Trying out a new cleaner - what to tell her

[Echobelly]

We've been without a cleaner for ages, trying out a recommended one tomorrow and I'm awful at explaining things. What do I need to let her know? I know I need to cover:

• Where stuff goes
• Where all the cleaning materials and equipment is
• To let us know if there is equipment/cleaning materials she specifically likes to use, as I'm willing to buy (within reason!)
• What to do with stuff that doesn't have an obvious place (we're not a 'place for everything' house)
• Not to disturb piles of paperwork - they are DH's and he will deal with them... one day
• What we don't expect her to do - although she has sent me a message outlining stuff she doesn't do as a matter of course, all of which was fair enough
• Who is in the household

Anything I've missed?

What she SHOULD do! Be explicit. Ask her if it’s doable in the hours she’s hired for. And what to give priority to (for me it was kitchen, main bathroom and floors). Don’t think it’s obvious - better to set it up from the get go.

That's a really good point. Last cleaner prioritised kitchen and bathroom, and I'd say those are the priorities, we just don't have time to give them a good clean every week. I'll think about what last cleaner did and tell her those things.

I would give her a list of what you want you want done in each room and how often. So mine does the core tasks on every visit and then have a revolving four week list of things which can be done less often but it means they all get done every four weeks.

She is a cleaner, your list reads like you expect her to today up after you. They are different roles, although could be combined.

What's your expectation? She should also be telling you what she can do in what time frame and you should give her some priorities. As you say Kitchen and Bathroom full clean every week. Other rooms on rotation if you aren't paying her for enough hours. Deep clean of all rooms ever xxx?

I don't expect a cleaner to tidy - but they will have to move things out of the way to clean and objects become utterly invisible to DH if they're moved too far away, so I wanted to be clear to leave things very close to where they were. We've had some cleaners who put things away (in quite sensible places IMO) but DH sees it as 'hiding' things.

Anyway, this trial went well and we're having her start next week - she's thorough so will do an hour longer than our last one, but it was so nice to have things properly clean. DH can clean things properly, but doesn't do it regularly. I can give things a go fairly regularly but I just don't have the ability to get things thoroughly clean.