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!

@allaboutthatsass you shouldn't be persuading her for pocket money you should be telling her what her chores are and expecting them done. She's 9! If my 2yo can help then she's more than able!

People parent differentl AJ.

Differently*

I know they do. But if keeping the house tidy is such a hard thing to do then maybe everyone needs to take on a couple of chores. It's school holidays so the house should be spotless!

It is really hard, practically impossible to clean a house and do mountains of ironing in only 3 hours. I would quit too or I would ask for more time to finish the job. There are people that iron clothes for little money, they pick up the clothes and bring them back ironed that can be an option. another option is avoiding to buy clothes that require ironing, taking the clothes out of the dryer carefully and hang them or fold them ASAP so, they do not get wrinkled, hang dry delicates. Buy one of those steamers to iron the clothes, the clothing stores use them to keep the clothes looking great, they are very easy to use.

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

I sometimes miss it when they're zombies!

Thank you for the PSA.

She's your cleaner, not your ironing lady

How in the world does a zombie thread with just four new posts end up in Trending?

Because nothing else is active.

Why not just get an ironing lady weekly and then once a month have an agency clean the house.

I think 2 hours for cleaning and 1 hour for ironing is fine.
Some of you must have very dirty houses. I can clean my quite large 4 bed, well within 2 hours per week.

People reviving ZOMBIE threads should be made to send gin to everyone who read the entire bloody thread before realising. I only realised because near the end I saw the name of a poster who doesn’t post anymore.

FFS

I’ve asked MN AGAIN to reinstate the Zombie warning at the TOP of the threads.

Zombie. Fooled again.

Right, who's the culprit? LourdeO

It’s definitely not enough hours, our cleaner does 3hrs per week with no ironing. We do nothing in between either. There’s no way our cleaner could do ironing as well.
I’d give up in ironing-we don’t iron anything, life too short. Just spend the cash on cleaning.

It's very difficult to clean an untidy house.
I am with your cleaner.
A house should be tidy before a cleaner comes- unless she is employed in more of a housekeeper capacity, in which case she may do some tidying, putting shopping away etc.

I don't think it's fair to expect a cleaner to clean an untidy house.

£30 is pretty cheap for all that work to be honest! YABU!

*I'm in the NW and want to set up my own cleaning business as i bloody love cleaning but there just doesn't seem to be a demand.
And I love ironing

Maybe I should move down south...*

Definitely! Cleaners where I live charge £12-16 ph. Good cleaners have a waiting list of clients.

Cleaning companies that pay min wage can't get/keep good cleaning staff, which is why the cleaners at work are absolute crap.

It'd cost you £1k a month to rent a 2-bed flat though, so maybe not such a good deal financially.

I think 3 hours for £30 to clean a whole house, and do ironing is too much, for so little money. I don't know what the answer is, as you say you have so little time to do it yourself. You either clean up as you go along, and do the ironing yourself, or ask the cleaner to do whatever she can in the time allowed.

Our cleaner does 2 hours a week at £10 per hour; no ironing — she blitzes bathroom/kitchen/main floors and always alternates a few other things like skirting boards/ dusting shelves etc. We always tidy round first though.

Much as I would love her to do my ironing there would be no time for her to clean ITSWIM. 3 hours is not enough for the task you set.

You need her for much longer each week. Perhaps 2 x 3 hours? Or do your own ironing?

I pay that much a week for just my ironing. You are expecting too much and saying how busy you are and that you don't want to pay more is not an excuse.

Do you vacuum the entire house every day?

I really ought to do the ground floor and stairs daily. We have a dog who brings in grass and bits of leaf and twig on her paws and DP seems to lack the foot-wiping gene, so in wet weather he galumphs muck and mud in.

It doesn't tend to make it upstairs though. We get dust bunnies in the bathroom, but I find sweeping the floor with my foot, while wearing flip-flops, then picking up the fluff works ok. I do this while I'm cleaning my teeth.

Zombie thread alert