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Original poster

To feel sad & horrified by these comments from a former cleaner

213 replies

strivingtosucceed · 14/05/2020 14:55

twitter.com/TabitaSurge/status/1260647664565121027

The lady in the tweets is a former cleaner who has spoken about the issues she had during her time as a cleaner. She's spoken of horrific things like clients leaving, sick, skid marks and crusted over appliances for her to clean. Others have also spoken about being 'tested' with money left out and casually followed about the house.

Judging by the amount of people who have cleaners on this board, she's probably one of you. Would anyone admit to it though?

To feel sad & horrified by these comments from a former cleaner
OP posts:
Cattermole · 14/05/2020 18:24

I used to clean in a private primary school attached to a well-known place of worship - at the same time as I cleaned in a state school of the same age near the racecourse in the same city - and without a doubt the children at the private school were far and away the most deliberately squalid. (Not out of malice, I'm sure...just that they thought "it was somebody else's job" and "this is really funny".)
The shit on top of the overhead cistern in the boys' loos, at the beginning of the summer holidays. That was a work of creative genius. He must have stood on the toilet to get it up there, knowing bloody well we wouldn't be able to trace the smell for weeks....

randomer · 14/05/2020 18:33

I once cleaned for a lady with an ensuite. She didn't look too well on arrival and asked me to start with the ensuite.Hideous period mess everywhere. Personally, I would have felt some shame leaving that.

Luluapple · 14/05/2020 18:33

Some of my clients are SKANKY. Absolutely grim. Educated, vair middle class people who show not one iota of respect for my dignity.

CayrolBaaaskin · 14/05/2020 18:45

I don’t leave shit in the toilet (but dd might) and I know my cleaner and there’s no way I need to worry about theft. But I don’t clean before she comes either. Because I don’t have time so that’s why I have a cleaner.

I do think we shame women for having a cleaner and not doing their own cleaning. No reason we should be embarrassed about having a cleaner- I hate cleaning and don’t want to do it. So I pay someone else. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I need to aim to be a 50s housewife.

CayrolBaaaskin · 14/05/2020 18:49

I also think bitching about your clients supposed lack of cleanliness is bad form for a cleaner. It’s like a ob/gyn moaning about smelly vaginas. A level of Confidentiality is part of your job.

And as for clients being “ver middle class” - what difference does that make?

missmoz · 14/05/2020 18:52

MarshaBradyo A couple of people on this thread are...even if your cleaner lives 2 minutes away they shouldn't be coming round, touching surfaces in your house and then going onto other houses for obvious reasons.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that women having cleaners aren't feminists, just that you can't defend having one during a pandemic on feminist grounds, no matter how much mess your family makes.

Whenwillthisbeover · 14/05/2020 18:52

Dreadful. Assume i could afford a cleaner and had a house big enough to justify one, the tasks would be the stuff i cant keep up on like skirting boards, washing tiles or cupboard fronts down or dusting.

General tidying, bathroom and skid cleaning, kitchen and cooker top spills, picking up, washing up, tidying, hoovering i could do easily.

MarshaBradyo · 14/05/2020 18:56

MissMoz I get what you’re saying but I’m wondering when would be ok, is it a wait until vaccine situation?

Just wondering if there’s a point in the next year or so where this changes, maybe not.

CayrolBaaaskin · 14/05/2020 19:02

@Whenwillthisbeover - you must have time and inclination to do all this then. I am quite happy to pay someone else to clean and tidy my house though (not just things like wiping skirting boards which I don’t think I’ve ever done). I don’t shit in a cup or anything and use toilet brush as needed but I have no shame paying someone else to clean my toilet.

MsTSwift · 14/05/2020 19:08

Well for every grim client story I have a mad cleaner story - cuts both ways!

Best one was a drunk who said she couldn’t work at Patrick’s day she was “going on a bender”. She wrote us mad letters saying how much she adored us and we realised she had drunk our drinks cabinet dry. Another one brought her enormous Polish boyfriend with her to sit in our flat dh was off work Ill and got quite a shock! I have more...

IPityThePontipines · 14/05/2020 19:14

Somehow women employing cleaners is a power imbalance, but men never get called out for having people cleaning for them (paid or unpaid). This cleaner should realise most of the world's wealth is in the hands of men and attack that system, not the women who have been more successful in navigating the shitty system - that changes nothing.

Quite. I've never, never, ever seen any articles or tweets attacking men for paying cleaners. Indeed OJ and friends think paying women for sex is righteous and noble.

Owen Jones loves to pit women against each other and those who defend him are always too stupid to see it.

whatkatydid2013 · 14/05/2020 19:43

Owen Jones is annoying and while I disagree overwhelmingly that people have more time in lockdown I tend to agree that it does seem reasonable that you just pay your cleaner to not come to work if you can at the moment. Assuming that you are still working and getting paid you likely have more money than normal so why on earth wouldn't you. We've been paying our cleaner as usual and we will keep doing so. She's actually fairly keen to get back to work and messaged to say she's climbing the walls with boredom so to let her know when worked to come back. I don't think it's the best idea with small kids though as they don't understand social distance and make having the house tidy ready for her to come a bit of a challenge.

totallyyesno · 14/05/2020 19:45

@MsTSwift
I agree! When I first met my husband I said we have to sack the cleaner. She drank everything available (and was frequently unsteady on her feet as a result - I was worried she would fall out the window!), stole from us and didn't actually clean. DH as per usual was "better the devil you know" and didn't want to deal with her so I sacked her and she hated me!

After that we found a cleaner who was ok until she met her aggressive, jealous boyfriend who insisted on coming round with her and sitting in my kitchen while she cleaned. No. He also phoned me up and called me all the names under the sun as he said I had underpaid her (and that is how I found out that she didn't tell him how much he earned because he would take it off her, I didn't underpay her). Sad for her but she didn't want to leave him and I couldn't cope with him. I am really lucky with my present cleaner. She has worked for us for ten years and has a proper contract and has been at home (still paid) on lockdown. I refuse to be embarrassed for having a cleaner - she actually has a better contract than I do.

bringincrazyback · 14/05/2020 19:46

I wish people would just stop working as cleaners. Then there wouldn’t be so many of these complaints. Problem solved.

Yes, that would work out just peachy for people who have mobility/health issues and can't do their own cleaning. Hmm

totallyyesno · 14/05/2020 19:47

Also I don't clean in preparation for her visits but I also don't have skid marks or anything else disgusting lying around!

totallyyesno · 14/05/2020 19:48

I wish people would just stop working as cleaners. Then there wouldn’t be so many of these complaints. Problem solved.
Do you feel the same way about painters, plumbers, gardeners etc?

Scruffyoak · 14/05/2020 19:50

I've been a cleaner and I dont mind cleaning mess or even toilets but things like leaving toenails on bathroom floor is just gross. They used to leave traps for me too with money etc and moan if I sprayed the cleaner too many times

totallyyesno · 14/05/2020 19:53

I don't get the traps thing. I often leave money out for my teenager to go and get some shopping or similar. It's not a trap. Why would it be?

Tootsey11 · 14/05/2020 19:55

I once had a client who left the toilets (2) filthy. 6 people in house. I cleaned once a fortnight. I asked if she wouldn't mind putting some bleach down the like in-between my visits as this would make the toilet cleaning quicker and I could get more done. She replied that she couldn't possibly do that as it wasn't something she does, she would speak to her husband to see if he could do it. I left a bottle of bleach on top of the cistern of each toilet. They never bothered. I left eventually.

JustStayHome · 14/05/2020 19:58

I hate when people class their cleaner as below them.

When our cleaner is here, and someone comes, maybe a friend or a family member, i don't introduce her as out cleaner, i say her name and "our domestic goddess"

We make her a cup of tea when she comes and she stops for a cig or a quick lunch, all in "our time"

I dont understand this whole, people are below me attitude.
Our window cleaner gets paid £20 for about 15 mins, our gardener gets paid very well, food Delivery man gets a fiver tip each week and postman gets a nice bonus at Christmas...
Im not saying you have to tip people but i would like to think people dont treat others so badly, but sadly i know they do.

DHW1 · 14/05/2020 20:18

I always tidy the full house before the cleaners come and empty my bathroom bins as standard.

maddiemookins16mum · 14/05/2020 20:20

I can well believe it. In my much younger years I worked as a Mothers Help - this included the laundry (and housework). I can’t tell you the number of times I had to remove liners from dirty underwear before loading the machine.

BrexpatInSwitzerland · 14/05/2020 20:23

I don't class my cleaner as "below me". I regard her as a service provider with whom I've entered into a business contract (on terms rather favourable to her, in fact, and that's perfectly fine as well as deliberate on my part), and I expect her to keep up her end of the bargain.

Now, as stated before, I love my current cleaner. But, again, this is as a service provider. She's not a mate of mine. She renders services to me in exchange for compensation on my part.

I don't see her in much of a different light than the one in which I think my clients see me: someone being paid money in exchange for a promise to fulfill a contractually defined set of tasks.

Now, ... will my own happy clients introduce me to their own bosses and will this enable me to make more business? Yes, clearly, if I don't suck balls at my job! Will I do the same for a good and trusted cleaner? Sure! Does this include said cleaner being invited to a house party that includes a number of potential new clients? Well, most certainly (not currently, mind, thanks to COVID)!

But, again: it's a business relationship. If we happen to get along like a house on fire: so be it (and, yes, friendships do make business more complicated). If we don't: so what, so long as both of us fulfil our mutual obligations?

QQQQQQ123 · 14/05/2020 20:24

Before my cleaner comes I
Clean any skidders
Dab any stray pubes away in showers/baths
Strip beds, she remakes them.
Wipe wee drips from loo seats

Legoandloldolls · 14/05/2020 20:29

That tweet reinforces why I wouldnt have a regular cleaner. Maybe for a one off deep clean. But my house gets dirty and that tweet makes you realise you need to clean for the cleaner.

Back to my filth then!

After lockdown and being followed 24/7 by my overly attacked five year old I need to wash the floors for the first time in months as she just walks behind me while I clean..