that if you have a cleaner

[VelvetSpoon]

You still do some cleaning yourself?

Having this discussion with bf. I've recently got a cleaner who comes once a week for 3 hours (5 bed house). Not entirely sure how good a job she's doing but am going to give her another couple of weeks.

Anyway over the weekend bf saw me sweeping the kitchen floor and asked why, and doesn't the cleaner do it? His view is that cleaner should do it all once a week (except day to day washing up) because otherwise what's the point in having her?

Whereas I feel I still have to do some jobs daily/ weekly...so who is right?

I'm a Cleaner and have clients who do fuck all between visits.

Which means I can't actually clean properly because I spend the whole time trying to get on top of the dog hair all over the place

We have a cleaner come twice a week, and I love her. I am always cleaning though. DH asks why, and I explain because I keep the house tidy, so that she can actually clean. Why waste her time (and my money) doing the tidying?

I don't think 3 hours is even enough for the bare minimum for a 5 bed house. How many bathrooms do you have? Kitchen and bathrooms take significant amounts of time to do properly. Obviously it also depends how untidy/dirty your house is to begin with; I'd say 5 hours would be time to do a general clean of a house that size (but definitely not including jobs like windows/bed-changing/fridge/oven cleaning).

X-post with foureyes!

My nanny thing like the OP's DH! She asked me if we could have the cleaner come twice a week so she wouldn't have to sweep the kitchen floor everyday.

It's so frustrating- we have 2 under 5's - of course you need to sweep/Hoover the floor everyday and not leave it for the cleaner once a week!!

Well, there are daily jobs, weekly jobs and occasional jobs. To me, cleaning bathrooms and floors (properly), plus dusting are weekly jobs, so that's what I'd ask a cleaner to do.

I also think they'd struggle to do all of that in three hours in a large house. I think you need to be really specific with them, walk around together and discuss what your priorities are - and listen to them carefully when they make 'that's not going to happen' noises, or indicate their own priorities or ways of doing things. Draw up a list. It may be they alternate main tasks week to week. You cannot blame your cleaner for 'not doing a good job' if you haven't specified exactly what that job is and have just said 'clean'.

Wiping surfaces, sweeping floors as necessary, plus the everyday dishes and laundry, are daily jobs.

Your BF sounds inexperienced in running a house. When you have your list drawn up with the cleaner, you could write a 'total list' including daily tasks - to demonstrate the difference.

Yes, we keep the house fairly tidy, no pets too so no pet hair.

There are 2 bathrooms, but one is only used by me.

I can vacuum the house (visible areas, not under furniture) and mop the floors in about 1.5 hours so that leaves 1.5 hours to clean bathrooms and do anything else. I clean the kitchen myself, I am washing up daily and wiping surfaces so there is nothing for her to do in there, even if she does give surfaces a wipe it shouldn't take long. Hence why I thought 3 hours was about right time wise.

I don't like cleaning and so I do as little as I can. Our cleaner comes twice a week for 10 hours in all (6 bed house, two kids, two cats). Despite that we still have to clean things.

Your bf sounds completely out of touch.

I have a cleaner who comes for 2-3 hours a week.

She doesn't tidy - we all clear up our own stuff the night before so that she can actually clean. She does a proper clean of kitchen, bathrooms and all floors, she dusts/polishes all downstairs and 2 bedrooms. She doesn't go in my two sons rooms unless they have cleared and tidied enough for her to clean (which is rarely). If we haven't been home much in the week I ask her to do other things such as clean the fridge or windows.

I still clean as I go on most days.

I have a cleaner twice a week for around 5 hours in total (buggering big house in the sticks)

She manages to get round about 1/4 of the house per visit so each bit gets cleaned properly around once a fortnight. In between I clean bathrooms / toilets, kitchen sink and worktops and run the Hoover around anywhere that needs it.

I don't do dusting or mopping or deep cleaning because that's what the cleaner does but there's no way I could do no cleaning- DH also struggles to understand this and would be content to live in a crumb-ridden, urine-splashed hell hole if left to his own devices...

Your cleaner comes 3 hours a week? it isn't enough imo.

I don't want to spend time cleaning (because I want to spend the time I'm home with DD and DH...).

But 3 hours a week doesn't seem like it is enough.

In the kitchen, I also wipe the surfaces and use the dishwasher, but she cleans out the breadbin, wipes down the toaster/kettle, cleans under all appliances, gives the surfaces a really good scrub (as opposed to a quick wipe), cleans out the bins with bleach, fridge clean is extra. If you don't want your cleaner to do that stuff, and you want them doing something else, I think you need to make a list of your priorities and ge them done.

Same in 'your' bathroom, it might only have you in it, but she has to clean it all thoroughly which takes just as long as if dirtier, if you don't need her to do your bathroom, or only do floor, tell her.

We have a 2 bed flat. One kitchen, one bathroom, one toilet and a living room/dining room.

Our cleaner come weekly for 3 hours. He hoovers, mops the floors (all wooden/tiled), cleans the kitchen (sink, surfaces), cleans the bathroom (all) and toilet. He cleans the dining table. He dusts all surfaces (though there aren't many)

Occasionally we add on a job like cleaning the oven, or a couple of windows per week.

We clean the toilets daily (we have a 5 yo boy and a 3 yo boy) and tidy, as well as wipe down kitchen surfaces and the table. We also have a brilliant handheld hoover for crumbs under the table and sand/mud by the front door.

Does the cleaner know not to clean the guest room/2nd bathroom?

Anyway, YANBU, homes needs more than a weekly clean.

My cleaner does do our 3 bed house in 3 hours though, but she is super-fast and never takes a break. I have had far less efficient cleaners who clean more like me, so do 45 min, then have a break, and so on.

My cleaner is fab, she cleans for 2hrs a week, 5 bed house, does surface wipe, empties the bins, cleans the internal glass (doors and mirrors) cleans all floors, mops bathrooms and downstairs hard floors.
But, I do a maintenance clean daily, tidy up before she arrives and give her a coffee every time.
She works really hard and I appreciate her!
Your BF needs to do a bit more cleaning methinks

This is why I can't see the point in getting a cleaner unless they can come all day everyday. Maybe if we were all out of the house all day but when I'm at home all day and the kids are home at 3 then it seems pointless.

I take the point I may have to give more instruction.

In the kitchen I asked her to clean. At most she wipes surfaces. She doesn't clean the handles of anything (I noticed one had a food mark on it after she'd been)and she doesn't clean under toaster, microwave etc, I expected her to, but noticed she hadn't. No bleaching of bins either. Honestly in the kitchen I do think she just wipes the clean surfaces and cleans the floor.

I will make a list though. I expected her to do everything I do and more because she's a professional.

Notso I've found the biggest difference is that my cleaner gives everything a really thorough clean, it saves me probably more than 3 hours a week (so a whole half a day on the weekend) as she has deepcleaned floors/bathrooms/bins, so I can just do a quick wipe up on a daily basis.

This has been literally life-transforming for me! We have gone from a bit grubby/don't look in the corners type of house into a really quite nice clean house. We are still messy, but it's hugely improved.

If we had a cleaner I would be asking them to deep clean areas and I would be surface cleaning in the meantime. So it's NR to think you can just ignore the house unless you have a housekeeper or a team of staff.

OP your cleaner sounds crap. You shouldn't have to tell a cleaner how to clean, just when you want stuff done.

There are plenty of people who'd be grateful for the work so just find another one.

I can maybe see how that would make a difference Foureyes are you all out the house during the week?
For me I don't mind the deep cleaning, I find it quite satisfying. It's the mundane daily keeping-on-top-of-it cleaning I hate. I'm a SAHM with 6 hours a day free so time isn't really an issue.

Notso yes, I work f/t and hate cleaning!

If you like cleaning/find it quite satisfying, and are at home in the day to do so, then I agree getting a cleaner wouldn't make that much sense!

My cleaner comes once a week and I am a bit lazy. The cleaner does four hours in four bed house including some ironing. The jobs we do in between are:

1. Sweep but not mop kitchen floor (spot clean as needed)
2. Wash up and wipe surfaces in kitchen.
3. Brush inside of loo and wipe seat.
4. Washing and putting away but no ironing.
5. Wipe around sinks if needed.
6. Rinse around bath if needed.
7. Spray shower and screen after use.
8. I also have a robot vac that I send off if downstairs tidy enough.

So sounds a lot but non of these jobs takes more than a few mins and keeps house looking ok in between. Cleaner can then deep clean. Plus I still find it easy for toys and clutter to build up.

Of my jobs I'd say 1 2 3 and 4 are essential others only done if needed.

My cleaner has been off for three weeks and I'm tidying up today so she can clean properly tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it being v clean.

Foureyesarebetterthantwo what I really need is a picker-up and wiper!

I'm not sure. I have CFS, so I have to be very careful not to do too much, but I'm also a perfectionist about tidying. All I do on a daily basis is washing up, wiping kitchen surfaces down, sweeping up with a dustpan and brush, IF there's a lot of crumbs, and I've vacuumed in the last couple of days, and making sure everywhere is tidy. Vacuuming, emptying the bins, mopping, cleaning the bathroom, changing bedding and dusting are done weekly or fortnightly and anything else is done monthly, like the fridge; quarterly, like high dusting and cleaning cupboards; , or yearly, like the oven. So yes, there's still a bit to do if you have a cleaner, but unless you have small children and/or pets, there shouldn't be loads.