude to you, discuss this with your manager and in our case we would chat together about whether we wanted to keep such a client on our schedule or let them go (sometimes after such a discussion the cleaner will decide the client is not so bad to be dumped, but if they really feel unhappy we will no longer serve the client rather than create a situation where staff may act unprofessionally (the incident we are discussing is beyond unprofessional it is indeed revolting, as pp stated). It is a relationship that relies upon complete trust between the client and the cleaner both of who are vulnerable to the actions of the other and if either party breaks that trust, it should be addressed by the owner of the business (or manager) not the cleaning staff taking matter into their won hands in any obscene way they choose.

I've never met a professional cleaner who would happily do such a thing and think that kind of behaviour to be extremely de-valuing to the industry as a whole.

I would implore fellow cleaning people - if you want to be respected and valued, as we all do, please show some self-respect and always make sure your own behaviour is impeccable and professional, there are enough clients to be choosy, do not resort to cleaning for a rude client grudgingly and then sniggering about vile revenge, there is no need and it is degrading both yourself, the cleaning industry and the client. You are better than that.

[foreverandalways]

Harsh but true.........I have OCD (diagnosed) .....reading your post about the toothbrush and a member of that cleaning team quite literally made my stomach turn! Who ever the person was should be ashamed of themselves......

[thisismeusernameything]

I run around before mine comes. I make sure the toilets aren't too revolting, get all my hair out of the sink and move anything from the floor that the slob that lives here has disgarded. I think it's just general good manners. She's my cleaner not my scivvy.

[ABCAlwaysBeCunting]

We don't have DC so it's slightly easier, but on the night before the cleaner comes, we tidy everything up (i.e. put away clothes, remove paperwork from kitchen table, put stuff away, check toilet is acceptable). People have taken the piss about us tidying up before she comes, but my take on it is that she is there to clean, not pick up after us.

Doing the sheets was a bit of a happy accident. We'd never asked her to do it, but one day we'd stripped the bed and left the sheets out for us to do when we got home, but she had done it by the time we got back. Our cleaner comes every fortnight so now that's when the sheets get changed.

[TinySalmon]

Forgot to say OP - totally acceptable for cleaner to clean dirty stuff - that's their job. Our cleaner cleans our toilets, takes away any dirty dishes we've left out etc.

Like I said in previous post, if anything was exceptionally dirty to the point of it being embarrassing, then I'd try to clean it a little bit before she came. There have been times the house has been a complete mess and I always make sure I thank her a thousand times. We also give her a small cash bonus at Christmas to let her know that we appreciate her :)

[TinySalmon]

Our cleaner strips, washes, and irons all the bed linen on all beds once a week and puts fresh sheets on.

But as someone else pointed out, if the sheets were exceptionally dirty, stained or whatever, I would strip and wash them myself and just leave our cleaner to do the ironing.

Hope that helps!

[Iknownuffink]

Well said Harsh

[museumum]

But is it disrespectful to ask a cleaner to clean dirty stuff?
I'm not a pig but I have young children, I'm not sure I have time every Tuesday morning to check and clean the toilets and the sinks and strip the beds while trying to get us all dressed and fed and to work/school. If I did I wouldn't need to employ a cleaner.

[harshbuttrue1980]

Yes, hopelessly, it was revolting. However, so were her snide little notes and her patronising manner, sitting reading a magazine while we cleaned giving us orders, as well as having to clean her skiddies from the loo. I'm not sure you read my post properly - it wasn't actually me who did the thing with the toothbrush, it was my male colleague. But I did find it hilarious. Btw, when you're a student worker working for a cleaning company, you have to go where you are told to go.
Moral of the story - if you want to be treated with respect, don't disrespect other people.
Also - someone who you think is beneath you in the hierarchy actually has a lot of power - be kind to cleaners and waiting staff. Just be nice. Then there would be no problems! Cleaners are people earning an honest living and don't deserve to be demeaned.

[alanthicke]

I pay my cleaner by the hour. She's graciously willing to do anything reasonably related to cleaning my house. When she arrives she strips the beds and puts the sheets in the washer, then the dryer, then before she leaves she puts them back on the bed. This is particularly lovely, but every cleaner I've had has at least changed the sheets to clean ones that I've left out.

[sizeofalentil]

Like most people here have said - we strip the bed and ask the cleaner to put on fresh sheets etc.

[HopelesslydevotedtoGu]

for a real bitch of a client, this involved the client's toothbrush and the cleaner's backside :-)

That's revolting.

Why not decline to clean for that client, or not do jobs you find unacceptable, or just do a lousy job- why do something so revolting that could make her sick?

[NapQueen]

If I had a cleaner I'd have to ask her to put fresh sheets on our bed one week and the kids the other week. I don't have masses need doing so this would be a main job tbh.

[DanglyEarOrnaments]

We are a cleaning company and we offer bed change as an additional service, for a small additional fee.

Some do it some don't. It depends if it's something that they do offer, I imagine it might be.

[harshbuttrue1980]

If the bedding is dirty, I think you should strip it off first. Cleaners are people just trying to earn an honest living, and I don't think they should be left with really grimy jobs. Likewise, its fine for them to clean the loo, but you should clean your own skidmarks, rinse the toothpaste from the sink and just generally be decent to her. I did a bit of cleaning when I was a uni student - the lovely clients got our best efforts, and the ones who acted like Lady Muck...well, let's just say that the male member of the cleaning team (also a student) had creative ways of getting back at them. One time, for a real bitch of a client, this involved the client's toothbrush and the cleaner's backside :-)

[Peasandsweetcorn]

I know it is MN heresy to only change bedding once a fortnight, but our cleaner strips the bed, puts on clean sheets & puts the dirty ones in the wash on one week & irons it all the following week as the tasks take similar amounts of time.

[Sassypants82]

Yes, I strip it & leave the clean bedding out, she makes it up.

[MatildaTheCat]

Absolutely my cleaners have always changed our beds and I don't strip them either. But do allow for the time it takes, longer than you might think. When my sons lived at home I did their beds one week and ours the next. Now they have left we have clean bedding every week which is bloody lovely. They put the bedding in the right place for laundry.

I've always wondered if the queen has fresh bedding every day...that's my idea of heaven.

[museumum]

Oh fantastic!!!

It's not in the list of things the company gave us to mark as "essential" or "other" which were supposed to discuss together on her first visit.
For bedrooms it just has hoover, dust/polish, tidy beds.
I don't have stuff that needs polishing, don't care about dusting, kitchen is cleaned as we use it, so really just want floors hoovered and mopped, bathrooms cleaned and beds changed.

[IncidentalAnarchist]

Ours strips and changes our bed. It's heaven

[Ifiwasabadger]

YANBU it's the first thing I want any cleaner to do. We have a super King with a heavy goose feather duvet. I hate changing the sheets. Haven't done so for over 8 years.