What does your cleaner do?

[MrsRoxkwell]

We have decided to get a cleaner as 100% of our arguments are about the state of the house. We’re both really nervous about having a stranger in the house when we’re not there but it’s either cleaner or divorce at this point!

My husband thinks asking them to do all the jobs we hate doing is cheeky, and they probably follow a set routine?

I just want to come home to a tidy house so I can relax after work.

What sort of things does your cleaner do and what sort of price should I be looking at?

@Tonight1

Unless you've got a totally different set up, why on earth would you think your landlord should buy your cleaner presents?

would marry her if I could

DH knows perfectly well that faced with a choice between him and 'Treasure', I would not hesitate to save Treasure and leave him to go hang.

But then, so would he I suspect.

We tidy before my cleaner comes.
She does a bit of washing up if there's any left, but we tend to do that before she comes.
She hovers, mops, cleans all surfaces, buffs shiny ones. She'll plump the sofa cushions too.
This takes her 3 hours. We have a 3 bed house with 2 bathrooms & another toilet.

She will hang washing up on the line sometimes if needed.

We pay her £15 per hour.

If we don't tidy, she will still clean around the mess. It just won't look as nice. I'm paying her to clean not tidy. It's the best money I spend all week. We LOVE our cleaner!

If I wanted my cleaner to tidy, i'm sure she would, i'd just have to pay for more time.

You can make them a schedule, I can't see anything cheeky about it.

I'm amazed anyone would need the dishwasher loading. It is so easy to do, and who (students apart) would leave dirty dishes around for long enough to wait for the cleaner?

We gave up our cleaner to save money - we did pay her £340/month for five hours a week. She scrubbed bathrooms, hoovered and mopped floors, washed the sides etc.

I miss her!

We have a wonderful cleaner, she'll be here in about an hour. She doesn't do the dishes or laundry - but would if I asked her to. She has a routine of always doing the downstairs rooms (kitchen, lounge, playroom/snug) and the upstairs bathroom and shower room, then whatever else she has time for on rotation. If there is anything I specifically want done I will text her or just mention when she turns up. For example DD moved into uni halls at the weekend so I am going to ask her to make sure to do her room this week as it hasn't been properly cleaned in ages.

Cleaners probably have a setlist of basic things they tick off time permitting such as hoovering, cleaning bathroom etc.

Cleaners are not mind readers. If you want to say prioritise windows cleaned, skirting boards, etc, for a cleaning visit then perhaps leave a note out asking them to concentrate on those areas above the basic things. I doubt cleaners would mind a bit of direction of what you actually want done. Communication is key.

It was you who brought up the comparison. Not me. I don't need to remind my hairdresser to do xyz and weirdly my haircut always takes the same time. Not 1hr one time and 45 mins another. I do need to remind most cleaners however to do xyz because if they don't they leave early and I don't get what was agreed. My hairdresser also doesn't start my appointment late, but some cleaners think it's ok to turn up late or change the time at short notice often because they think it doesn't matter if I WFH. Running a shop is different from cleaning and my experience is that most cleaners need to be managed. I wish I didn't have to do it though.

But I always get the binmen and the cleaner an Xmas gift! I don't think that's odd

@Tonight1

No it's not. But again, why do you think buying the cleaner a present is specifically your landlord's job? Presumably he doesn't live with you and the cleaner is yours who you pay?

You have just given me kittens at the thought of living with my landlord 😆

No he doesn't live here, he pays for her, he's not very nice to her sometimes so I like to let her know she's appreciated because don't think he would.

No one called their cleaner their 'employee'. They said 'employ a cleaner' as you would say 'employ the services of a hairdresser'. Employ as a verb is not the same as employee as a noun even though the root of the word is the same. To employ means to pay for the services of someone.

@RocketIceLollie

Cleaners are not mind readers. If you want to say prioritise windows cleaned, skirting boards, etc, for a cleaning visit then perhaps leave a note out asking them to concentrate on those areas above the basic things. I doubt cleaners would mind a bit of direction of what you actually want done. Communication is key.

Alternatively, making our 'Treasure' responsible for keeping the house ready for "my mother to visit" means I have offloaded more of the mental load of running the house.

DM is no longer with us but the house is brought up to that standard at least twice a week

Why would I keep track of how often the skirting boards need to be cleaned when we have someone who can do that for me? Especially someone whose standards of cleanliness are simply higher than mine.

That is the way we manage and are managed at work

Of course, if there is anything exceptional I'll let her know, that has more often been that I am in the middle of turning something out and do not want the debris all tidily put back in the cupboard from which they have been turned out.

It has not been my experience that standards routinely slip when we use good people who take pride in their work, treat them decently and reward them well.

If I ever noticed slippage I would first check that there wasn't something wrong. If the problem couldn't be resolved it would indicate that it wasn't working for us any more, that we no longer suited each other snd had come to the parting of the ways.

Over nearly three decades, we have only had three cleaners. The first lasted two weeks, the second a decade before choosing a replacement for herself before she retired to go and live in a small holding in Wales and the third is still going strong.

As I would say in any job interview, my record speaks for itself. I've worked in the same organisation for decades now. I'm well treated and rewarded and given responsibility and support.

I wouldn't leave shit on/in the toilet 🙁

Last time I had a cleaner they
vacuumed entire house
mopped all non carpeted floors
dusted everywhere
cleaned thoroughly 2 bathrooms
cleaned kitchen work tops and cooker
took between 2 and 3 hours so I then had an ongoing list of extra jobs eg skirting boards, window cleaning, washing down paintwork which they would do in any spare time they had
I need to find someone again and start off by paying for a one off deep clean
Im ok on tidiness so would always make sure they can have a clean run at it
Dishes or dishwasher would not be included as am happy to keep on top of that myself

Some houses I clean and Tidy , but when you are tidying, you are cutting down on the actual cleaning . But saying that it adds to the variety of a clean . I don’t do ovens as they take time and cannot be cleaned to the standard of a company that actually does that . So I would say first clean add an extra hour on . Hourly rate in my area is £15 and most importantly enjoy coming home to a lovely clean house

A cleaner isn't there to tidy up, and if she does do that, you'll never be able to find anything, plus it's a waste of her time. You need to tidy things away (NOT clean) before she arrives, so she can get on with the job of cleaning.

Since having a cleaner who wasn't entirely sure what needed to be done as it was her first job for me, I now provide a room by room list of what I would like done, any time I get a new one.

4 hours each week for a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bedroom house gets me the below:

Cleaning list

All areas of the house
⁃ Dust surfaces
⁃ Dust furniture tops
⁃ Vacuum carpets
⁃ Vacuum and damp mop wooden floors
⁃ Wipe windows
⁃ Dust furniture
⁃ Dust and clean mirrors
⁃ Empty all rubbish from bins

Cloakroom
⁃ Dust surfaces
⁃ Dust cabinets and door panels
⁃ Clean and disinfect surfaces
⁃ Clean cabinet fronts
⁃ Clean and disinfect toilets inside and out
⁃ Vacuum and damp mop floors
⁃ Put hand towel in wash

Living room
⁃ Dust surfaces
⁃ Dust furniture
⁃ Vacuum carpets
⁃ Wipe windows

Dining room
⁃ Dust surfaces
⁃ Clean table top
⁃ Vacuum and damp mop floors
⁃ Clean patio doors

Kitchen
⁃ Dust surfaces
⁃ Clean and disinfect counter tops
⁃ Clean cabinet fronts
⁃ Clean and disinfect door knobs and switch plates
⁃ Clean and disinfect sink
⁃ Clean and disinfect microwave inside and out
⁃ Clean, disinfect, and shine outside of oven and top of cooker
⁃ Clean and disinfect kitchen table
⁃ Vacuum and damp mop floors
⁃ Change bin and put outside
⁃ Wipe windows

Main Bathroom
⁃ Dust all surfaces
⁃ Clean and disinfect surfaces
⁃ Clean cabinet fronts
⁃ Clean, disinfect, and shine shower, baby bath and main bathtub
⁃ Clean shower drainer
⁃ Clean and disinfect toilets inside and out
⁃ Shine fixtures
⁃ Vacuum and damp mop floors
⁃ Put towel and floor mat in wash

Bedrooms
⁃ Dust surfaces
⁃ Dust furniture
⁃ Vacuum carpets
⁃ Change bed sheets and duvet cover
⁃ Wash bed sheets and hang to dry
⁃ Make beds
⁃ Clean mirrors
⁃ Wipe windows

Ad-hoc jobs (monthly on rotation)

⁃	Deep clean oven
⁃	Deep clean fridge
⁃	Deep clean shutters

I have had such joy reading this thread and the list of all the things I should probably clean in my house and never do!

That's why I got the cleaner 😂

You expect the children to do their own rooms, yet you have a cleaner in to do yours 🤣🤣🤣

I get home every evening to a lovely clean house and washing going in the machine!
my husband gets home before me and does it all
All I do is cook tea and wash dishes, he always dries dishes and puts them away!

No 🤣 I tidy my own room, or rather it just isn’t messy as i can’t stand stuff everywhere. She does clean the kids’ rooms ( hoover, dust etc) but I don’t want her to have to tidy first.

As an ex professional cleaner, I firmly believe that the client's requirements are what's important. I have cleaned for people who wanted me to do a week's worth of dishes (I would go around the whole house collecting dishes from each room first), fold and put away a week's worth of laundry, empty the bins and just tidy and clean anything else I had time for. Of course that is what I did because it took the weight off of the client each week and it was a huge part of the job satisfaction for me. I've cleaned houses where clients want a set routine, houses where they just say "do what you can", and houses where the job has changed and evolved with the family and their needs. In each case, I was happy to go with the flow and know that I was making a positive impact on their lives. Please, only hire a cleaner who is able to work to your requirements. I should also mention that the first and possibly second clean will be what I called the 'initial clean' (getting rid of mould in bathrooms/cleaning dirt build up in high traffic areas) where the house is brought to a level where the future cleaning is maintenance rather that time consuming deep cleaning. Just keep inmmind that you are the client and you should have the service you want - any good cleaner will be respectful of this and will absolutely not be judging you or your house. Good luck, I hope you find a cleaner you can work with.