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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One family went away for 2 weeks and their fridge was left with opened milk, very very out of date food in the fridge, bins all over flowing.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:
swlondonnanny · 03/08/2018 16:21

Actually I don't think it's any of your business what people leave in their fridge. I wouldn't be well impressed if I got home from holidays and our cleaning lady decided to bin most of the stuff from our fridge (out of date or not).... Wouldn't leave full bins/unflushed loo/food all over the sofa though

Elephant14 · 03/08/2018 16:23

Lakie I think it was the pillow down the toilet with the shit under it. Surely trumps the nappy in the oven etc.

Ohlellykelly · 03/08/2018 16:27

I've come home from cleaning jobs feeling so grimy I've had to have a shower.

One customer used to have overflowing cat litter trays, 4 massive ones dotted around her house. Her bins also overflowed. They had chicken poo encrusted trowels next to the kitchen sink. I'd go home and have the smell stuck in my nose it felt like.

One of my recent customers never wiped any wee off the toilet seat and it smelled bad. I cleaned it as that is my job. I never let on that it I think it's pretty gross to not wipe the toilet at all over two weeks. Surely that is professional.

Sometimes a person needs to vent, it's what anonymous internet forums are for surely?

cookiesandchocolate · 03/08/2018 16:33

The day before we went away (currently half way through our holiday) I cleaned the whole house, emptied the fridge and changed the sheets. Nothing worse than coming back to a gross, smelly home after hours of travelling

Figlessfig · 03/08/2018 16:53

Our very first cleaner was a lovely lady who taught me how to clean properly.

To clean under a bed, you first go in with a damp cloth to remove hair/fluff/whatever, then you hoover. Who knew?

Darkbendis · 03/08/2018 17:16

We don't have a cleaner but always leave the house in a "good shape" before we go away. As tidy as we can, definitely emptied bins, no food left in the fridge (always frozen or thrown away), all dishes washed up and tidied away, floors hoovered/swept, toilets flushed, windows shut beds covered with large sheets (we have cats). Plenty of supplies left for the catsitter. Fortunately, I am a bit of a "need to check the taps" person, so last thing that gets done before locking the door is a final check of the bathrooms (taps and toilets)
.
... however, when we left for our latest holiday, we forgot to chuck away the milk, and remembered only after we left. So we almost texted our cat sitter to ask her nicely, fortunately DH realized he had left his contact lenses kit at home so we had to drive back and we got rid of the milk too.

Oddbins · 03/08/2018 17:24

Cleaners are not easy to come by. I pay mine to clean. Not to tidy up after me and my family.

Leaving stuff to rot and stink when you go on holiday is minging.

Ingalia · 03/08/2018 17:24

"I know I'm a bit extreme when I go on holiday.... "
That's not extreme OP, it's normal (in my mind anyway). Who wants to come home to a stinky mess?
I feed my neighbours' cats and they always leave bins full and openned food in the fridge. It annoys me, as its then up to me to manage the rubbish for them when dustbin day comes around - as if the 2 weeks of cat feeding wasn't enough of a favour.

PasstheStarmix · 03/08/2018 17:41

‘I'm sorry, 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.‘

Op is hardly giving away the people identity though is she so how is this applicable?

PasstheStarmix · 03/08/2018 17:41

‘s*

Original poster
AnotherManicMumday · 03/08/2018 18:31

It's not the first time they've left the toilet not flushed and usually just think how unpleasant it is, flush and carry on but it being there for over a week and being able to smell it from half way up the stairs is just wrong! It wasn't just urine either plus it was in the parents en suite so not just the kids. I don't care if that comes across as unprofessional, I've not named anyone and 90% of people on here are unprofessional then for venting if that's the case.
I've cleaned dead birds up and cat poo as I know that can happen whilst they are out and can't be helped but this can.
There was unwrapped fish in one of the fridges and cream from december.

OP posts:
Original poster
AnotherManicMumday · 03/08/2018 18:32

As in 90% of people on mumsnet not on this thread!

OP posts:
Grumpbum123 · 03/08/2018 18:32

I have a cleaner, I clean before she comes

BigPinkBall · 03/08/2018 18:41

This is why we don’t have a cleaner, I’d love to have one but we’ve got a lot of clutter and I can’t be bothered to tidy it all away once a week!

luckycat007 · 03/08/2018 19:17

@anothermanicmonday In my view, there are certain things which you wouldn't leave for a cleaner, expecting them to clean such things is pretty rude.

Its the same when you go to a hotel, eg leaving shitty/sick drenched bedcovers for the housekeeping - no. That's not their job to have to deal with that. Same rule applies with regards to shit/vomit/off food in a house someone is paid to clean.

Zippitydoodar · 03/08/2018 19:35

I'm a cleaner and just started for a new client. Her toilets are filthy, there is bleach at the side of the toilet so why she doesnt use it I don't know.
She has boiled sweets stuck to her bedside cabinet which I can't get off.
She smokes but doesn't open windows so her house is completely tobacco stained and smells mouldy. She leaves food on the kitchen top to finish later (half a sausage one week)
There was dust and cobwebs everywhere which I've nearly sorted.
I feel a little sick going in there but It's money!

She's retired and sits at home doing nothing all day. She even said to me "it isn't too bad" I do wonder if she's a little depressed so I try to be kind and understanding.

It does make you wonder how people can live like that though.

Original poster
AnotherManicMumday · 03/08/2018 20:03

I drew the line at used sanitary towels, menstrual cups and big clumps of hair all over one bathroom!

OP posts:
ncforthisasitsrevolting · 04/08/2018 00:54

I used to clean houses. One lady used to leave garbage all over floor. She had an overflowing bin bag in the kitchen, and then seemingly would just drop the rest on the floor. Her bed was covered in pizza boxes and old plates of food. Her house stank so much I heaved being in it and had to keep going outside to breath. I never went back.

There was a guy once who's house stank of smoke and the walls were yellow, but also looked like they were covered in shit. Something brown was smeared everywhere. There was absolutely nothing I could do in that house, it was past it. I left.

There was another lady who had a cat and there was litter everywhere. Her house was a filthy mess but I knew she had mental health issues and I think she really needed a hand. She didn't own a vacuum cleaner so I used to bring mine (I worked through an agency and clients were supposed to provide equipment). The difficult thing with that was you're booked back to back and so there would have been plenty more to do in her house but I'd have to leave at the end of the set time. She really needed a big clean and a reset.

Butterfly98 · 04/08/2018 01:20

This thread has just reminded me of my MIL (in a nice way!!) who had a cleaner who called every Wed for 2 hours.... my MIL would be furiously tidying and cleaning the day before so that it would be 'nice and neat' as she used to say ready for the cleaner! We always found this hilarious as it defeated the purpose in our opinion.... she also used to bake a dozen queen cakes for the cleaner to take home as she had small children who loved anything homemade.... on another note I once heard of a cleaner who called to a house to find a half eaten tin of tuna left out on kitchen counter in the middle of summer, the owners didn't have time to clear up before rushing to the airport a week previously!!!!

user1499173618 · 04/08/2018 14:19

Tidying furiously for the cleaner doesn’t defeat the purpose. A lot of people have a cleaner as much for the tidying routine it imposes on them as for the cleaning the cleaner can then carry out.

Quiettiger · 04/08/2018 15:42

Tidying for the cleaner is something we do - I know categorically that if our (amazing) cleaner wasn't coming, our house would descend into a shit filled hovel, simply because DH & I suffer from "flat surface" syndrome (and I can't be arsed to clean because I'm usually too tired after a long day).

For those who don't know, Flat surface syndrome, is basically, if a surface is flat, something gets left on it - DH surpassed himself one day by leaving a laundry basket on the cooker surface and not realising it was on... (halogen hob).

RoadToRivendell · 04/08/2018 15:56

People who don't tidy before the cleaner comes have little concept of how to properly run a house (e.g. my husband).

It's a mental drain for a cleaner to try to work our where stuff goes, and invariably it goes in the wrong place.

PasstheStarmix · 04/08/2018 16:34

‘It's a mental drain for a cleaner to try to work our where stuff goes, and invariably it goes in the wrong place.’

In hotels cleaners aren’t allowed to touch your belongings and usually just clean around them. I think house cleaners should be the same as it’s not their job to have to try to put peoples clutter away.

longwayoff · 04/08/2018 17:59

Doobigetta OP has every right to choose for whom to work and to specify what she will or wont do. And to explain to us what a cleaner may or may not do in the ordinary course of things. Extra filth = extra pay at the very least

mononoaware1907 · 04/08/2018 18:14

I never had a cleaner (We do just well for the moment- no children or pets), but if I had one, I would tidy everything, make sure everything it's in its place, clothes ironed, no clothes drying, etc.

I wouldn't go as far as to say I am a clean freak, I clean weekly and then do stuff as I go such as cleaning worktops, hoover if needed. My fridge is probably the cleanest item in my house because I feel it has to, otherwise it's just so unsafe!

I am sorry you have to go through all of this shit and people believe they're entitled.

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