Do you think my cleaner should be doing more for her money

[Pennina]

We have a large four bed house and my family comprises of my husband and two teenage DCs. I have a newish cleaner who I pay £10 an hour and she comes twice a week. She is fairly new (she's been cleaning for me for about six weeks) and so far although she cleans to a very good standard she is in my opinion rather slow.

Today I was out working and left her a note asking her to spend one hour ironing, 30 minutes in the kitchen to empty dishwasher put a small load of washing on the line, wipe down surfaces and sweep the floor. The kitchen was not dirty so there was no mopping or scrubbing or anything like that needed. I also told her to spend another 30 minutes sweeping the wooden floor in the hall and lounge diner and hoovering the stairs, landing and three bedrooms that we use. The cleaning part was done fine but when I went to the spare room which we use for ironing I was disappointed to see that in one hour she had only ironed about a quarter of the basket comprising of half a dozen pillow slips two T-shirts a polo shirt and one shirt. Left in the basket was three more shirts and four duvet covers. I quite like ironing and although I'm not brilliant at it, I would've got that whole basket done in less than an hour.

So aibu to be a little disheartened about this? I'm half hoping that you will tell me that Iabu as it's so hard to find cleaners! However I can't help but feel ripped off by having to pay £10 for only quarter of a basket of ironing.

I stand braced for your views!

Also the economics of your labour means that you would be better doing the ironing yourself. If you can't then you need to at least pay her four times as much.

I've been a cleaner and I do see where you are coming from OP. I never iron and even I would do more than that in an hour!

However, perhaps she took longer on the hoovering and it cut into the ironing time. It was a fair sized floor space you asked her to cover so 30 mins sounds a bit too little. When I was cleaning I would do edges and skirting (by hand with the nozzle and dusting attachment) as often as I thought it needed doing (depends on the household) and this takes a lot longer than just doing the flat bits. So if she was being conscientious and could see that it needed extra, maybe she put time into that.

On the other hand I would have left a note to explain, and would also try to get to know the client's priorities and whether they would choose hoovering over ironing, or rather pay a bit extra to have it all done.

I agree that micromanaging someone's time is tricky - I always liked to get stuck in and work up a sweat (to keep up my enthusiasm!) so could get a lot done, but that could work against me in terms of earnings per hour compared to a normal speed person. I wouldn't be against you saying spend x amount of time on so and so as I'd understand where you were coming from, but I'd also say if it wasn't feasible (and factor in my speediness!)

£10 an hour is OK money but not fantastic when you take into account lack of holiday and sick pay and also the fuel and non-earning time going between jobs. Only minimum wage really, so I would expect to pay/ charge more for someone who can use their initiative and give a higher level of service.

Scarey what on earth is my voting preference got to do with it?!

OP, in the oast I've had cleaners do maybe half an hours ironing out if the 4 hours, by agreement. However, I never iron bedding (just tumble dry). DH's shirts are the main thing - I wash them and then take to the steam press weekly at the dry cleaners. It's about 50p per shirt to get them done perfectly.

Answer the question and we'll see..

Or there are companies that collect your ironing and they're not as expensive as you would think at all.

I have a four bedroomed house. It takes me an hour to vacuum the hall, sitting room, stairs, landing and four bedrooms. That's not taking into account the dining room, study, kitchen or conservatory. Ergo, you are being a tad unreasonable.

Pay your cleaner a decent per hour and be nice to her - and stop being such an attention seeker. You might find that she does an embarrassing amount of extra work around the house that you don't even ask for.

I am genuinely baffled on these threads. I can never decide if those who think asking a cleaner to iron is totally unreasonable do so because, unlike operating a Hoover, operating other domestic appliances like dishwashers or washing machines should attract a higher hourly rate, or if it's because it's beyond their ability.

Do actual cleaners claim that emptying the dishwasher is beyond their capabilities, or should attract some sort of bonus because it's more difficult or dangerous than dusting?

I'm with justhadmyhaircut. I did a stint as an au pair, and it drove me nuts when my employer nagged me about not getting enough done. She once came home after an hour shopping and I'd just started the ironing she'd set me. She said 'is that all you've done?' I said 'First I changed the baby, vacuumed the sitting room because the kids had left it in a state, emptied the dishwasher, peeled the veg for dinner, cleared the breakfast table and reloaded the dishwasher. It all needed doing.' Most people work far more efficiently left to themselves, you know.

I have a "cleaner" who cleans, irons, picks up kids from school. I don't see the problem - we needed someone to do all this and she wanted the job.

I think it's you that's attention seeking Archibald. I've asked for and received welcome and useful advice. I'm paying her the wage she asked for actually and it is the going rate where I live. Stop kicking off over nothing!

My previous one did too Allegretto (before she had triplets - yes really!)

In just one hour she emptied the dishwasher, pegged a small wash outside on the line, wiped down the kitchen surfaces, swept the kitchen floor, the hall floor, the lounge/diner floor, hoovered the stairs, landing and three bedrooms?

"The cleaning part was done fine" but you're moaning because in the second hour she didn't iron enough items.

Unless your rooms (and your dishwasher and washing machine capacities) are quite small, then I think you got your money's worth, plus some.

It would take me more than an hour to do those jobs properly.

My cleaner is £10 a hour and she does the ironing, but she has plenty of time to do it.

I'm a cleaner. I do iron for people but I tell them upfront that I charge £5 extra per item on top of my hourly rate for any bed sheets or duvet covers because I fucking hate doing them

I wouldn't work for anyone who tried to manage my time like the OP but to be fair I make alot of effort to work out/ask people what they want me to focus on and I ask for feedback after every cleaning session so I doubt I'd get to the point where someone felt they had to micromanage me.

I tend to agree Adish.

This has been helpful ladies. It's a combination of my expecting too much and also that when I iron I clearly do it very quickly and further that my previous cleaner and I were together for ages so more time to adjust needed too

Can I also say that there's s language barrier so I do need to be super clear which might seem like micro managing too.

My cleaners have always done whatever I've asked, including ironing, dishwasher, tidying, emptying bins, whatever.

No idea why a cleaner wouldn't do ironing or dishwashers tbh

When I was a cleaner, I learned to set boundaries: no ironing and no cleaning outside. Ironing because it was difficult to gauge how much was actually in the basket - clients often have odd ideas of what "just a little" equalled - and also because I didn't fancy the odds of ruining something by accident. I put a stop to cleaning outside when I was asked to pick up the dog shit that accumulated in the back garden over the week, in the rain.

I lost the client with the dog but they were easily replaced and, going forward, no more cleaning outside. I cited insurance as my excuse.

Justgettingsrarted

YUK!!!!

Words fail really......

just that one I can understand!!

Our cleaner does four hours (standard 3 bed house) which includes ironing but the depth of the rest of the cleaning depends how much time she has left - if she couldn't regularly do everything in the time I'd pay her for more hours each week, but if there's an unusually big ironing pile one particular week and she didn't then have time to do more than a cursory clean of one of the rooms then that would be fine.

I rarely even leave a note - she isn't micromanaged and I like leaving her to use her own judgement. I'm very fortunate in having a good cleaner who can use her initiative.

I do think ironing, or anything really, takes longer than you think.

I "popped" to the shop this morning to buy my lunch items for the week. 5m I thought. Came out and checked, it was actually 15.

Ironing too. I tackled what I thought was a small pile on Sunday and it took me well over an hour. 5 of my own items,maybe 10 kid items. I suspect it took 2! I'm a fairly quick ironer too i think!

Would dream of tackling sheets or duvets. If I really want them ironed, I send them out.

You should time yourself op and then you will know if you are reasonable or not!

I like scaryclown's post.

But then I'm a dirty little prole and an immigrant to boot.

She's not a slow cleaner - I think you are a fast ironer! My current cleaner is the best cleaner I have ever had but in a hour she would do 5 shirts. Ironing fast is a skill not everyone has.