Paid cleaners

[Thriftnugget]

Be good to get thoughts….. I want to pay a cleaner to release me from some of the housework. I have had cleaners before. Most recently have found it really hard to find someone who will take on the kind of cleaning approach I want. I keep my kitchen and bathroom clean myself. It’s not hard to put the hoover round. But it’s the less obvious stuff that I’d appreciate having done. Dusty skirting boards. Dust &Cobwebs behind furniture. The drips and finger marks that gradually appear on and in cupboards. Dusty radiators. Etc. I’d really like one or two rooms properly cleaned rather than a whizz through of the whole house. Then next week another one or two rooms etc.
The cleaners I find seem to have a very fixed approach and do a “top show” clean with highly perfumed products (which I hate). Am I very peculiar?! Please advise!

I'm not sure about 'peculiar', but you are probably unusual in not wanting the cleaner to keep on top of the bathroom, kitchen and vacuuming, as most of us do.
However, it is up to you. I know my cleaner would be happy to do this, if you were clear about what it was you wanted. She is self employed and very flexible, as are many self employed cleaners.
It is just a case of finding someone like her.

Yes, I’d love to find someone like your cleaner. It’s that flexibility in approach that I’m looking for. One of my favourite encounters was someone advertising their availability, had a chat with her about what I was looking for and she gave me a mini lecture that I really need to find time to do those jobs myself 😂

My cleaner classes some of those jobs as deep clean and she will absolutely not move heavy furniture like beds etc. I totally get where you are coming from though I can do the top show easy enough but it’s the real cleaning that I can’t find time to do.

You could ask a company to do a spring or deep clean but I have had some extortionate quotes for that. I pay my cleaner extra on a date where she will do the bigger stuff but I will pull my bed out and any furniture ready for her arriving.

You absolutely should be able to find this. My cleaners come every fortnight and of course do the general cleaning dor that week but it's the fact that they clean the radiators and the fridge I love the most!!!

It might depend where you are in terms of availability and number of cleaners but I think as long as you are clear with what you want, it's fine. My old.cleaner used to do a monthly deep clean for a friend of dh's.

Somewhat comforted that my pov is shared!
@SavBlancTonight yes, me too on the extortionate quotes from companies. I do understand the reluctance to move heavy furniture, but I have wondered about the definition of cleaning services -it’s not really full cleaning without a bit of physical exertion and bending and stretching. There has been quite a demand outstripping supply issue where I live and I’m guessing this has shaped the market somewhat.
So, bank holiday Monday and I’m catching up with the cleaning 😏

Sorry,@BessieSurtees you were the one that mentioned extortionate quotes!

Another thought.
If you have specific tasks in mind, and can be a bit flexible in terms of when they come to do the jobs, what about "training" a teen or a student yourself, rather than going to agencies or people who are already self employed and have an idea about what they want to do?
As my Aunt got older, she still wanted to do what she could around the house, but she paid a neighbour's son to come in and do stuff under her direction (at first). It had started with a conversation about her wanting to keep active (when someone asked why she didn't get a cleaner) and she commented about finding it tricky to move the furniture / reach down to skirting boards / reach up to change a light bulb. The lad was wanting to earn some money but did sports on a Saturday and was finding it tricky to find work. He came round, she showed / told him what she wanted doing. Suited everyone.

@Thriftnugget She won’t move heavy furniture in case she hurts herself, she’s happy to do the usual bending, stretching shoving. She wouldn’t move a sideboard, a bed, a wardrobe, a kitchen appliance or take curtains down for example.

I had cleaners in weekly just to clean my floors and it did not work brilliantly TBH. We live in a modern four bed house, all hard floors downstairs and upstairs, carpeted stairs. At first the agency said it would take an hour, then they put it up to 1.5 hours. I u derstand there would be a minimum charge but I felt that 1.5 hours just to do the floors was bordering on excessive. They also didn't to a very good job, just a quick once-over. I paid for and told them I wanted a thorough job, but they didn't bother moving any furniture, not even a stool/table you can literally lift with one finger it is so light. or the kitchen bin. They door thresholds were completely ignored so there became a build up where they mopped to the threshold. There is very narrow gaps on one side of one of our toilets and you could literally see the line beyond which the mop did not fit and they didn't bother to use a cloth to finish off. All in all it was a slapdash job, which given the fact a I was paying for a whole 90 mins for just the floors, was disappointing. I also had to pull them more than once for using a traditional mop and bucket to completely saturate our oak, bamboo and laminate floors (the laminate started to lift at the edges) as they always 'forgot' where the ecloth mop was kept.
I didn't mean to go into so much detail but I suppose what I am trying to say is, in my experience anyway, even if you just pay for a specific job, the cleaners may not give that job any more attention than if it was part of a wider clean, if that makes sense?

I’m a cleaner. I would love to do a clean like this instead of the usual routine cleans or full on deep cleans. I really like doing the details but I’ve never had anyone who only wants to the details.
The only thing I would say is, if you want this type of clean then you would have to omit the routine elements like vacuuming and general bathroom cleaning as to do that plus the details would make it a deep clean.
Alternatively, you could approach it as a regular fortnightly clean but ask the cleaner to just do one room each fortnight so each room is deep cleaned on a regular basis while you do the routine daily maintenance cleans alongside.
I don’t move heavy furniture though. If I get hurt, I can’t work and I can’t earn.
Out of curiosity, where are you based?

I'm a cleaner and I have one customer who requested this type of cleaning.
It's not a problem at all, they're happy to do the general day to day stuff, I do the skirting, door frames, doors, handles, windows, tiles etc.
I can't see why someone wouldn't, what the customer wants and pays for the customer gets.

@HighlandCowRose glad I’m not completely alone then, thank you for sharing that. And @Fynoderee sounds like we’d have the makings of a great arrangement! Something like the deep clean of one room each visit on a rolling basis would be great. I probably overplayed the needing to move furniture part, I do get that moving heavy stuff wouldn’t be reasonable or sensible. I would ideally expect small things like occasional tables, lamps, chairs to be moved as necessary to do a thorough job. I’m in South Northamptonshire as you ask. 😊
@Katypp sounds kind of familiar. 🙁
What a great outcome for your Aunt and her apprentice cleaner @UsingChangeofName Not sure that’s likely to suit me at the moment, no young people come immediately to mind and more importantly I work full time so training someone in that way isn’t really feasible. Something for the future!

You have to take them round and show them exactly what you want done before you engage them. All cleaners I've had (not through companies) want to come and see the scope of the job anyway.
But all cleaners seem to have some blind spots! My best (quickest, most thorough) was a young Polish woman who trained at a hotel.

Hiya! I am a cleaner ☺️ I would suggest looking around the house the night before she comes and leaving a list for her to complete in order of priority. Where are you based? Then add a few ‘if you get time’ jobs such as cleaning out/organising a cupboard. X

Thanks @Rosebud98 , I’m in South Northamptonshire.

skirts and moving furniture etc would be classed as a ‘deep clean’ in many cases which can come at a higher rate. You need to be clear about what you want when showing the cleaner around