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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think how can people live like this?!

81 replies

AnotherManicMumday · 03/08/2018 14:19

I'm a cleaner and understand people's houses are going to be a certain level of messy/dirty else they wouldn't need a cleaner but some are just vile!
One family went away for 2 weeks and their fridge was left with opened milk, very very out of date food in the fridge, bins all over flowing. I wasn't going in until they'd been away for over a week so its not like they thought it would only be there for a day or 2 until I went in. I don't do their fridge normally and it was only that I had bought them fresh milk for coming home that I saw it all and got rid of a whole binbag of stuff.
Another family have gone away. Been gone a week. I went in yesterday and the smell knocked me sick.... They'd not flushed either of their 2 toilets after using them so it's been left stewing. There was meat in the fridge and again opened milk. There was spilt cereal that's had milk on it all over the settee. I get that people have busy lives but there is just no need for certain things to be left! Their kids never pick up after themselves including food wrappers/yoghurt pots and this standard of living just seems to be becoming the norm 🤢

OP posts:
californiascreaming · 03/08/2018 15:23

Actually I think that you can complain about your clients if you want to - its the OP's own free will to do that. Yes she takes any consequences on the chin - but you can't police peoples thoughts or what they choose to write if its not against the law. You maybe don't like it - but she's not doing anything illegal.
Maybe if one of those clients see this and recognise themselves they may have a think of what they are doing...
OP I hope your new clients work out and you can drop the gross ones...

4yearsnosleep · 03/08/2018 15:23

I will say my fastidiously clean and tidy friend has been caught out twice by her kids not flushing the loo before they went away for a week.

I'm a messy person that tidies before my cleaner comes. I've been suffering with health problems and if I haven't tidied an area, I text them and tell them to leave that bit. I know my cleaner has turned down particularly dirty houses before so I'm conscious of not pissing her off!

Singlenotsingle · 03/08/2018 15:24

I had a cleaner who came in the day after we got back from holiday While we were away the cat brought in a dead mouse. She found maggots behind the bin, but said she was scared of maggots and left early. Not really our fault. It was the cat's fault.

jellybeanlover · 03/08/2018 15:25

Oh come on cleaners are not professionals. Not being snobby, I have been a cleaner. so wrong, good cleaners are professionals, poor cleaners are not!

Ionlylookatthepictures · 03/08/2018 15:27

That’s so grim. Before I go away I like to leave the house as I’d like to come home to: clean, sparkling, tidy and not a festering shit in sight. Sometimes I get someone in to do a deep clean while I’m away, but again, will always tidy up, ensure clean bedding is left on beds, bins are emptied, and fridges are clear of all but condiments!

GreatDuckCookery6211 · 03/08/2018 15:28

Of course the OP can vent on anonymous forum. It's not like she's given names and addresses out for crying out loud.

Some of these stories have turned my stomach. I'd be bloody moaning about it too

SurvivedTheirTeens · 03/08/2018 15:31

Looks round drawing room. Three mugs, one glass, one empty water bottle, one throw to fold and 4 cushions to plump. There are probably mugs in the dc bedrooms too and probably an unmade bed. But that's as bad as it gets. I cannot imagine being so disrespectful to another human.

My cleaner is a hero. She does hoovering, bathrooms, hard floors and a bit of tidying, paintwork and skirtings and dusting, and bedlinens. I clean the kitchen as I go. And the ironing.

3 hours Mon and Weds and 2 on Friday. Big house. £100pw. SE. Company does an annual spring clean.

Easily justified because DH and I both work 50-60 hour weeks.

usernameismyusername · 03/08/2018 15:34

I tidy before the cleaner comes. I want them to able to focus on certain tasks like dusting and showers etc. I'm looking for a new cleaner now as my last one was doing a half assed job. A good cleaner is very hard to find.

And actually, while looking for a cleaner I've struggled to find one under $45 an hour. That's more than many people make in back office and admin roles.

Leaving houses filthy is not on and I think you'll find plenty of other people desperate for a good cleaner who aren't pigs.

crosstalk · 03/08/2018 15:36

Doobig The OP can complain all she likes. This was foul behaviour on the part of her employers but mainly AVOIDABLE. Whereas your example of teachers complaining about teaching thick kids is not similar at all - that's not something that can be changed by one simple flush and courtesy to your employees. And as PP have said, she's not outed them.

ThisMightAlsoInterestYou · 03/08/2018 15:36

I too have a wonderful cleaner. I respect what she does and do my very best to make sure that she doesn't have to deal with ANYTHING other than regular dusting, wiping, vacuuming. Like others, I have been caught out once or twice and on those occasions have apologised profusely. A good cleaner is worth her weigh in gold and, I agree, is a true professional.

RoseWhiteTips · 03/08/2018 15:37

Doobigetta

...and give you a shit review.

Written without a trace of irony. Hmm

FlatPackFurnitureCompAnyone · 03/08/2018 15:39

This was the wrong thread to peruse while eating my leftover tuna salad 🤢

YANBU OP. My house is frequently pretty untidy (toys everywhere and often far too much cat hair) but we draw the line at not taking the bins out (especially in this weather) or leaving rotting food in the fridge! I usually check the fridge before we go anywhere and put the milk in the freezer/toss any tiny scraps of leftovers that won't get eaten/take fruit with us. Life can be enormously hectic but why on earth would you leave a festering bag of rubbish in your house for a week or two in the summer?

user1499173618 · 03/08/2018 15:40

Find another house to clean where the owners are less revolting! You are under no moral obligation to persevere with a job where the client is so very disrespectful.

RoadToRivendell · 03/08/2018 15:40

Gross.

All the cleaners I've ever had have seemingly had quite a lot of work going, I feel pretty certain mine would probably invent a reason to leave if I were so disgusting. Is it hard to find work where you are?

It's not unprofessional for the OP to form judgements about the houses she cleans. How ridiculous. I don't understand how people are meant to function day to day without forming judgements, and then acting on them.

RoseWhiteTips · 03/08/2018 15:42

Not flushing a loo is utterly revolting behaviour. What is wrong with some people - and that includes children who are odd enough to leave it unflushed.

🤮

Longdistance · 03/08/2018 15:44

Bloody hell, that’s shocking. If we go away we run around the house quickly flushing the loo if it needs it, and chucking the bleach down it, and leave.

pallisers · 03/08/2018 15:51

but you have absolutely no business judging or commenting. They may well be vile filthy pigs, but they've trusted you to be alone in their home, and you are supposed to be a professional

She hasn't actually named them. She hasn't talked about them to people who know them. Of course you are going to judge in these circumstances. I don't understand how "judging" is treated like the 8th deadly sin on MN. Don't we all judge all the time? isn't that how you navigate life and its choices? Do I want to be friends with that person? No, she is rude and mean so I won't. Do I want to continue cleaning for these people? No, they are filthy slobs and not worth the money. Or yes because I can't afford not to but I think they are filthy and inconsiderate slobs.

Unless you are buying specialist services, there are limits to what a regular cleaner should have to do.

SirGawain · 03/08/2018 15:56

I'm sorry, but you have absolutely no business judging or commenting.
It is the OPs business; she is expected to clear up the mess!

CookPassBabtridge · 03/08/2018 15:57

I can see how it's easy to leave rubbish in the bin, meat in the fridge, if a kid rushed to the loo before setting off and forgot to flush a wee, unopened milk etc.. That doesn't mean people live in a horrific way, they are just a bit forgetful. I was a cleaner and it's just part of it. Leaving turds under a pillow and vomit in the kettle is totally different..

MatildaTheCat · 03/08/2018 16:05

In the second example you mention I would absolutely have left and sent them a message saying that the unsanitary condition of the house was beyond your level of expertise. I’d have finished with a cheery hope that they’d enjoyed their holiday.

Filthy bastards.

LoveInTokyo · 03/08/2018 16:06

I'm sorry, but you have absolutely no business judging or commenting.

I could not disagree more.

Leaving your house in a disgusting state when you know that someone is coming in to clean for you is utterly disrespectful of your cleaner.

You wouldn't want to turn up somewhere - anywhere - and find rotting food or excrement and be expected to deal with it. It smells foul. We all know that. So why should you subject your cleaner to it? They are a person.

Your cleaner is there to do things like hoovering, cleaning the oven top, scrubbing the bathroom, bleaching the toilet, basically maintaining the sort of level of cleanliness that most people don't have time to do if they have busy lives.

IMO, unless you are actually paid to wipe people's arses for a living, you shouldn't have to deal with their shit (or other bodily fluids). That is the job of someone who is paid to care for people who can't take care of themselves. It does not fall within an ordinary cleaner's job description.

I remember living in halls in my first year at uni (en suite bathrooms) and one day a boy who lived down the hall came back from lectures and I heard the 5 foot nothing but bloody scary cleaner yelling , "Don't you EVER let me find your toilet looking like that again!"

Grin

Too right.

mydogisthebest · 03/08/2018 16:08

Not quite sure how someone "forgets" to flush a toilet Cook. It takes a minute to empty the bin and surely you would check the fridge the day before you leave?

Having had the great pleasure of cleaning hotel rooms, gites and holiday homes I know from experience just how filthy and messy people can make someone in just a couple of days. So many people are just disgusting.

My DH works in other people's houses and some of the stories he has. I know he has been somewhere awful when he literally strips off as soon as he is through the front door and runs to the shower. Often he actually throws away the clothes he was wearing.

His customers are always expecting him but lots of them can't be bothered to clean the areas he will have to work in.

Elephant14 · 03/08/2018 16:19

Shagger - intriguing: Had someone actually perched up on the countertop and aimed their arsehole into the cutlery drawer, do you think? Just curious ...!!

LakieLady · 03/08/2018 16:20

I can't work out which is worse: the vomit in the kettle or the turd in the cutlery drawer.

(misses point of thread)

krustykittens · 03/08/2018 16:20

I'm sorry, but you have absolutely no business judging or commenting.

I fully expect a cleaner to judge or comment if I was living like a filthy pig and expecting them to clean up after me. That's why I don't have one!

I am joking, my house is not that bad!

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