How many cleaners have you been through.....

[Eesha]

Hi all,

I was one of those people who was the last to get a cleaner but I seem to have been through quite a few in the last two years. I don’t know whether I’m fussy or expecting too much. I’m not the cleanest or tidiest but can see these obvious missed things

1. Kept cancelling last minute due to family stuff
2. Were expensive and I thought I could get it done cheaper, big regret
3. Girl who did less hours but cleaned round things and wasn’t done fully
4. Recommended au pair looking for more hours but couldn’t cope with the work
5. Duo but item got stolen, went missing
6. Current one lied and said she did things but clearly didn’t

Now just booked in another recommended person.....sigh.

Is this normal?

1. Only managed to vacuum 2 rooms in 3 hours. I didn't invite her back.
2. Was pretty poor at cleaning, but we put up with it for a while, for the sake of not wanting to find a new cleaner. Final straw was that she had virtually no English, and turned up when we told her not to, and got very upset and demanded payment. We paid and didn't invite her back.

1. Kept on breaking things and was mediocre at cleaning. Complained my house wasnt clean enough (that's why I pay you). I could have put up with the mediocre cleaning, but stopped her coming due to the damage.

Now I don't have a cleaner, as I am wondering if it causes more stress than it saves. The stories on this thread don't inspire me to get another one.

I had an amazing one before I moved, but it was too far for her to come to our new house. I'm so sad about that.

Cleaning business owner here.

Most of our clients we've had for many years we don;t tend to have a high turnover of customers. Thank goodness because it just wouldn't be profitable if we did.

We do send trained staff and fully-manage the service though so that makes a huge difference to satisfaction levels. It means you can nip problems in the bud and provide additional training straight away if needed.

We tend to lose clients due to moving house or sadly due to death on occasion.

I use a cleaning company!

£13/hr, 3hrs every other week, 3 bed semi.

No problems at all as the cleaning co deal with the personnel side :)

First one, we wanted a fortnightly clean. Agencies refused to provide anyone as it was 'against their policy'. Booked one-off clean and the lovely young woman gave us her mobile number. Given the agency refused to let her provide us with a fortnightly service, felt no guilt circumventing them. She was ace - eventually admitted she worked off aggression towards crap boyfriends via cleaning. She got more hours in a professional job after a few years and trained up her friend.

1. Friend moved abroad after a couple years. She was good but never as amazingly energetic as her predecessor.

3,4 - couple one-offs from recommendations again, pleasant women but too little English to explain that we did need tidying etc if I'd been too ill to do it, where to find sheets for changing bedding, etc. They'd probably have been fine in a smaller house where 'clean everything' was a feasible aim.

5 - recommended by colleague, very good, stayed for six years.
6 - one day #5 brought a friend and said "This is xxx. I train her up because her English is not so good yet. I may go back to [country] soon." After 3 weeks of #6 helping out, #5 left and #6 has been working for us for about 8 years.
7 - #6's daughter does some cleaning to help her mum with clashes and to fund her way through uni.

They are both really lovely and understanding with the kids (ds has autism and the upheaval of tidying and cleaning is stressful for him).

One. She has been with us since DS2/DD2 (twins) were born 10 years ago. We consider her part of the family. She even babysits for us, as the kids love her!

1. Lasted a week before she decided she couldn't cope.

1. Has been cleaning my house for 10 years and does an amazing job, my place has a fair amount that requires real knowledge and skill but she is the best. I recommended her to others where I live and between us, she is fully employed (paid twice the local average and worth every penny).

are people allowed to recommend on here, there are some rave reviews and I could do with better luck. Golders Green if anyone knows anyone.....

Happy to pass the details of mine along! If anyone needs a cleaner in the Stone/Barlaston area, feel free to PM.

Just two and I've given it up as a bad job. The first was a friend who I watched take a dish sponge to clean our cream leather suite - using the green scrubby side. I didn't feel I could challenge her. The second one ended up with the police involved after a lot of paperwork went missing including passports - came recommended but never ever again.

I’ve had similar problems!

1. Used an agency, was extortionate, sent different people every week so I was never sure I could trust them and they did a crap job in less time than they were meant to take.
2. Because of that decided to take a chance on a self-employed Cleaner who put a leaflet through our door. She was perfection. Thorough, friendly, polite, with a great work ethic. Unfortunately for me (Good for her of course) she eventually got the chance to retrain in her previous field and stopped cleaning. Which lead to...
3. Sister of great Cleaner, who didn’t speak English, drank our gin (I have cast iron evidence) and wasn’t v good at cleaning. Fired her when I attained said evidence of drinking the alcohol.
4. Went back to a different agency. This one kept changing the time she would come every week depending on what else she was doing. Annoying but I put up with that until she broke my front door lock by forcing the key, leaving me locked out of the house in the rain with baby and toddler on our return from a holiday. Cost £250 to fix.

Current Cleaner is me as I now I have trust issues with cleaners!

Is it worth me telling cleaner beforehand my expectations, before she takes the job? Till now, I’ve gone on recommendations and just taken them on.

1. used to come round with her partner to help - totally fine till she stole money then quit before we could ask her!

2. quit to be a pornstar in LA

3. was convinced that i was jealous of her because she was sure my husband fancied her - after telling her a few times he didnt, she said she 'had to quit' because she knew i didnt like her and was jealous of the 'close' relationship she had with my husband - strange, we hardly saw her

4. too slow, took 2.5 hours to clean kitchen (ours is small) and then said had no time to do much else. She used to mop the floor with wet wipes.

Gave up after - we split the housework now but i think we might have to start looking again as we just have no time.

3 cleaners in 2 years.

1st cleaner was an absolute liability, kept breaking stuff or damaging stuff. She ruined an almost brand new carpet by spilling cleaning fluid on it on the 2nd clean she did for us which had to be claimed for under the cleaning firm's insurance.

Second cleaner's standards got progressively worse. I caught her as she left one time and she said sorry but she hasn't been able to do everything in the number of hours we have per week as it needed more of a clean this week (for some reason). After checking my cctv it turned out the reason she hasn't got everything done was because she had only been there half the time.

My current cleaner is amazing, had her just over a year now and she's trustworthy, does a good job and is generally a lovely person. I hope she never leaves us!

Similar story here. I've given up now and just do it myself. Happy to be saving the cash and not having the resentment towards CFs taking the piss.

Current cleaner 8 years, previous 6, one before 3 years (I fired her). Ironing lady 14 years to date.

Our worst ever cleaner left hardcore drugs in one of the bedrooms, then tried to claim they weren't hers, and didn't understand why we were sacking her!

The one after that was expensive but amazing, very thorough and professional.

We've moved to another city and I really miss her. Our current cleaner was recommended by a friend and is okay-ish, but yesterday I came home and could tell the bathroom floor had been swept but not actually mopped. She doesn't charge as much as I'd expected, but I'd rather pay more and know that the cleaner was being absolutely thorough every week.