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Original poster

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

770 replies

Zamphina · 03/10/2023 22:19

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?

OP posts:
HoneycrispApple · 04/10/2023 02:04

Also my post is coming from someone with a husband in investment banking. Hours are crazy and he’s exhausted. I know how hard it is to balance it and I certainly do not think he’s lazy if he leaves some dishes out or a t shirt on the floor. His work ethic is incredible!

GarlicGrace · 04/10/2023 02:07

What's with all the housewife shaming?? OP doesn't want to do her domestic work, she wants to pay a professional. It's fine. @Zamphina, all my cleaners have done this sort of thing.

If everybody had to do as much as possible of everything themselves, half of us wouldn't have jobs! Do you lot pay decorators, gardeners, hairdressers? Do your shopping online? Great, you can shame each other for that 😏

I'm very happy today because I've found a local laundry who'll collect my dirty washing and bring it back clean, dry, folded and ironed if I want. Shame me if you like, I'm too happy to care! (I do my own hair & decorating, though.)

chickstock · 04/10/2023 02:17

I had a daily, she came for one hour every weekday after I'd left for the school run. I was then a single mum running my own business. She made the beds, cleared up the breakfast dishes, hung up any clothes that I'd left over the end of the bed and hung out washing that I'd put on first thing. It was so lovely to come home to a tidy house and stopped me from going under.

TerfTalking · 04/10/2023 02:29

I think you need to go back and live at home, you sound about 13. I don’t believe any self respecting person thinks it’s ok to drop clothes on the floor for their skivvy to pick up because they are sooooooo tired.

Chickenkeev · 04/10/2023 02:31

Friendofdennis · 04/10/2023 00:36

Don’t let people tell you you are lazy you are simply exhausted. Get a housekeeper who will do all that stuff for you

That's crazy. There is absolutely no reason why a functioning adult can't pick up their clothes from the floor. None whatsoever at all. OP is doing well in a great job, so clearly v capable. A housekeeper shouldn't have to pick up clothes ffs. I'd be mortified (and i can't walk, so bending over to pick stuff up is hard!)

uncomfortablydumb53 · 04/10/2023 03:01

Your floors need to be clear before a cleaner can clean, but you can find one who would agree to tidy as well
Seriously, you're both professional people,not lazy teens, it's not hard to put clothes in the laundry basket or away in the wardrobe!

Chickenkeev · 04/10/2023 03:12

uncomfortablydumb53 · 04/10/2023 03:01

Your floors need to be clear before a cleaner can clean, but you can find one who would agree to tidy as well
Seriously, you're both professional people,not lazy teens, it's not hard to put clothes in the laundry basket or away in the wardrobe!

Chuck them behind the couch

Commonhousewitch · 04/10/2023 03:26

I'm crap with clothes- i tend to leave them on a pile on a bedroom chair/bench - they build up when you wear something different each day/maybe in evening- and they are in that half way house between clean and dirty - so i do have some sympathy but its difficult to get a cleaner to sort it as it needs judgement - clean/dirty/dry clean? .
Dishes- if you are only there for breakfast - you shouldn't have many dishes- empty the dishwasher sunday evening then just put things in each morning as you leave- or as you go to bed.

And get a cleaner for the actual cleaning.
And stop whingeing about being exhausted !

SquashPenguin · 04/10/2023 03:29

9-10hr out the house is nothing out the ordinary. I’ll regularly do 13hrs and I still find the time to put my clothes in the wash bin.

BMW6 · 04/10/2023 03:44

Come off it OP it takes SECONDS to either hang up clothes to be reworn or put clothes to be washed in the laundry basket!

No-one in the world is too busy to do that!

OnceUponAThread · 04/10/2023 03:49

Mumsnet is really sniffy about cleaners tidying.

But really, as long as you agree it in advance, it's fine.

Our cleaner (amongst other things):

  • puts washes on
  • hangs washing out to dry
  • hangs dry stuff up in the wardrobe
  • loads the dishwasher
  • tidies the office
  • irons
  • changes beds

She absolutely tidies things up and stashes them away.

She's been with us forever and kept coming even when we moved to a different part of the city. So I don't think she's mortally offended.

We have her for a few hours, three times a week, so she can clean as well as tidying.

At no point did I have to "advertise for a housekeeper".

I do think laundry should go in a basket though, leaving it on the floor is unnecessary.

Scaraben · 04/10/2023 03:59

I thought it was fairly obvious from the OP she meant she was out from 9am-10pm, otherwise she'd have written '9-10hrs".

OP, when we were junior doctors we had jobs like this. Left house at 7am, rarely home before 10pm. We had a cleaner who would do laundry and dishes for us. I found it wasn't possible during the week to get these tasks done and as we were in the house so little the dishes we created from breakfast Monday would have been in a state by the time there were enough to actually put a dishwasher load on (if we'd had one). Similarly we could put a laundry on last thing at night or on a timer to end before leaving for work in the morning but our neighbours complained. Putting it on at 7am before leaving for work would then mean it sat in the machine for 14hrs and smelled.

When you've been out working this long of course you're exhausted and just want to collapse into bed after maybe a tiny bit of down time.

Anyway our cleaner came 3x weekly and put the laundry on, then did e.g. the bathrooms one day, the Hoovering another, etc. She hung up the laundry to dry before she left. We would leave our breakfast things in the sink. We didn't leave our clothes on the floor but left them in a hamper and she knew which day was what. Obviously towels and sheets need done too so she would also change our bedsheets weekly.

This was all agreed in advance and she seemed happy with the arrangement. It only ended when we got more senior jobs and moved away.

I think you need to speak to cleaners / agencies and explain what you are looking for.

Confusion101 · 04/10/2023 04:04

@OnceUponAThread I think you'll find the only bit people are giving out about is picking dirty laundry up off the floor. Do you expect yours to do that or is it in a hamper? It's as easy drop dirty clothes on the floor as it is to drop them into a hamper if you just get a basket.

mathanxiety · 04/10/2023 04:12

LaviniasBigBloomers · 03/10/2023 22:44

Get a dishwasher
Get a laundry basket
Set an hour with a timer every Sunday and run round like idiots getting things picked up and put away
Book a cleaner for a Monday morning, put your laundry in before you leave for work and ask her to hang it out and do some ironing.

You need a system, but you also need a wee bit more pride in yourself than expecting a woman to run around behind you picking up your skiddy knicks.

This.

Summermeadowflowers · 04/10/2023 04:15

When we had a cleaner, this was one of the reasons it just didn’t work. She came once a week but it took seconds for toddler ds to create carnage and we’d spend the day before she came frantically tidying so she could clean. (Then she’d cancel or rearrange but that’s a whole other story …)

We have a company do a deep clean once a month now. It stops the stress of a frantic tidy weekly but means we know that upstairs has been hoovered, bathrooms cleaned etc at least once a month which I know makes us horrifically dirty by MN standards but is about all I can realistically manage just now, at least until baby DD deigns to let me put her in a bouncy chair or similar.

WiddlinDiddlin · 04/10/2023 04:35

If you're willing to pay someone fairly to do a task, and they're willing to do that task I can't see the problem.

I really don't see the distinction between wiping counters, cleaning sinks, cleaning bogs, hoovering and picking up stuff off the floor - all of it, individually, takes five minutes ish... all of it could be done by the home owner if they're physically capable of doing it.

The fact is some of us can afford to pay for someone else to do these things and some of us are willing to do these things to earn money.

(Not me, I can't do them, nor can I afford to pay someone to do them).

Casting judgement and decreeing someone lazy because they want to pay someone to do the laundry but NOT because they want to pay someone to iron it, or hoover round or clean the bathroom... seems bonkers to me. I wonder how many quick to leap to that judgement have a cleaner and feel a bit guilty for it OR, haven't got a cleaner and are jealous of those who have?

Lelivre · 04/10/2023 04:57

I have a cleaning business and wouldn't want to take on your home.

You could advertise for someone privately and you may get someone. I think it might be difficult unless you pay particularly well.

Or use an agency and pile up your clothes in one area and sort all laundry out on the weekend.

That's what we did when we were at this age and stage of life (before kids when the machine is then on every day...)

Alternatively have three baskets: lights, darks, whites and sort as you go. Quite quick!

Happyhappyday · 04/10/2023 05:04

Ignoring a lot of judgment from other posters, my experience hiring cleaners is you just really need to be clear from the front when you get a quote. I’d also suggest getting a quote for the job, rather than hours. If someone doesn’t want to do tidying then they won’t take job.

givemeasunnyday · 04/10/2023 05:09

Why do you leave your clothes on the floor? I have never done that in my entire life, it really doesn't take long to hang them up, or sometimes I put them over the back of a chair. Dirty clothes go straight into the laundry basket.

Friendofdennis · 04/10/2023 05:18

It’s not ‘crazy’ to need help even with sorting out clothes on the floor if you work such long hours that you are utterly exhausted when you drag your body through the door If people are so proud that they would be ‘mortified’ to request such help then I guess they care too much what people think

TibetanTerrah · 04/10/2023 05:20

I used to be a cleaner and I'd have done this for you, no problem. The only condition would be that you were realistic/not tight with the hours you were prepared to have me for!

I've dealt with all manner of clients, and some would insist on X number of hours 'because that's what my friend has, so you should be able to get the house done in that time'. Forgetting that the starting point of their house vs their friends was likely very different!

Most decent cleaners are happy to do most 'extra' jobs, if you ask nicely and you let them guide YOU on the time it takes/pricing. Expecting me to pick up clothes/wash up for you while also doing everything that a normal clean has in that time is disrespectful.

AlwaysFreezing · 04/10/2023 05:22

I should imagine that there are people out there that will do this for the right price.

But I came in to check that your both taking a decent vitamin d supplement? With those hours, you'll need it and it may help with the exhaustion!

bouncydog · 04/10/2023 05:29

As recent grads I expect you’ve got used to living this way - I witnessed similar with a group DD lived with at Uni. You just need to organise yourselves better. Set aside 2 hours at the weekend for a full on tidy up to clear away the clothes etc and get straight then keep on top of things. Tidy away each day - won’t take more than a few minutes if you do it as you go. Pay a cleaner for a couple of hours which should be plenty of time to clean a tiny flat - preferably on a Friday so you have the weekend to chill in a clear space!

MumsGoneToIceland · 04/10/2023 05:33

As others have said, it sounds like you need a housekeeper and you’ll need to be really clear on the situation and what you need.

The two key areas I’d address though are:

  • Laundry on the floor. You’d at least need to put dirty clothes in the washing basket so that the housekeeper knew everything on the floor needs hanging up and what needs washing.
  • Sunday dishes - are you not able to do those at least or are you working all weekend too?
garlictwist · 04/10/2023 05:35

Why are you working such long hours? What's the point? You only get one life.