AIBU with my expectations for a cleaner?

[MsPolly]

Decided to get a cleaner to take the pressure off juggling two young kids and working full time.
first day of the cleaner today and we’re so disappointed.

for context we live in a mid size 4 bed which we already Hoover 2-3 times a week, kitchen is cleaned nightly.

Cleaner assured me cleaning the whole house was doable in the 2 hours and I even said our main priorities are the bathrooms, cleaning the hard floors.

Arrived home and theres parts of the bathrooms that haven’t visibly been cleaned. Crumbs all around the edges of kitchen floor and under table and sticky marks on the floor.

also things that have been moved to Hoover under have just been left discarded in the middle of rooms.

we raised it with her and her response is ‘forget it’

AIBU?

YANBU
Find another cleaner!

I guess she wont be back. My friend is a cleaner and I wouldn't have her clean for me. I want someone who does it better than me, or why am I paying, things you mentioned are basics. But, two hours is nothing. I am very particular admittedly and it takes me a good 5 or six hours to do my 1 bed, but that monthly. Daily is maybe 30 mins and weekend clean and hour tops

Two hours is not enough for a 4 bedroom house.
However that's still rubbish. She should have done part of the house thoroughly.

It's not easy getting the right cleaner, don't be put off but try to go by recommendation. Then make it very clear exactly what you expect in the time.

It was a red flag when she said it was doable in 2 hours - it is but badly.

A 4 bed is going to be at least 4 hours, poss more.

Pretty poor job, yes.

But 2 hours for a 4 bed js not doable.

Sack and move on. I had to go through a few before I settled on someone. If you’re not doing an immaculate job then why am I paying you? The house should be spotless, it should feel freshly cleaned when you step in. Otherwise it’s pointless.

Also like the others said two hours is no where near enough you’re looking at minimum 4 hours perhaps a bit more.

@Pollpollcompletely appreciate 2 hours is not enough for a 4 bed top to bottom clean sorta speak and I think if I’d come home and the bathrooms were amazing i would have been happy 😩

we used to have an incredible cleaner years back but she had to have an op on her hand and after that couldn’t clean anymore

@helpboatyeah i agree with you. The conversation I had with her before she took the job was our absolute priorities are the bathrooms, kitchen floors. We’re happy to whack the Hoover round and dust if we can have those things covered in the 2 hours.

The not putting stuff back where it was before is just a massive bug bear of mine too 🙈

2 hours is not enough time for a 4 bed. My 4 bed is a 3 hour clean on a weekly maintenance clean. A deep clean is pretty much a whole day.

I've found you need to cycle cleaners as they get comfortable and cut corners and the quality of the clean declines. I've not yet found one in my area that is perfect and I've had 4 or 5 different cleaners and cleaning companies.

Almost every cleaner round me will not tidy or clear surfaces, load and unload dishwasher or wash pots or load and unload washing machines and tumble dryers. I've asked and pretty much everyone has said no they don't do it. Only 2 will reluctantly change beds. It's pretty much cleaning company dominated round us and it seems to be a widespread company policy. I asked a manager of a cleaning company once why and the tidy/ clear surfaces thing is to cover against accusations of theft and the unloading dishwasher/ washers/ not changing beds is to a safety/ protection of health of employee thing. A lot of the cleaners round us do mainly elderly/ vulnerable people cleans and from what I've picked up from cleaner conversations between each other in my house, I think a lot of it is to protect against the cleaner ending up doing a lot of extra care/ additional tasks that carers/ family should be doing - putting meals in microwaves/ ovens, helping with unloading shopping or meeting supermarket delivery drivers, changing incontinence bedding/ sorting bed pans ect.

Agree with most of the thread that you both were YABU.

I’m assuming four beds, two baths, kitchen, sitting room and maybe another reception and utility, perhaps downstairs loo? That equates to ten minutes per room or thereabouts. She was never going to do a good job.

I feel my cleaning is pretty good now. Mind you it takes me 45 minutes to clean the bathroom!

I have a cleaner twice a week for 2 hours each time. On Monday she cleans the top of the cooker, cleans kitchen worktops, vacuums hall, stairs and landing, vacuums 2-3 bedrooms, dusts and polishes in lounge including moving things on units and coffee table, dusts and polishes in dining room including unit and table. She cleans 3 bath rooms and steam mops bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, sitting room and hall wooden floors. On Thursday she cleans kitchen worktops, wipes over unit fronts in kitchen and utility room, changes bedding in 3 or 4 bedrooms, vacuums 2 bedrooms and rest of house, steam mops all bathroom and wooden floors. Now and then about every 6 weeks she does a couple of additional hours to do jobs only carried out occasionally like clean skirtings in every room, wipe over window sills, wipe over front and back doors inside and outside, she sorted out the airing cupoard will take stuff out of cupboards wipe inside of cupboards then replace items. She works hard and cleans far far quicker than I could and I am very pleased with her. She cleans for my adult DS each week too.

I wanted a cleaner just to vacuum round everywhere & mop the bathroom floors and if time, to clean the main bathroom - the other bathroom was only used if we had visitors so it took me about 10 mins a week to run a cloth over it to remove dust. I can't vac as I have an injury so floor cleaning was all I needed help with.

Unfortunately the cleaner spent the 2 hours the first week cleaning the windows, which I didn't want doing, hadn't asked to be done, as I'd done them myself 3 days before. So we had to part ways.

I still haven't found someone!

@Icecreamandcoffee There were no surfaces to tidy. We left all of them clear. It was things like my son’s left folded in the middle of the room.
candles not put back where she’d dusted under them.

Not sure how she could’ve gotten comfortable when it was her first time coming 😂 but I know what you mean - we’ve had cleaners leave our house unlocked before 🙈

Think I need to change my approach when looking for someone new and say can you clean the bathrooms and anything else in the two hours is a bonus!

@MsPolly

Think I need to change my approach when looking for someone new and say can you clean the bathrooms and anything else in the two hours is a bonus!

Doesn't work if they only want to clean the windows 😂

@user1497787065four beds, Two bathrooms & downstairs toilet, kitchen, lounge, utility and downstairs loo.

said not worry about utility, forth bedroom or hovering lounge carpet or kitchen worktops as cleaned daily

@MistyMountainTop😂😂😂 oh god how frustrating!

You need to tell the next cleaner you want the bathrooms and kitchen done and if they have time left hoover dust etc

I used to clean one family would leave me a job list on a white board please concentrate on x and y if you have time please do z it was usually the kitchen bathroom to concentrate then floors if I had time do dusting after a few weeks I could get it all done in two hours

2 hours for a 4 bed house? No chance! You need to nominate priority rooms. I have 3 hours and it’s family room, large kitchen, big hallway/study and cloakroom. All through. No bathrooms - we have 4. If you want Hoover, floors cleaned, all kitchen units, sinks and appliances outwardly clean and everything plumped and surfaces cleaned in lounge it’s not 2 hours! Choose most important rooms. Why do you keep hoovering? I do enough in the kitchen to keep it hygienic, but not every night! I’m not quite sure if your standards are achievable.

I find it frustrating when I explain that I want really thorough job and don't mind paying for it, and then they treat it as a badge of honour to clean as quickly as possible and inevitably miss things. We have a largish house (5 beds, 4 bathrooms, three teens living at home) and it takes me an entire day to clean thoroughly. But I cannot find anyone who will accept that it cannot be done in 4 hours or less. It's madness. I am literally trying to pay them more!

@MeetMeOnTheCornerI thought I had been clear on priority rooms but clearly not 😩

I absolutely wasn’t expecting the full top to bottom clean in 2 hours. Spotless bathrooms and a clean kitchen floor and I would have been happy 😂

That was a bad sentence - I was referring to the kitchen worktops being cleaned every night. Hoovering is done 2-3 per week as we have two small children who come with a trail crumbs 😂

We’re in a 4-bed. 2 bathrooms, 2 reception rooms, dining room, kitchen, boot room and cloak room. Three hours is the bare minimum.

@pastaandpestome too! I just want someone to say if I’ve got two hours, this is what I can achieve thoroughly in those two hours.

for example clean the bathrooms and dust
or bathrooms and Hoover and mop the kitchen floor