To want a cleaner that will pick my clothes up off the floor?

[Zamphina]

Dp and I work very long hours during the week. We’re out of the house 9-10 minimum. We eat dinner in the office. When we get home we’re exhausted and just want to sleep. So often the kitchen has our breakfast stuff. We’ve left clothes on the floor. There might be sunday’s dishes on the table. The laundry has been left out drying.

We earn an OK salary and have a tiny flat to save money, so a cleaner coming 2-3 times a week for two hours a time won’t be an issue.

But obviously I’m slightly embarrassed for someone to see my home in such a mess. Are there any cleaners who will sort all of this? Pick up the clothes, put them on to wash, load the dishwasher, and clean the bathroom etc?

No I don’t leave skid marks in my loo, I also don’t leave skid marks in my underwear.

There is nothing demeaning about cleaning a toilet. If however someone knowingly leaves the toilet in a disgusting state for someone else to clean up, then that is demeaning.

Oh dear...can functioning adults who hold down jobs really not think of a way round this...?

I'd love a cleaner but I draw the line at expecting someone to pick up my dirty underwear from the floor. That's just minging.

Putting clothes in the washing basket, scraping food into the bin and put the dishes in the sink is what I expect of a 4 year old, it's certainly not beyond the capabilities of two grown adults

Exactly.

And leaving worn underwear on the floor for someone else to pick up, is a step too far for many people.

I can’t believe this needs saying.

I’m sure they can. I’m just responding to the assertion that it’s just as easy. No it isn’t.

It really is.

Yes a lot of them don’t. I see lots of people complaining about their wages but not understanding how it works.
Some jobs you get paid a lot but it’s an awful lot of stress chasing down deals that you don’t know whether it’ll come to fruition, worrying about your job security, not having much to show for your efforts when you are chasing a big deal that takes ages to come through if ever, having your boss keep chasing you every week if the sale has come in 😅
This is one of the reasons I stopped doing a commission based job as the stress was too much. When you are a nurse the hours are long and I’m sure it’s stressful at times but at least it’s rewarding and people appreciate the effort. I’ve been in hospital a lot recently and the nursing staff are amazing but there’s also a reason why people go into those jobs even if it is paid so little. At least you feel like you are making a difference to peoples lives and not just trying to chase down the ££££s.
I know lots of lawyers and I’m yet to hear any of them enjoy their jobs. They do enjoy the status and ££££s and lifestyle but most don’t enjoy the actual work they do. I’m sure many do but no one I know says they do and they on a good pay packet.
If the OP has the money to help make her life easier I would go for it. All those saying she’s lazy and having to leave their house at the crack of dawn is a choice you have made. Not everyone is willing to do that and it’s not lazy to just want to do a job that’s standard hours and have a life outside of work. It’s not a badge of honour to work yourself to the ground. My husband and I are on a decent salary but I don’t see why we should work insane hours all the time. We have two young kids to spend time with two and we hire extra help to be able to spend more quality time with them. There’s no shame in hiring someone to help you. Don’t let the others who don’t get the help make you feel bad if you can afford it.

It doesn’t matter whether you would or not. Neither would I, is the entire point!

It would be demeaning to expect someone to scrub a visibly dirty toilet - even though cleaning a toilet isn’t demeaning, per se.

You need a butler.

It's incredibly easy. Put a laundry basket in the bathroom or hallway. Have a laundry basket without a lid in the corner...you could easily put the stuff in without needing a light on. If you can't manage this...then leave things in a small pile on floor next to basket and when you wake up put it in basket. Takes two seconds max. This is easy. It's not reinventing the wheel of nuclear physics. We're not trying to achieve world peace or cure hunger. It's putting clothes in basket. Pre school children can do it ffs.

If you are going to bed in darkness, because it’s 1am and your partner has already gone to bed, it is NOT just as easy to put your clothes in the basket as on the floor.
Put a laundry hamper in the bathroom or wherever you get ready for bed, no? Unless teeth brushing and washing also happens in the bedroom in the dark at 1am, around the multiple day build up of clothes that have to be dumped all over because it's so impossible to put them in a laundry basket?

I'm far from a domestic goddess, and am partial to dumping clothes at times, but it's almost like people see long hours + lots of money and all common sense goes out the window.

Normal people dump clothes = lazy
Wealthy important people dump clothes= definitely not lazy because they have big important jobs and can't use a laundry basket

My point is that the underwear isn’t (I presume) visibly dirty either. Therefore, no more demeaning. Anyway, this is turning into a bit of a tangent.

OP, I suggest you speak to some cleaners in real life, you’ll quickly find out whether this is a problem or not. I suspect you’ll find a few who will mind and plenty who absolutely won’t mind, as long as they are paid for the additional time.

Good luck with the career. Outsource whatever you need to.

Pick your own bloody clothes up you entitled madam!

No, but your children aren’t paying you to sort them out, are they? I don’t think anyone’s suggesting OP asks a cleaner to do this for free.

@Zamphina Some cleaners will and some won’t. Ours doesn’t and we can struggle to keep on top of the laundry so if that’s the case I put it up on the bed so she can do the floors and surfaces.

I do know people whose cleaners change bedding and do the dishwasher. Also had a friend who’s cleaner folded and put away their laundry so the short answer is ‘it depends on your cleaner’

Why are people so wound up by the idea of a cleaner picking clothes off the floor and chucking it into a machine? I would have thought cleaning toilets or cleaning almost thing else is more taxing and tiring and the lone task of picking things off the floor.

I've never had a cleaner but find doing laundry and the dishes to be way easier tasks than washing a toilet, cleaning a hob, or mopping a dirty floor or even hoovering a big room/stairs. Yes, I get that means most people wouldn't get a cleaner to pick up clothes or wash dishes but surely if a cleaner is getting paid regardless, there nothing inherently abhorrent about picking up clothes and doing dishes compared to the other tasks.

You don’t do it forever. It’s called making short tern sacrifices for long term gain. Who wants to be struggling financially forever. Why not earn good money, sacrifice time for 5-10 years then take it easy knowing your mortgage is paid off and you can buy whatever you want within reason.

Not sure why picking up dirty underwear or cleaning a dirty toilet is anymore demeaning than expecting a nanny/childminder/nursery worker to change a nappy. Plenty of people who don’t work and could therefore do this themselves pay someone else to do it (not just the nappy changes obviously, but as part of childcare generally).

My word! Lots of judgy judgersons on this thread!
Ex professional cleaner here - absolutely not unreasonable (and I sometimes chuck my clothes on the floor lol!). I used to love going in and doing whatever needed to be done to make my client's houses into the space they needed when they got home. Some of my clients would say "just do what you can" and others would have specific things they wanted done and I was always happy to follow their lead and do what was most needed with the time. In some cases, that included tidying, taking out rubbish, sorting laundry, washing up etc. I hope you find a cleaner who can help, good luck with your search.

Well, would you work as a cleaner and be happy to pick dirty y fronts from the floor from grown adults?

@milkywinterdisorder so if you have a cleaner you would be happy to bring your children up to just dump their dirty clothes on the floor and expect the cleaner to pick them up?

@Louloulouenna A cleaner is so far out of my budget I can’t imagine how I’d feel about it. My point was that your comparison was a false equivalence: OP is talking about paying for a service, not expecting someone to do a job for free.

@Bobbielikespeas it's because of the gross lack of self respect involved on the part of the people hiring the cleaner.

Do people really leave a toilet uncleaned during the days between cleaner visits? Splashes of pee, skidmarks, ring around the toilet, and whatever else has happened in their lives, digestion-wise or period-related, from the day the cleaner was there last until she arrives again?

And do they really end up with six days' worth of unwashed clothing and sleepwear on the floor because they are waiting for the cleaner to deal with it?

@Zamphina gosh people have been very hard on you. Advertise for a housekeeper/cleaner. Find someone who is willing to help you figure out the solution. Know you will pay more for this. But e.g. you could just dump all dirty clothes in a black sack and the housekeeper will deliver it to the laundrette for you. Or you organise laundry service to deliver the day your cleaner comes and they put it away for you. Or they come twice a week and just manage it for you - out for cleaning and back in the wardrobe. The type of help you want exists but it will be more expensive. I've been where you are now pre-kids and its exhausting. Post-kids you can work and keep home because you become ruthless in prioritising and buy in the help. But you don't have to do that yet, so get your housekeeper.