To think that this is inadequate from cleaner I'm paying £8 an hour for?

[eekamoose]

Chatting to cleaner, pottering around tidying up and moving things out of the way to make her job easier etc, she gets hold of floor mop, wets the head of it under kitchen tap (ie. in just cleaned kitchen sink) sprays spongey part with multi surface cleaner and uses that to swish over kitchen floor in about 2 mins.

To me cleaning kitchen floor is moving everything off it, sweeping then picking up with dustpan and brush, then mopping with very hot water and flash. Takes me 15 - 20 mins.

Was so gobsmacked, lost my voice there for a minute.

I know, I know, I'll be told I should have been specific about the way I want things done from the start but WTF?

3 hours sounds reasonable to me - my cleaner comes for 2 hours but I'm only a 2 bed flat.

At the end of the day I think it's just down to communication, just explain that this is how you'd like the floor done - no judgement - just "this is my preference, thanks".

I had to tell my cleaner how I like my carpets hoovered as we have a very long-haired cat, and you need to scrape up his long hair with a rubber brush or it doesn't come up with the hoover.

If she's still doing it the crap way when you've explained your preferences then I think you've got a case to be cross!

I have a self-catering cottage and every saturday used to take take all the crockery into the house and run it through the dishwasher. Cant do that now as live away, but the cleaner washes and dries it all and puts it away. I don't trust people to do it for me!

Mind you, even though it gets washed, leaving dirty dishes in the sink is my biggest gripe at tourists!

i lived in student digs in china for a year. cleaner came in one day, dipped her mop in the toilet and used it to wash bathroom floor...

Save your money and do it yourself - what you say you ask her to do wouldn't even take an hour to do!!!! And I HATE housework.

Where do you live? When we had money / lack of time and had cleaner's, we had some fantastic eastern european girls (one at a time!) as do many of my friends currently [jealous]
I think you need to get rid of her!

can you really do all that in an hour tilly?

Maybe my standard of cleaning isn't up to much! And I wouldn't do it all in one go - quick blitz here and there throughout the week.

Life is too short

If you are there chatting to her, pottering around moving things out of her way, why do you need a cleaner? Do it yourself!