Am I being too picky about my cleaners?

[Crazyladee]

So about a month ago I booked a cleaning company to do a 2 hour weekly clean. I told them I am looking for cleaners to help me with specific cleaning tasks that I can't do due to my back injury. I am at home every day and manage to do day to day light cleaning but struggle with tasks that are considered more of a deep clean. They agreed and said "no problem" and all was well. It was agreed they would work from a list put together by me. When I compile the list, it's in order of importance and I've told them it's not a problem if they miss things off the jobs nearer the bottom (because they have ran out of time) in order to do the jobs at the top to a good standard.

They have been twice so far and each time I have felt a bit disappointed when they have left for the following reasons.. (these are from both cleans)

I asked them to give the main bathroom a good clean including the blinds. They didn't touch the blinds. They cleaned the main bathroom with a dry cloth and as I was watching TV from the bedroom next door, all I heard was the sound of a bottle being squirted. So no hot/warm water used at all.

When I asked them to give the kitchen worktops a good clean, they only cleaned around the toaster, because I found a big pile of toast crumbs underneath and behind the toaster.

When I asked them to give the kitchen/dining room floor (cream porcelain tiles) a good clean, they left it very streaky and they had only mopped around the legs of the chairs and table, instead of lifting up the chairs onto the table before mopping. So dog hairs and paw prints were still there around the chair legs after they left.

I asked them to give the kitchen cupboard fronts a good clean. (They are cream wooden units and were a bit grubby with fingerprint marks and dogs rubbing against them) When I walked in the room to get a drink, I saw they were using a dry cloth and glass cleaner for this job.

Stairs carpet was hoovered using just the pipe/ nozzle from a Henry hoover which created random horizontal lines on each step. So the corners were completely missed and dog hairs were not hoovered up in the corners/edges.

I follow a few cleaning accounts on social media who are very thorough with their cleaning and also a couple of traveller girls who are EXTREMELY pedantic about their cleaning, so I wonder if I'm being too picky because I've been so used to watching their work, or do I need to say something? Everything just feels extremely rushed and sort of slap dash.

I don’t think you are being picky. I would have a polite but firm word with the cleaning company.

1. No you're not being too picky. The examples you've given are nothing like a thorough clean.
2. The posts you see on Instagram of this kind of cleaning take hours of work. It would take 2 hours just to do 1 bathroom to the extent you see on these accounts.

I don't think you're being picky about the cleaners seemingly cutting corners, BUT you seem to have way too many requests/work for a two hour slot.
You really need to increase the two hour slot.

You are not being picky at all OP.

These examples are from 2 x 2 hour cleans. But I'm surprised you think timing could be the issue? How much longer would it take to lift 4 chairs up to enable them to mop the whole area around my table? And using window cleaner on grubby kitchen cupboards?

They have done a bad job.

I am a cleaner and I used to clean hospital accommodation after tenants had vacated.

you would be surprised at how long a deep clean actually takes, a thorough cleaning of a kitchen would take at least 3 to 4 hours depending on how dirty or big it was, sometimes longer.

having said that though yeah the cleaners you have are crap, not lifting things up to clean underneath etc is not good.

I’ve had some amazing cleaners but most are terrible. They don’t pull back furniture or beds to hoover, they don’t use hot water on surfaces, they use one mop and bucket to do the whole house. There’s literally no point as that’s not cleaning. I now do it all by my self scrub the floors by hand etc, looks far better. When a cleaner is good they’re amazing and worth twice what you pay them (only met about 3 who were very good though). I know a friend who says she’s a cleaner she wanted a job and I offered her a property I rent out good money that had workmen in previously, she refused. She can only do light dusting and mopping. Sometimes to clean you need to get dirty and scrub on your hands and knees, she wouldn’t do it but another cleaner done a good job. I think many people who are cleaners don’t know how to clean.

Notoriously difficult to get them to care once you’ve parted with your money, unfortunately.

Sorry OP, the same thing happened to me, became ill after move and wanted good house clean. They were useless.

Exactly. I don't start to tackle any kind of cleaning job myself without filling either a bucket or the washing up bowl with hot soapy water or disinfectant first. In the case of the bathroom, it's the sink and the bath, using that water to clean it and other surfaces too. I do use sprays to spray surfaces and leave them to work for a couple of minutes. While I'm waiting, I'll clean the mirrors or something else. I'm not a cleaning freak, but I was brought up to clean like this and assumed it was the absolute basics in cleaning knowledge.
I think I'm going to have to let them go and find someone else.