Baffled by cleaners!

[Clio82]

Hi all,

I’d love some opinions, please on the cleaning agency I’m using. It’s been about three months. I booked 2 hours a week for a small 3 bed terrace (just me and my son).

First cleaner; nice older lady, a bit ditsy. Did a lovely job of tidying, hoovering and straightening up bedroom but only “cleaned around” things in bathroom and kitchen and frequently missed obvious dirt and rogue hairs. Got back from hols the day she’d been and she’d left dust, dead insects and cobwebs as well as food stuck to surfaces. Didn’t seem to be able to see it. Broke my hoover and used to chuck water all over the floor with a cup and then apologise for it being wet. Asked me to be honest with her so I would gently point out the bits she’d missed. I never moaned at her about the hoover cos she was so upset about breaking it. Even brought her husband over to fix it and he couldn’t. Changed her day nearly every week, which drove me mad.

If I wasn’t in, the job could be very poor. One week it looked like she had done nothing. I asked her about it and she said “yeah, I had a migraine, it will be better next time.”

Eventually kicked off at me after I asked her if she left a cup of what looked like cleaning fluid on the counter. (Someone did and my 4 year old grabbed it and took a swig before spitting it out, which was dangerous. Turned out to be diluted washing up liquid). Told me I’m obvs not happy with her work and it’s not her job to pick up toys. Added a couple of digs like “I bet you’ve had a lot of cleaners” and “your house is what is dangerous.” Quit.

I sent the agency photos of her poor work and her reason for quitting and they never acknowledged; just sent me a new cleaner (Cleaner 2), who was ill the first week and then couldn’t work the second week cos I hadn’t been able to give her the keys when arranged (cos she was ill and didn’t contact me when arranged).

Temp cleaner; amazing! But not available weekly.

Cleaner 2: does an excellent job of whole house and leaves it looking like a hotel. Says it’s a lovely house and a great job for her. But keeps telling me things are “deep clean” so not her job. This includes kids’ finger marks on stair rail and dusting skirtings. I told her the agency very clearly includes dusting skirtings as standard and she agreed and said “oh ok, must be my other agency that doesn’t.” This time she turned up with a young woman who she said she brought to him her. The job was good but not as good as normal.

She also pulled me aside and said the house needs to be tidier. My kid was off sick from school and I was working from home, so we were dishevelled, but nothing unreasonable. (I got up at 06.30 to straighten it up for her). One of them dumped a huge pile of dirty sheets and cloths on my dining table and left it there (which I had left in a corner near the washing machine as my next washing load. She knows I leave stuff there as I have told her.)

Is this normal? It’s becoming so stressful managing these people that I think it’s taking more of my time than cleaning!

It’s an agency. I pay them a monthly fee of £25 and pay the cleaner cash for her hours (£13 an hour).

I would look for some recommendations on your local Facebook groups. My friend only uses independent cleaners. I quite like the company I use and it’s just a small local company but I think it takes a while to find a good cleaner

My cleaners tell me they go to very affluent houses where they are left with the kids, dirty nappies everywhere, house v cluttered and untidy etc and they sort it all for them!

Oh my gosh! I would be embarrassed to leave a mess like that for anyone to deal with!

Me too! So don’t feel bad about the odd bit of normal clutter/ untidiness!

You probably ‘wasted’ money on other stuff that the OP doesn’t value, though.

£13 an hour is pretty much the going rate where I am. Would be happy to pay more, but none of them charge more 🤷🏻‍♀️.

2 hours is not enough for a decent clean of a 3 bed house. You need 4 hours especially if it’s a normal busy family home that’s not immaculate and they have to move round things a lot. I can understand why you are not getting the standard you expect.

I’ve been trying to find a cleaner for my one bed flat which is always tidy. The first ones worked for themselves, two of them came and said they would charge £30 an hour. They were here 25 minutes and left so much not dusted! The second was a lovely girl who worked for herself and, again, didn’t do the full time as she was in and out in 30 minutes!! She did the bathroom well but left so much not dusted that I had to go round afterwards and dust everywhere.

Both cleaners also couldn’t commit to coming a certain day each fortnight.

All I want is a cleaner who know that every second Tuesday (for instance) she is at mine for however long, is it that hard?

Just realised I can post images. I took these after getting back from hols the day first cleaner had done her two hours. We’d been at my mum’s the week before so had only been in the house of couple of days in between her cleaning days.

I emailed them to the agency and they never acknowledged them. Just sent a text saying a new cleaner would come.

More pics

I’ve had the same cleaner for about 10 years and had none of these issues. She comes round, works hard and cleans the house. However she was a recommendation and I employ her directly. I suspect this is better than going through an agency.

I think agencies tend to have less capable cleaners than independents. If you think about the pay gap between the two, the only reason to work for an agency seems to be a lack of initiative.

I paid my independents £15, but £17.95 is the agency agreed rate with £13 going on cash to the cleaner. It’s really starting to sound like an agency problem!

My DM was a home help (cleaning only) employed by the council many years ago , and there were things they could not do as instructed such as moving furniture and personal belongings, any ornaments etc to be replaced exactly where they were, not to touch money or jewellery and no cleaning windows, hanging out washing or changing beds .
They were not allowed to climb ladders , but it was surprising what people used to try and get her to do . She used to counteract this by saying she would have to phone her manager who would then make it plain to the householder what was acceptable . I think maybe the OP should contact the agency and confirm what is expected.

in your opinion its a waste of money to me it's not. its my savour and gives me back so much time to do other things. my sister has 5 year old twins and also has a cleaner every week for 2 hours. we work long hours time is precious and I also love coming home to a clean house it is such a huge relief and helps relax. if op wants to spend money on a cleaner than she can let her on.

You just need an independent cleaner and not an agency . Please be aware every client wants a Friday . If you’re happy to have another day it might be easier to find a cleaner, who can accommodate you .

Hi there I'm a self employed cleaner and work depending on individual clients needs.
Sometimes I'm asked to organise a cupboard or tidy a kitchen/bedroom. Hang washing, strip beds. Some houses it's the same each week, others it changes week to week depending on what is required.
I really don't mind what I do as long as it's a reasonable request within the agreed time limits.

I must admit to having the best clients, some of whom it almost feels like friends when working.

I always meet up first and discuss requirements, see the home and get a realistic picture of what is required.

I did work for an agency a few years back and felt it was rushed and you were often paired up with people who maybe had a different approach to cleaning or time management, and everything was rush rush rush as the company wanted to fit in as many cleans as they could in a day

I have had a nightmare with cleaners. I just can't find anyone.

Most recently I had a cleaner who complained that there were 'so many checklists'. I gave her a short checklist because my previous cleaner said she couldn't remember what to do and that's why she missed things! Incidentally she had not done the things on the checklist AT ALL. She also overcharged me because she 'got so confused'.

The one before that let me down 6 times on the run. She was a brilliant cleaner, perfect really, but she stopped showing up altogether.

The one before that said doing skirting boards and kitchen cabinets was deep cleaning so needed to charge me £35 an hour for the clean.

I had one a few years ago who literally just dusted and hoovered, so no actual cleaning at all.

The point of using an agency is that you are not tied to one cleaner. When you find someone that works for you and you get on with then you push to keep them.

You tend to pay more with an agency but that is because they do the man management for you.

Be clear with the agency what you want. What you can do in terms of prep and when you are unhappy.

I've had wonderful cleaners from the agency I use. I've also had some who for whatever reason don't work for me. I think you have to be cleaner what you want, what you are paying for and be prepared to pay for enough time to do it properly.

This deep clean thing is so confusing! My cleaner says things are deep clean that the agency says all reasonable domestic tasks are included.

Both regular cleaners have insisted cleaning windows (which I haven’t asked for) but haven’t wanted to clean skirtings and never wiped down cupboard doors. The temp the agency sent wiped down all the cupboard doors and said it was standard.

Yet another agency I spoke to did have a lot of basic things under deep clean and it’s one of the reasons I didn’t use them.

Yes, I was totally bewildered by deep cleaning. To me it would mean if things were filthy and so needed a huge amount of attention.

I do think it's better to find an individual rather than an agency, despite my bad luck!

Good cleaners are expensive and hard to find! You've noted that it's cheaper to hire a babysitter than a cleaner and that's been the case for years. Ten years ago when my youngest started nursery we paid the same amount for a house clean as we did for a full day in nursery! I've learned that to get your money's worth you do need to tidy the house before they come. Ours come fortnightly and we start the tidying a few days before and do it in small chunks so that the house is well organised by the time they arrive. Having that tidying routine really works for us and means that our house doesn't descend into clutter chaos. It's also not easy for a cleaner to do, because how are they supposed to know where you keep all your stuff? A good fortnightly clean means that we can get around a quick wipe around of the bathrooms each weekend, a quick wipe around of the kitchen each evening and spot cleaning of floors in between to keep everything looking reasonable.

Deep cleaning is a bullshit term. It never seems to mean things like cleaning the extractor fan or wiping down the fridge which I would expect to be included. It seems to be things like wasting time doing that weird unnecessary stamp in the toilet roll.

Had a nightmare with cleaners, and my problems are doubled because we also have work cleaners.

Still in a court process with one who stole from us.

Another took the bags of rubbish from 3 stories of our office building and dumped them outside the front door because she didn't want to go round the back to the bins. After the second time it happened and she seemed to think it was okay, we fired her.

I hate agencies but they're a necessary evil sometimes. One tried to be very evasive saying they didn't do a set number of hours, it was just a fixed price per month. When we worked it out it totalled £100/hour.