HOw much do I tidy before cleaner arrives?

[halia]

I'm paying for a one-off clean before Xmas, they are coming for 2-3 hrs on wednesday and doing the 'communal' areas ie living room, kitchen, hall and bathroom.

My question is - how much do I tidy before they arrive? I've no problem with doing the tidying I'm paying for the skirting boards and windows etc to be clean not my papers to be sorted out! But we're in the middle of redecorating most of the bedrooms so things are pretty chaotic!

I was going for neat piles, and shifting what I can into my bedorom - the current dumping ground for all the stuff moved out of the rooms being decorated!

Any tips from cleaners - what the things you HATE people leaving around?

And is this a reasonable list for 2 cleaners?
skirting boards (hall, kitchen, living room, bathroom)
windows (kitchen, living room, bathroom)
floors mopped (hall, kitchen, bathroom)
kitchen worktops
kitchen unit doors
Bathroom cleaned
fridge and freezer doors cleaned
microwave cleaned
Sofa's hoovered/wiped with leather wipes

Tidy as much as possible.

yes, as it is a one-off, tidy as much as you can, away from the communal areas. 2-3 hours is not a lot of time.

If you leave things in neat piles, then do you expect the cleaners to move them around to clean? I suspect they will just clean around the piles (with you ending up with less cleaning) unless you tell them otherwise. In which case, you still get less cleaning because they are moving things around, rather than doing actual cleaning.

You need to specify whether the cleaners have to hoover/mop under furniture, like sofas, dining table, otherwise they may try to get away with not doing it.

Helping them to move furniture, carpets, if necessary, as part of the cleaning would be helpful.

BTW, I assume you are doing this for Chritmas. Because no point in doing a cleaning in the midst of re-decorating, but you already know this

yep it is for Xmas, and the rooms being cleaned aren't being redecorated (thank god!)

I have spent 2hrs today tidying and shifting things about, I reckon another hour tommorrow should do it.

There's actulaly very little they coudl try and 'avoid' they aren't cleaning the living room carpet - thats being done seperatly on friday. They are mopping all other floors but except for one table there's no furniture to 'mop under' if that makes sense.

re: neat piles, I'm not bothered abotu having the dining table (cheap laminate wood) cleaned or polished so I was using that to pile any books etc - I'm working on there at the moment as the study is one of the rooms being decorated.

I have said that its possible we may be going for a weekly clean in the new year so hopefully they will do a decent job and work with me on the best way to do it! I did warn them we were decorating other rooms so things were a bit cluttered.

They don't seem to have that much to do in my opinion!! Two to three hours is like 6hours cos there are two of them. I used to work in two's when i worked for a cleaning company and you get so much more done with the two of you. I would say get everything off floor and surfaces, windowsills etc., they probably won't move anything if it is there...an empty area will be easy to clean! Good luck!! Let us know how it goes.

Get everything off the floors and any furniture you want wiped or polished

are they not going to do inside the oven and fridge. they will have to hoover everywhere before mopping.also polishing?

I'd be surprised cleaners would clean inside the oven or fridge.

Oven requires specialist chemicals/techniques (there are companies who do it), or at least mine would!

As for fridge, the cleaning is one thing, the unpacking is another! Particularly for the freezer. To clean those, you need to run down your contents as much as possible, ideally. I would assume you would have to do the unpacking.

not doing inside of oven although not because its a specialist job -- fgs I did it mnyself last year!!!

Yes they will need to hoover or sweep all floors (one room 10x15 ft, one hallway, ine flight of stairs and one 6x6 bathroom)

polishing? you must have me confused with someone who has posh furniture??

So if...
all floors are clear of everything except table legs
any furniture or worktops I want cleaned are clear

can I expect them to move the sofa out so they can clean the skirting board behind it? or are you sugested they will literally clean round the outside of the sofa, or mop up to the table legs?

what about plants on the windowsill? (two pots?) surely I can expect them to be capable of lifting up a herb pot and wiping the windowsill down?

They wont mind how tidy it is but you'll get a better result if they can spend all of their time cleaning and not moving stuff around.

halia: "can I expect them to move the sofa out so they can clean the skirting board behind it? or are you sugested they will literally clean round the outside of the sofa, or mop up to the table legs?"

Move the sofa to clean the skirting board behind it? Not on my life would my cleaner do it. You have 2 (with lifting power) so you could ask them to do it but I have yet to meet one who will do it of his/her own accord.

"what about plants on the windowsill? (two pots?) surely I can expect them to be capable of lifting up a herb pot and wiping the windowsill down?"

Variable. You have to tell them to do it and if so, they cannot refuse.

okay well we'll have to see how it goes, thank god I've found a nice student for next year who will do cleaning/house stuff and occasional babysitting!

I would expect anyone over the age of 5 to be able to grasp the concept that cleaning the windowsill involves moving the 2 herb pots off it and cleaning the WHOLE sill!

I can see that some people may not want to move a sofa, I'll pull it out from the wall myself to make the point. (of course two cleaners can't move something that I can move on my own )

So what DO 'professional cleaners' do? I guess I was a bit niave thinking well I dont' have time to clean up before guests arrive so if I tidy I'll pay someone else to do the cleaning. Looks like I still have to do at least half the job myself.

(very tired and disgruntled here -- this was suppoused to make my life EASIER!)

halia, you would think that a lot of things are understood. But clearly, you have not used cleaners before.

If you find a good one, hang on to him/her for dear life.

Also, in terms of expectations, cleaners clean, they don't generally tidy or move things around or go out of their way to put things back in the same place. And they will cut corners. And they don't necessarily make your life easier, just make your house cleaner

thanks blueshoes, I have made out a list so hopefully that will help. No I havn't used cleaners before so I'm a bit suprised by what they will and wont' do, I guess once they have turned up we can have a quick chat and set expectations.

Sofas - specify you want the cushions removing and hoovered under.

Fridge/freezer - include wiping seals and inside handles. (If you have a dishwasher, just taking out all the door bits, and putting them in the dishwasher gets them nice and clean).

Presuming you don't want the outside of the windows doing?

Do you want everything moving from kitchen worktops and cleaned underneath? Makes a big difference.

Tiles - if you have tiles in kitchen and bathroom, specify you want them cleaning. They don't look really dirty, but once clean and sparkling, they look fab.

Lightswitches / plugsockets - dusted on tops, and wiped down on plastic bits.

Tops of door frames, and cobwebby corners.

Inside of pan cupboard (mine always gets marks in it).

I'd do the whole sticking a lemon in a dish of water in the microwave to cook for 10 mins before they arrive, loosens up the dirt so they'll get it really clean. Include the inside roof of the microwave - often missed.

Washing machine powder drawer?

Bins cleaned out?

Perhaps put less important things at end of list, and see how far they get. If you ask for more, you will probably get more. Give them an easy list, and that might be all you will get.

Can you tell I used to be a professional cleaner. I loved it! So why is my house such a mess?

well they've been and gone:

positives
all bins empited and relined
they did move sofa and hoover behind it
skirting boards cleaned
windowframes cleaned
bathroom cleaned inc toilet
windows cleaned (insides)
Microwave cleaned
worktops cleaned
hearth cleaned
Hall floor swept and cleaned
TV dusted

negatives
kickboards not touched in kitchen and floor mopped but not scrubbed (I can tell as there is a sticky stain still there and the corners arent' great)
lightswitches and phone not cleaned
non of the furniture in the living room cleaned - ie coffee table, tv cabinet and mantlepiece
sofa's not hoovered/wiped
high dusting not done - there's still cobwebs on the ceilings
bannister not cleaned
taps in bathroom still need a good scrub with toothbrush to get really clean/gleaming
Bins not disinfectated

all in all, for £36 it saved me probably 3-4hrs work so it was worthwhile. Now I've dipped my toe in the water I have a better idea of what I need to specify and what is important to me.

ie its important for each room to be REALLY thoroughly done and have less rooms done than for each room to be almost done.

I don't think I will use them again, not that the job they did was that bad but they had very definite ways of doing things and they wouldn't accept any variation - ie I couldn't negotiate a list with them.

I am paying my auntie to do a few hours a week for me - I'm giving her 7.50 an hour so she's looking pricey now lol. On the plus side, she'll do whatever I ask, including ironing! And she hoovered behind my sofas without asking the first week - and found a "congrats on your daughter" card (DD is 10 months!).

I would ask around for a recommendation for an independent cleaner. You can probably call the shots a lot more.

Oddly, having her clean a few hours a week is making me keep things cleaner, and making me tidy like fury on a Sunday!

I am the cleaner