Calling all cleaners or who hire a cleaner, aibu?

[Freesunglasses]

I've cleaned for a lady for over a year now. She mostly left me to it, said just do what you want and all's been well.
Right now she's packing up to move so she asked me a few weeks ago if I had any boxes, I said yes, she said you'll be busy packing up next week I was a bit anyway I took the boxes and she had me packing stuff from her cupboards, fair enough there wasn't a huge amount of cleaning to be done.

I then received a text asking me the next time I go if I'd empty all the kitchen cupboards, bathrooms cupboards, and to use any leftover boxes to store it all (we used all the boxes I took last week so I'm thinking she expects me to take more, I don't have any more and I'm certainly not asking around, its not my job.
This is on top of cleaning kitchen, emptying and refilling dishwasher (always loads to put in) cleaning her bedroom and ensuite and any other bits that need doing.
Aibu to think she's taking the piss? I'm a cleaner not a p/a, house packer!

To be honest if she'd asked if I minded I probably would have been fine with it, it's just the assumption that I'll do it.

Nope no way. If maybe she would of asked if you would like to do it for more hours but the assumption is annoying!
I bet you are cheaper than the movers/packers and are you expected to clean both houses once moving takes place?

What you do is your decision and if you can lose the work if she takes offence to you saying no. But moving sofas and unpacking nope! She's taking the piss and will give you more and more if you let her.

I had the client from hell. She was awful, in her 80s and full of nastiness. She had a lovely husband who had been a GP and I felt so sorry for him. Amongst other things she wanted me to handwash her rather mucky knickers, completely clean a massive conservatory that was laden with junk and hadn't been touched in years and she once phoned me at 11pm on a Saturday telling me I had to go to her as she had a water leak in her dining room and the rug was wet. When I told her I was in bed and had no one to mind she children she tried to insist I was there at 6am Sunday morning... err no.

One week my money was short by quite a lot and when I asked she said she had seen her husband giving me raspberries and veg from his garden and this was the charge for them!

God she was vile. The end came when I arrived and she was parading around naked! I am no prude but I really didn't want to spend my time with a naked 80 year old. Even her husband objected but she refused to put any clothes on.

She was incandescent with rage when I left and for several weeks I had abusive phone calls from her until I asked BT to block her number.

My insurance doesn't cover me to do packing and lifting heavy objects.. .
House packers get paid a lot more than you do, you've set a price for cleaning a house only. If she wants a housekeeper then she also needs to pay you more including holidays and pension contributions.
I fully understand that you may lose this job if she gets arsy about you saying no but you need to quote her a different price about packing or use the insurance excuse and say no. Or say you need to increase the cost to up your insurance.
What happens if you break or damage or don't pack properly? It's going to be 'your fault' and your liability.

She's being a cf.

Dump her arse. If you're anything like the cleaners round here you'll have many potential clients ready to bite your hand off.

Nope, I would never expect my cleaner to do that. And unpacking definitely isn't on. How are you supposed to know where things go? And when she can't find something she'll blame you. I would say right now that you're not comfortable with doing that, and don't let her persuade you.

I've only once asked my cleaner to do something other than her usual clean, and it was a task we did together. It just seemed a bit overwhelming for me to do on my own. I asked her nicely and made sure she understood that it was absolutely fine if she didn't want to, and that I had friends I could ask. But she was genuinely fine, and we actually had fun working together on it. But your lady is being presumptuous.

My cleaner offered to help when I was moving; she was just supposed to do the clothes (she said I'd just get them crumpled, which is undoubtedly true) but moved on to doing loads of bits like the books etc. She then came for a long full day the day after we moved in to clean and help us unpack. She likes the overtime money, but also she views all household stuff as her responsibility. It is never appropriate however to demand help with new tasks rather than to ask and agree the extra money / hours up front. Asking you to source cardboard boxes just stretches into being very weird, she can buy some from Rymans / A storage company etc.

I had a big job done on my house a few years ago which needed an massive clean up afterwards. When my cleaner came I asked her if she would mind doing it and instead of paying her €30 for 2 hours I gave her €100 and asked her to stay a bit longer which she was happy to do for the extra cash.

Yours is taking the piss big time. Give her your price for the extra work and see if she still wants it done - CF.

Make sure you point out you aren’t insured for this! I’d be concerned she will try and charge you for damages if anything gets broken during the move! Also professional packers get paid much more than cleaners so she is being very cheeky

I charge a price per hour on regular cleaning jobs. That is my cost per hour of my time. I don't mind then if I'm cleaning things, packing up boxes or tidying in the garden, as long as it's not on my list of jobs that cost extra and I'm being paid for my time. It's negotiated though, I wouldn't respond well to demands like that, and I wouldn't be providing moving materials myself.

tell her what your charges are for unpacking and to note that you're not insured. ON that basis would she prefer to use the removers' unpacking service?
If you don't mind doing it, do it but do it properly paid.

@Yellowweatherwarning I want to hire you, right now.

My cleaner helped me pack and took stuff to the tip for me. We’d become close friends.

Oh, and I asked her, PAID her for the extra hours, and got her a naice bottle of gin as a thanks.

She’s taking the piss.

She is taking the piss.

Our cleaner sometimes helps with the animals if we are away - but we make a separate arrangement with her for that and pay her for it on top of the usual cleaning. We moved recently and never asked or expected our cleaner to do any packing or unpacking! It'd be fair enough if she asked you and arranged additional payment if you said yes - but anything else is just out of order.

I have a friend who runs a removal company (professionally and legit). He's always saying that people don't understand the level of responsibility, liability and amount of insurance cover is involved in packing up peoples' possessions. Some people think a 'man with a van' is the cheaper option and then wonder why they are not covered.

You are not covered by insurance for this work, you will only be covered for your cleaning work so say no for sure, or you might find yourself in for a claim that you have no cover for because it wasn't a part of your job.

I think it's more the way she expected it to be done rather than asking if I'd mind, then the long list!
The house is now a lot dirtier but as she said "you'll have a big clean to do once you've packed up

She needs a job doing in her new house and asked me if I knew of anyone I said no, the next week she asked me if I'd found anyone it's all quite funny written down.
She's alright and I sure she doesn't mean to be a CF she's just very bossy.

I've been cleaning for people for years and you always get the ones who expects more, I generally just sack them and move on. One lady left me a bag of clothes and asked me to drop them at the charity shop, I told her I wasn't passing a charity shop and left the bag.
Elderly clients are different, I'm always very happy to help them with extras.

I don't think she'd charge me if anything got broken although I did point out the last time I moved a settee I slipped a disc which took three months to get right (true) I didn't move her settee. I found that the cheekiest request!

I also tell clients if they ask me to do anything with fragile stuff that I won't be held responsible if anything gets broken.

No she shouldn't ask it of you.

You really should stick to cleaning unless you've agreed to other work, this is another thing you won;t be covered for any injury resulting from other work that what your job is.

It's just not fair to ask. In fact even less fair that she didn't ask she just assumed. I think you should either say no or charge a loaded rate for a different type of work than what you actually are hiring yourself to do for a living and know how to do safely and well.