"The cleaners are coming tomorrow, quick, let's make sure the house is spotless for when they arrive"

[u/VincentAdultman321]

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[u/AJ-Otter]

Every minute they have to tidy, is a minute they dont have to clean. If you sort the tidying and easy stuff, they will have time to get round to the annoying or icky stuff.

[u/maclauk → u/AJ-Otter]

Plus if someone else tidies you don't know where it has been tidied to. Much better to do that step yourself.

[u/SarkyMs → u/maclauk]

I have had to phone the cleaner in the past asking "have you seen the..."

[u/blahehblah → u/SarkyMs]

Have to WhatsApp message almost every time

[u/decidedlyindecisive → u/AJ-Otter]

Yep. We can only afford 2 hours per month. Once I made the mistake of letting the cleaner into my husband's office. He doesn't let me in there and it's super messy. It took her over an hour to dust that one room. Usually she dusts most of the house and cleans all the bathrooms and mops the floor in 2 hours.

[u/Gingrpenguin → u/AJ-Otter]

This.

They are cleaners not tidyers

How can they clean if it's not tidy?

[u/criminalsunrise]

As I always had to explain to my kids for years whilst they lived at home: "we pay the cleaner to clean, not to pick your dirty pants up off the floor"

[u/ReanimatedCyborgMk-I → u/criminalsunrise]

This is it. They're not manservants, they're there to professionally refresh the place. Picking up people's junk that they should be doing isn't in the scope of that.

[u/JSHU16 → u/criminalsunrise]

I also often explain this to the students I teach.

One of the worst times I've ever lost my temper was when a pupil littered and proudly boasted that they were "making sure the cleaners stayed in a job".

[u/SelinaFreeman]

As a cleaner, YES! I can only clean what I can get to. If there's stuff everywhere, then it's going to be a sub-par job and you're wasting your money.

I don't care what state your house is in - I'll absolutely do what I can within the boundaries of what you've asked, then leave. If you ask me to vac and mop the kitchen floor, but you've got boxes of stuff for the charity shop all over the place, I'm either asking you to move them, or working round them. We're not paid enough to care, or lift heavy stuff out the way, for that matter.

[u/twojabs → u/SelinaFreeman]

Our cleaner does a bit light tidying and I tell you what that is worth is weight in gold Vs the cleaning.

[u/SelinaFreeman → u/twojabs]

Yeah, if my back will allow me, and I like you, I will absolutely go above and beyond to clean.

I have a client who has her hobby display items on Every. Single. Windowsill. The time it takes for me to - lift each item, clean under it, replace it, clean the item. Lift the next item, clean under it, replace it, etc. versus just one wipe of a clear windowsill? Only that client can decide whether that's the best use of my time. If she had only one statement piece and perhaps a pot plant, on each sill, that would be far easier, and free up my time for doing other bits. As it is, I never have time to even think about dusting other areas, or skirtings, because it takes me so long to tackle these.
It all infuriates me, but she's paying me, so, yanno. If she's happy with what I do and perceived value for money, then...

[u/terryjuicelawson]

For me it is half the point of a cleaner. It is more the fact that all the clutter needs to go away and things got reasonably OK, then they can get things sparkling on top of that. Every other week all the crap in the house is sorted rather than building up forever.

[u/JSHU16 → u/terryjuicelawson]

I've never had one but I think the accountability of having one would help me.

I keep my workspace tidy so that it doesn't piss off the cleaners.

[u/terryjuicelawson → u/JSHU16]

I never thought I would but things sort of fell into place. I don't miss hour spent scrubbing things like the shower or the hob and it is always a deeper clean than I could ever get it too.

[u/ward2k → u/terryjuicelawson]

Yeah to me storage/organisation is something you do yourself, otherwise you'll have no idea where everything is

[u/Jimlad73]

Yep. They clean they don’t tidy so I have to spend ages getting ready for them!

[u/Longjumping-Act9653]

I’ve got it down to a 20 minute whip round now.

[u/-smartcasual-]

Closely related to the classic:

Spends four hours tidying before friends come over

"Oh, sorry it's a bit of a mess!"

[u/AlchemyFire]

I feel this one. Cleaners are coming tomorrow

[u/Charleypieohwhy]

You have no idea how much cleaners would love this as opposed to “The cleaners coming next week, let’s leave it til she comes” which is a far more common response.

[u/bod1988]

My boss at my last job used to spend over an hour cleaning before the cleaners turned up every week.

In fairness she did used to use the same cloth to clean all areas of the office and toilets, and would usually start with the toilets, so he may have had a point.

[u/BornOrchid6857]

In our house this is known as the BHT - Big Helen Tidy. For some reason the house has to be as tidy as possible for the cleaner.

[u/EfficientSorbet513]

There are two layers of dirt: surface level (eg spilled sauce) and germs

If you leave the surface level dirt for the cleaners, they’ll clean that but not necessarily the germs. So clean up after yourself and the cleaners will be able to clean

[u/Slinky-Sloth]

Cleaners aren't coming tomorrow...

...'sod it, i can't be bothered, a bit of extra dirt won't kill us' 🤭

It's not a home without a bit of mess and dirt! 😂😂

[u/Muttlly]

Literally, my mum🙄

[u/steepleton]

Tbf the kick up the bum to get yourself together is half what you’re paying for.

(Unless you’re a rich sociopath who just wants to lord it)

[u/bubbles_says]

I've learned to put away things i don't want her putting in places i won't find them.

[u/notthedoodaa]

Reminds me of the cleaning lady Men Behaving Badly episode.