Aibu to my new cleaner

[Holdmysandwichplease]

Hired a new cleaner last month, for context our house is 5 beds, 2 bathrooms and a shower room. However 2 of the bedrooms and 1 bathroom are used for guests only and therefore haven't been used for a good 6 months 😔 so basically they just need a hoover and dust every now and then but certainly I don't expect them to have a full clean every week. Anyway to my point! Cleaner comes every week for 2 hours and I mainly ask her to focus on a general kitchen clean (small kitchen maybe would take me an hour if I really went for it!) and our family bathroom. The shower room i tend to clean myself as its attached to our bedroom and I never ask her to clean that. I like to clean my own room. Other than that she sometimes runs the hoover round or does random bits of cleaning after the kitchen and bathroom.

Recently my husband has pointed out she doesn't always do a thorough job, for example, the shower glass always is left with marks, the shower itself isn't cleaned (as in the actual shower head) and last week my son had got quite muddy so had a bath and I've just noticed the bath tiles have mud on them so she clearly hasn't cleaned them properly. She also hasn't cleaned the microwave the last 3 visits.

Aibu to think she needs to be a bit more thorough? Or aibu and 2 hours isn't feasible to clean the bathroom and kitchen?

I don't want to stop her coming, especially in the current situation when I know times are hard for everyone (including us as dh has lost a lot of business!) but now I can't help but notice what she hasn't done. I don't want to nit pick either so please tell me if I'm being ur! Thanks !

Maybe you havent been clear enough on what "focusing" means. You have a 5 bed house so why dont you tell her you would like to book her for 3 hours from now on, and tell her what you've said here re microwave shower etc so she gets it

2 hours is far too short to do that. You need to stipulate exactly which bits you want her to do or book her for longer.

I'm confused, i thought you said you clean the shower room?

Thank you for your reply :-)

Yes I see what you are saying, maybe I need to move her to 2 hours. However I was here this week and she was definitely in the kitchen and bathroom for the majority of the time then ran the hoover round in the last 15 minutes. After I went in the bathroom and genuinely thought what on earth was she doing in here for an hour ? 😳

@WeMarchOn sorry yes I do, the family bathroom has a shower in it too. Bath with shower over it. :-)

Yanbu
I have an almost identical sort of set up /size of house.
My cleaner does three hours a week and does a crap job too. 🤷‍♀️
She's my third cleaner in 18 months so no advice.

I thought if I hired her for 2 hours and asked her to do the kitchen and f bathroom she would have plenty of time but maybe I need to up it to 3 and then she will feel she has more time to do a deeper clean. I have stipulated in our emails that I'm hiring her for the kitchen and the bathroom as they need the most cleaning.

If there's a list of jobs you specifically want done (or checked to see if they need doing) every week then tell her.

@SimplyRadishing our last cleaner was amazingly swift, she came for the same time and would make the place spotless. I think I've maybe been given unreasonable standards by her 🤣

I have a 4 bed house with 2 bathrooms and I book 5 hours per week for a clean. The kitchen alone takes 1 hour and the bathroom 45 minutes. "running the hoover" through 5 bedrooms + living room + all the other light cleaning you are asking for is far too much for the time you've booked.

We have a cleaner for 3 hours every two weeks and we have a 1 bed, 1 bath flat. We aren’t grubby but it just means she has the time to clean everything thoroughly including mirrored wardrobe doors, microwave, shower screen etc. If we want other things cleaning, like the extractor fan or oven, we just ask her when she comes and she does it no problem.

I don't think YABU.

I have a similar size house, if I was doing a super thorough bathroom/ kitchen clean it could take me up to an hour but I would expect a professional to be quicker than me!

@roses2 sorry I don't think I'm being very clear here. When I hired her I specifically asked for the kitchen and bathroom. She asked about everything else and I said those two rooms then if she had time whatever she felt needed doing (hence she runs the hoover round).

I don't expect her to hoover or do anything else in the other rooms unless she has time spare. I actually like hoovering 🙈 and as we have 2 dogs I hoover the house at least twice a day anyway.

I think maybe she is rushing the bathroom and kitchen as she feels she needs to do other things, that's the only explanation I can think of so I guess upping her hours would fix that.

If she just needs to do a thorough clean of the kitchen and bathroom plus whole house hoover then 2 hours is enough HOWEVER you mention dusting and the microwave both of which to me would be additional jobs and a whole house clear for a 5 bed house would be more like 4 hours IMO.
I would give a very specific list of jobs you want doing (or better still talk it through with her) and make it
clear exactly what you want eg bathroom: tiles all cleaning, shower head/taps sparkling, streak free glass, shelves & skirting boards dusted etc and if you expect the cooker, fridge and or microwave cleaned on rota then make it clear and include in the hours.

You LIKE hoovering?! That's my least favourite job, OH does that plus mopping.

Maybe with this cleaner you should hire her for three hours and print out an ultra specific list aka shower (shower head, sides, bath tiles) - you get my drift. Maybe she just needs more prompting than your old one

@Houseyhousey
Cross post but yeah OP do what this poster says!

I think for the amount you want done she'll only ever give things a clean, if she gets to it, rather than a clean

It can take me a good 5 minutes to properly clean and shine a mirror for example, just making it clean is 30 seconds. Rinse and repeat for literally everything in the house.

@CrotchBurn yes I know its quite sad !! I find it therapeutic 🤣 I also have what my husband calls my "hoover army" (two roombas and a shark) so tbf sometimes I just have to set them off !

My cleaner does a small 1 bedroom flat in 2 hours. She does a good job but she is working hard the entire time. And cleaning inside of microwave is not a regular weekly task. No way is 2 hours enough for that job.

My cleaner does our three bedroomed apartment, weekly, in four hours. This does include changing beds though and she puts away washing.
Should she have any time left, she irons. We are often chasing her out the door because she stays longer. She is amazing though and we adore her!

Two hours does not sound enough at all.

And if you aren't happy, talk to her!

Unfortunately you and I have had the same experience that we both had amazing cleaners in the past. I’ve had 2 amazing cleaners, 2 mediocre and 1 that was absolutely useless and I let her go after the second clean.
I’m just so glad to have a cleaner I’m willing to put up with Ok.

I agree with a pp that you have to be really specific about what you want or pay her for longer. And keep up the dialogue, checking what she is focusing on / thinks needs doing etc each week.

Microwaves etc would not really be weekly tasks unless you specified you want a deep clean for the kitchen every week? Hoovering twice a day suggests you might have very high standards, which 2 hours will not meet.

Wounds like you need her for at least 4 hours

I used to be a cleaner and 2 hours was plenty of time to do a 4 bed detached with 2 bathrooms that was already pretty clean to start with. However, with another two clients with similar sized houses I used to be really pushing it to get done in that time. I reckon you either need to limit/boundary her duties more specifically, or allow 3 hours.