Am I being unreasonable re stroppy note left by my cleaner? She says she is NOT A HOUSEKEEPER.

[WideWebWitch]

OK, so we are a messy house. But nothing really awful, just stuff like clothes on the floor, plates in the front room, mugs in the bathroom etc. Previous cleaner has gone to take another job (not cleaning, a job she is qualified for and which is more money and less work) and introduced new cleaner to us who, up til now(past 2 weeks) has been doing a good job.

We pay £8 an hour, which is over the going rate for this area (I gather it's £7) and I don't care when it's done as long as it's between 8am-5.30pm. She comes 2/3 times a week.

Today I got back today to a clean house but to a note that says

"I am little bit disappointed with the way your house was left this morning. It took me 40 minutes (her underlining) to gather dirty washing from your floors and collect cups and mugs...so I could start cleaning properly. As I said before, I understand you work full time...but I am a CLEANER NOT A HOUSE KEEPER (her caps)
I will contact you or I can even come over and see you to discuss how we can help each-other. SORRY, I hope I haven't upset you too much, but I find that 2 hours is NOT enough for me to do cleaning.
I hope you'll understand.
MY NUMBER IS xxxxxx

And she did 3.5 hours, which I will be expected to pay for (fair enough but I didn't agree it up front) and I'm PISSED OFF (My caps!). I Do work f/t oth, I have 2 children, I'm fucking knackered and my first instinct is to tell her to fk off and bring my key back. I want someone who's prepared to tidy otherwise there's no fking point imo. We're NOT talking shit smeared walls here, we're talking clothes on floor, cups on surfaces.

So, get rid or start tidying up before the cleaner comes and let myself be bossed around by this woman?

I have pmt and have tried to call but no reply from her house, I'll try later.

TIA for your views.

Completely agree with mancmum and clumsymum's posts.

Did your old cleaner manage to tidy AND clean in the 2 hours? If the state of your house is no different to how it was when your old cleaner came and the first two weeks she was there I'd be tempted to tell her to fck off too. If she's put up with it for 2 weeks, why is she making a fuss now? I'd explain to her that tidying is part of her job at your house and if she's not happy about that then you'll find someone else. 40 mins to tidy? How big is your house? That's an awful lot of cups and clothes.

agree with clumsymum

maybe she had a pre arranged appt or somewhere to go
but could not make it as did not want to let you down
so got the house spick and span first

would deffo make a meet up with her

Thanks for all your comments.

Btw I trust new cleaner on the basis that old cleaner is crb checked and registered babysitter and looks after my children and recommended new cleaner, she's a friend of 10 yrs standing apparently.

Ok, I will fire her but nicely. Because I absolutely have not got the time to tidy and I DO want the tidying done and old cleaner did it. And I could have picked all the stuff up/cups etc in 15/20 mins tops. But I didn't HAVE 15 mins this morning, as I had an interview. and I don't have most mornings as I have to get to work, which entails leaving the house at 7.50am so tidying is half the point. Hell, I'd pay a tenner an hour if someone would just fking shut up and DO IT! But not this woman now.

I'd be pissed off.
If your house was so untidy she couldn't get the cleaning done, she should have just left you a note saying something like 'I've only managed to get one room hoovered, this was because I had to pick up all the stuff off the floor first.' and maybe 'Would you like to talk about increasing my hours?'

Not her job to lecture you and not acceptable to do extra hours without it being agreed first.

I have never heard of a cleaner who makes a distinction between cleaning and 'housekeeping' - all the ones I've ever known have simply done as much as they can in the time.

You mean this person comes into your house, picks up your dirty knickers, and you haven't even MET her????

Wierd !!!!

I wouldn't want someone I haven't met in the house anyway.

Glad to have amused you Tinks!

OK, off to collect ds and put a notice in Tesco for a new cleaner then. As always my ads say "MESSY family want cleaner to tidy/clean 2/3 times/week, flexible hours blah blah"

Am a slattern, I don't dispute that btw!

WWW I would have sympathy with her if she only comes once a week but she comes three times for two hours a time, is that right? if so that is more than enough time in a week to do cleaning and cleaning imo includes tidying. Get rid of her, I am a firm believer that you can't have a person working in your home that you are not 100 per cent happy with.

I used to clean for an elderly woman. By the time I had lifted the mountain of flyers & the stack of cups from all around the house I hardly had time to clean properly. I visited her yesterday (Just for a visit)& she asked me to polish her room & clean her windows as the man who does it now only hoovers

I agree with bakedpotato I think.

Btw, I suspect old cleaner OFTEN got it done in LESS than 2 hours since she didn't always take the washing out and the mc takes 2 hours. But I didn't care as long as it was done! So I think this woman's making a meal of it tbh.

How old are your kids?

I work full time, too. My husband does, too, in opposite shifts.

My 3.5-year-old gets a silver star on her reward chart for putting her clothes in the washing bin in her room after she takes them off.

She even helps me load them into the washing machine.

We tidy up as a team. She knows this and even says, 'Tidy up!' when she wants to move on from playing something.

And she has motor skills delays as well.

Get the kids invovled in tidying if they're old enough!

It's good life skills - teaches them they're part of a team. As my dad always said, 'If you treat yourself and your stuff like swine, they'll treat you like swine right back.'

If she's a good cleaner, I'd talk to her about what your expectations are. Maybe you're not matched up and you need someone else for the job.

Yes, it's 2 hours 3 times/week. And only 2 receps inc kitchen, 3 beds (3rd is tiny) and 2 loos.

Have to say that you sound very harsh WWW. What's unreasonable about wanting to talk to you about the job if she's not happy? Sacking someone for that seems unreasonable to me.

I don't treat her like swine expat! I pay over the going rate and need someone to tidy as well as clean. And my children are out of the house for TEN Hours minimum every day as it is, I'm sorry, I don't want to have a fight every night about domestic stuff, which is fair enough.

Hi Sheila, it was a bit of a telling off note though, n'est pas?

It takes me longer than 2 hrs to clean up my house
not that it is dirty because it isnt
just i like to be thorough iykwim

My mother has a cleaner 2x/week and before she plans to entertain.

For just her and my dad.

But she doesn't expect the cleaner to tidy up.

Although, tbf, they did talk about this and what was expected on both sides before the cleaner took the job.

If you didn't actually speak to her before she started she perhaps didn't understand that picking up the laumdry, etc would be part of the deal.

If you thought she was good until now I'd at least talk to her. Explain what you want done and if she doesn't want to do it et her go.

It's the lecturing in her note which would piss me off, WWW.
You don't need to feel that you are being judged by your cleaner - it will just make life horribly stressful trying to live up to someone else's standards of what constitutes an acceptable house.
We always try to tidy up before our cleaner comes - it's only common sense as then she can get more cleaning done - but sometimes we're less successful (eg the last few weeks when we were ill) and if I thought I was going to get a telling off on those occasions I'd probably decide it was more trouble than it was worth....

Obviously www you are just a lazy slut because what you should do is get up an hour earlier and do all your house work before you go to work
FFS www is not asking the woman to do all the cleaning and tidying for the week in two hours!!She employs her to do two hours three times a week which imo is plenty of time for her to do cleaning and tidying!!

Well, a very gentle one. I didn't think her note was so bad, and maybe she really depends on the income from your job. You've nothing to lose by talking to her about it and explaining what you need. Sounds like it would be a good idea to meet her in any case. If she's then not prepared to do what you want then you can get someone else (if you can!) with a clear conscience.

I didnt think it was a rude note. Just a misunderstanding of what she was expected to do.

"I will contact you or I can even come over and see you to discuss how we can help each-other. SORRY, I hope I haven't upset you too much"

I do expect the person who cleans up my mess to judge me actually - surely it's one of the perks of cleaning.

I don't think the fact that cleaner does 6 hours a week makes any difference because they are spread over 3 separate visits. If www's house is anything like mine it will be just as messy every time, therefore 40 mins tidying on each visit, if you see what I mean.

www needs to see her face to face - notes are a bad way to communicate (on both sides).

WWW, my lovely lovely cleaner tidies - I mean tbh, that's 50% of the job in a house with 2 kids, isn't it?

She dumps any clothes left by me or DP (quite rare tbh) in the linen basket and would have no probs whatsoever in picking up the dds stuff although I try to kick their backsides into gear to do it themsleves.

She even pruned a rather large plant for me last week.

Your cleaner has a bad attitude imo.

"I do expect the person who cleans up my mess to judge me actually - surely it's one of the perks of cleaning."

LOL, Puddle.
Our cleaner cleans for half our village and is happy to gossip to us about her other employers, so I'm not naive enough to think she doesn't do the same about us
But I don't feel judged so it doesn't really bother me.