my cleaner has quit - says my house is difficult to clean! embarrassed

[allaboutthatsass]

So I've had a cleaner for 3 hours pw for the past year. She cleans our 3 bed detached and does our ironing. All agreed when she was hired.

Sometimes she comes alone, sometimes she comes with 2 staff (and they might finish in an hour).

She's now quit, saying my house is just too much for her. She says I have too much ironing to be done in 3 hours and that I'm not doing anything in between her visits.

I work full time as does my husband (in fact he has two jobs, a sunday is the only day I see more than an hour or two of him a day whilst awake). Our DD is 9.

I've never been houseproud, I admit, and I'm crap at ironing BUT my house is not tidy. There is zero clutter. I do my laundry daily, I make the beds, put stuff in the dishwasher, open windows for fresh air, I really try my best with the little time I have.

I'm very embarrassed that she thinks my house is too much work. My mother and sister tell me I'm a lazy shit (they are both a bit aggie and kim) but my friends say my house is a normal family house so I don't know if AIBU or my cleaner is?

I hired her to help me but seemingly my house is that bad she doesn't want the money...

we have a mutual friend and according to this friend if I want her back then she wants more money to do my house due to the amount of work she feels needs done every week. I pay £30 for 3 hours a week. I have recently had a drop in pay so not really keen on paying more.

Can anyone help me with advice on managing housework without a cleaner on such little time?

Oh and in addition to my full time job, I'm also a distance learning uni student as of September, so even less time!

at your routine and at Evenstar's comment.
Honestly allabout if you can send out work shirts and iron what's essential as you go then 3 hours just cleaning should be attractive for your cleaner or another one.

she is let out during the day, yes.

I have a similar arrangement with our cleaner, OP. We do laundry and wash dishes, she does the rest. She comes once a week, 3 hours. 2 bedrooms, sitting room, 2 bathrooms, extra loo, kitchen, hall, stairs. She does the lot plus the ironing. Ironing is usually 5 shirts, 2 dresses and 2 pairs of trousers. I do buy a lot of clothes that work without ironing.

One difference is, we have a "do what you can in 3 hours, then stop" arrangement. So if we had a party or it is particularly dirty, she manages very little ironing, but usually she does most of it.

Just see if you can find another.

I am glad to hear that allabout, and on the cleaning front I would agree that 3 hours with no ironing would be fine. You are certainly not lazy as your mother and sister suggest, I feel exhausted after just reading your schedule

I have a cleaner for my 2 bed flat, she cleans for 1 1/2 hours a week and does the the lot for £17.50. I'm considering asking her to iron for an extra half hour. I'm in wales.
I do think that ironing should be on top of the 3 hours sorry.

She wants more money if she comes back, [for the same hours?] if she cant do it now in 3 hours how will extra money make her do it faster,
I would add another hour for same rate an hour, or another half hour and manage what ironing she can in that time
I have done a lot of cleaning, cant believe the hourly rates now
I was on £3-50 an hour, had to ask for a rise at one place ,but this was about 10 years ago,
Went to a few houses, some were generous some not,
One lady gave me more money if she got a rise too
Some people do xpect too much of a cleaner though
I went twice a week for 3 hours,

Thank you evenstar appreciate that.

My mother has always been either a SAHM, part time worker, or ran her own business from home, so she has always had more time to clean.

My sister was also a SAHM and has just recently gone back to work 2 days per week, so her house is immaculate (no cleaner) and she also doesn't seem to realise the difference in our daily schedules impacting on our different cleanliness levels.

The majority of my friends are SAHM or part time employed. I'm not criticising before anyone says I am, its just no one in RL seems to understand why I can't do all the cleaning/ironing myself.

OP, don't let anyone make you feel guilty. You don't have to spend all your hours cleaning to be a good person, and you don't have to justify what you do.

Literally the only thing you've done wrong in this situation is to expect your cleaner to do too much in 3 hours. Either pay her for an extra hour or better yet, send out your ironing and limit it to just those things that REALLY need irons (shirts, work trousers etc).

I'm not a lover of ironing but the method I've found works best (and not in a small way also to reduce leccy costs, oh, and because I've got a crappy washer dryer which takes decades to dry anything at all) is I wash then I have two piles (all washing retrieved the second it's done btw) - one pile for 'for hanging up' and another 'for ironing'.

I only iron my work clothes (out of all my kit I've only got two items which routinely wash without creasing at all, everything else does need a little bit of ironing), t-shirts.

It's obviously come straight out of the machine when I iron it but it makes it really really really easy to iron. When it's ironed I put the ironed items and the socks, pants, bras tights and other hanging up pile items that don't need ironing all get put onto the clothes horse and once they're dry, they're ready to be folded and taken upstairs. DC take their own items off and fold them.

I don't iron. My DH irons on Sunday night his shirts for work. The rest is put on drying rack with care, do it dries without weird creases. If you don't use legs and fold things carefully, I assure you there's no need to iron half of the stuff. Everything is folded neatly from drying rack into foldable baskets to take upstairs. Straight into wardrobes. We only iron something if it's too creased before putting it on or if it's a special occasion. I only see the need to iron shirts and DH's work trousers, everything else really doesn't get creased if dried with care, or it will lose creases when stretched by putting it on. Bedsheets too. If you want a bed that looks like a magazine picture, then yes, you might need to iron; but I put in drying rack folded and stretched, I truly don't care if visually it's not perfectly flat. It's clean and still comfy. What else do you iron? We are 4 at home (DH, me, DD4yo and DS2yo), we put washing daily because kids go through a set of clothes or two in nursery, plus pyjamas, plus our own clothes, etc,. We haven't ironed in years, only DH's weekly stuff, which he does on a Sunday evening. He finds therapeutic to be on his own with music doing it, no complaints here!

Gosh, autocorrection of hell!

Do it dries = so it dries
Don't use legs = don't use pegs

£10 is normal rate but i wouldn't expect her to clean the whole house. I had a cleaner recently (she got a full time job, so left). She came 2h but I'd give her a small list of things depending on what was urgent that week. Normally this was: clean big bathroom, clean small under-stairs toilet, vacuum floors, change my sheets and clean kitchen worktops. I'd clear all clutter the day before and put a dishwasher the night before. I'd leave the bedsheets out on the bed and all the cleaning products out too. I would ask her to dust only if she had extra time but would not expect it. I think your list is way too much. I think she would easily spend 1.5h ironing weekly laundry, then have to do 7-8 rooms in 1.5h? That's like 10 min per room!

I think that is a very small list, Jedimum1. Mine does 3 hours.

1st hour: Chucks bleach in all 3 loos, puts bathroom spray in the shower, tub and all sinks, then does the kitchen followed by finishing two bathrooms and guest loo. She then surface cleans and dusts the bedrooms, changes sheets, mops and polishes incl mirrors. She usually does either the oven or the garden doors.. these are jobs on rotation, I don't give her lists at all.

2nd hour: Vacuums bedrooms and stairs, then dusts and polishes sitting room. Mops all downstairs floors. On rotation, washes doors or polishes windows etc.

3rd hour: Ironing. In that hour, she typically does 10 pieces, so all DH's workshirts and my 2 dresses and trousers. She then takes the bins and recycling out.

Perhaps I am just lucky and have a really fast cleaner.

I really don't know why you are going on and on about how you work and can'r possibly do your cleaning, when you think that the weeks' cleaning AND all your ironing can be done in 3 hours.

I'm sure you can spare 3 hours over 7 days? Or you can realise that you are being ridiculous expecting someone else to do in 3 hours what you say you couldn't possibly manage over an entire week.....

Three hours is just enough time to clean a whole house your size but NOT enough time for a weeks worth of ironing too! Add another hour for that or pay someone else to do the ironing, simples!!!

I clean I think I need to up my prices though reading through these comments!. I only iron as well for one person 5 shirts usually take me 20-25 minutes. The biggest house 4 bed has 3 bathrooms (2 showers and 3 baths) I do I can just do a very basic clean in 3 hours. Including cleaning the hob and mopping a huge hallway and flagstone kitchen. If something more in-depth needs doing I do extra agreed hours.

If its tidy its quicker picking up but back breaking bits of lego and such can really cut into time. Sometimes you pick up but get the hoover out and more appear. I hate lego!

I think you need find another chore whore- you wore this one out.

OP, your schedule is still irrelevant. If the cleaner can't do it all in the time you pay her for, and you can't afford to pay her for any more hours, you have no choice but to do it yourself, surely??

OP - I leave the house at 7.30am and get back at 6.30pm. I'm a single parent. I'm self-employed so I often work in the evenings and weekends too.

My hours really aren't unusual. Like I said at the start of your thread, my cleaner comes for 3 hours and she cleans the house in that time. I don't expect her to do the ironing too because she's a human being, not superwoman.

Could you honestly clean your house and do all your ironing in 3 hours? I don't think it's possible

I hate cleaning and tidying. I am crap at it also.

But I'm lucky enough to be able to afford a cleaner to come twice a week. Once justti do diwnstairs and first bathroom, second visit kitchen again and bedrooms and 2nd bathroom. That's a good 5 hours. No ironing. We don't have a lot of clothes that need ironing.

First thing you need to get a washing machine - tumble dryer combined.

If you can't afford to pay the cleaner for more hours then I think you and your husband will have to do the ironing up on the w/e. Could you do an hour each?

Polycotton bedlinen saves a lot of ironing. And drip dry work clothes.

If you are out all day - then where's the mess coming from?

And why isn't DD or DH helping? DD could clean the bathroom and mop floors - vacuum etc
DH should clean up after tea
DD could bath herself while you doing something else -
Why do you have some much washing?
Can you have shopping delivered and the 2 hour stray in slot do the ironing? Two jobs done

I'm a cleaner, I clean a 3 bedroomed, multiple bathrooms, conservatory house in 3 hours. I would struggle to do a decent job and fit ironing in too. I don't think she means that your house is too bad, I think she is trying to say that you are wanting her to do too much in too little time. Why not hire her for an extra hour for the ironing?

We have a 4 bed house but only 3 are cleaned by the cleaner. They come in fortnightly for 3.5 hours to do a good clean ( we tidy and do a 'superficial' clean in between. They 'just' get it completed in 3.5 and are told if DD bedrooms are messy not to touch them.

I think It is the combination of both that is too much.

We tend to fold from dryer or hang shirts/dresses straight from washer to dry as I do not buy clothes that need ironing. DP has to wear shirts but irons as he needs them.

I think it's the amount needed to be completed rather than your house.

We also pay £12:50 an hour. I'd look for another cleaner but take out the ironing.

Prior a cleaner ( and learning tricks to very limited ironing) I used to clean and iron on a Sunday morning. It's tough as I felt I was losing quality time with the children but it was needed - maybe you could iron on the weekend?

Sorry - haven't read the whole thread, but this does remind me of my HV organising a cleaner from the council when I had a hip replacement with 4 kids aged 12 - 2.

She was lovely! My house was spotless in 3 hours! I told her how grateful I was..........

Her immortal reply was 'oh, Mrs Busy, I love coming here! I make such a difference!'