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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Cleaners need talking to or booth no?

5 replies

Mollymutkin · 12/06/2017 12:25

AIBU

I have weekly cleaners and pay for 4 hours cleaning. There's a team of 3 (Polish) who stay 1.20hr sometimes 5-10 mins less, rarely more! One of the team is often the lady who runs the cleaning. She and one of the other girls speak pretty good English. They've been cleaning for me now about 3 years. They basically vacuum, dust, mop floors, clean kitchen, bathrooms and change bedcovers

I just can't make up my mind if I'm getting a good clean or not. I keep noticing areas I think should be done without me asking or areas just not done properly. When I do ask for something done, something I think I shouldn't have to ask to be done specifically as it should be something they should do anyway imo, it's done but perhaps not well and not done again unless I ask. Perhaps I'm expecting too much of them or they really aren't that good! I end up ignoring something not done as I live in the hope of it maybe being done next week!

We have a 4 bed chalet bungalow; loft converted master bedroom and ensuite (walk in shower, corner bath (rarely used 3-4 times a year), 3 further beds downstairs; one guest room with little ensuite (shower, wc, basin) which only needs to be cleaned if we've had guests, so maybe only 5/6 times a year, otherwise just an occasional vacuum/dust when I ask. The other two rooms are DD15 bedroom and study and she does those herself, not the cleaners. They do clean DDs small bathroom. They rarely do anything other than vac/mop the under stairs study as I'm usually in there. We have a large kitchen/dining/sitting room, a snug (tv room mostly used only at the weekends to watch our favourite tv shows), then off the kitchen is a 'boot room' with a kitchen sink and cupboards, separate wc and the 'utility room' housing wm/td boiler, etc and stuff like mop n bucket, broom, long dusters, etc. and my vac.

Our house was totally renovated 4.5 years ago now, so everything was lovely and new from that time. Wood flooring throughout and only carpet on the stairs, plantation shutters in all the bedroom and hall windows.

Things that irk me are finding pencil like lines where they have used their vacuum attachment less to dust down a wall corner, along skirting, cupboard doors and most recently inside the sill of a window in the hall and down the stair skirting, which is now really chipped most likely from their vacuum hose etc. and also looks like it hasn't been wiped clean since I don't know when. One week I asked they not keep banging into it as it is causing damage. Finding the underside of the basin pop up dirty. The display shelf above the cooker and tops of cupboards and two big lamp shades over the island thick with dust. After requesting the top edges of the up stands around the kitchen worktops to be dusted (I could gather it thickly on my finger) I now find I have a dirty mark running along the paint above the up stands instead and I have the same mark along the paint around a chest of drawers in a corner in the hallway along with a little fluff filled cobweb behind the lamp in the corner on the same chest of drawers.

Their two cleaning products of choice only seem to be limescale remover and window cleaner. Yet I still have scale around taps on pop ups and dirty inside windows/doors. The past few weeks the floor in the kitchen hasn't been cleaned properly, I think it just gets lightly wetted but if at all as I can still see a sticky spot on the floor in front of the dish washer and it just doesn't look cleaned. Also, the mop n bucket live at the back of the utility room but they leave it in the inside corner by the door. There's other things not done I could mention too but I just want post this and get some replies as they are due tomorrow, I can probably add them in replies.

OP posts:
SunshinePop · 12/06/2017 12:44

Sounds like you're getting a bad deal, better off doing it yourself if they're damaging paintwork.

londonloves · 12/06/2017 12:51

Why is their nationality relevant?

Justmadeperfectflapjacks · 12/06/2017 13:01

If you think your original verbal instructions weren't understood clearly enough due to a slight language barrier then did you write down clear instructions?
Assume nationality is relevant if you feel this is the case? If you think it's just slap dash cleaning full stop then either give clearer details now or give them notice and find another cleaner.

Flamingale · 12/06/2017 17:56

The reference to nationality is important here I think. Having used Polish buiders, the work ethic is strong as in they just cracked on with the job hardly pausing for breath. But they didn't tend to ask my views about doing things a particular way. It was only if I spoke up about something and say it in various ways would they do something how "I" wanted. The language barrier definitely contributed to it.

I think also that a lot of people are reluctant to complain if a job is not done right.

Remember OP that the cleaners are not doing you a favour. Their work is not reaching the standards that you want, that you are paying for. So no more pussy footing around. Find somone else but being fair to the old ones, give them a few weeks pay in lieu of notice.

GeneandFred · 15/06/2017 23:45

Get rid of them. I'm a cleaner and they are definitely having you on. Find yourself a new cleaner.

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