To say cleaning is hard work?

[Iwantafuckingbreak]

I'm a cleaner, I work for myself and I've just finished for the day. I only worked 8-3.30 today but I am dead! I didnt have time for a break and only about 10 minutes of that was travel time. Lugging around hetty, up and down stairs and cleaning houses with a million bathrooms. My knee is buggered, my back hurts like hell and I'm just knackered. But I still get people make comments about how it's only cleaning or get clients with ridiculously unrealistic expectations.

I had one lady who only had me once because I said it was impossible to clean her 4 bed house top to bottom in 1 hour a week. I only agreed to go for 1 hour because she said she only wanted her floors doing because she had a bad back, my normal minimum is 2. When I got there she gave me a massive list to complete in 1 hour and then got arsey when I couldnt do it all.

Luckily the majority of my clients are lovely and I understand if they did their own cleaning I would have no work! But some people only have me 2 hours a fortnight or something like that and dont lift a finger between visits. Sometimes this is ok but one lady didnt even hoover.. or anything for that matter in 4 months during lockdown. It took me pretty much 4 hours just to Hoover her house when I came back! (It is a big house to be fair) but come on!

Obviously it goes without saying I am grateful for the work ... especially since my partner was made redundant. I also hope to grow my business in the long run but right now I'm slogging my guts out everyday and the "but it's only cleaning" comments piss me off! Along with clients who have no idea how long it takes to clean things properly!

It is absolutely a VERY hard job and I am disgusted with some of the attitudes I hear and see about people who do your job.

But the previous poster who earlier said about walking away if someone is asking you to do something that is not possible is correct. Its hard when you nee the money but it is not worth the stress and the grief and you'd be better spending that hour trying to find alternative clients.

I wouldn't hire someone, I'd put my rates up to a point where I didn't need to work those long hours.

It is hard physically but not mentally. I've found my kitchen and carer jobs physically harder. And my job as a carer and care home manager the most draining due to the emotion involved. Although I personally find it rewarding too.

Huge respect to cleaners out there. We have a cleaner who does a brilliant job each week, and we are so grateful. Since I’m now WFH I’m doing little bits of midweek cleaning (hoovering / mopping) and it takes me ages and it’s not to the standard of our professional cleaner. Along with carers, council works and retailer workers, these are the people keeping our society functioning. THANK YOU. Politicians ... not so much.

I think if all your clients thought cleaning was that easy, they would be doing it themselves! It's really quite physical, no wonder you're so tired. Have a bath and a glass of wine, you deserve it

YADNBU. It is not only hard physical work but to do it properly, there is a method to it too and a process to follow eg quick survey of rooms first each clean to assess priorities for the clean, cleaning a room from top to bottom so dust falls to the floor and hovering at end. What I am trying to say is there is a thought process and approach behind it too.

The lady who expected so much to be done in one hour was very unrealistic.

You are doing an important job, even more right now.

*not hovering, hoovering. Damn autocorrect.

YANBU, it's hard work and too many people don't appreciate the efforts made by good cleaners.

I've long thought that cleaners and carers should be paid more and shown respect for doing jobs that many other people are unwilling/unable to do. Don't take any nonsense, prioritise the clients who appreciate you and ditch the rest. Good cleaners are like gold, so you will soon be inundated with requests.

Funnily enough just had another one who's very offended it took me 4 hours to clean a 6 bed house 🙄 I personally would have liked an extra hour or two so I didnt have to run round the house like a headless chicken sweating my bollocks off. Cant win 🤣

@Iwantafuckingbreak - Funnily enough just had another one who's very offended it took me 4 hours to clean a 6 bed house

You need to tell people how long it will take you to do the full house. If they still only want a certain number of hours, then suggest a lick and a promise on certain parts of the house each week and a detailed clean on the rest. The areas getting the lick and promise would get rotated then.

YANBU. I did a whole summer season abroad cleaning holiday villas and apartments. It was bad enough inside with the air conditioning on but we then had to sweep around the pool area in 35c temperatures and scrub the barbecues that scummy guests had left in a disgusting state 🤮

I do love the cleaner in our gym though. She appears in the studio five minutes before the class is due to end, glares at everyone and passive aggressively bangs her Henry about. There was a shouting match last week in Greek between her and the instructor as the class over ran by two minutes 😳😱😅

@kiwiblue

Not the point of thread but don’t know how you can use one of those back breaking Hetty hoovers and they’re crap anyway!!

I've long wondered why all professional cleaners use Henry hoovers, are they actually good? Surely they aren't as good as Dysons etc?

We've just had some work done in the house, and the builders went round every afternoon before they left with a Henry. I've never seen so much debris get cleaned up so fast. Seriously impressed and I want one now.

I have a big house and it's so knackering to clean I split it into two sessions 2-3 hours each.

That's
Bathroom
Kitchen
Full Hoover
Full dust
Wipe mirrors
Flick long duster over high surface and skirtings
Empty all bins
Mop some rooms.

I'm having some building done tho so everything is a mess. It should be easier when it's more organised.

Clients need to be realistic. Professionals don't mean quicker it still takes the same amount of hours it would take you.

Henry Hoovers are brilliant. They don't have any fancy parts so keep going forever. No rotating bar so hair doesn't get stuck. They are rock solid and almost indestructible - mine has rolled down a flight of stairs several times, and not a scratch on him.

Sharks, Dysons etc may well get better suction, but when you are busy and up against the clock you don't have time to be arsing about with cutting off hair clogs. Plus Henry will hoover up plaster and building dust without a problem whereas this type of dirt has a habit of cocking up the HEPA filter on the Dyson.

I worked as a chamber maid in college. Cleaning is really hard work. This was 20 years ago and I was wrecked every evening (still able to party every night and often went to work with no sleep 😂).
I had a cleaner who came twice a month and she invited us to our wedding (sadly cancelled now). A good cleaner is an important role. Many people/families have long term health issues and cleaners are invaluable. Be proud.

YANBU! I’ve just managed to get a cleaner again after lockdown and it’s such a blessing.

I ask for 3 hours cleaning - kitchen, bathroom, downstairs toilet and whatever else they can manage if they have spare time.

Baffled by people horrified that a cleaner might empty the bathroom bin.wtf? I am paying her to clean. This includes scrubbing the toilet properly with a brush, and emptying the bin. Cleaners in my area charge £12 p/h minimum, for that money I expect them to be equipped with rubber gloves as needed. I never asked her to do this, shes always just done it without question.

Can you imagine if office or care home cleaners refused to empty bins?!

Professionals don't mean quicker it still takes the same amount of hours it would take you.

This. Its not like it's something you are unable to do yourself, anyone able bodied can push a hoover around. You are paying for someone else's time.

Ps. Henry's are ok, but don't work well on thick domestic carpets,they work best on very low pile flooring eg in offices/retails spaces.

Cleaners use them because they are lighter and easier to carry up stairs, are inexpensive & last well, they suck up less than a Dyson or shark or miele so dont need emptying as often.

Physically hard and completely tedious - yes. Intellectually challenging or "hard" - no.

Which I why I pay someone to do mine. The tedium kills me.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

Baffled by people horrified that a cleaner might empty the bathroom bin.wtf? I am paying her to clean. This includes scrubbing the toilet properly with a brush, and emptying the bin. Cleaners in my area charge £12 p/h minimum, for that money I expect them to be equipped with rubber gloves as needed. I never asked her to do this, shes always just done it without question.

Can you imagine if office or care home cleaners refused to empty bins?!

I'm not horrified at the notion a cleaner might empty a bin. I think it's reasonable to expect one to empty bins if that's what you want. I prefer to empty them myself so she can focus on cleaning.

However, I think it's unreasonable to leave disgusting stuff in the bin. My dd left a used tampon that was only wrapped in tissue (so pretty bloody) in a bedroom wastepaper bin that didn't have a bag in it. I don't think it would be reasonable to expect my cleaner to deal with that. Luckily I spotted it before the cleaner arrived and it never happened again.

Not just physical hard work but having to deal with arsey clients would be wearing too

Ochonagusochon
Agreed, that's not reasonable. But a lined bin with san stuff all wrapped, no biggy.

We normally split the cleaning up so we don't do it all in one go. Due to the dog making an absolute MESS I had to sweep/vacuum and mop most of the house recently. Took an hour and I was SWEATING afterwards (normally I'd do the downstairs one day, mixing "lighter" effort like cleaning surfaces etc with the mopping vacuuming and then ditto upstairs on another day. So it was unusual to have to do the whole mopping/sweeping thing for the whole house in one go. Plus usually DH vacuums and I mop).

So yes, of course it's hard work.

Cleaners are amazing. I’ve done a few holiday cleans with a friend and it was backbreaking.

I’m surprised about people’s opinions on Henry’s sucking power. Mine literally pulls up the Lino in my kitchen! It has way way more suction power than my cordless Dyson!