All those of you who have a cleaner

[linzoid]

What chores do you expect from your cleaner? Do you expect things like the oven and the windows to be cleaned?
I have just got myself a new cleaning job in a 3 bedroomed, quite big house. It's 4 hours once a week, including ironing. Wondering what other cleaners do and don't do. As much info as poss please...........thanks mumsnetters!

anything you get asked to do.
but if they expect you to clean the oven and windows they have to expect you aren't going get much hoovering and ironing done those days

linzoid I don't get mine to do the windows simply because the window cleaner does them better and faster (and we have 3 floors and no ladder!)

I don't get mine to do ironing either, have someone else for that. Basically it's hoovering and cleaning with the odd hours spent cleaning out cupboards etc.

The main quality I feel a good cleaner has is initiative - ie do something if you see it needs doing.

My cleaner just generally cleans the whole house from top to bottom.
KITCHEN : Now and agin she'll clean inside the fridge, and every week she cleans all toips and the table, washes floor, cleans doors on cupboards, cleans sink, has a wipe round in oven
LOUNGE : Hoovers, dusts, empties wastepaper basket, plumps cushions (!)
HALL, STAIRS & KANDING: Washes floor / hoovers dusts pictures
BEDROOMS x 3: she always has a bit of a tidy in Lotties nursey, she just fluffs if iykwim. Hoovers, dusts
BATHROOM - cleans shower including washing down glass dooors with spray, clenas bath, sink and toilet, washes floor

She also uses a lot of descaler on stuff.

Will iron if I leave her a note asking her to.
Other than that I never leave her notes about anything I just let her get on with it.
I would never expect her to clean my windows,

its hard but you have to be assertive and say "well i can do everything youve asked,but in the hours i do nothing will be done incrdiably thoroughly"-if for instance they want you to tidy,clean,dust,hoover each room,mop floors clean cupboards,windows,do ironing etc.i started work for a woman who just had no idea,i told her i was happy to do all she asked and to a high standard but i would need more hours,needless to say i only did 3 weeks for her.like i say,im happy to do anything a client asks,including outside stuff,but i either need to be given more hours or let somethings go that week.i "do" one house where i spend 7 hours once a month doing a v thorough job and then just 2 hours each week.i dont care as long as im paid!!

my god i sound like a prostitute.im happy to do anything a client asks-as long as i have mr muscle in one hand and a duster in the other!!

Funny you should bring this up. My DH and I due to changes in our circumstances have found ourselves in a position to need a cleaner. We contacted a local firm (after trying all the usual routes) and they sent someone out this morning.

We had two cleaners for 1 1/2 hours (equivalent to one cleaner for 3 hours?) this morning, we have a four (2 singles one of these is DH's office and 2 doubles) bedroomed victorian house. All we wanted was all the floors hoovered & mopped, two seater sofa & chair hoovered, furniture & lights dusted, extras done in rotation ie, dusting blinds, damp cloth over skirtings a room at a time whatever they have time for and the bathroom cleaned, I'll see to the kitchen myself I only want the floor done in there. This is what I would expect in three hours (in their case 1 1/2 but there are two of them). They don't seem to have been able to achieve this at the moment we are putting it down to them being new to the house but the suite wasn't hoovered or even moved to hoover under, some of the furniture was smeared with polish, something that had been spilled on the kitchen floor hasn't been properly cleaned away, DH caught one of them rearranging the fruit in the fruit bowl (not a chore on the list ) and they have smeared some white stuff on the front door in some effort to clean it, something they were not asked to do either and they emptied their bucket of water in the front garden leaving soapy suds for all to see.

My only advice linzoid would be to concentrate on doing the basics well (unlike our lot this morning), I wouldn't expect my oven or windows cleaned and I think it would be cheeky of them to ask you to clean windows, my Mum has had many cleaning jobs over the years and finds it very difficult when she is asked to do windows as it takes up so much time. Basically along the same lines as pph, whatever they ask you to do but stick up for yourself as well, four hours isn't much time to clean a big house and do ironing as well. All the best!

Not oven or windows

No, not oven or windows.

We expect a general clean around (but we made it clear that we have fairly low standards!) and we leave out ironing and washing up too.

yes oven, no to windows. agree with pph though, agree with your clients up front what they want you to do. do say if you think there's too much to do in the time. i have always asked cleaners to let me know if there's too much to do - i do expect a thorough job done and am happy for it to take as long as it takes iyswim - but i rarely get any honest responses on this!

fwiw - i think 4 hours sounds slender to do the sort of job i would expect done plus ironing...

i allow 4 hours to do our house (3 bed) but not all rooms done (e.g. dh's study, spare bedroom) plus another 2 hours for ironing. like i said i do expect quite a thorough job done.

Yes to oven but no to windows. However I am realistic about how much the cleaner can do in 3 hours so if I ask her to clean the oven (occasional rather than weekly thing), I understand she might therefore not have time to mop kitchen floor IYSWIM

I seem to have the opposite problem here. I don't think my cleaner has enough to do.
She is supposed to do 3hrs a week, She mops floors cleans bathroom, wipes dowm kitchen, loads dishwasher, hoovers 2 of the bedrooms and generally polishes abd dusts, plus ironing.
I have been working from home on her day for the past few weeks and she actually goes after 2.5 hrs.
Is she taking the piss Iam paying her for 3hrs and she is leaving after 2 and a half.
Last week just over 2hrs.
To be honest her standard is appaling anway, Iam not even sure she touches the bath, several times i have come home and had to clean the bath myself after she has supposedly done it.
And she never moves the sofa to mop underneath or even sweep. I nearly choked on my cuppa when she told me last week how she accidently broke a clients vase whilst moving the couch.
The cheeky mare doesn't bother moving mine obviously Iam a total soft touch and she knows it. But its starting to really wind me up.
About a month ago i was off sick full of flu and lying on the couch with a lemsip when she turned up, complete with 2yr old grandson. I couldn't believe it. My own 3yr old was in nursery whilst I recovered yet she turns up with a 2yr old obviously not expecting me to be in.
What shall I do is she taking the piss out of me or what???
Btw Iam a total wimp.

My cleaner comes for 3 hours. Our house is 4 bed large victorian. Usually she hoovers and tidies the main rooms and cleans the kitchen and bathrooms floors (although she hasn't done the kids bathroom for a while). She refuses to do windows (actually its not that she refuses to climb any ladders - fair enough). Sometimes I ask her to miss out a bit of cleaning and do some ironing. last week she took piles of irining home with her and I paid her to d that. She also looks after ds2 if I pop out to get ds1- she's great actually, and we usually sit down and have cakes and a gossip (and no I don't take that out of her money!) Occasionally we've sorted out a room together. Sometimes she does extra hours. She doing extra for the next couple of weeks.

Jimjams, does your cleaner cover Exeter too!

Of course if I tidied before she came then she would get more done- but then my whole rationale behind having a cleaner is to be less stressed so I don;t see the point (and she tells me not to be so daft when I've mentioned it).

She;s also made the boys xmas stockings, sacks and cushions! What a star!

My cleaner does the oven without being asked, stips beds, sorts and does the washing, irons, cleans windows, she does the kitchen, bathrooms, floors, surfaces. Basicaly she does the lot, takes initiative and is a saint. If I were a man I'd marry her. We couldn't cope without her, and after chistmas she will start coming twice a week for 3 hours. Bliss! Ours is a largish 4 bedroom house. Oh and I get the oven 'done' by Oven Clean twice a year as well. They take it to bits, and it looks like new at the end. Worth every penny.

Charlize, I have the same problem as you. I usually am working on the days my cleaner comes. But last week I wasn't. I went out in the morning and saw her walking to my house, so knew when she was starting. I then came home after 3 hours, when she is supposed to be doing 3 and a half hours, to find her putting on her coat. I was so gobsmacked I couldn't think of anything to say. And she didn't seem in the least taken aback. I talked myself into the fact that maybe she did 4 hours the week before. Yeah right !!

For all you mumsnetters who are meant to be working but are really sitting browsing mumsnet, I think its hilarious that your so gobsmacked about the cleaner leaving early!

I kind of agree with you charliecat. I wouldn't do 3 or 4 hours of cleaning without a break and I don't expect my cleaner to either. We have tea when she arrives and coffee and cakes at some stage in the morning. She's happy to stay an extra 10 mins to look after ds2 while I pick up ds1 so it's swings and roundabouts really. She really is a godsend .

i'm amazed at those with large houses who say they can be done in 3hrs! a lick and a promise, eh?

as far as going early is concerned, i've got no problem with it provided the work is done... charlize, it does sound as though you are being taken for a ride to me.

haha, charliecat, still have to get my work done, mumsnet or not...

v true Charliecat

God no she certainly doesn't do the whole house in 3 hours. The state of our ouse it would take a week anyway. She hoovers and cleans the floors basically (not in every room) and tidies. But them I am no domestic godess and am happy for the stuff she does do. Can't afford her for any more hours except on special occasions.

I agree, I wouldn't mind her going early if the work was done... but its not. I don't expext her to do the whole house, There are 2 beds and a study she doesnt touch, And to be honest I really think she just gives the bath and shower a quick wipe with a flash wipe.... not what I would call a proper clean.
I would much rather she done a few things really thouroughly.
And no as hard as it sounds if Iam paying her for just 3 hrs of work I don't expect her tto take a break, and if she really feels she has finished and still has 30 mins left I think she should ask me if there is aything else to do.
Iam paying her 8pounds an hr as well as an agency that supplies her 88pounds every 3 months, so I don't think its unreasonable to expect the full 3hrs work.Its not as if there isn't anything to do I could find her plenty.
I know iam going to have to speak up but i have always found confrontation hard.
Charlie cat I see where you are coming from but If i was being employed to do a job for just 3 hrs a week by an individual i would no way take the piss by browsing mumsnet or any thing else.
Leaving work occasionally 30 mins early is no big deal when you are doing 9 hr days but to leave 30 mins early every week when you are only doing 3 hrs is pretty pathetic imo

Maybe she did the jobs extra quick! I know myself that depending on how i am feeling, sometimes i am full of energy and get everything done in less time, sometimes i'm knackerd before i start (bad night with ds or whatever) and it takes me much longer. It also varies how dirty the place is and i really have spent longer one day and decide that i'll leave earlier the next. I can understand you being annoyed if the place isn't clean when she leaves. I think a quick tea break is essential, cleaning when done properly is bloody hard work!
£8 per hour though...i wish! I get paid £5 ph! Which area are you in Charlize? I live in the northwest nr Manchester.