...to ask the cleaner to put my clothes away?

[CoolLikeOvie]

4yo DD starts school soon, and I'm both taking a promotion, increasing my hours, and starting a full time masters. It'll be great for my career, I have little money for extras at present, and I love to learn - so I am beyond pleased - but will obviously be very full on.

This will equate to around 400pm gross salary extra.

I'm a single parent, DDs dad lives abroad and has no involvement. I'm thinking about getting a cleaner. I fucking hate cleaning, but love a tidy house - and especially with the extra hours spent at work, I'd want to spend all weekend having fun with DD - I think it'll be money well spent.

I was thinking about 2 hours a week, with maybe a 4 hour deep clean to begin with. I have a tiny 2 bed, one bath - but my dad is living with us at the moment and he WFH and his room is pretty clean so I doubt he'll want his cleaned. So really just a one bed.

One thing I am embarrassingly lax at is putting away clean clothes. I'll happily wash and dry it, but I let the 'putting away' pile pile up until it's unmanageable. I don't know why I hate it so much, but I do.

Is it completely weird and lazy to ask a cleaner to put away a couple of loads of washing a week, and change the beds? Me and DD share a wardrobe and a large (7 drawer) chest of drawers in the same room, if that makes a difference. I'll always make sure the house is tidy and the toilet is clean etc etc. Am expecting to pay about £15ph (SE).

Please let me know if I'll sound like the Queen of Sheba to even suggest the idea as I'm completely embarrassed to even be debating the idea of a cleaner. People like me really don't have cleaners

I think it depends on the cleaner OP. Some of them will do ironing for example and some won't. You can ask...speak to a few different cleaners and ask what they usually do. Putting away clothes doesn't seem outrageous to me either.

Are you planning on going through an agency or an individual? I think if it were me, I'd rather an individual...I don't know the going rate but you'll find that out once you make enquiries.

Only if you don't mind where it goes I suppose.

But I'm the same about putting clean washing away!

I’d rather scrub loos than put clothes away.

I wonder if you can get a tidier rather than a cleaner.

I have a pile of clothes waiting to go away. It’s the shortish job!

I think if you specify then it’s not outrageous as they’ll know going into the job it’s what you want done

I'd ask! Our cleaner unload our dishwasher (we never asked her to, but think she struggles to fill 2 hours a week despite there being loads of things I can think of for her to do)!

Yep we do this. My cleaner is more of a housekeeper really. She comes twice a week, on one day she cleans (which includes a fair amount of tidying) and on the other she sorts and puts away laundry (which i wash and dry). She understandably didn’t want to take on the washing itself as was worried about putting something in the wrong wash by accident.

Life is definately easier since we moved to current arrangement.

I’ve picked up a few cleaning jobs for the summer hols and have one lady (3 hr weekly clean) who I change beds for, wash & dry the dirty bedding whilst I’m doing the rest of the clean and sort laundry ready to be put away (it gets left in piles on her bed), she hasn’t asked me to put it away but I wouldn’t have a problem with it if she showed me where it went, and understood that occasionally it might not end up exactly where she would have put it herself if it’s not clear where it goes (or i’d just leave the ambiguous item out).

You can ask, just as a cleaner may say no. I imagine you would find someone willing though.

You might need longer than 2 hours though if you want a proper clean and putting laundry away.

I don’t know why but I don’t mind washing and drying but I loathe putting clothes away so feel your pain on this one

I hate if too so what I do is put things on hangers immediately and then put several things away in one go rather that one by one. I grabs handful or hangers, hang up each item then put them over the door handle until I have quite a few items and put them away in bulk . It seems to be easier if I do itnin chunks.

No real advice but I also cannot stand putting clothes away.

Putting washing away and filling my car up with fuel.

2 worst jobs in the world!

As long as she agrees and you pay her then no problem I would imagine.

As a teenager I moved from a pretty rough school to one in ‘naice’ area. I realised that I’d actually moved to a different planet when my seemingly normal new mate completely flipped out that the cleaner had put her underwear in the wrong drawer

If you specify upfront and pay for enough time I’d say yanbu

My cleaner loves putting away clothes, and reorganising drawers and folding everything up nicely.

If she has any spare time left at mine after the usual clean she’ll do a drawer in preference to anything else.

You kind of have to not mind exactly where things go.. it’s nit dead easy for other people to know that this T-shirt is a sports t shirt and goes in the sports tub, but this one is a work t shirt in the work wear drawer, and this v similar one is a casual T-shirt and goes in the casual drawer.

But whatever, she folds them super neat (she could give Marie kondo a run for her money) and it is the work of seconds to swap over anything into a different drawer.

Btw I also hate putting washing away never realised so many people hated it as well!

OP you might need more than 2 hours for a proper clean and additional housekeeping jobs. Depends how much of a deep clean you want I guess and how easy a property it is to clean.

People like me really don't have cleaners
that makes no sense, anyone can employ cleaner as long as they can afford it. No one is special, some have just a bit more cash than others.

YANBU to ask.
Some posters get weirdly offended about cleaners and what clients asks, but as long as you pay for her time and are reasonable on the expectation, nothing wrong with putting clothes away!

Some cleaners are happy to put the food shop away and the deliver is always scheduled during their hours, some change beds, some tidy up, or even walk the dog. Cleaners are people, you just need to find the right fit for you.

people like me don't have cleaners I grew up on a rough council estate and the local drug dealer had a cleaner! Lovely people actually...aside from the fact that they sold bushels of weed on a daily basis.

You can ask them to do whatever and they can choose to do the job or not. It seems perfectly reasonable to me to ask them to put your clothes away.

I love folding clothes and putting them away nicely. 😂
So I’d be thrilled to be paid to do it! I’m sure you’ll find a cleaner that will do it.

I think it would be one of the more unusual requests, but it isn't outrageous or over the top. As long as you outline it as part of their duties at the start of the hiring process then the worst they can do is say no, and then you can move onto someone else.

would it help if she folded the laundry into a basket and put stuff on hangers? so all you had to do was the physical putting away?

As long as you don't mind when she puts things away into completely random places, gets yours and your dd's clothes mixed up, and you can't find anything...

It cant hurt to ask. Personally I'd rather save the money to get a bigger place as £120pm is a lot of money. If your dad is there long term does he help out with cleaning and should he contribute to the cost of a cleaner for communal areas.

I work in a home as a nanny where we have a cleaner and I also have one myself. Both, I have to say, are fucking ace!

Work Cleaner: will take clothes off the line, fold adults clothes and sit on top of drawers but will put children’s clothes away (she didn’t do it at the beginning as she didn’t know where anything went but I’ve labelled all the drawers so it’s easier for her and she’s much happier about it!)

My cleaner: will wash clothes ( if there is no bedding to be washed) and hang them up or will take clothes off the line and put them away (not always in the right place but at least they’re away frankly! I also leave a couple of bits to be ironed which she happily does