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.

Or hire a cleaner!

Oh wait, OP did hire a cleaner 🙄

You’re very defensive. “Try not to exaggerate”. This is a thread about someone else’s house and someone else’s cleaner. I’m all for defending an OP, but there comes a point where you should probably just take it a bit easy and maybe step away. There’s a lot of very emotive threads on here, this is at the moment minor end of the scale, and you’re giving the impression of feeling very ‘involved’.

Your kitchen resembles a veterinary surgery. Far from disgusting!

I'm a cleaner and have a handful of clients who I just focus on certain areas and who have busy pet filled households. Looks normal to me!

If a customer is stressed out/mega busy and hasn't had chance to tidy house perfectly, I tell them not to worry and if it's that bad, we'll just agree I'll spend extra time helping them with a room or just leave a room for that week.

And am there to clean, as long as its not biological hazards (I won't go back to a house with faeces and vomit all over the floor for example!) doesn't bother me.

Eg I contribute to floor mess myself emptying toasters, sweeping sills etc
But you've given them load of time to clean it up, and that's what we're there for, I think anyway!

Taking pics I do that occasionally, but those are totally private and only used if customer/a contractor questions something (e.g. sometimes someone will mess up an place after we have been in, and then claim it hasn't been cleaned and blame me).

Using photos against client is totally uncalled for. I imagine cleaner/boss is being spiteful as she got called out and not kept the job. Has to blame someone other than themselves!
I've known a good few cleaning companies like that! It catches up with them though

Unless she publishes the photos eg her social media pages, I don't think you can do much (except a review!)

If they do post them publicly you can attempt to find some legal advice to get them to remove the pictures or tell them you'll do that.

But yeah, not good practice at all! Boss was unprofessional entirely.

I think people are getting defensive because OP is struggling, pregnant and clearly feeling vulnerable and has posted on MN for support. Instead of getting that support the MN competitive martyrs have descended en masse to tell OP what a disgusting slob she is after posting a picture of what is, to any normal person, a fairly clean and tidy family kitchen.

I get that people like to be competitive and ridiculous on cleaning threads, and maybe some of you do genuinely walk around with a sweeping brush shoved up your arsehole and get up every three hours to change and iron your bedsheets, but in reality we all know OP's house is the norm.

Sure, Mrs '3x a day' Hinch. Hope your non-scuzzy kitchen floor brings you joy.

You sound like a sensible and professional cleaner.

'Disgusting' is not a fact. You have confused fact and opinion. Simply read this thread and you will realise your fact is not in fact the truth.

One would hope most teenagers are capable of operating a sweeping brush if they find normal household mess embarrassing, however, this is MN so it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't because mum does it all for them.

Agree. Really weird to be that invested in how some random stranger on the internet prioritises their time. Most odd.

Good point

If i was bed bound, my teens would clean.

Why? self respect and wanting a nice home

Sadly mine were oblivious when they were teenagers. One still is. We don't go into her bedroom for fear of contracting Ebola but she and her friends seem quite happy wallowing in there.

It was always me making a beeline for the mop when they invited people around unexpectedly.

Her bedroom was a hole, but i common for a teen

but the family communal areas were presumably clean and tidy presumably because you were ensuring it so.

I reckon she would have been embarrassed as a teen to have friends back and for them to see her parents stepping over rubbing on the floor and goodness knows what the toilets look like

What? That's just a factual statement, assuming someone normally lives in their country of birth and has only been in this country temporarily.

'No offence'

hahahaha

You meant offence. Own it

Surely you must have swept mess into a corner before clearing it up? No?

True.

There is a weird cleaning obsessed crew on mn who make it their life's work to ensuring their home is 'clean' and doing excessive laundry loads. Some even use it as a reason to SAHM.

Bloody hell, the judgement on this thread is something else. OP clearly stated that she is pregnant and the only person in the house who can be arsed to do any cleaning.

Cleaners are paid to clean. Obviously there are limits and things cleaners can't be expected to clean, but this is general household dirt resulting from a busy household and everything being left to one person who is also pregnant. Some people on here sound like the type to clean the house themselves before the cleaner comes. It's batshit and I can't believe some people are actually taking the cleaning company's side.

I find the fact that women are still shaming other women over their standards of cleaning in 2024 very depressing. Don't let the nastiness get to you OP, some pps clearly need to get a life.

So OP is the only one doing any cleaning and yet you're judging her for not doing things differently and telling her she should be embarrassed? How about judging the lazy arses who live with her and are sticking her with the entire domestic load while pregnant? And why is it OP's job to buy additional equipment when there are multiple adults in the house?

MN misogyny at its finest.

You have saved me the trouble of writing what i was thinking. Thank you for this post.

@Frequency

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
And this is why there will always be disagreements. Different people have different standards.

Basic tidiness to one person is pedantic obsessive behaviour to another. .

OP YANBU

I just looked at the original picture that OP posted and enlarged it, all above was immaculate, it's just the floor that has crumbs/debris. She's heavily pregnant and isn't managing with floors. I clean for a man who can't do floors due to obesity /mobility issues, I pick up/sweep debris cause I can and he can't.

OP I'd be so annoyed at the glass chopping board being broken, without so much as an apology. But I'd be fuming re the chemicals in the oven, that's a bloody health hazard!

As OP says she usually does the day to day cleaning, I can imagine the others in the house being a bit apathetic and saying, oh well the cleaners coming in a day or so why should I pick up sweep up...

OP I think this cleaner and company have been appalling.

As someone else mentioned trying getting a cleaner in who you can show round. Many here have jumped to the conclusion that the rest of your house is in the same condition as your floor, which evidence proves it's not. It's not like your floor is covered in years worth of grime and filth anyway.

Hope you get a cleaner with more compassion and better at there job. If I was in London I'd have no issues cleaning for you.

Ps. Lovely Kitchen and flowers x

MN isn't somewhere to come for support 90% of the time. It can be a very nasty place.

I agree that human shit or vomit could be dangerous for the cleaner; also, I think its weird if your dog pooped on the floor and you just left it there for someone to clean later. But otherwise I think its all part of the job. I think cleaning toothpaste off the wash hand basin or sand/ dust/ food crumbs off the floor is exactly what cleaners are hired to do.

Besides, the OP did not have this level of filth, there was no shit or piss anywhere. Just a normal level of mess - a nice house of someone who did not have time or ability to clean after a large family with kids and dogs.