To tidy up before my cleaner arrives?

[SheStoopsToConquer]

I have a fortnightly cleaning lady, and usually the day before she arrives I'll give the house a bit of a tidy - putting away all DC's numerous toys, making sure we've not left clothes lying around the bedrooms or bathroom etc.

However, I happened to mention this to a friend and she said I'm crazy as what's the point of a cleaner if I'm cleaning too? But surely I'm not that unusual? I'd rather my cleaner had more time to do the stuff I don't do like scrubbing and mopping than tidying away toys!

YADNBU, I have a cleaner who comes fortnightly as well. I always tidy up before she gets here. She’s only here for 3 hours, at £13 per hour, I want her to be actually cleaning not tidying up. Also, she’d only end up putting things in the wrong place.

I agree, we always tidy for the cleaner, otherwise they can't clean!

Well I suppose that it would make the process quicker when the ckeaber came?

I'm a cleaner. Most of my clients do tidy up before I arrive. I did have one nightmare job where they gradually got more and more untidy. I mentioned it and it improved dramatically, for a while. Then a few months ago I turned up, they were out, the place was a tip and there was a pool of urine on the floor beside the loo. I cleaned where I could. Left the urine there and left a note saying i quit and put the keys through the letterbox.

In short, yes leave your home ready to be cleaned.

YANBU

When I had a cleaner major part of the deal (for me) was that it made me ensure that the house was completely tidy before. I didn't want her to empty bins, tidy, not be able to clean properly in her precious three hours.

A weekly/fortnightly cleaner is just that - there to clean for 2 -6 hrs/week or whatever. Very different if you have a housekeeper/cleaner for 20+ hrs a week.

As everyone has said, your friend doesn’t understand the fundamental difference between Cleaning and Tidying.

I always remember my mum shouting at us to tidy up the day before the cleaner came. We always whinged why? Because she's a cleaner not tidied was the reply every time.