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.

oh god - have just read the thread and now I think she is lovely and you should give her a raise.

lol

dimpledthighs

Pants. I was reading this thread from the beginning and was thinking "you guys need to meet" - this is a problem about communication and not about cleaning.... and then you go and have a bl00dy phone call and sort it out.

IMHO not meeting her client was bugging her because she couldn't figure out if you were taking the p1ss or just being a slattern, and she was then worried that she couldn't do stuff properly in the time given.

Anyway, I hope Wednesday goes swimmingly and you become friends and can go skipping together.

Cups in the bathroom? Why? I never take cups anywhere else but the lounge and the kitchen. Back in the days when we used to be able to afford a cleaner, I always used to tidy before her. She cleaned our house in 2h and so I definitely didn't want her to spend half of that tidying up. I work full time with children and if you just tidy as you go along it really isn't a big job you know.

Just noticed that you talked to her as well. You are so lucky to have found a cleaner WITH high standards. Mine didn't and only cleaned the visible bits i.e. bottom shelves of cupboards etc... Keep this woman you'll regret it later!

i have seen your sex toys under the bed

Don't tell her you used them.

i licked them clean.

Oh, is that a coldsore on your lip ?

I replied to your 'ad' post but had to say I always found the distinction between 'tidying' and cleaning a bit odd. To me cleaning a house is the same as cleaning an office. Now our cleaners at work didn't tidy up our files but they did 'tidy' away old cups, empty bins, gather rubbish, straighten the paper in the copying booth etc AS WELL as actually cleaning stuff.

PMSL at the cleaner who dusted round a mug - sorry anyone who was that petty wouldn't last long with me. If you find there are too many mugs left out to dust/clean surfaces in the time allowed then talk to me, but unless you walk in one day and the house is a bombsite(and isn't normally) then don't hoover round clothes/ dust round mugs.

spending 20 minutes+ preparing for the cleaner and getting snotty notes into the bargain is hardly the timesaving you need.