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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to wonder why everyone has cleaners these days!

648 replies

Storm4star · 20/04/2018 21:49

Ok, please don’t take offence, I say this somewhat in jest. But my goodness how many of you have cleaners?? I have been utterly ripping the pee out of a male colleague at work because he and his wife have a cleaner but I hadn’t realised how common it’s become until I joined MN!

I personally struggle to justify spending my hard earned cash on things I could do myself (also do most of my own decorating and DIY). But have I missed something? Is a cleaner now the new must have?

OP posts:
lynney88 · 23/04/2018 16:04

I work full time, unsociable hours with two kids. I don’t drive. I also have 3 chronic illnesses and an autoimmune disorder.

Do I have a cleaner? Hell no!!

I was brought up learning how to fend for myself via cooking, cleaning etc. I MAKE TIME and do my own cleaning. I wouldn’t want someone going through my things especially dirty underwear Shock

Shock horror I still spend ample time with my children and partner.

TomRavenscroft · 23/04/2018 16:38

lynney, it's not a competition.

SoyDora · 23/04/2018 16:41

I wouldn’t want someone going through my things especially dirty underwear

Why would they go through your dirty underwear?! Ours all goes in the washing basket which the cleaner doesn’t touch. She doesn’t do the laundry, she cleans.

Strokethefurrywall · 23/04/2018 16:42

lynney8 - yay!! Here's your gold star for being the best Star

ButchyRestingFace · 23/04/2018 16:44

Lynney has inspired single, childless me to give my cleaner a call a week early.

Yay! 🍹

Limoncell0 · 23/04/2018 16:53

I've been a SAHM for over 10 years and we've always had a cleaner, even though the kids are at school now. She is lovely and doesn't speak English well enough to work in retail or office environments. She comes for 5 hours Mon and 5 hours Fri. She receives £120 cash per week from me and has several other similar jobs so must clear £400-£500 per week. She likes being her own boss and having some flexibility.

She doesn't do any dirty work apart from bleach in the loo! I always tidy up and clear kitchen surfaces etc before she arrives. She doesn't do laundry, ironing or changing of the beds. I do that - actually I don't iron much anymore because I take DH's shirts to the steam press weekly and that's cheaper than the time it would take to pay someone to do it!

She also stays in our house to look after the cats when we're away and I give her £40 per night and food in. Most of her jobs are very local to me so this suits her. Sometimes her husband comes as well and her son who is 17.

She is lovely and gets loads if jobs just through verbal recommendation. Everyone I know has a cleaner and it's no different to using any other service e.g. builders.

KatharinaRosalie · 23/04/2018 17:57

Lynney you definitely win. Smuggy McSmugface award is yours!

KERALA1 · 23/04/2018 18:25

Still the "not having a cleaner brigade" claim some weird moral high ground. Who are you actually impressing? Is it God?

Bowlofbabelfish · 23/04/2018 18:26

I was brought up learning how to fend for myself via cooking, cleaning etc. I MAKE TIME and do my own cleaning.

Outsourcing a task doesn’t mean you’re incapable. At work I delegate a shit ton of stuff. It’s not that I can’t do it, it’s that my time and expertise are needed and better spent elsewhere. I’d imagine having a cleaner is similar - more time and energy to spend doing more enjoyable stuff.

And providing employment

I don’t have a cleaner before I’m accused of being a lazy git.

SeriousChutzpah · 23/04/2018 18:27

I was brought up learning how to fend for myself via cooking, cleaning etc. I MAKE TIME and do my own cleaning. I wouldn’t want someone going through my things especially dirty underwear

Gosh, lynney, were you the type who stood around at her front door in a pinny and rollers and muttered out of the corner of your mouth about 'er at number ten who hadn't scrubbed 'er doorstep by breakfast OR washed her nets this month, the slattern.

It also says something deeply peculiar about your own mentality that your first thought about a cleaner is that he or she is liable to 'go through' your dirty underwear. Why on earth would you imagine anyone has the faintest interest in the contents of your laundry basket? Hmm

SeriousChutzpah · 23/04/2018 18:30

Still the "not having a cleaner brigade" claim some weird moral high ground. Who are you actually impressing? Is it God?

I think it must be, KERALA. But a sort of curtain-twitching, mean-minded gossip God who is endlessly preoccupied with the fact that Mrs Jones at number fourteen doesn't wash her size fourteen M and S scanties as often as she might. Or something.

ChevalierTialys · 23/04/2018 18:33

I have 2 aunts and 2 cousins who all employ the same woman as a cleaner.

I am in the poor branch of the family, no one in my social circle can afford a cleaner. I would dearly love to be able to afford a cleaner to free up my time!

PoorYorick · 23/04/2018 19:19

Have a cleaner, don't have a cleaner, but why is it a moral decision?

I'm assuming nobody here is deliberately rubbing dog shit into the carpet before the cleaner arrives, so what on earth is the issue?

TheDowagerCuntess · 23/04/2018 19:28

I wouldn’t want someone going through my things especially dirty underwear 

😂

If my cleaner wants to rifle through my laundry basket, and have a look at the dirty underwear therein, she can knock herself out.

Why would I care?!

However, I assume she's not a weirdo. And that she doesn't get some sort of niche enjoyment from handling soiled items (seriously - how strange do you think cleaners are?).

I know the OP tried to put the wind up people, by saying she'd overheard 'people who clean' laughing about the contents of people's drawers.

But most cleaners haven't got the slightest interest in people's drawers (again, what with them not being weirdos), and just want to finish the job and leave.

So funny.

JustBeingJobless · 23/04/2018 19:34

I have a cleaner for an hour a week to do the jobs I just can’t manage due to disability, ie changing the beds and pulling out furniture. I’ve had comments off “friends” about how they wish they could afford the luxury. I personally wish I could just change the bloody beds myself!

Gekeos · 23/04/2018 19:37

I’m a ft Mum, children are all school and I have a cleaner most of my friends do too, I thought it was the norm a lot of my friends have there ironing done too. I do clean and hoover daily but it’s nice to get the whole house done at once it free’s up time.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 23/04/2018 19:43

What’s a ft mum

A SAHP ?

PoorYorick · 23/04/2018 19:52

Yes. Some people don't like the term 'full time mum' because it implies working mothers aren't mothers all the time. Some people don't like the term SAHP because it implies that mothers who are not in employment never leave the house. Everyone just chooses the term they prefer, we know what you mean.

PoisonousSmurf · 23/04/2018 19:55

What an interesting thread. I'm a self employed cleaner and most of my clients are working class. A couple are childminders, two work in retail and one is retired. But they will still pay out for someone to come in and clean, even if it's fortnightly.
I much prefer cleaning other peoples houses. I don't see them getting dirty! Smile

TheDowagerCuntess · 23/04/2018 20:06

... and Smurf, I'm sure it goes without saying, that you don't get your kicks rifling through people's laundry baskets, looking for opportunities to handle their worn undies. Wink

LoveManyTrustfew · 23/04/2018 20:36

I work twenty hours a week in a not very demanding career but I am extremely well quallified and ergo well paid.

DH works in the city and including his commute does twelve hour days.

We are at this stage in our careers well paid and the mortgage has only four months to run.

We pay a dog walker, an ironing lady, a gardener and a cleaner.

To this end we spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday in the garden with a bottle of wine on ice, reading our books. The teen was in Brighton all day and working all evening.

We had a a lovely weekend, why oh why if you can afford it, would you deny yourself the pleasure of leisure time ??

#boggled.

KatharinaRosalie · 23/04/2018 21:51

why oh why if you can afford it, would you deny yourself the pleasure of leisure time ??

Because you're a woman. You must be busy all the time, preferably with some mundane task and/or doing something for someone else. Enjoying yourself and relaxing is the root of all evil.

CherryBlossomSeason · 23/04/2018 21:54

I would dearly love a cleaner. I aspire to be able to afford one

Ohdearyme2018 · 23/04/2018 21:56

I love my cleaner. She has stopped all arguments in my house 😁

goingagain · 23/04/2018 22:09

I have lived in London for almost 15 years and have had a cleaner for virtually all of that, since I was in my early 20s. I worked a very demanding ft city job and it was a good use of (when I started, about £25 a week) my money to have someone else clean the bathrooms and iron stuff for work. I would frequently work til after midnight and did not want to spend my weekends cleaning and ironing for the sake of £25. All of my friends (professionals) also had a cleaner come in for a few hours.

I now have four small children (two years apart, youngest is 3 months) and stopped working last year. I employ a housekeeper (does laundry as well as cleaning - shock horror Shock) for between 15 and 20 hours a week. It means all of the children’s (as well as our) clothes at beautifully washed, ironed and put away. It is amazing.

I still literally never sit down. I have no idea where I would find the time to do all the washing and ironing and cleaning on top of all the other stuff I have to fit in to every day.

Depends how you would rather spend your time I guess. That and of course the cost.