Do cleaners like to clean?

[FormerlySpeckledyHen]

If you are a cleaner, domestic or otherwise, do you enjoy cleaning?

I have never had a cleaner for various reasons, one reason is I feel bad expecting someone to clean up after me and my family.
To me cleaning my own home is bad enough, I can’t imagine being happy to clean elsewhere.

However, if I thought that the person was happy in their work I might consider it in the future as I age.

(All of which counts as "junior doctor" these days.

I think you need to overcome your internalised guilt at potentially hiring a cleaner, and not invent some fantasy idea that some people clean because they love cleaning and that makes it fine.

I'm under no illusions that any of the cleaners I have ever employed in lots of houses in three different countries were cleaners because they had a particular enthusiasm for mopping floors and dusting skirting boards.

They were cleaners because, in all cases, they were immigrants with no qualifications and poor levels of fluency in the local language, and cleaning worked for them while they figured other stuff out. In London we had two wonderful Brazilian husband and wife teams (one set handed on the business to the others when they went home) and in both cases one or both was studying. In another part of England we had a lovely older north African woman who had come to the UK forty years earlier when her teenage son unexpectedly died there, and didn't want to leave his grave she had never really recovered, or integrated, and her English was minimal, but she and I spoke French. Now (not UK) we have a Filipina raising three children by herself I'm encouraging her to try to develop her cooking skills into a catering business because she already cooks for some of the people she cleans for.

I worked as a hotel cleaner when I worked in the US years ago. It was brutal hard work, and again, most of the other cleaners were not white and were immigrants without many other opportunities.

The only British cleaners we ever had when we lived in the UK were with the big agencies (though you seldom saw the same face twice) or once, a nice, rather confused 20something who turned out to be a (very functional) heroin addict.

It's not unusual especially in places where house prices have increased and there are lots of holiday lets/ air bnbs. It's common In my part of rural Scotland too. It sounds better as a headline rate than it is though. As a self employed cleaner you often need a vehicle, insurance, supplies. It actually costs, on average, over £15 ph for an employer to pay someone min wage. Holiday pay, NI contrubituons, pension, payroll costs. When self employed all those costs shift to you. I've cleaned holuday cottages at £25 ph. I'm better off working for the local council at £12.70ph. Less tiring too!

My cleaners are 2 mums from the school my kids are at, who set up a business so that they could make money around school hours. Do they enjoy cleaning my house? I doubt it. Does it enable them to make some money while still being able to do school pick ups/drop offs/after school care etc? Yes. And that was their aim. It is doing them a disservice to not hire them simply because of your own internalised guilt. They are doing it for the money.

@NeutralIsland I found London very different from where I live now in the North West - I met very few British born people of any ethnicity doing any low-skilled work like cleaning, or working in shops. It's very common here. I'm in a city close to Manchester and all my cleaners have been white British women. Same with shops, hospitality etc.

OP like any other job some enjoy it and some don't. I don't know whether mine enjoy cleaning (I mean, how many people do their jobs for passion, not money) but it fits around school hours.

You seem to see cleaning as menial and somewhat degrading. But the working conditions of domestic cleaners are far better than many other minimum wage jobs (although mine are self-employed siblings so get above that).

Bad clients exist, of course but people who hire cleaners are generally houseproud and don't have a disgusting level of mess, like shit stains in the toilet. The cleaners come in and just get on with it - mine are often happily chatting while they clean.

Having worked in hospitality/retail myself I'd pick domestic cleaning any day over dealing with rude customers, cleaning customer used toilets, vomit, drunk people, physical assault, having to be nice and smiley all the time.

Why do they need to "enjoy" it? It's just a job- they need to be conscientious, hard working etc, like all other good employees/business people. Surely most jobs are done for the money- I don't think many are enjoyable all the time/a vocation.

I have a cleaner, I hate cleaning but would do it when needed and would do it for money if I needed to. I don't know if my cleaner likes cleaning but she does a good job. She has key and she usually comes when we are at work/school so she is alone in the house but if holidays ir anything we try to go out at least for part if the time she is there, or I'll be doing my own thing in another room to stay out of her way.

I had a very odd experience . I found a cleaner on Facebook who seemed too good to be true. She uses her own products, charge very reasonable . However she told me she loves gourmet dining and is clearly not doing it for the money. It made me a bit uneasy. I didn’t use her in the end as I just didn’t understand why you would clean if you can afford to spend £200 on a meal.
However perhaps she used the cleaning money to fund it. She says she works seven days a week and into the evening. All a bit strange.

Yes, a friend of mine did cleaning and gardening for money when her kids were small for the reasons you mention.

Mine says she loves it. She loves cleaning other people's houses and she loves cleaning her own.

She once said to me that nothing makes her happier than when her children come home from school to a sparkling house.

Bad clients exist, of course but people who hire cleaners are generally houseproud and don't have a disgusting level of mess, like shit stains in the toilet. The cleaners come in and just get on with it - mine are often happily chatting while they clean.

God this wasn’t my experience - I can honestly say that the houses where the owners were house-proud were few and far between! I saw things whilst cleaning properties that made me heave and had I not been so desperate for the money at the time I would have told them to stick it! And I worked in a very affluent area.

My cleaner says she loves cleaning.

I’ve had a few cleaners over the years … the better ones tend to like cleaning, think about the best way to tackle their work efficiently and take a pride in it, the less good ones not do much

Exactly like most jobs I think

Maybe I've just been lucky then - or it depends on the area?
I'm in quite a mixed area and good cleaners here are like gold dust. They can pick and choose clients, there are waiting lists for slots!

I’ve been a cleaner since 2015, currently cleaning for two different companies and I have to say it depends?
In one company, the job tends to drag as I actually have too much time to complete the jobs, in the other (caravan camp) I find it satisfying but it can be stressful because there are fairly tight schedules and it’s easy to fall behind. We have a big cleaning team, so people often do help each other, which is great but I absolutely hate feeling like I’m putting other people out like that.
I started out cleaning in a nursing home and really didn’t like that.

Other people’s homes? Yes.

My own, not so much.

Let me explain the difference.
I clean a client so house and I see it shining and tidy. I leave with that image and feel like it will stay that way. I feel like the client
will come home and be really pleased.

I do my own and immediately
see it come undone by my family and pets. Nobody notices when I clean or don’t clean. So I feel less inclined to do my own.

I go to a clients and get so much done.
At home there are interruptions. Washing machine will finish and clothes need pegging out. The dishwasher will need to be emptied. Cat will need to be fed. Mess to tidy.
I don’t have these distraction at clients homes. I can just clean. At home, I never get the whole house done and give up before I start!