To tell my cleaner to stop wearing perfume?

[LeMoax]

We have a cleaner that comes once a week for four hours. We’ve used the same cleaning company for a while but recently they’ve chopped and changed the staff, so after a period of different people each week it seems we’ve now settled on someone regularly.
She cleans okay but wears really strong perfume. So strong that after she goes I need to leave all the windows in the house open for a good hour or so to get rid of her smell.

AIBU to ask her or her boss to ask her to stop wearing the perfume before coming to our house?

‘Ask’ her OP.

I would have to ask her not to wear the perfume or just cancel the cleaning service. I do my own cleaning though and any visitors I have know how I am and don’t wear perfume when they visit. It’s not being awkward if you are someone hugely sensitive, I had my lounge carpet shampooed and they sprayed it with a fresh scent I had to leave the house for a few hours after they did it, cause I felt so unwell then had to leave the windows open constantly and couldn’t go in the room for 3 days.

But OP’s not demanding anything. Nor have they suggested they would be.

YANBU.
the smell lingers. I get it.

Yes, I too am noticing the word ‘slave’ being thrown around liberally.

I was asked once politely to not wear as much perfume.
I was mortified that I was wearing so much that it had bothered other people.

Just ask her nicely to not wear as much and tell her that it bothers you, @LeMoax.
It shouldn’t be an issue.

Say you have an allergy

Why wear perfume to clesn?....anyways coukd be zoflora that makes me gag but also too much fucking perfume makes me choke! Especially some types....and as someone said I want my home smelling of fresh linen or sandlewood or some shit like that when clean not fags n perfume.

You could just fill the house with horses so it actually does smell of horses. I imagine the scent of horse would dilute the perfume.

Did I really just write that sentence?!

I get where you're coming from.

But opening your windows for an hour surely isn't a problem? I open my windows to get the smell of cleaning products out after I do a deep clean.

🙄

Look, the OP doesn't want her house smelling of smells she doesn't want.

Also, some people are allergic to perfume.

It is HER house, not the cleaners.

OP, tell her (or the agency) not to wear the perfume against, or you'll have to find someone else.

Simple.

Exactly. It’s her house so if she doesn’t want the help of a ‘smelly’ cleaner then don’t have one. Simple.

FWIW I am sensitive to strong perfumes too, they give me migraines but it is not my place to dictate what other people want to use on themselves.

Could she be using a floor cleaner/room sprays that are “perfume dupes” ? Like home bargains sell a range of them they are supposed to smell like alien, creed and all that jazz? I have some of them myself and I am also a cleaner but don’t use them in clients houses although I do have a girl that works for me that sometimes brings her own stuff and I have to tell her not too because it’s obviously an an acquired taste and the houses are supposed to be left smelling fresh not of a personal scent that she happens to be a fan of!

Anyway, you could perhaps just contact whoever’s in charge and suggest that the above may be what is causing and it therefore may be addressed

Gosh so many replies! Ha! No I don’t think my house smells of arse and horses!

I definitely don’t think she is my slave of course not. I know I can’t ‘demand’ anything! And I won’t disclose where she comes from as I agree that it is not relevant.

It is definitely her perfume as it hits you as soon as I open the front door to let her in and you get a big waft where she leaves her coat and shoes .

Her cleaning is mediocre so if (and still deciding IF!) I asked the agency to send another cleaner, do I be honest if they ask why? Do I say it was the perfume rather than her skill at cleaning?

Hmmm - what the hell does 'mediocre cleaning' entail?

It's either clean or it isn't. My immediate thought was First World Problems I will never have.

I agree. MN is a whole other world isn't it? I actually have quite a keen sense of smell, but I've never been as affected by other people's perfumes, fabric conditioner, or all these other things which some MNers simply can't be around.

As for having the windows open for a good hour or so, she should be airing out her house anyway.

You switch from tell, which us unreasonable to ask which I think is less unreasonable

She can cancel the cleaning contract if she wants or ask for a different cleaner but she can’t dictate what perfume her cleaner wears.

Hardly comparable to dog poo is it, how ridiculous 🙄

Exactly

I'm shaking and shuddering here op, Where's the trigger warning you were going to discuss a mediocre cleaner who wesrs perfume!!

As a self employed domestic housekeeper I would be offended and wouldn't want to work for OP. As a homeowner, I'd hate anyone leaving a lingering smell. That said many of my clients are crazy millennial control freaks! Truth is she probably doesn't like you much anyway so I would move to another agency and in future stipulate no perfume and non smokers etc from the start.

I do feel the “no perfume” part would be a fair warning to the cleaners working in the new agency about exactly what sort of working environment they are potentially going into. So they can make the decision not to go there.

YANBU, I hate the smell of perfume and it’s horrible when people put on way too much.

If her cleaning is mediocre I’d ask the agency for a new cleaner anyway.

Are you sure it's not zoflora ?