Is your cleaner still visiting?

[LoveACoffeeAndCake]

Hi I am not sure if IABU but I’m thinking of cancelling/pausing our cleaning company.

They haven’t been for 4 weeks anyway (2 weeks isolation and then 2 weeks for Xmas hols where the company closes).

There are 3 of us working in our household and we all work in key jobs. I personally would feel so guilty having to take the time off if I was sick or isolating due to contact with the cleaners - which if you are pragmatic is really not an essential service.

Apart from work and the cleaning company we haven’t been in contact with anyone outside our household or work places for months. The cleaning company send 2-3 cleaners a week (often different people) and I’m getting nervous about having them in our house. AIBU to cancel them for a bit?

I appreciate that it has been a really tough year for small businesses and because of this we kept the cleaning company visiting all through the November lockdown and paid them during the first lockdown.

So, if you have a cleaner - are they still visiting? And if you were in my situation would you cancel?

For info 2 of us work in frontline nhs (one is on standby for nightingale) and one runs small business with 14 staff that are working flat out. All staff in the small business are working significant overtime and they have cancelled/postponed holiday to next year. So we really can’t afford to be off work!

All the cleaners I know have been asked by the clients to be put on pause for the time being.

We have a si gle cleaner who comes fortnightly. She didn't work during the first lockdown, but has been since June time onwards. We are working from home and ensure we move into a room she doesn't clean for the duration of her visit so no contact issues.

Mine is still coming apart from this week which is a holiday. She wears a mask, gloves and the amount of bleach and disinfectant skooshed around is quite something.

Since end of term and also for next two weeks whilst we are all at home and kids are remote schooling we’ve cancelled cleaning but still paid our cleaner.

In Scotland, level 4, cleaners not allowed in our house, but I wouldn't have them come just now anyway, but would still pay them

Are you at home when the cleaners come?

Mine mum is a cleaner (privately) and still working for everyone who wants her.

Not spoken to mine since before Christmas and the heady freedoms of T3. But she comes alone, won’t come if more than one person in the house already, and they have to stay in a room with the door closed throughout, and windows open (even in December). It’sa trial for my bladder. Windows are left open when she leaves too, so the house keeps airing.

So if primary school shuts, the decision has been made for me. Until then, if she’s happy to come, I’ll continue with those measures.

No, we can no longer afford it. Lost 25% of our joint annual income so far this year.

They are still allowed under restrictions so yes. We’re tier 4 and ours was here Tuesday. We went for a drive with our sons while they cleaned the house.

Yes. No one is here when she comes and I deem it significantly low risk. She only sees four other clients a week and comes to us once a fortnight.

I'd be surprised if their insurance covered it.

Ours isn't coming, she doesn't feel comfortable going between houses at the moment

I don’t think I would in your position OP, because it’s several people, and not the same each time.

Ours is one cleaner who comes once a fortnight. I think we will carry on if she’s happy. Because:

• She is a stickler for the rules and making sure we all stay safe. All the windows stay open throughout, DS and I go out, and DH shuts himself in the study (which the cleaner doesn’t clean).
• We’ve had her for years and I trust her illicitly. I know she’s being very sensible about covid in her private as well as professional life.
• Honestly my MH is on the brink and I need some kind of practical support from somewhere!

Yes - mine is still coming every week

Yes and she’s still doing all her other clients too. She wears a mask and we ensure we are not in the same room she is.

We have a cleaner who will still come in but DH and I will be out at work. If DS21 is not doing his part-time job he might be home doing a Uni assignment or, more likely, still in bed! If she knows he's awake she will usually ask him to come out of his room and go downstairs whilst she gives his room a quick once over.

If we had a cleaner I wouldn’t want them coming into our house atm.

Their work involves being in lots of different houses regardless of what they are choosing to do outside of work hours. That’s lots of additional contacts and for me, an unacceptable risk to be taking just now.

Ours comes. Arrives 8am, all doors and windows open (it's Baltic) and the kids are out the house when she's here. When I get back, I'm in a room she has already cleaned and ventilated.
When she didn't come in first lockdown, we still paid her. If we had a two bedroom house with no separate study spaces, she wouldn't come. We have two studies and 4 floors so she cleans the other rooms we don't use all day.

Yes ours has come every week, apart from in between Christmas and New Year. We're always at work though on the day she comes.

Yes, it's a team of two and we just all go out when they're here.

Their usual day is a Thursday, but they don't come between Christmas and New Year usually anyway.

Our cleaners have come since we started with their company at the end of the first lockdown (had already got rid of previous utterly unreliable one at Christmas 2019).

They're still coming each week, including between Christmas and new year. They're amazing. They use Ppe and are cleaning everything so don't think they're a risk to us. I'm disabled and dh works long hours (GP) so they really are an essential service to us!

I am a cleaner. I've had one cancellation til Feb. All the rest are continuing on. I'm in Ni.

Yes although I am thinking of cancelling for the next few weeks. We are normally home when she comes (just go into a different room) and are in a v high infection rate area of London.