To have said this to my cleaner?

[wellwatnow]

NC for this. I've had this last cleaner for almost a year, I've had several over the years and although this one isn't all that great she's one of the best at cleaning and I will say is by far the most reliable. She comes every other Monday and sometimes I have to text her on a Sunday afternoon to tell her I won't be in as she has to use the key safe (usually I am home).

I wasn't home last time she came, and I won't be home tomorrow either. As always I thanked her for doing a good job, she's always said I must let her know if anything is missed out with her cleaning, so I asked her if she could make sure my laundry room gets a good clean as she forgot to do it last time.

Anyway, a while later she replied and said no problem, sorry if you thought the laundry room hadn't been cleaned, she said she had cleaned it but would give it a good clean. I replied to thank her and said I'd noticed that one of the wall cupboard doors had definitely not been cleaned which made me think she'd forgotten the room. Well she replied quite quickly by saying she knows which door I mean, and that she hadn't cleaned it because it looked like it was covered in dried cat sick (my cat often sleeps on the top of the wall cupboards in the laundry room) and that she didn't want to clean it, and that I must have known about it because otherwise how did I know it hadn't happened after she left? She said she left it as she didn't want to clean it up and thought it could be the thing we never spoke about, whatever that means. She then said she can't make tomorrow but would be in touch when she's free.

I suspect now that she won't be coming back, which is infuriating as it's impossible to get people to clean, all my friends that have cleaners tell me they are too busy and won't give me their numbers. I only found this one as she was cleaning for a neighbour one day. I had to wait ages for her to find a space to fit me in. But I can't help think she's taking this way too personally.

”I had to wait ages for her to find a slot for me”

You mean you had to wait until your neighbour died and then went asking for the poor woman’s slot 😟

Then leaving manky cat sick for her to clean, have you no shame at all?!

What you say doesn't add up, OP. You only noticed the cat vomit on the way out but it was dried on the cupboard door? It must have been there 24 hours or so to be dry, in which case you must have noticed it before. It therefore looks as though you left it for the cleaner instead of getting your Marigolds on, digging out the disinfectant and getting on with it.

What do you mean ‘this one isn’t all that great - she’s one of the best at cleaning - by far the most reliable’.

🫤

Visible bodily emissions are not for the cleaner. That’s skivvying.

Yeah op you need to work on your communication skills. As a former cleaner there is absolutely no way in hell I would have cleaned up someone else's cat sick. Ridiculous that you expected her to!

This is grim why should she have to clean cat sick?

Shed given you the benefit of the doubt and thought that you didn’t know about the cat sick, and she had left it for you to deal with it and not mentioned it to save embarrassing you. Now she thinks that as you already knew about the cat sick and have specifically mentioned it not being cleaned, that you’ve purposely left it there for her to deal with. I doubt she’ll be coming back.

I once got a text from my cleaner (she’d come while we were away) saying she’d found some dried up cat sick behind the sofa and she had done her best to clean it up!! I was absolutely mortified both that she’s found it when I hadn’t noticed it, and that she cleaned it up!!!

I mean just that - she cleans better that others I've had and is by far the most reliable. She has never missed an appointment yet.

100% and this is also what she meant by 'the thing we never spoke about'.

Cleaners are there to help keep things spick and span, not to deal with goo that comes out of living beings.

If I had a cleaner, I wouldn’t give you their number either! There’s a good reason your cleaners don’t stick around for long…..

I had the same but was, actually, there when she found it

I, too, was mortified but she was absolutely fine about it and cleared it up.

If you noticed cat sick in the specific room you asked her to clean, you should have dealt with it yourself before she arrived. If you genuinely didn't have time to do this, you should have messaged her and said hello! I have just noticed my cat was sick last night in the utility room, please leave this room today and I will clean it up myself later, thanks!

She now absolutely thinks you expect her to clean up cat vom and quite rightly is drawing a line at that. You could try apologising and explaining you absolutely did not expect her to clean the sick, but she likely won't come back anyway.

You just can’t get the staff these days, can you?

OP, as you will doubtless have realised by now, complaining about a cleaner on Mumsnet is a fool's errand! You will nearly always be blamed and rarely supported.

Do you think leaving cat sick for your cleaner to clean and then sending a follow up message questioning why she didn’t clean it up is ok?

Yeah good one OP 😂

I’m a cleaner but I draw the line at cleaning up sick or poo. I’ve actually been in this position with pet sick when I arrived and there was a note on the side that said.. Cats been sick, please leave that for me to sort later and clean around it.
I’ve had the same sort of note left regarding poo/sick when I used to clean a pub. The landlord cleaned anything like that himself, it wasn’t expected of me and I wouldn’t have done it if it was.

I’ve had my cleaner for 11 years. Just saying.

When the lady died I texted her and said I'd heard she died and asked if I could have that space, so she came to me instead.

I cant believe I'm reading this...

Not sure why it's so hard to get a decent cleaner who turns up on time and cleans like an expert (i.e. better than the householder). You have my sympathy OP - I've tried about 6 cleaners over the past 5 years and they all were a bit disappointing (2 actually damaged my house) so I've given up.

It sounds like she has a waiting list and decided that she could have an easier gig elsewhere

Yeah I didn't say anything upthread, but when I read that sentence I thought it was incredibly distasteful. One thing to drop a 'Hi, remember me from X months ago, do you have any space please' text but to literally reference someone else's death and taking their slot is beyond gross isn't it?

Blimey that’s rare. In London people move around so much that I get moved from one cleaner to a friend of theirs fairly often as they go back to their own country.

IF I noticed something untoward that was left for my cleaner, as I rushed out of the house, I would at least text her to give her a heads-up. Or to say ‘don’t worry about it - I’ll deal with that myself later.’ I have too much respect for her to expect her just to deal with it.
OP, I don’t know you. But I’m willing to bet that from the cleaner’s point of view, the sick incident was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I think your extra message about the cupboard door was a step too far tbh. You should have just left it at her saying it had been cleaned, maybe said something like oh I didn’t realise, if you could do it again that would be great please! The extra detail was unnecessary and I mean, when you cleaned it yourself didn’t you realise it was vomit? I don’t have cats but I guess their sick stinks like ours.