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

Yes, this is what I did too. It depends how much time she has and if you can pay for it, if you want that done weekly, but it does sound excessive

I think it’s all about being fair. I’d tell her this and say that it would be great to have an idea how long it would take her to do this list each week - if she has the time and you pay her fairly, I can’t see any issue. The issue would be you expecting her to do this in 4 hours for example.

Ah! I recognise a fellow houseproud person…

First of all, well done on recognising that you need some help and purchasing it, rather than being a martyr to your own high standards (I speak from experience).

As others have said, you are entitled to get exactly what you want from the service you are paying for, but just a couple of observations, mainly related to the four hour a week thing…

Inside of windows - really, every week? Unless you have pets or poorly trained toddlers who lick the insides of the windows, is this really necessary?

Marks on walls to be removed - how long would it take for the cleaner(s) to look up and down all the wall surfaces to check for marks? Sounds time consuming.

Light switches…do they really get filthy enough for weekly cleaning? Same with skirting boards tbh, once done I would consider fortnightly to be enough.

Descaling of kettles and other appliances…I don’t live in a hard water area so don’t know what it’s like, but weekly does sound a lot.

Final thought - good cleaners are like gold dust and so hard to find and from what you have said about yours, she sounds like a diamond. Don’t piss her off at this stage if you can help it🙂. You sound like a very nice, and very reasonable person though so ease into it gently x

No i don't expect it to take any less than a full days work. I know how time consuming it is from doing it myself and realising i physically don't have time to keep up to it.
I like the suggestions of putting some things onto two weekly etc

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

What OP left out is that her husband is 8' tall and can see the tops of all the door frames. 😉

I'm not sure where the 4 hourly thing has come from as a few people have mentioned it but I've stated I've not given a set time limit and i expect it to be around a days work.

We live rurally, oh is in agriculture and light switches do get filthy mainly ones on way into house on his way to the sink 🤦🏼‍♀️

Good point about inside widows maybe 2 weekly.

Skirting boards and door frames defo need to be weekly because of renovation dust for first few weeks.

I wondered what you meant when I first read your title OP, as I used to do cleaning for a particular client, and she just generally left me to my own devices. I think she was more than happy with my standards, and then on the odd occasion she'd ask me to take down all the ornaments that she had on a beam in her kitchen, wash them all and put them back, do the odd windows, etc. However then one morning, she left me a note asking me to do all the usual, and could I also rinse through the bits she'd left in soak in the utility room. When I looked it was underwear! I was gobsmacked that she had the nerve to think I would wash her undies for her, and fumed the whole time I was there. Then, just before I left, I wrote her a note which said:

Cleaning lady, yes.
Washer woman, NO!
Sorry!

Later that afternoon, I had a call from a member of her staff at the business she ran, who I was friendly with. She couldn't stop laughing when I picked up the phone, but eventually managed to tell me that my client had gone home and was 'FURIOUS', at the note I'd left her.

As I didn't NEED the job, I didn't feel obliged to wash someone else's underwear, but I just wanted to let you know that that is one step TOO FAR just in case you were thinking it was something you could expect.

Of course, now I've read your thread, I can see that you're a far more reasonable person, who is happy to pay for the work that is done.

Surely most cleaners don't care. They'll clean as much as they can in the allotted time?

I’ve been a cleaner. Some of the kitchen appliances can take ages, so I’d be specific on how you want these things done. I used to clean posh holiday cottages so had to be sparkling.

To descale kettle use a tablet then boil twice with fresh water. Trays and metal shelves in dishwasher for a intensive wash, spray on oven cleaner leave for twenty minutes wipe then rinse type instructions. It doesn’t need to take long but it’s about time management so you can work on other things whilst chemicals fo their job.

This is an utterly mental level of cleaning. You sound like my long gone aunt Dorothy, in the end nobody ever visited because she was batshit about cleaning and it was just horribly uncomfortable feeling like she was eyeballing the carpet because someone walked across it, and god forbid you should ever drop a crumb. It sounds like you might have issues tbh.

Generally it's fine to add deep cleaning if you pay for it. We have bed changes, laundry and ironing included. Windows are done by the window cleaner, and you can't include the oven, I wouldn't ask about the kettle descaling either - that's something you need to do. Figure out what works for you; we have deep cleaning done when we go away in the school holidays so then she'll spend a full day and do every room, it's better than paying for her to clean a clean house. Sometimes an area seems mucky and then we ask for something extra (variable hours). We tried lists on rotation to try to mimic what my old amazing cleaner used to do, but it didn't work really, nobody will be perfect and it got a bit annoying for the cleaner so just accept 80% of the job done well is good and clean anything else you see as you go.

This is a deep clean type list. Fridge ans freezer are probably you tasks. Fine to ask for them to be done but it will take a lot longer than the average clean and you will need to specify . I don’t think I have ever done the top of door frames…

How obnoxious. Why is there always at least one of these replies on threads against having a cleaner? What have you got against women (because let’s face it, no one ever says this to men) outsourcing some of the domestic chores? And also, ‘bone idle’? Did you actually read OP’s list of what she’s been doing herself?

I started off thinking your list was a bit excessive for every week (mainly the appliances, windows etc) but on further clarification on what you actually want and how long you expect it to take your cleaner, I think it’s fine. A full days work at one house may well be preferable to your cleaner, particularly in a rural area, given there’ll be less travel time and expenses, less ‘setting up’ time etc.

Yes, the value judgements sometimes placed on women are appalling. Paying someone decently for honest work is a good thing and the op is far from idle!! I think Girojim100 may be a little envious!

The cleaning company we hired a few years ago was very good but did not do ovens or Windows so I tend to think of these as extras. If your lady is happy to do them, fine but maybe talk to her. I do think your list is a lot and some tasks need rotation. But sounds great and your house will be spotless!

I have a big house, my cleaner does 2 hours a week. What I do is I have an Excel spreadsheet that I print off every week with all the different rooms and jobs on it and I tick what I want doing each week, because obviously certain areas don’t need doing weekly as previous posts have said, that way everything gets done on a rotation

@BakelikeBertha that is defo too far to ask a cleaner to do, glad you didn't do it!

I love my house clean and tidy but at the same time I'm not at the kids for making a mess because they're obviously kids and majority of mess can be cleaned so although I'm wanting a lot doing we don't live in fear of messing up the house lol maybe if we did they'd be less to clean 🤣

I'll make a list for weekly and fortnightly and then when the lass comes next I'll sit with her and get her thoughts on what she's happy with. So we're on the same page. I don't want to upset or offend her because like i said I'm very impressed with her work ethic and really like her.

Points I've taken on board are oven, windows and kettle probably best to carry on doing myself.

I have also told her because she's here for the full day i expect her to have half hour lunch and then 10 mins morning 10 mins afternoon break and will pay her breaks as well.

The 4 hours i mentioned came from the OP. I wasn't clear if you were saying that's how long you hired her for based on how long it used to take you.

Ah no, 4 hours was how long it took me to do all that in my older smaller property. I've not put a limit on the lasses hours in the new property but because it's bigger i had in mind a days work. If it was still 4 hours i could fit it in myself i just don't physically have time

I think as your not expecting her to cram everything in 4 hours is acceptable.

You sound as if your fair and willing to pay not for a rushed job.
What most people don't understand is it's entirely un realistic to expect everything done within a 3 hour period to a high standard , if there's only one cleaner.

I would charge £165 to do that job. Its a monthly deep clean that you would maintain the other 3 weeks - and an oven clean is a specialist job
I charge by job not by the hour

I gave my cleaner a list of jobs I'd like doing twice a week when she came including vacuuming sitting room, dining room, and hall. Then Steam mopping kitchen, sitting room, dining room and hall as all wooden floors and I have 2 dogs and 2 cats so a few paw marks, cleaning kitchen worktops and any marks on fronts of kitchen cupboards or doors. Then a Tuesday only list with a few extra jobs on it mostly cleaning bathrooms, and a Friday only list with a few different jobs for Fridays which was mainly changing bedding. I have her 3 hours on both Tuesday and Fridays, so 6 hours a week. She spends first 2 hours general cleaning then on Tuesdays moves on to bathrooms and Fridays changes bedding. Occasionally I will ask her to do an extra job like a good clean in the conservatory, which is not urgent so she will fit in on another day when she has time. I do general cleaning of bedrooms, dusting, cleaning mirrors and light switches and general tidying so it it clutter free for her to clean. DH cleans inside of windows as I can't reach and sills. I'm home now so do more bits myself but when I worked full time my cleaner then would hang out washing, peel vegetables and iron 5 shirts for DH too. She did 3 hours 3 times a week. My cleaner wipes off top of cooker but I get a specialist cleaner to deep clean my oven. I wouldn't expect a general cleaner to do ovens or windows.

So your wanting a deep clean everywhere! But your hoping you can charge this poor girl for a light dusting? She's not a slave or something 😆

Maybe because a lot of you seem to treat them like slaves 🙁

Can you stop calling her a 'lass', please? Presumably she's an adult woman. It's so patronising.