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Original poster

Is it customary to be absent from home when cleaners are in?

20 replies

InsomniacVampire · 29/08/2022 10:03

We are having a very long needed deep clean of part of the house. I misunderstood what the lady said in her message (it's a company that has good reviews seemingly, but we never used them, and I have never left the house with anyone in there where I was not there (except family) We have never had cleaners in at all- except when we did house share elsewhere and we could be around when they came in, which is why we also found out they were not at the time cleaning anything.
So I was planning to play musical chairs today, as we dont have anywhere else to go for the whole day anyways, and move around and maybe just come down to get snacks when they work donwstairs and then go down to the living room when they go upstairs... But they were like, no, everyone needs to be out. I have a disabled kid and we literally can't just teleport to a black hole and teleport back when it's finished, trust issues aside, but maybe this is the norm?

OP posts:
Annieisalright · 29/08/2022 10:04

It's definitely the norm for my cleaners and everyone I know who uses a cleaner

Especially for a deep clean

IHopeYouStepOnALegPiece · 29/08/2022 10:07

Ive worked in many houses with many cleaners and generally it is the norm to be out when they come. Once they’ve been coming for a while and you know each other’s routines then it’s easier but to begin with, yes that’s the norm

and every deep clean I’ve been around being done have asked for the house to themselves because it’s 100x easier

TheHorrorOfIt · 29/08/2022 10:08

I am usually in the house when my cleaner comes, as I work from home. I’ll be in one room, that I either ask her not to clean (I normally do that one myself later) or I’ll move when she needs access.

That’s not a deep clean though, just a weekly 3 hours. I can see that for a deep clean it would be easier to have an empty house; they often send more than one person and they move quite quickly!

Catch21 · 29/08/2022 10:10

Since covid and wfh, we're usually in when our cleaner comes.

DisplayPurposesOnly · 29/08/2022 10:11

If you're having a deep clean, I think you need to give them a clear run of it. You say 'part of the house' though, so can't you keep out of that part.

My cleaner comes fortnightly. I now wfh a lot so there's a good chance I'm home these days. I say hi then stay out of her way. I could well be out tho, as I was this week (visiting a client). When she first started I would generally have been at work.

ClocksGoingBackwards · 29/08/2022 10:11

You are the customer, if you want to be in your house, be in your house.

Krakinou · 29/08/2022 10:12

We first hired a cleaner when quarantine ended and have been pretty much totally working from home since then, so ours is not a normal experience perhaps. But our cleaner has only come once while we weren’t there. We normally just musical chairs it and it’s not an issue at all. And our house is a tiny 2 up 2 down. The areas that need most attention - kitchen and bathroom - aren’t where you’re spending most your time anyway.

DietCokeExtraIce · 29/08/2022 10:12

I would leave the house for as long as possible or if you can't be out the whole day go out for the first part and ask them to do eg upstairs first then you can stay up there when you get back.

My cleaner said she finds it so much difficult now people are wfh as if they stay in she feels like she has to be more quiet and she can also see her good work being undone in front of her eyes.

She said one house she went to the woman was working from home and made a stir fry for lunch about 30 minutes after the kitchen had been cleaned and seeing the oil splatted over everything she had just cleaned made her want to cry (/shout).

BusyMum47 · 29/08/2022 10:13

We had a 'deep clean' once & they insisted we were all out but then for the weekly cleans, they weren't really bothered - I could tell they preferred us not to be in but didn't make a fuss on the odd occasion that we weren't. I always felt very awkward though!!

smilingthroughgrittedteeth · 29/08/2022 10:14

For a deep clean id expect to be out for our weekly clean i do a bit of a mixture so tend to take the dog for a run when she gets here then if im back before shes gone i read in my room (she doesnt clean my room) or go in the garden

SheWoreYellow · 29/08/2022 10:15

I guess for a one off deep clean it’s a bit different. When we had this done for an end of tenancy thing, we were out and when we came in the next day we could see they had used some sort of foam as there were tiny tiny traces of it. So I think maybe you don’t want to be in as they might be using industrial cleaning stuff, and doing things like spraying stiff on carpets, leaving it and then coming back.

Normal cleaners we’ve always been in as WFH.

yonce · 29/08/2022 10:16

How many family members are there? I cant imagine they would be able to do a deep clean with a full family home. For a deep clean ours requested an empty home, they seem to do it in stages rather than one room at a time so they're all over the place. It would definitely take them more time to do if they were cleaning around us too!

chillipenguin · 29/08/2022 10:20

Yes for a deep clean. They'll be going between rooms doing eg all the vacuuming at once. There will be loads of chemicals being sprayed around all at once.

TokyoTen · 29/08/2022 10:26

For a deep clean I think uts the norm to be out. For weekly cleans I am still in the house but stay at my desk and she doesn't clean that small room where I am.

SD1978 · 29/08/2022 10:30

Yes. Because it's awkward as hell scurrying around rooms after them when they are trying to work, and slightly embarrassing knowing I should have done it myself and I'm not....I've always left straight away with a new cleaner, not even in when the current one comes

eldora · 29/08/2022 10:57

I wouldn’t leave anyone alone in my home who doesn’t live here, except my mum. Not even siblings/aunts house etc. I’ve had a few unexplained missing items.

stormywhethers321 · 29/08/2022 10:59

I'm usually in the house when the cleaner comes, as my dog is scared of the hoover so I take her out while that's happening. But prior to this dog, I always planned to be out when cleaning was happening, especially a deep clean.

Stilldontgetit · 29/08/2022 11:02

I’ve had a couple of deep cleans and we were home - the cleaner just worked round us and she was lovely about it

Original poster
InsomniacVampire · 29/08/2022 12:13

@SD1978 lol yeah I was not impressed with how dirty the house actually looked when you looked closer sely, but I hope they have seen worse!
I think the message they had sent me initially was not very clear we have to be out but it made sense of they use harsh chemicals not to be in.

OP posts:
PaperMonster · 29/08/2022 12:43

I’m a cleaner and I have a mix of both people being in and not in. Matters no way to me.

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