Having a cleaner if you are a messy family

[VinegarDrinker]

DC 2 arrived 5 weeks ago and we have long talked about getting a cleaner.

We both work ("part time" but actually FT hours), including evenings, weekends and antisocial hours and only have one day per week off together so have decided that it is important not to spend it all doing chores.

But we are not exactly the tidiest people. Not awful, but just general clutter and piles of "stuff", and upstairs in particular can get pretty crappy looking especially with DH's dirty clothes left on the floor of our room. One of the reasons I have put off getting a cleaner until now is embarrassment.

I guess it would make us have to be tidier? But I just can't decide if the stress of tidying for the cleaner would negate any reduction in stress levels?!

Please tell me how it works for you?

My theory is that a cleaner can't clean something if she can't get to it so we told our cleaner that there would be some tidying involved & allowed for that when working out her hours. With 2 young DC, i find it impossible to leave the house completely tidy so there would always be a few toys & other things to put away & she quickly learned where most things lived. Occasionally, things would be really bad & I'd just text her to apologise & ask her to do an extra 30mins if she could (we were her last job of the day) & if not to prioritise the kitchen & bathrooms. I also made sure she never had to do anything grim so dirty laundry was always in the laundry basket, nappies were thrown out etc (from comments she made, it was clear not everyone else did this).

We've had a few cleaners in our time. At the beginning I was always really good at tidying first, but by the end the cleaner was spending loads of time tidying stuff into piles (which meant I could never find anything) and not enough time cleaning imo. I think she used to hate leaving a house looking a mess, even if it was clean iyswim? I would make sure you have a proper talk with whoever you choose as if it's more about getting stuff clean (bathrooms, kitchen, vacuuming) then get them to prioritise that. If it helps as well the reason we always got rid of them was that they never did that good a job and I inevitably felt I needed to make the time to do it properly myself (not really sure what I was expecting but I wanted to feel they'd made more effort than I would have in the same amount of time for £10+ an hour and ultimately this wasn't the case)

I don't think having a messy house matters if you have a cleaner who can tidy / organise and are prepared to pay for a realistic amount of their time. I certainly wouldn't employ a cleaner who felt they had a right to judge my (frankly non existent) housekeeping skills. The reason I employ someone to look after my house is because I have neither time nor inclination to do it myself. I pay my cleaner well, leave her to make decisions about when she works, what she does on which day etc & she knows I appreciate what she does. It does mean paying for 8-10h per week plus the occasional 'blitz' in school holidays but (for me) it makes sense as it means I can focus on work during he week & my kids @ weekends.

We are in that situation, though I can't physically clean so choice was made. We usually manage to clear the floors so cleaner.can Hoover, and her priority is kitchen, bathroom and loo, change sheets and hoovering. Anything in the way to simply be piled on a table in the middle of the room so we can find stuff. Some weeks she's doing more tidying and less hoovering but works pretty well. She comes fortnightly, agencies will never agree to this but will send a one-off cleaner who either gives us her mobile number or recommends a friend.

If I had a cleaner it would be purely to do floors - I'm quite happy doing bath, sinks, windows, surfaces, etc, but have a real thing against floors. Leaving floors clear and coming back to find that a fairy had swept/hoovered/mopped would be my idea of heaven.

I am a cleaner, so hopefully I can help.
What I generally do on being 1st contacted by a potential client is visit them at home.
That way I get to see their home, and talk to the client about what they would want me to tackle on a regular basis ( I have weekly clients and also fortnightly clients).
A few of them have had what you may call 'messy' houses, and have asked me to spend my 1st 3 hour session (I operate on a minimum of 3 hours per week) de-cluttering with them.
Then we normally agree that I hoover, mop floors, do general dusting, clean kitchens and bathrooms ( I always do this on every clean), and anything else I have time for.

I really wouldn't worry about being embarrassed, we are used to all sorts!

I have a basket in each room. If there is stuff that doesn't have a home it gets put into the basket. If it isn't claimed and put away I happily bin it. Our cleaners are told to put anything that is preventing them from cleaning in to the basket.

I am chronically untidy and this is the only way I've found I can keep order.