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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

133 replies

Pennina · 17/07/2017 18:48

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!

OP posts:
Redglitter · 18/07/2017 00:52

My cleaner empties my dishwasher and puts on washings off her own back. She tidied out my hall cupboard last week. I love her 😊

Dibbles1967 · 18/07/2017 01:35

30 minutes sweeping the wooden floor in the hall and lounge diner and hoovering the stairs, landing and three bedrooms that we use.

That's really not enough time. Even if it was a "quick whizz round" that you wanted. The issue is, you can't vacuum something a bit. You either vacuum or you don't. You can't half clean something.

Elkalv · 18/07/2017 01:41

I think it's reasonable to expect cleaner lady to iron, if it was previously agreed, but it's not reasonable to expect her to iron super fast. Like I would expect 4 shirts ironed in 1 hour to good standard inthis case. So why don't you increase time by one hour and cleaner will have enough time to do the job in this case?

JungleInTheRumble · 18/07/2017 02:23

I'm good at ironing and no way could I do four shirts, four duvet covers and various little bits and pieces in an hour on a home iron and ironing board. At least not to a decent standard.

I bet your cleaner did the cleaning properly and found it took her longer than an hour so just fitted in as much ironing as she could in the time left over - starting with the easiest items.

Ginslinger · 18/07/2017 13:44

My lovely cleaner was here today and we had a chat about the thread and her view is that she would prefer to be asked to do x, y and z in the allotted time but she would have been able to do what you asked within a 2-hour time frame providing that you haven't got rooms that are enormous

Ginslinger · 18/07/2017 13:45

she would prefer to be asked to do the stuff but decide how long to spend on each task -sorry that wasn't clear

Pennina · 18/07/2017 15:53

Thanks Ginslinger. That's what I thought too. Everything was quite tidy and I hadn't asked her to do bathrooms or anything. Ah well. My old cleaner (with triplets) came and did a full basket in one hour while the triplets played with my box of old toys! I think I was spoilt by previous cleaner!

As you may seen many people on this thread have really very seriously disagreed and felt very strongly that I was asking too much.

As everything else she does is fine, but unless I leave specific instructions she doesn't do things that to me would seem obvious, i.e. Dusting (!). I'm sure it will sort itself out as time goes on

OP posts:
ParanoidBeryl · 18/07/2017 19:24

Perhaps it might be an idea to organise it differently. So on the 2 days a week that she comes, there are some things she will do both days, e.g. wipe kitchen surfaces, sweep kitchen floor, empty dishwasher.

Then with the remaining time, she either does upstairs (properly) or downstairs (again, properly).

I couldn't be having to ask a cleaner to dust, that goes without saying. Did you get her on recommendation?

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