Is this disgusting or am I being fussy? (cleaner related)

[IrritableGrizzly]

My cleaner quite often buys things she thinks I need and then gives me the receipt. I don't really mind as long as it's not something really expensive, as I figure she's the one using them. However something she got recently is niggling me.

I have loo brushes in the bathrooms - find them quite yucky but though I couldn't expect her to get her hand down my dunny. Then a few weeks ago, she turned up with a different loo brush and asked me to pay for it - said the other ones were not very good. The thing is, the new one is basically portable - she uses it in all the loos and then when she's finished she keeps it in the bucket with all the cloths, sponges etc.

Am I right in thinking that it's a bit grim to have a poo germ brush mingling with all the other bits and pieces, or should I suck it up and stop being precious?

I'm a slattern - I could cope with 1 brush for the 3 toilets.

but NO NO NO NO NO to putting it in with the other cleaning stuff when she's finished.

Irritable, I used to live in Asia, and would say that general education about hygiene is very limited. I realise this is a generalisation, but it's not really part of education in many countries, and there are few government health campaigns. Unless you are very strict you are putting your whole family at a high, high risk of contracting hepatitis etc.

Do the colour coding, buy whole sets of cleaning equipment in each colour and put them in a plastic box of the same colour, and label everything in the right languages with where they are to be used for. Go through this in detail with your cleaner and get her to repeat back to you all the details so that you know she understands. This is so important - some colleagues of mine had a hepatitis family disaster for exactly this reason.

Also be really careful about food hygiene. We used to have a housekeeper who cooked for us. I discovered she was buying a massive bag of chicken from the market and freezing it. Then defrosting all of it to take some pieces and putting in all back in the freezer, over and over again. She just had no clue at all about basic food hygiene, so I had to teach first principles.

pink for sink, blue for loo! .....just thought i would add my bit

I've been itching to say what Startingagain just did - it's not only the brushes that could contaminate.

Does she use the same cloth to clean the loo seat and handle as she does to wipe the taps and (God forbid) the toothmugs?

A cloth should be used once and then thrown in the wash, fresh ones for each bathroom, and a separate cloth for each loo.

If you keep enough supplies in each room she won't have to carry the stuff around with her, or go back to another room to change cloths.

And you have to wonder about mixing bleach with other chemicals too. Was any bleach involved in the toilet cleaning? Was there bleach in the bucket with the other cloths, etc.? Either she used bleach for everything and so avoided mixing chemicals and the possible disastrous results, or didn't use any bleach at all, in which case everything was swimming in germ soup.

When I cleaned professionally (for about four weeks one summer), the real professional housekeepers gave us all colour coded J-cloths, and I still remember which was for what. As follows, the official way to clean:

blue - loo
pink - sink, i.e. bathroom
green - cuisine, i.e. kitchen
yellow - this must have been for floors and skirting boards as I remember spending a lot of time wiping skirting boards, but I can't work out how on earth you can make that rhyme with yellow.

Could you maybe buy those disposable wipes? flash, dettol or whatever?

Was just about to suggest that snala.
I know it's not very eco-friendly but I use disposable Flash/Dettol wipes for the loo. Everything else I do with cloths.

Grendels Mum, that's great, I'm going to copy that.

You can get Eco-friendly disposable wipes as well.

OP - could you clean the loos yourself? I'm not a member of the who-needs-a-cleaner brigade, I just think that under those circumstances I'd rather do the loos myself (and without any brushes).

You could always do the daily 'swish and swipe' a la flylady, takes a couple of mins.

You know, I think that may be the best idea; just do it myself. The thing is domestic help is very inexpensive here - most people have live-in maids (I'm an oddity for just having a weekly cleaner!), but what's the point paying someone if you're not happy with what they do?

So, on that note, OurLady, can you give me a quick idea of what this swish and swipe involves? Thanks!

I don't understand why loo brush is in the same bucket as the cloths. Don't you use clean cloths each time she comes? If the loo brush goes in a bucket with dirty cloths ready to be washed/thrown away whats the problem?

When she leaves, can you not just fill a bucket with hot water and bleach, then leave it til her next visit?

New cloths and loo brush every clean? That's highly wasteful and unnecessary as long as the cloths are rinsed through properly (and have no contact with the loo brush).

I think the problem is that the loo brush is lying in the water with the other cloths which are then used for cleaning the kitchen and other areas. Germs are being transferred from the loos to the rest of the house via the shared bucket. It's not a case of everything ending up there just before being thrown out.

So she cleans the loo first? I always clean the loo last but then I don't have a loo brush, I have blue & white strip scouring sponges, clean loo pan and throw away

Swish and Swipe: .

Warning: no rubber gloves!

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