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?

That's an 'OK' combined salary? lol

The best salary I've ever had is £20k a year, and I'm 36 now with two science degree's.

You've done well, but that's a HUGE salary, average median in UK is £27,756

If you have to work such ridiculous hours in order to earn 60k, you’re in the wrong job. At this rate, you’ll both be burned out in a year, probably end up splitting up and going travelling in India to ‘find yourselves’.

Reduce your hours, put your clothes in the right places when you get undressed, stack the dishwasher and start having fun!!!

You can advertise for a cleaner will do laundry and sort some leftover dishes. I'm confused about why you can't put clothes in a laundry bin and dishes in a dishwasher, it takes perhaps 3 seconds out of your day so just start doing it. Even my 5 year old knows not to leave dirty clothes on the floor! It does sound very chaotic, and I say that as someone who regularly worked those hours when younger, you've got to start basic adulting. It reminds me of the new graduates who leave dirty cups around the office, failing to notice even the Execs drop them off in the kitchen.

Your work-life balance is clearly totally out of kilter. Address that. If you are so tired, and don't have 10 minutes, prior to your cleaner, coming to have a quick whiz round and make sure clothes are picked up, and the floors are clear so that she can clean properly. Then you really do have a problem.

Well done to your DH, but he had 4 more hours to do that in - OP doesn’t get in until 10pm.

Exactly

Anything to do with housekeeping brings out the worst internalised misogyny here. Gotta be a good little woman who tidies as she goes.

They’re out of the house 13 hours a day and they’re untidy. So what? As long as the hours are adequate plenty of cleaners are perfectly happy to tidy and do laundry as well as clean.

For a cleaner hours in one house means more working hours and less wasted travelling hours.

@Zamphina as some have said, you need a cleaner who tidies. I have a cluttered house at times and I was struggling to juggle work and tidying etc. It was ok but just loads of 'stuff'. I was so despondent as I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I trialled a few and some were aghast at me needing them to tidy. They said that in other homes, everything was clear and they just cleaned. Finally I got my current cleaner and she's completely revamped everything. I've been so happy that I've learnt to get rid of stuff too as she's an uber declutterer. My home looks great! She zooms through it. She gets paid decently, so approx 60 a week for a house (4hrs).

I'm sure you will then get into good habits and probably won't be leaving dishes around or clothes around. You just need someone to get the ball rolling.

No she doesn’t.

She just works 13 hour days, probably as part of a life plan to get up the career ladder quickly, and then sit back on a big salary.

She’s also a but untidy, so what? Plenty of cleaners are quite happy to tidy as well as clean. She doesn’t have to ‘whizz round’ like a good little housewife. She can hire someone to do that.

Also, not everyone is tidy! Or has a husband/partner to share the load. I needed that help and my cleaner is indispensable.

Just ask any prospective cleaner.

She’s explained they’ll be on 300k combined in just a few years. Given she’s only just graduated, I’m guessing in 10 years they’ll both be earning a good chunk more on top of that.

It’s totally normal in many professions to work long hours early on to get up the career ladder to big money. On the whole people don’t burn out, they just get high enough up to normalise their hours, while pulling in a fat salary.

You might not want to do that, but there’s nothing unusual or wrong with the OP’s choices.

How old are you that you think it’s ok to leave clothes lying on the floor and think it’s ok for someone else to pick up after you? It takes minutes to put them in a laundry basket at the end of the day.
It doesn’t take long to put dishes into a dishwasher or at least rinse and stack them for washing if no dishwasher.

My DH and I work similar hours, often worse - getting back after midnight used to be the norm before we could work from home, now we log on at home earlier rather than staying in the office. We also have two small children. At the moment I’m not working those hours as I’m on maternity leave but I’ll be back at it soon.

Personally, I don’t want someone else dealing with my dirty clothes (which, shock horror!) are sometimes left on the floor. However, our cleaner does tidy toys and put things in the dishwasher no problem. I have to say things are pretty much just shoved in various toy boxes/to the side of rooms rather than properly put away.

One day we’ll sort a proper housekeeper who will tidy properly but for now it’s just not in the budget. Don’t feel bad about wanting the help, you are busy and clearly not one of those people to whom being tidy comes naturally, I’m the same and getting someone to help you is a totally reasonable thing to do.

If you want someone to pick up after you then you need a housekeeper really. Or at least to be explicit to whoever you hire that you require cleaning ++. Lots of cleaners won't pick up your crap.

I don't really understand why there's clothes all over the place? Get laundry baskets and use those. If there's only two of you and you're at work most of the day, then you can't generate that much washing, surely? If you organise your laundry then your housekeeper might also be willing to add launderette/dry cleaner runs to the agenda.

Do you have a dishwasher? If so, load as you go. If not, then I'd just eat toast/cereal for breakfast to minimise mess. Sunday dishes should be dealt with on Sunday - either in the dishwasher or alternate washing up.

By all means pay for convenience but I don't think you should completely check out and outsource every minute detail of day to day life. If you're adult enough for graduate jobs then you're adult enough to not leave clothes on the floor of your admittedly small flat.

Of course there are cleaners that do this. You just need to pay them for hours worked, so this means more money spent. But many do this type of stuff you mention...you just got to pay.

I'm sorry but you both sound lazy. Put a laundry basket on the landing, and put your clothes in there. Looks like you want a house keeper to wash clothes and clean.

put a laundry basket in your room/bathroom and when you take your clothes off put straight into the basket

We’ve had a few cleaners and they are all different but I’ve had a couple that are more tidyers than cleaners which definitely has pros and cons. My current lady is a tidyer and organiser so our house looks much better on the face of it but doesn’t clean as deep as some of the others I’ve had so there are pros and cons.

cleaner 1 - pure cleaner. Was absolutely thorough and deep cleaned everything to a super high standard but no tidying at all.

cleaner 2 - 50:50 tidy v clean. She was amazing really. She did a day when the house was a tip while my baby was in hospital and I cried coming back as it looked so nice.

cleaner 3 - lasted a month as lazy and did nothing well:

cleaner 4- 60:40 tidy v clean. Works really well but sometimes drifts into re-organising more than cleaning.

If my current lady leaves I’d definitely try and find someone who does tidying as well as cleaning as that is actually our bigger problem.

The jealousy in this thread is palpable! As long as she is being upfront about her requirements and is offering a fair wage then it’s a business arrangement she’s looking to establish in her home.

I think you just need to call and discuss with cleaners some will tidy and clean others will only clean

put your clothes in the laundry basket, takes a few seconds.

You can definitely get someone to come in and take care of all that for you, on your hours it’s not unreasonable but being honest you may need someone in more than 2 days a week if you are literally just sleeping, eating breakfast and showering at home. If you are happy to pay for it get someone in at least 4 days a week, if you are in London there are going to be a lot of people like you doing similar hours so it won’t be a surprise but be very honest that you are not able to do anything at home.

Duchess of pork is correct. Op can pay someone to do it.

Is OP stressed? Or just naturally untidy and unorganised. Does she want to address those issues, or is she not bothered?

I'd like to be on £300k!

That is the time they finish work, but often work beyond those times.
So 12+ hours a day.
Hope that helps.

Wow, not sure why there are so many harsh answers? I'd leave my clothes on the floor too if I worked that many hours. I often do when I'm exhausted. I also leave breakfast dishes our until I get home in the evening. Also, as someone who used to be a cleaner, I'd rather pick up someone's clothes off the floor than scrub skid marks from toilets and that is a standard and expected job for a cleaner. It takes seconds for someone to wipe their poo off their own toilet but cleaners do it with no fuss anyway. Picking up clothes is hardly a big deal. All these posters who have no issue keeping on top of their housework probably have never needed a cleaner anyway. OP, I'm sure you'll find someone. I'd have been happy to do those jobs for such regular hours.