Abusive cleaner took pics of my home

[ChicExpert]

My lovely self employed cleaner went back to her own country. New cleaner started this week. House is tidy but dirty floor and surfaces, needs a good vacuum/mop/wiping up. We hire 4 hours a week for a deep clean of the downstairs(kitchen dining living room)/hallway and stairs. Standard 3 bed house in London with kitchen extension, takes me 2 hours to do but pay for 4 so the job gets done properly.

New cleaner came and in 4 hours couldn't clean what we asked which is just vacuum/mop and wipe down all surfaces. Had to ask her to clean individual window seals as she didn't and when she left I noticed the living room window seal wasnt cleaned. She broke my glass chopping board and didn't say anything and left chemicals in the oven which I told her not to clean. Last cleaner was able to wipe the skirting boards and didn't leave a spec of dirt in corners, this cleaner left many areas dirty.

I said nothing and thought I won't hire again. The company messaged me why I don't want to hire again and I said I wasn't happy with the clean nothing else.

I then get very abusive messages and pictures of my floor being dirty saying my house is disgusting. Didn't get to respond before I was blocked by the company.

AIBU? I feel completely violated and want to complain some how. She took photos of my home without permission.

Don't even know what to do now and feel uncomfortable using another cleaner. Husband says I'm over reacting :( am I?

FYI I've added a photo of my home before the cleaner came. Floors are clearly dirty but the kitchen is tidy/needs wipe down.

😂🤣😂 Yup, you've nailed it!

I agree, some of the criticism on here is excessive and your kitchen looks lovely.

Has anyone ever noticed how phone cameras make things look so much worse than they look to the naked eye?

I have spent a day cleaning for guests before and then taken a photo of said guests or the dog sitting on a perfectly clean sofa or floor and every single pawprint, dog hair, and bit of dust is instantly highlighted as if the mess is the focal point of the pic.

It's one thing for them men to bot clean, and another thing for them to be incapable of getting shit into bins. There's no need for your floors to have that much crap on it.

Aren't these non-cleaning men wealthy enough for you to have someone in more than once a week. You are heavily pregnant, so need more help.

To clean though-not pick up what others can't be bothered to?

FFS.

A kitchen floor in a busy family home can look the way OP's did within a nano-second of being swept and mopped, especially when pets are involved.

I hoovered twice yesterday (in my defense I was testing out a new vacuum cleaner). I've still managed to sweep a decent pile up today including one severed elf arm and the lid of a cottage cheese pot. No one ate cottage cheese yesterday and the dog has not gotten his Christmas toys yet, so I have zero clues where either of those things came from, but I know the dog is responsible for them being on the floor. There was also enough dog hair to knit a new Beagle.

I'm going to assume OP spends 400 - 500 a month on this cleaner?

For that amount would I fuck be "running a hoover" round in between

I wouldn't be lifting a finger.

What about the behaviour of the cleaner who swept everything to one area of the kitchen took a photo then complained about how bad it was

People should stop excusing the behaviour of the cleaner.

I think this thread will put several readers off from getting a cleaner

I know I will never employ a cleaner again. The stress of cleaning the house before hand and then paying for the cleaner to come in and sneer at the unhoovered floors just wasn’t worth it.

To all those berating the OP for leaving the floor in a mess, did you miss the part where she had to get her DH to send her a photo of her kitchen because other members of the household have been known to leave a mess after she has tidied before going out? How do we know that she didn't sweep the floor? Maybe others left the mess on the floor after she went out.

I'd agree with this. One of many reasons I wouldn't have a cleaner. You need to clean and tidy for them, they always ask my sister for more time then leave early.

Op. Set up a family rota to do chores. Someone quickly sweeps up the worse of it nighty on rota and you buy a robot hoover with the money you save.

In the morning on rota at the weekend someone washes the floor as it's been hoovered by the robot.

Same for any carpeted room. Everyone becomes responsible for their own room.

Do a rota for the rest. Use the money saved to pay your kids for the chores.

Maybe others left the mess on the floor after she went out.

I would have thought OP would have said so if that was the case.

OP, what are the rellies going to do when you move out for a place of your own?

If that mess was caused in the short window of time between her going out and the cleaner arriving then she has bigger problems than the cleaning firm.

Cleaner only comes 1 x a week. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to live in the gradually increasing mess and grime that built up over the week.

You seriously would leave the counters and hob and floor sticky for a whole week?

Here is why people can't agree on threads like this. People have very different personal standards.

I clean counters after every use, clean hob each evening and would expect the kitchen floor to be swept/vacuumed daily. Mopped 2-3 x a week.

Yes it could look like that after a week of the floor was never swept or vacuumed

So people seriously just let things accumulate for an entire week?

I have a big vacuum cleaner and a rechargeable stick vacuum. That stick vacuum is hung up charging in a convenient spot.

It gets used maybe 3 x a day to go over the family room floor (pet hairs), kitchen floor....by the back door etc. this is just to keep the place from looking scuzzy. It take literally 45 seconds to a minute in each area

Depends on the job. If a cleaner does bathrooms it would be disrespectful to leave massive skid marks in the toilet bowl or toothpaste spit caked on the basin.

If the cleaner changes bedsheets it would be disrespectful to leave sheets with wet piss on the beds.

Leaving dog vomit on the carpet would not be acceptable. Nor would human vomit.

Many things would be disrespectful because it would be beyond what was expected to deal with as a cleaner.

More like if you returned and the department had dumped a whole bunch or erroneous tasks onto your desk whilst you were away.

Being a cleaner doesn't mean anything that requires cleaning is to be done.

Read my previous post. There are many things that fall into the remit of 'cleaning' that would be inappropriate to expect a cleaner to do

I'm really confused - so a whole bunch of you clean your house before the cleaner arrives? So why do you have a cleaner? Is it just so you can say you've got a cleaner? Like you have 'staff'?

OP - I think your experience with this company is just bizarre &, having read your posts, think the kitchen looks remarkably tidy!

If you have any boys, though, please make sure they follow your DH's example of how to be a man & not the (otherwise lovely) men in your family ;)

Seriously, life is too short to get so hung up on a bit of pet hair on the floor.

I'd rather spend those few minutes a day playing with the dog. I'm always suspicious of people who have spotless homes, pets, and children.

I'd much rather spend one afternoon a week deep cleaning and the rest of my free time with my family and pets than obsess over a bit of dust and pet hair.

It's seems as per usual MN thinks the OP is I the wrong and the house needs to be presentable clean for the cleaner. So if you can get it presentable clean ( as it seems you must) Then your already almost done. If I wanted to sweep my floors, hoover up so there's no visible crumbs, clear and wipe my surface so there's no crumbs or clutter I've already cleaned up. I don't wipe my skirting boards weekly.

Once you hire a cleaner, set what they need to do, they agree, why does then become demeaning? They already agreed to those jobs?

Cleaners who work in hospitals and offices seem a different breed to people who clean houses.

Icecreamenthusiast
I own a cleaning company and there is no way we could do a good quality deep clean (ie window seals) of a normal house in 4 hours for one person. That house is bad - probably 2 people for 5 hours 🤷‍♀️

Pretty sure you are right that you couldn’t do a deep clean of a house in 4 hours

But that wasn’t what was requested. The list was sweep and mop the downstairs floors and wipe down downstairs surfaces I.e kitchen worktop, tables, skirting boards and cabinet fronts

Not do a deep clean of a whole house

Not sweep everything to one side of the room and photograph it

I have a cleaner weekly and there is no way i would the floor like that for her, it takes around 20 seconds to pick the worst of it up daily with a dustpan and brush, if you left it in that state then there is no way a cleaner could have sorted it in a few hours. I dread to think what the rest of the house looked like

"They" are not one homogeneous group. There are plenty of excellent cleaners out there who are more than happy to get stuck into dirt and mess and clutter. I find it difficult to believe that any cleaner would baulk at a single hair on a floor.

But the cleaner needs to sweep anyway because that is what they are being paid for so why bother sweeping beforehand?

Unless my bog-standard rubber broom is somehow magical it takes no more time to sweep a floor with visible bits than it does to sweep a floor without bits.

That floor wasn't even bad. If there was lumps of cat shit and it was caked in mud I'd see what people meant but it was one packet and a few crumbs?

Some bizarre responses on here OP. She needs help with cleaning, so is paying someone to clean and has allowed a longer time to do it!