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?

You need more than 2 hours. For a 4 bed I would say 3-4 hours for a basic clean.

Good cleaners are worth their weight in gold.

Mine spent 2.5 hours today, deep cleaning two bathrooms.

But she's not asking for a full house clean

Two hours is nowhere near long enough for a first clean of a four bedroomed house

My cleaner is very fond of doing windows. I've had many cleaners over the years and even the best have favourite jobs or quirky habits.

I get what you are saying OP. My friend had an accident and couldn't walk unaided. She got a cleaner in to hoover and mop floors, she could manage worktops and higher up on her crutches. The cleaner did everything but the floors.

Is it just one cleaner that comes in the two hours? Doesn’t sound long enough for a 4 bed house ?
I have a lady that comes for 5 hours to my 4 bed 4 bath house

There is a difference between ‘tidying’ and ‘cleaning’.

I have a cleaner and I don’t expect her to wash pots, pick clothes up off the floor, empty the dishwasher, clear sides etc. I pay her to clean, which is hoovering, polishing, wiping sides, cleaning mirrors, mopping floors etc. If she has to spend her time picking up after us and tidying before she can even begin cleaning, then she’s not doing what I pay her for - which is cleaning.

She gets this when she goes to other houses and spends the first hour tidying up the crap that’s all over the house. She then has to rush and try to clean the house in the time she has left. So a lot of the time she doesn’t finish everything.

T hours isn’t enough for a four bed house. Also you need to clear the floors for them to hoover properly, they won’t tidy.

I have several friends who are cleaners and they always say the problem when people don't want to pay for adequate hours is the pressure to get as much done as possible means a poor clean. Neither now accept anything less than 4 hrs for a 3 bed and 5 hrs for a 4 bed. The only exception one makes is if 1 bedroom and 1 room on main floor isn't being done, they will take off an hour. The other friend won't b/c she says to do kitchens and bathrooms properly, she feels you need that time b/c that's where most of the time is spent.

I don't think it's fair to ask for 2 hrs with priorities as I imagine the pressure to get as much done as possible becomes a problem, if you can't stretch to more than 2 hrs then I think you have to say only bathrooms and kitchen. I do agree with you it would be good if your cleaner had said what she felt was realistic!

Good luck!

You need to ask yourself what you can do in 2 hours. My cleaner will spend 30 minutes cleaning my bathroom every week which I think is brilliant as I always spent longer and didn’t do such a good clean, this includes cleaning the loo/sink/shower wiping down all the tiles and giving the floor a good clean. She then spends 30 minutes in each bedrooms- duster hoover each room weekly (I have 4 bedroom) each week she does 1 room extra well does skirting etc - so that 2 hours on bedrooms. She then does the living room and dinning rooms good clean each week - that about another 2 hours work, then she flips the duster / hoover over hall / craft room / study about 30 minutes then she mops the kitchen floor last if she has time - but tbh she always does this for me. She comes twice a week, one bathroom and bedrooms on a Tuesday rest on a Thursday. She works fast, much faster than I ever did even when I was young and fit, she doesn’t tidy at all just cleans.

I used to have a cleaner for 2 hours and I would just ask her to do downstairs or upstairs. Down includes kitchen and up includes bathroom. It's far too much for 2 hours.

That’s what we do. There’s just the two of us living here now, so we don’t make a lot of mess, and keep on top of things mostly. She comes once a week for 2 hours and spends half an hour on the bathroom, hoovers the stairs and washes the floors downstairs, then any time left is doing what I ask her to do. She might clean out a fridge or wash the microwave, or prepare a bedroom for guests if we’re having them.

The bedrooms don’t usually need much work. She hoovers them all once in a while and washes the windows etc, but mostly concentrates on the areas of the house that get most use, which suits us. If necessary she will do extra hours to help if needed (eg to sort and clean kitchen cupboards).

She’s a gem- and rare!