Cleaner- are my expectations too high?

[1976a]

For the first time in my life I have invested in a cleaner. Three hours, every other week. £75.
house is big and she started with a deep clean. All bathrooms and kitchen have been done. Nothing else has been done as she likes to completely finish a room and so if she can’t, she won’t start. Thus means I lose between 20-30 mins and each time when she leaves. She will not pick up anything so today my son had left 2 towels on the floor and a toilet not flushed that I forgot to sort before. She refused to go in and do this bathroom was not cleaned.
am I being unreasonable, are my expectations too high? Surely for the rest of the time she could run a vacuum round I tol
time is up. I now have to finish the job after being in work all day. I also now need to clean my son’s bathroom after she left early. She takes the money without a mention of poor timekeeping.

is she taking the pee a bit? I’ve been a. Walkover haven’t I?

other slight issues, floors are not mopped, cobwebs hang in bathrooms even though they are deep cleaned, hairs are in the shower.

id appreciate your thoughts as this was supposed to be life changing for me after years of mental
illness but it does not feel great, rather a big disappointment

She doesn’t sound that great really, I’d let her go and look again! I just had to let my cleaner go, she’s so so lovely but jus did a bit of a hit and miss job, some things would be immaculate and some looked like my four year old cleaned them 😬

Same here. I’m crap but feel u could do a better job. She is very expensive too which I wouldn’t mind if she was excellent

No she sounds rubbish. If you want, I would talk to her about what you'd like doing each time. For me, it would be a full clean of the bathrooms/kitchen. Dust and hoover. Cobwebs are a no brainer, takes seconds. Explain you will aim to leave it tidy but appreciate if she could use her common sense and pick a towel up and clean the bathroom!

If you dont want to , tell her its not working for you and find someone else.

I would actually give it a trial run yourself and decide what you need doibg, then add extras if theres time. Work out how much you can get done in 3 hours.

The leaving early is not ok. Can do something. £75 is top whack for 3 hours so I’d lol for someone else. For what it’s worth. I have 15 hours every week. 3 hours every second a week doesn’t seem reasonable or realistic for a big house.

How many bathrooms do you have?
I agree with the above poster about checking what is plausible in 3 hours.
And also agree if you are paying for 3 hours they shouldn't leave early.

I agree with all this. 3 hours isn’t enough especially if the rooms are in need of a deep clean to start with.

Is this a typo? You pay for 15 hours of cleaning a week?!

I have a cleaner that does 3 hours bi-weekly.

Obviously it depends on the size of your house but, in that time, she cleans 2 bathrooms very well, kitchen (inc the floor), hoovers the whole house and dusts. We do tidy up the night before but she does do a little tidying in the kitchen or picks up random toys she finds on the floor. She always stays for 3 hours, or 2 hours 50 minutes if she finishes everything early.

I pay £67.80 by the way. I do live in a "posh" area though.

I used to have a housekeeper. She was an angel. She did basic cleaning but also tidied up the house, washed and folded clothes, changed our bed-sheets etc and she was cheaper so she came every week and she did an amazing job. I still miss her.

£75 is so expensive for 3 hours.

Our cleaner is £13.50 an hour and is fantastic. We pay an agency fee too but it doesn't amount to £75 per clean, even with that added in.

For what you're paying she should be able to pick up a towel and flush a toilet. My cleaner would do that without batting an eyelid.

I would talk to her and if it doesn't improve, find someone else.

Thanks all, I agree with you. The house is big and messy so we were taking it room by room. The issue wasn’t this as three hours is not enough to do it all and this was not agreed, but it is plenty for three bathrooms (don’t need a thorough bottoming) and a kitchen. The issue is attention to detail, leaving early and paying £75 for a not great job. I think I’ll have her once more as she is booked in, and be more specific and then let her go if I’m not completely satisfied. I just think she’s a bit cheeky and I’m stupid enough not to pull it up

Towels on the floor and an unflushed toilet is a bit much but she should absolutely use her time elsewhere.

£13.50?! That’s barely over minimum wage, how do they even make a profit.

She doesn't sound great. Imagine refusing to clean a bathroom because of a towel on the floor and an unflushed toilet left by a child?

I guess you need to speak to her about exactly what you want done and see if she can do it in the time. But her attitude doesn't sound encouraging.

She sounds crap. She’s being paid to clean for a specific time period, she should be staying for that time and doing what she can in that time. She’s taking the piss.

Yes 15 hours a week. Not a typo.

She comes 3 days a week for 5 hours each time. Cleans and keeps our dog company when we at work. Likely it’s only 4.5 hours of cleaning and 0.5 hours dog walking. Dog still on own a bit but he is ok with shorter periods.

She does all the laundry, empties dishwasher, all cleaning hoovering dusting etc. If only had 3 hours cleaning a week I’d be cleaning every evening and at weekends.

Why can’t your son flush his own waste away & hang the towels up; or you?
you sound like filthy people.

It's through an agency

^ this.

If a child is old enough to shower by themselves and use towels they are old enough to not dump them on the floor. Not flushing is disgusting. Mine were taught from a young age, lid down, flush, lift the lid, check the toilet before you wash your hands as you might need to put your hand down the toilet. Is it as clean as before you used it? If not clean your mess up. Wash your hands thoroughly.

As my sister once pointed out to my niece about her room not being hoovered, Sandra is a cleaner, she cleans, she does not tidy up after you or anyone else.

I do agree that leaving early is not good and I would talk to her about only paying her for her time or that she stays and at least starts another room.

You sound very unkind and unpleasant. I didn’t ask for a critique of my family’s habits, rather advice about the cleaner’s pay, timing and value for money and simply if my expectations were too high. You have no fucking idea what families are going through/ have been through to get to this point so I’d ask you to keep your nasty opinions to yourself. Ugly

I am also wondering if my expectations are too high with my cleaner!
She cleans fortnightly at £85 per clean and she has two other cleaners doing the job with her so 3 people in total. Sometimes the clean is done in as quickly as 40 minutes (its a 4 bed house). Overall the cleans are quite hit and miss, things like dusting of skirting boards are never done and floors never seem exceptionally clean

I've never been able to find a good cleaner, so have stopped trying.

I’d hope she’d use remaining time to run a hoover around or sweep high traffic areas at least. If there is plenty else to do she can miss areas you have not tidied such as towels on the floor, were you present so could have just gone in and picked towels up and flushed the loo yourself.

It's a physical impossibility to clean a 4 bed house in 2 hours. Nothing will be done to any kind of standard in that time and if you're expecting skirting boards etc in 2 hours then yes, your expectations are not realistic. The cleaners should be able to tell you this though so there's no disappointment on either side.