What is acceptable to ask a cleaner to do?

[ZippyBlueViper]

Moved to a bigger house and first time I've ever needed to employ a cleaner.

Found a lovely lass, really like her, comes across polite with good work ethic.

Did a clean for me and some bits were fantastic, other things weren't done how i wanted them but think this is because I wasn't clear in what i asked for, so was my poor communication not due to a fault of the cleaner.

I asked for deep clean of bathrooms, hoover and dust everywhere else. Bathrooms were immaculate, hoovering was done. Dusting in my eyes would include taking things of shelves wiping shelf putting things back on, wiping fronts of wardrobes, tops of door frames etc. This wasn't done. But think I was too vague.

She said to me to let her know what i was pleased with and what i would like doing differently next time, if anything. Which i think is brilliant because sounds like we'll be able to communicate well together.

I text her saying bathrooms are amazing show home standard really impressed with her work, that next time i would like inside of windows doing (they didn't need doing this time so never mentioned it) and fronts of wardrobes shelves etc.

She text back saying great write me an exact list for next time and she'll crack through it.

So if i was cleaning at home in our smaller house then obviously i do daily maintenance cleaning but once a week i would do the weekly clean which was

Every room:
Take everything off shelves clean shelves, wipe items and put back
Clean any marks off walls
Clean any surfaces in rooms desks fronts of wardrobes etc
Clean inside of widows
Clean light switches door handles touch points
Clean top of skirting boards and round door frames
Hoover and or mop floor depending on flooring in that room.

Bathroom
Everything that i do in general rooms plus deep clean disinfect and polish everything

Kitchen
Everything that i do in a general room plus appliances, oven, fridge, freezer, de scale kettle, toaster etc.

In the property we've moved into i will still be doing my daily maintenance cleaning. I enjoy cleaning my home but the issue is because our new property is so much bigger i physically don't have time to do the weekly clean. The old house weekly clean only took 4 hours so wasn't too time consuming.

Do you think my above list is asking too much of a cleaner? Or do you think it's fine?

With never hiring one before i don't want to come across as a cheeky cow!

YABU You're asking way too much
YANBU that's a normal list

I think you've had too much time on your hands. 4 hours cleaning on top of regular "maintenance cleaning"???!
Having said that, you are well within your rights to get the service you want which you are paying for.

To me this is deep clean level cleaning. Which is fine as long as you're paying for it and allowing the time. I wouldn't expect a cleaner to do windows or appliances. Mine wipes the shelves if they are clear of stuff but won't take everything off, wipe and replace for instance.

I think as long as you're paying for her time, it's fine. Other than the fridge/freezer, possibly. Are you wanting her to clean out the fridge and freezer, dispose of old food, etc? That seems like a bit much. But if you're just wanting the outsides cleaned, I think it's fine.

This is quite a considerable amount of cleaning per week, I don’t think it’s unreasonable though so long as you are paying her for her time. If you factor in a realistic amount of time for these things to be done and pay her accordingly then I don’t see an issue.

How many hours are you paying her for and how many rooms for all of this?

The contents of the list is fine as long as she has enough time to do it in.

How much limescale do you get to need to descale your kettle every week?

Yes.

Also, OP, you sound like a loon.

It's hard to say whether you're reasonable without knowing how long you employed her for (was it 4 hours?) and how big the rooms are. Much of what you said comes with a deep clean when it comes to cleaners, but you have to ask them for their specific services.

For instance, my sister's company do not do inside cupboards unless it is a deep or end of lease clean and even then they expect them to be empty unless they've paid for packing and cleaning.

Yes i think it is asking too much IMO but depends how much time they have to do these tasks?

I would not professional cleaner windows (or a window cleaner to clean my home).

Also, I would not expect the oven to be cleaned. That is a specialist job.

And cleaning marks off the wall? Is this wipable paint? If I were a cleaner, I personally would avoid so not to be potentially sued for damage to paint or wallpaper...

If your cleaner would like a prioritised list, seems you have a good starting point.

I would give her a list with priorities: things that must be done every week, things to be done every other week, occasional one offs (e.g. windows). Tell her to check off which things she’s done each time, so that you know what things you’ll need to do, or you can see whether you need her to do more hours.

I am more surprised that there is no mention of bedroom cleaning and bedding changes but you would like appliances cleaned and kettle descaled regularly?

This is at least 1 whole day of work! How many hours and how many rooms?

Tops of the door frame...what are you a sergeant major?

Try doing all you are asking yourself and then employ her as a housekeeper. I used to have a financial interest in a cleaning company and helped write the initial list of what the cleaners would do per customer...you expect a lot for only 4 hours.

I agree with others that whilst nothing on that list is inherently unreasonable,
together it is a huge amount of works and goes beyond what I would expect from a bog standard weekly cleaner. If you are happy to pay for the length of time it would take and communicate your expectations to her clearly then it seems fine though.

I have a monthly cleaner who deep cleans for me but doesn't do maintenance stuff because I do it.

My place is a one bedroom and she has three hours which is fine. I can post my list if you like.

I've not given her a time limit just said to see how long it takes her and bill me accordingly. I don't think she's the sort of person to rip me off. From the initial clean and conversations I've had with her she has a good work ethic and isn't slow or anything. I was very impressed with her.
Thank you I'll bear in mind oven she might not to do and do that myself.
Not to sort inside fridge and freezer I'll keep on top of that. Just to clean the fronts and handles.
It's wipeable paint, things like kids grubby hands on walls etc at old house i wiped every week and didn't end up with loads of marks.
I enjoy cleaning and take a lot of pride in my home and find it relaxing and even a way to destress (obviously i know it's not everyone's cup of tea)

You need a short list of ‘every week’ and then a rotating list of other jovs
eg W1 all door frames, window frames, woodwork, banisters, skirting boards to be wiped down with Cif
W2 all cushions to be lifted from sofas, deep vacuum
W3 oven, microwave, kettle, dishwasher clean

If you are happy to pay her for the time it will take to clean your oven, descale the kettle and so the inside of the windows, and she is happy to do it, then I don't think you are being unreasonable.
These are not things any of my cleaners have ever done.

I think things like the windows and fronts of units are fine to ask. But cleaning your fridge freezer and descaling the kettle? I think that's a you job x

It depends on how many hours you're paying for and how much dust/dirt there is.

It's a long list, but there's nothing on there that isn't achievable if given time.

One customer I did 2 days per week in 2 hours slots, which covered downstairs on one day and the upstairs the next visit.

Although I used to do inside windows and certain downstairs outside one's, many cleaners won't. When doing this I wasn't expected to do as much general housework.

This often isn't in cleaning services. It's housekeeping

We live in an area with very hard water so limescale is a big problem. We've had a water softening system installed so that might mean less descaling to be fair. I'll keep an eye on it.
Things like dust on the door frames and skirting boards needs to be weekly for first few weeks for defo because we've fully renovated the property. Every room has had substantial work done, moved walls, lowered and highered ceilings etc so because it's been a full house renovation, although I've had a full builders clean done by a specialist team, there's still dust settling so when i employed the lass she suggested we be extra keen with dust for first few weeks till it had all completely gone.
I fully expect it to take her a full days work. I realise it's a lot to do and time consuming. Just didn't know if it was cheeky to ask those things to be done or what the norm was to ask of a cleaner when I've never had one before.

Bedding and things like that I've time to do myself. I've 2 young children, pregnant with 3rd, run my own business full time from home as well as helping out with my oh business. I would love to continue cleaning my own because like i said i really enjoy cleaning but due to new property being a lot larger than our old home i just physically won't have time

Our cleaner does 3 hours, large 4 bed detached. She does a very thorough clean of the 3 bathrooms, hoovers and dusts everywhere and then mops through the hard floors after cleaning the kitchen. She doesn't touch the fridge/cooker/microwave other than cleaning the fronts of them and the cooker top. I'm always amazed she acheives what she does tbh. I certainly don't expect walls cleaned or any appliances or windows!