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!

Ditto, MrsLupo - straight out of the washing machine as soon as it's finished. Shake the laundry and hang it straight out/on an airer, or straight in the tumble dryer and fold asap. Job done. Dd's non-iron school shirts used to get hung straight on hangers and in the airing cupboard to dry.

£10 an hour is really cheap, OP - if you really are doing nothing in between cleaning visits I'm not surprised the cleaner's had enough. I don't see how 3 hours is enough for a full clean AND ironing.

Nanna beat me to it. OP, I suggest you do all the cleaning and ironing you want the cleaner to do in three hours and see how much you get done.

Dh and I both work ft. We do one load if dishes a day (as soon as we get home - breakfast from that day and last nights dinner stuff), one of us bathes the dc and the other will shove laundry in/bins out/general run round tidy. Weekend we run the vac/broom/mop round, change any bedding needed, put all the clothes away and either a tip run or some gardening.

We iron about 4 things a week so just do them as we need.

We arent in the house during the week so as long as there are clean clothes to put on and food in the cuoboards everything else can wait.

Well, if you can't afford to employ a cleaner for more hours or use a seperate ironing service then you'll just have to do without!

No-one can clean a 3 bed house and complete the ironing in 3 hours! Not to an acceptable standard anyway.

Either pay more or do your own housework! Plenty of people in full-time employment have to!

actually.. i never iron like these other posters have said.. I hang everything in such a way... nothing ever needs ironed x

No ironing. If ironed clothes are vital you will either find the time yourself or reduce your cleaning expectations.

She told you the issue: too much ironing and you don't do anything between visits.

Ergo - if you did stuff between visits (swish & swipe sink & toilet every morning; run hoover over once a week etc) then she'd fit in the ironing. Or if you ditched the ironing she'd clean your house and not worry about needing it done in between.

You can: ask her what she can achieve in the hours/pay you are offering, adjust your expectations to suit

Or: tell her your requirements and she can quote you a price.

Can't have it all ways.

Thread is basically unanimous - ditch the ironing (or teach the 9 year old/tell DH he needs to do his own).

We have a cleaner who comes for 3 hours a week, though our house is bigger. However there are 4 rooms she is not expected to clean (or I'd say 'don't worry about the x, do the y instead').

In 3 hours, in a house that has already been tidied, she will do - bathrooms x2, kitchen/dining room, sitting room, 2 kids' rooms, my room, halls. She also clean sheets 1-2 beds. If there's only 1 or 2 shirts she might squeeze them in at the end, on a day the house has been relatively easy to clean, otherwise she takes them all home and brings them back the next week, which is slightly cheaper than the local ironing company.

Our old place was a large 2 bedroom flat, and we had 3 hours of cleaning there, and she was able to keep that spotless (also no messy DC then). Shirts were additional. The current house is kept clean, but she doesn't have time to make it spotless. We have periodic focus on a particular room.

In other words, you're asking her to do too much. Send your ironing out, or do some yourself. Also tidy up, you'll get far more cleaning out of her if she just has to clean, not tidy first.

My friend doesn't tidy up and every single cleaner they've had has left them.

Just ask her to do her 3 hours. If she doesn't get it all done then either pay for more time or do the rest yourself.

To add to the above, I don't hoover, or clean bathrooms inbetween cleans, though I do keep kitchen surfaces clean, and we hoover the kitchen/dining area every day with a handheld Dyson.

DC are 3 and 7 and both know to tidy rooms and play area before the cleaner comes, can use the hand-held Dyson and put dirty washing in the correct baskets.

your expectations were too high and you wouldn't accommodate her so she left you, not really sure what your complaining about....
Ps we both work full time with 3 kids and don't have a cleaner and with a bit of discipline the house is in pretty good shape so think it can done.

Do this:

Week 1: iron all clothes you would usually leave for the cleaner in one go on a Sunday afternoon. Time it. No cleaning.

Week 2: clean the whole house that you would expect done on a Sunday afternoon. Time it. No ironing.

Week 3: figure out what you can live without being cleaned every week, and what you can live without being ironed.

Find a new cleaner (or renegotiate old one) based on your scientific findings.

I work full time, don't have a cleaner and have a husband, two teenage boys, 2 cats and a dog. I manage to clean my house and do my own ironing.

You admit that you're not tidy, well start!! I vacuum everyday, and bathrooms get wiped every other day, floors mopped daily again.

Little and often, look at fly lady and you'll be able to do it yourself

And the only things that really need ironing are DH shirts (and I think you can buy some which don't even need much ironing, though DH refuses to wear them).

Aside from DH shirts there's only a couple of things I wear for work (linen etc). Everything else hang up to dry, or tumble dry and take out and fold as soon as tumble dryer stops. Doesn't need ironing then.

Good cleaners are worth their weight in gold, so there are probably 'easier' households after her.

What's she ironing? I send work shirts out and everything else we iron ourselves. The ironing board is probably out 3/4 times a week for half hour max, often only 10 mins.
The only things I iron are pillowcases (bedding line dries tightly pegged), napkins and tea towels- don't 🙄, that probably takes 5 mins/ week.
Clothes, for five us probably a scant half hour a week.

Here's my advice about ironing:

Have the ironing board permanently set up in your spare bedroom. You only need to hide it away when you have visitors. Then just iron individual items as you need them. Your H does his, you do yours, your daughter's will rarely need ironing. Takes about 10 minutes, if that, before you go to work in the morning. You can do it while the bath's running, coffee's percolating, kettle's boiling, whatever you do in the morning.

I know that a lot of families with two full time working parents do have cleaners but we didn't and I know lots of other families who didn't either. We did go through periods when we were both working flat out where the house was getting a spit and lick at weekends and meals were whatever could go from oven to table with minimum input.

I think we kept on top of it because we are both naturally tidy e.g. never leave a room without taking an empty cup or finished newspaper with you, never spill something and not wipe it up immediately. Also, no matter how long hours my H was doing, he never assumed that responsibility for household tasks was mine alone.

Either pay more for a cleaner to do more hours and outsource the ironing, or free up more time yourself to do more, if money is tight.

I don't iron. Fluff and fold 😉 Or hang on hangers when wet

£10 sounds cheap

Do your own ironing and 3hrs should be plenty of time to clean

Has your cleaner ever hinted that it's too much in too little time? I wonder if she started doing this and you've gradually added work, what started as a few items to iron is now a couple of hours worth.
Maybe one of her other clients needs more hours and she's dropping your job as it's too much work for too little pay. £30 for a whole house clean and ironing be grateful she stuck it out for a year.

Goodness, if you can't afford to pay more then you will of course have to do it yourself. We pay a cleaner for 2 hours a week (4 bed house) and she does the basics - bathrooms, kitchen etc etc. We can't afford anymore so we do the ironing and any top up clean ourselves. Ironing takes forever if you let it build up so she clearly cannot do this as well. Plus you need to tidy - surely to can achieve this and your own ironing in front of the TV one night a week.

Do your own ironing ? 3 hours is no way enough time to clean and iron. Unless your just asking specific cleaning task plus ironing. If it's whole house clean and iron no way. Takes me longer to polish, Hoover, mop, clean bathroom kitchen/bathroom and I have a 2 bed and work fast. Some people do work full time and do their own cleaning 🤔

Sorry I think the cleaner was a bit rude in the way she quit. She could have said she needs more time or that she can only do a certain amount in the 3hrs.
No need to bring up what the OP gets done between visits, who is she the hotel inspector?

Admittedly I'm not a professional but it takes me at least 2 hours to get all the ironing done each week and that's just for me and DH. I can't possibly see how 3 hours would be enough to clean a 3 bed house and do the ironing too. We can't afford a cleaner and if you can't afford more hours then the only option is to do it yourself. I work long hours and DH works even longer hours but we fit in the housework because we have no choice, even if that means that we sacrifice downtime. I don't think the cleaner's being unreasonable, just realistic.

3 hours cleaning = a 3 bedroom house. Esp if you have more than 1 bathroom.

Bathrooms and The kitchen take the most time.

She is right - there is no time to do ironing in this - you either iron yourself or you find an ironing service.

And you need to TIDY. People laugh a me as they think I "clean for the cleaner" - I absolutely don't but I do tidy for the cleaner. It's not her job to know what to do with the papers on my desk, or the toys on my little ones' floor, or mydh's floordrobe....I never expect her to put things "away" because she doesn't know where they go

You are not paying her enough ( hourly rate ) nd expecting her to do too much.

I have a 5 bedroom house and it takes 4 hours cleaning per week. And it's always very tidy for the cleaner coming.

If you can't afford another hour, do what no squirrels said. Or delegate some of the cleaning / ironing to the other people who live with you.

Another non-ironer here, despite my mother pressing the shit out of everything when I was young. Stick them on hangers instead, or hang over doors. No one ever died because of a creased pillowcase.