What do cleaners usually do?

[Mellins]

We hired a cleaner for the first time ever in February. She comes every other week. In between I hoover, clean the basin and toilet and keep the kitchen surfaces and hob clean but that’s about it. This week she is away so I have done the cleaning and have discovered that she doesn’t:

• hoover under sofas or move any furniture
• move objects to dust properly
• clean the microwave (inside or out)
• clean the bathroom floor

I would have thought all these are basics? She doesn’t dust windowsills or the bannister either but I don’t mind that too much and was just going to ask her to do it periodically. BTW she is paid for 2.5 hours and often leaves 15 mims early.

I am going to ask her to make sure she does the above list every week but just wanted to check if I was being unreasonable - the other thing is that she is quite old to be moving furniture.

I echo this Q and thought exactly the same. I always wonder where on earth the dust comes from in my bathroom. What's the obvious reason? Towels?

Also, my previous post didn't read terribly well. When I said, I never dust or clean around anything.....I meant I always move things and clean properly, never just lazily clean around them.

Bathrooms are dusty places because people get washed and dry their bodies in there. Human skin causes the most dust in a house especially in bedrooms and bathrooms !

I wouldn't expect a cleaner to be moving furniture to hoover under every week.

My cleaner comes for 2 hrs a week. I'd say she does a general light clean of the house. I've told her not to do the bedrooms or study so she does:

2 x bathrooms - does a reasonable job.
Hoovers Landing & Stairs.
Kitchen is always pretty clean but she does a little wiping, sink clean, crumbs around toaster.
Hoovers all downstairs.
Mops hard floors downstairs.
Cleans the inside of the window shutters sometimes.
Cleans the glass part of internal doors, but not the wood.
Light dusting (but annoyingly does not move anything, just dusts around, so it looks worst than if she'd not dusted).
Wipes the outside of the front door and sweeps doorstep (I think this is a performance for the Ring Doorbell camera).

I've had a few different cleaners over the years and this is what they all do. I still have to do quite a bit of cleaning myself eg skirting, windows, back of shutters, wiping dirty walls, inside appliances, dusting properly with items moved. Of course I also clean the bedrooms I've asked her not to do.

Mainly I still employ the cleaner as it useful to know that once a week the bathrooms will be cleaned, the stairs vacuumed and the downstairs mopped.

Depends on the size of your house, number of bathrooms, bedrooms, are you asking her to change beds. It's also okay to say- this week can you do the microwave, or under the furniture (I wouldn't expect that weekly).
Lastly, we have a twice yearly deep/ spring clean by our cleaning company to do inside wardrobes, draws, tops of cupboards etc.

I don’t move furniture other than at one house I can move the sofas easily so I do so there. I don’t clean inside microwaves. Never been asked to!

Move objects to dust yes. Not move furniture. Dust sills yes, dust baseboards not regularly. Clean bathroom floor - absolutely yes!
Basically the first time they come you go over your expectations. Some people like bedding changed for example. Some are happy to do windows others are not.
I used to ask mine to do the fridge every once in a while and the oven every few months. The microwave I did myself more regularly than once a week, but I don't think she ever did it.

Our cleaner never cleans inside anything unless asked.

She dusts, wipes and hoovers everywhere including bathroom and kitchen.

Every few months she moves the sofas and cleans under them and she does the windows inside every months or so - one week upstairs, one week downstairs.

If I ask she does anything I want that week, so I think communication is key. She will do what she can in the time allocated (although in our case we pay for 2 hours and she's likely at our house 3 as we talk so much!)

But if your cleaner is leaving 15 minutes early every week that is a different conversation I think as she really should be staying for the time you have paid for.

2.5 hours every other week isn’t going to get all that done, it’s not very much.

Sorry this is nothing to do with the thread but what is the obvious reason bathrooms are so dusty? The dust drives me mad in the bathroom and I have never worked out why it's so dusty in there.

pp has mentioned skin cells. The other thing is towels, particularly coloured ones. There is a lot of fine powdery fluff/ cotton particles that come off big towels and settles on bathroom surfaces.

i move every object to dust every time.

I only move sofas that are on wooden floors with felt pads on the feet. I do not lift/drag furniture. If I hurt myself, I have no employer to take responsibility and pay me sick pay, I would be off without pay.

I mop all hard floors.

Microwave are an extra cost which clients can add on if and when required.

May I ask, how do you know she doesn’t do these things? The bathroom floor for example could just be the usual regular amount of build up since the last time she cleaned

Ours does 2 hours, and she gives everywhere a basic general clean. I would never expect her to move furniture or clean inside anything.