NappiesGalore-or anyone else with a cleaner/housekeeper?

[Neena28]

What do your do/not do?

Nappies...read on a previous post that yours comes everyday. What does she do for all that time? Does she ever drive you mad? How much do you pay?

I am about to take a lady on but haven't finalised it yet and just want a bit of reassurance to be honest. I know I need the help just not sure exactly what/how!

Thanks

Bump anyone?

Bump again

Got three coming tommorrow for interviews.

Would love a bit of reassurance.

she is obviously out pampering herself while the cleaners there! joking!

Thanks!!

Starting to look a bit desperate aren't I!!!

Maybe do a quick post in chat. "What to ask a cleaner"?
Something like that abit more open than just asking one mner.

Think I will...will go get kids from school then do it a bit later.

Nice of you to reply though, thanks.

hi Neena, sorry I am not Nappies but I do have a cleaner who comes twice a week for three hours each visit. She does anything I ask her to but generally, hoovering, changing beds, dusting, unloading the dishwasher, cleaning bathroooms and cloakroom, washing floors, putting a washing load on or hanging it up, folding up washing and ironing too. I do try and tidy up before she comes simply because I dont want to waste money doing something I could do in much less time, but if the house is particularly untidy and I havent had time to do anything about it before I leave for work then it will look lovely and tidy when I come in. I would say twice a week is perfect for us, even if I did it myself I certainly wouldnt spend 6 hours solidly doing housework a week. All that said she is great and very accommodating and they are not always like that. I pay £25 per visit. Hope that helps.

Thanks Dizzydo.

Makes me feel much better.

Would be looking at a few more hours but same kind of jobs.

Have you given your lady a list or does she just do so to speak?

Nappies are you around yet?

I'm not Nappies either, obviously. I have a cleaner once a week, for three hours. I pay her £20, and she does different things each week, depending on what I need. Sometimes I find it intrusive to have someone knowing so much about us, but it is worth it for the help.

Is there anything that your lady won't do valantina.

Have you done a list or schedule or does she just do what she thinks?

She will do anything I ask (of course, I wouldn't ask her to anything I wouldn't do myself!), and I leave her a note each week listing what I would like her to do. So, she might change all the bed linen, clean the bathrooms etc. but I don't ask her to clean the oven. She has sometimes put washing on, but generally I prefer to do this myself. She will hang up wet washing in the machine for me though.

I had a young woman come every day for a couple of hours to "be there" when DD got home from school and to do some housework.

Looked for a housekeeper who wouldn't mind keeping an eye on DD (aged 10 then), but kind of ended up with a child carer who did the housekeeping as an aside.

She ended up not being too "keen" on the housework end of things, but if it helps, this is what she was supposed to do.

Daily basis: Tidy up, load/ unload dishwasher, do DD's washing and ironing as needed and do our ironing as needed.

One a week she came a couple of hours earlier and did a clean through the house. Dusting/ vac/ wash floors/ bathrooms etc.

The idea was that she was to do any "additional" jobs like say, skirting boards once in a while during one of the days she was there, but we ended up paying extra to do this as she liked to sit and do stuff with DD...

Anyway - would just have an idea of what you'd like done on a daily/ weekly/ monthly basis and check that the person is willing to do all that in the time you've allocated. That kind of thing.

You don't want someone who will get stroppy when you ask them to clean the oven, simply becuase you hadn't mentioned it.

The main thing I would look for is someone who is a self starter and will just know when the skirtings need to be done instead of you having to ask. The idea of a "daily" is that they'll be able to take over the cleaning from you and not keep needing lists of things.

HTH.

Thanks for that both. Do you do anything before they come or just leave the house as it is?

I am presuming I will tidy up then she will take over all the cleaning.

I find the talking it through with her really hard to be honest and know that if it startsto go wrong I will find it awkward to discuss the problems.

I do generally tidy up, so the floors etc. are clear for hoovering.

Obviously there's a huge difference between a daily and a weekly cleaner, but I think the important thing is to keep a dialogue going.

I try to say thank you for the help and for things done well (probably not as often as I should), and put on my note if there's anything that needs extra attention eg limescale on taps. It is difficult when it's someone working in your home, but you need to find a way to say if there's something which you're not happy about.

I know what you mean Neena. I am really embarrassed by having "domestic staff", if you will. Not embarrassed enough to do it myself though.

DH thinks I'm nuts. If you have someone in daily, then there shouldn't be any need for you to tidy up, really, as it should never get out of hand.

Discuss it with the person you choose. Personally, I wouldn't be happy about leaving dirty laundry on the floor for a housekeeper to pick up, and think it's unhygenic anyway, when DH and DD leave used crockery lying about, but some poeple really just drop everything.

Think that is really the crux of the problem.

Dp's family (and mine a good amount of the time) make me feel like I ought to do more. But we live in a very large house that seems to require endless tidying. I can't do anything about that and I can't 'let it go' because it is also our business place. I know everyone would say that their housework is endless but I popped to a friends in a 'normal' house the other day and she just finished off the hoovering while I was in the playroom with the kids. She did whole of downstairs in under ten minutes. It takes me about an hour to do it all then it needs mopping. I also work for our own business about 25 hours a week, have two young children at home and am studying for the equivilant of a degree.

I CAN'T DO IT ALL AND REMAIN SANE FFS!

But I find having someone in the house awkward too and dp thinks it's all a waste of money and doesn't really 'get' why I need help. Partly he doesn't see the problem but he is also out during the day so doesn't understand all the others things I have to do. I have tried talking to him many many times about it but he is the type of person that gets his bit done and can't really understand why I can't do the same. But I want a little bit of me time AND more time with the kids plus a nice home to relax in.

Sounds a bit like my house Neena! Luckily DH has NO INTEREST in helping me with housework, so isn't against the idea of getting a cleaner. Unfortunately he seems to think that "a couple of hours" will suffice for someone to clean about 10 rooms. Am having someone even after I go on maternity leave. I've no plans to make a slave of myself to housework.

I know what you mean about "having someone around" though. you have to resist the urge to go out when they're there!

You'll probably find you feel comfortable with someone when you interview. For the first few weeks you'll have to breeze it out and resist the urge to jump up and help. I have to remind myself that I'm providing someone with employemen - employment they actually want. I'd be a bit miffed if my boss kept trying to do my job for me, so I suppose it's the same, isn't it?

How much do you pay twelveyeargap and how many hours do you have a week?

Does sound like we're similar! You sound a bit more assertive than me though.

Weirdly I have no problem deals with any business and employee problems but housekeeper thing has really made me sweat.

twelveyeargap I clean 10 rooms in a couple of hours. Maybe my standards are lower than yours. It definitely takes me longer though if I have to tidy up first.

Really??? It would take me longer than that just to mop the floors I think! DH has asthma so says they need to be mopped as well as swept. Maybe the house just feels bigger than it really is. We've just moved from a three bed flat to a 6 bed house. I'm feeling a bit "overwhelmed" by the size of it. Doesn't help that the vendor left it like a tip. And now I have a garden to look after as well. NOT that I'm complaining of course.

Plus DH and DD are messy buggers. Takes at least an hour to go round the house collecting all the crap they leave lying around and replacing it where it should be.

Hmm, maybe I'm just a moany cow and should get on with it! Hope DH isn't reading this. Actually, maybe he'd help if he was.

Hmm 6 bed house - probably more than 10 rooms. Also I do not include tidying in that time. Or extra cleaning jobs like windows etc. That is dust/polish/hoover all bedrooms, landing, living room, dining room. Clean 2 bathrooms and downstairs toilet, kitchen and utility room. Sweep and mop bathroom, hall, kitchen, toilet nad utility room.

DP and ds definatley fall into the messy bugger catergory plus dd just likes fiddling and moving things!

Bozza - I still think you must travel at the speed of light to get all that done in two hours. I mean, if I could find someone who worked at your speed, I could definitely save some cash on cleaning bills.

Gawd, messy bugger husbands... I'm currently on the warpath at the moment about that kind of stuff anyway. Better go and take some deep breaths.

Do cleaners now get £8-odd an hour?? I used to get less than half that a few years back!