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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Maybelatte · 15/05/2020 13:57

I’ll be honest, I’ve never personally understood why people pay for a cleaner. You need to tidy up first before they arrive so I’m not sure why you’d then pay someone else x amount to come and do extra tidying.

MsTSwift · 15/05/2020 15:14

Really?! Big house big job nothing like getting home to a clean house beds done all sparkling.

Scruffyoak · 15/05/2020 17:07

Surely cleaning the loo is something you do each day cleaner or not?

StillCoughingandLaughing · 15/05/2020 17:16

Fuck that!

ScrimpshawTheSecond · 15/05/2020 17:53

off topic but I don’t get this...what is this sticky stuff?

That baffled me, too.

This has pretty much confirmed to me that I won't ever get a cleaner, although I had idly thought it would be nice to think about doing one day. I hate cleaning, but if we're expected to just let them into a clean house for a spot of light dusting it's utterly pointless.

Sparklfairy · 15/05/2020 19:09

Don't be facetious @ScrimpshawTheSecond Grin It's more when I would walk into a kitchen, and every inch of every worktop was filled with boxes of cereal left out, used dishes and mugs on the side, etc etc. When you've got a set list of tasks to do in a set amount of times, it usually doesn't include clearing the space first! That's fine if it's included in the time you're paying for, but if you're leaving loads of clutter and only expecting to pay for cleaning, it's a bit cheeky.

I had one client who, when I would dust and hoover the playroom, I also had to spend 20 mins putting away all the toys over the floor. It was fine, because she knew I couldn't exactly hoover around them. If she'd picked them up I could have spent the time elsewhere/saved her money, but that's what she wanted only for DC to walk in straight after me and take them all out again Grin

ScrimpshawTheSecond · 15/05/2020 20:07

That makes perfect sense, Sparkl, I would tidy up first. But I would also just expect a cleaner to be there for a set period of time, and pay them for that time. Anyway, immaterial as I'd be too embarrassed at the state of my house to have anyone come in and clean right now.

fascinated · 15/05/2020 20:45

Sorry , clean a loo every day? Are you mad? Or a masochist?

During lockdown I’ve hardly needed to clean ours, I’m amazed at how little cleaning in general the house needs. When I feel they need doing I do things, but I do them very thoroughly....

jackdawdawn · 15/05/2020 20:54

@fascinated I think she was talking about the strange grimy, slightly tacky stuff on children's hands, that strange mixture of sweat and food and crayon that they have sometimes...

fascinated · 15/05/2020 21:09

Ah right... I don’t seem to get that stuff, I must have magic children

TehBewilderness · 15/05/2020 22:41

off topic but I don’t get this...what is this sticky stuff?

It is a result of oil from our hands gathering dust and building up in layers if wooden surfaces like chair arms and banisters are not cleaned regularly.

CayrolBaaaskin · 15/05/2020 22:56

@Sparklfairy a lot of what my cleaner does is tidying but she quite likes doing it, tidying and organizing my house. I pay her for her time and she decides what to do. She’s very good and I miss her a lot.

I’m not good at tidying or organizing so she helps me a lot.

Sparklfairy · 15/05/2020 23:41

I think that's lovely @CayrolBaaaskin - it's not a problem most of the time. It can just get awkward when client thinks you haven't cleaned 'enough' in the time given, because you had to spend half of it cleaning up first Grin

I did have a client who brought me in to deep clean a very big kitchen. It had five sets of windows and five sets of very greasy blinds. I knew they weren't expensive (the sort of plastic-y ones that if you press too hard bend out of shape forever), and I suggested it would probably be cheaper for them to just replace the blinds than pay me to clean them. They really were that bad and it was a slow and delicate job to not damage them! They refused, then complained I took too long to clean them and it cost too much HmmGrin

Sparklfairy · 15/05/2020 23:42

That should be "clearing up first"!

mathanxiety · 16/05/2020 04:54

But yeh, the dental floss, I can see that, and it's not that disgusting, if there is no need for cleaning then there would be no cleaner to see the mess in the first place. The need for the cleaner in the first place is what creates the job opportunity!

Disposing of someone else's rubbish in the proper receptacle isn't cleaning.

It's enabling bone idleness and delusions of grandeur.

When you throw out your own dental floss or snotty tissues or razors that are no use to you any more you are doing what is called clearing up after yourself. It's what people with self respect and respect for others do in their own homes.

Cleaning otoh is using a sponge or mop or hoover and rendering surfaces clean and sanitised. Or cleaning bedding and putting it back freshly laundered on beds.

People clean up after residents of care homes because they can't do it for themselves. It distresses many older people that someone else has to do so much for them that they used to do for themselves and for their families.

There is no excuse for able bodied people leaving body fluids - vomit, blood, pee, or shit stains - in their home for someone else (perhaps some young woman from 'abroad' lacking a sense of perspective Shock Angry with notions about her station, unlike the older women of yore who just sucked it up because unlike in their own homes they were being paid - a pittance - for 'sucking it up'). How do people live for days or even weeks in such squalor?

AmeliaTaylor · 16/05/2020 08:37

Are people really so dim they can’t grasp such a simple concept? To properly clean, you need clutter out of the way. So as you’re paying a cleaner by the hour, you will get more cleaning for your money if you ensure the place is tidy and ready to be cleaned.

Or perhaps some people don’t understand that cleaning and tidying are different things? Maybe they think that once they’ve put things away and plumped the cushions up, the house is then clean? Wouldn’t fancy eating in their kitchens or using their bathrooms but each to their own I guess!

It’s a hell of a lot less work to keep the place tidy as I go along and then have someone in to properly clean once each fortnight than to do it all myself. I have the money, why wouldn’t I pay someone else for a service they’re offering that I don’t enjoy doing? I’m providing work and buying myself some free time. MN has super weird class anxiety around hiring a cleaner. I don’t get it. It’s mutually beneficial.

user1487194234 · 16/05/2020 08:44

Mine does both
Comes for 6 hours on a Friday
I do try and keep it tidy during the week but some weeks are just so manic
So she will tidy where necessary and clean the whole house
Lovely coming home on a Friday night to a lovely clean house
She also comes for 3 hours on a Monday,changes the beds ,tidies up,cleans kitchen and bathrooms
Pay her £17 an hour
Would not dream of leaving some of the gross things referred to upthread

Jocasta2018 · 16/05/2020 09:05

Reminds me of being a chambermaid. Some of the things you'd see were rank.....
As for the money/cards test, we were told if there was any money around to call reception & report it.
If there was a lot then the manager would come up, count it & keep it in the hotel safe, having left a note to the client about the amount of cash & where it was being kept.

Tappering · 16/05/2020 09:38

Ahh the old you're a cleaner and therefore should be grateful for the opportunity to be knee deep in someone else's waste

People who really want a cleaner to do their job, do the sensible thing - which is to tidy up first, so that the cleaner can actually get in and clean.

By leaving stuff all over the place, you get less value from a clean. It didn't bother me - I was being paid either way. But don't whinge when you get to the end of your two hours and I've not had time to clean the bathroom or mop the kitchen floor, because I've had to fold laundry. Or on one memorable occasion, tidy up your child's playroom which was covered in muddled toys and lego - which you instructed me to sort out and put away as part of the visit.

The dental floss thing is utterly rank. Sitting there for a week with lumps of food and tartar on it, festering away and covered in bacteria. I'd judge the hell out of someone that behaved like that - and I certainly wouldn't have cleaned for them again.

EmeraldShamrock · 16/05/2020 10:02

Comes for 6 hours on a Friday I think its great if you offer the hour to complete the work. Some employers hire for 2 hours and expect miracles.
It would be shining from floor to ceiling in 6 hours,

BubblyBarbara · 16/05/2020 10:18

Seems like a typical modern millennial more worried about their rights than actually getting on and doing the job they're paid to do. Imagine if the bin men were making similar complaints..

HannaH021 · 16/05/2020 10:26

One can wipe the grill quickly while food is still fresh on there, doesnt need to be fully cleaned just a quick wipe wont take few seconds. Leaving it few days to harden and become very sticky takes a real elbowgrease

Tootsey11 · 16/05/2020 11:06

One of my clients is a family household on a fortnightly basis. If the bins are full in-between my visits they simply start piling the rubbish on the floor beside the bin, this includes bathroom and bedroom bins. So sanitary pads and used tissues.

Why, just why would you do this?

Tappering · 16/05/2020 12:13

Seems like a typical modern millennial more worried about their rights than actually getting on and doing the job they're paid to do. Imagine if the bin men were making similar complaints.

You could turn it round and say that the client sounds like a typical entitled boomer, who thinks that everyone just needs to work a bit harder and not have ideas above their station.

Or you could accept that there are entitled people of all ages, and that the generation you were born into does not dictate your individual character?

LongPauseNoReply · 16/05/2020 12:25

I've been on both sides. I was a single parent who cleaned to feed my child on top of 2 other jobs. I had some really filthy clients who wouldn't do a thing between visits but most were perfect, the house just needed a once over, hoover dust etc.

Now I have a cleaner of my own and I paid her in full during lockdown. She gives the house a spit and polish because we clean as we go. She does the hoovering and washes the floors. She does things I can't be bothered doing like decalcifying the shower and taps (we live in a really hard water area) dusting etc. But that doesn't mean if I spill coffee I don't mop it up, I do.

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