Does anyone have a cleaner?

[Shy_pretty_Angela]

I want to post my positive experiences here. So at the moment my mum is staying with me and I am not having a cleaning service as she never stops cleaning!
But due to mobility issues there are lots of things I cant physically do so about 2 months ago I hired a cleaner through a company / agency.
It was hit and miss with the first 2 or 3. Issues with working slowly or not doing tasks that I asked for.
However I finally.found a great lady who was quick with cleaning my flat and nice to chat too aswell.
I found it so relaxing talking to her as she cleaned the flat and nice to sit back and know the housework is being done.
Not too expensive either.
So the upshot is how do you.feel about hiring a cleaner for your home? Would you grimace at the thought? I think it can be a socially pleasant experience. It feels like you can chat to someone in your own home and be friendly with them.to a certain extent.
I was just so pleasantly surprised and would suggest getting someone in if you can afford it.
Again I had 2 hours a week which was about £22 to the cleaner and an.agency fee aswell.

[Jen.]

Yes. Unlike you though, I find it incredibly awkward to talk to her! She's been coming here every week for years and seems like a nice enough person (and she also comes round and feeds my cats whenever I'm away for a day or two), but I always shut myself away with the excuse of working or make sure I'm out of the house whenever she's here. I don't really know what to talk about with her, and if I tried I'd feel like I'm wasting her time when she's there to do a job, but that's probably just me.

It's good you get on with yours like that

[Sudoku]

I've had cleaners in the past and also worked as a cleaner as a Saturday job in my teens. They won't mind if you lock yourself away while they work. I always preferred being able to get on with the tasks without having to chit chat at the same time. Maybe ask if she wants to put some music on while she works?

[Consolida]

I don't have a cleaner because I guess I'm the cleaner here, but if I did have one I'm certain I would be rushing around the place trying to make it look more presentable before the cleaner arrived which would kind of defeat the object, lol :

If I could afford it, I would love to have a cleaner here every day to clean up after the cats because, as much as I love them, they are such messy creatures


It's great that you have a cleaner that does a good job and that you also enjoy chatting with, Angela. When I was a child my mum, who was working, used to hire a lady to come clean the house once a week. Eventually she stopped being the cleaner and became a treasured friend.

[Shy_pretty_Angela]

Yes I was obviously at home too as I cant go out. I do work from home and there was one woman who made me feel so uncomfortable. She kept laughing and talking to herself and then came into the bedroom and started saying God would heal me! That wasnt what made me awkward but she was wasting time chatting and giving me a sermon. Anyway she stayed 3 and a bit hours and then expected to be paid for a 3 hour stay when it was a 2 hour job! I was really pissed off with her and asked the agency to get someone else! I had 3 or 4 that just couldnt seem to clean my 1 bed flat in 2 hours....its so small!!

[BFG_]

Nope no cleaner at ours we just blitz it once every few months when we can't stand the mess. Working full time and looking after a house and garden is hard work especially during pollen season. I cut the grass last night when I got in from work I'm still sneezing this morning.

Maybe if we win the lottery we'll get some staff.

[Shy_pretty_Angela]

I think a lot of people think.its expensive but I think its all relative to what you spend on shite! ( at least for myself)

[Jen.]

"Anyone who can afford to pay someone else to do something they don't want to do themselves and views the task differently to me is a massive baby and anyone who doesn't wear smart trousers, a long-sleeved shirt and a jacket when it's 30C+ outside like I do is an absolute idiot too!"

[genovese]

Originally Posted by The Devil, Probably.

. Having a cleaner as an adult is basically an extension of being a child. .

Mine comes round to clean dressed only in lingerie. Wanna come round and watch?
You must be 18!

[Laurel]

I ought to get one.

[Dougella]

No but i worked as a cleaner when i was younger. I didn't mind a little bit of chat at the beginning or the end but otherwise i preferred to just be able to get on with the work, and to be given clear instructions about what they wanted done

[Shy_pretty_Angela]

My current cleaner is really chatty. I would honestly love to chat more but feel it distracts her! Then you cant stop the chat! Its nice listening to her cleaning though...especially the hoover and the bathroom when she is mopping the floor...not sure why!

[Sudoku]

"I clean up after myself, like any able bodied human should do. Having a cleaner as an adult is basically an extension of being a child."

Why? If you work hard and have the spare money to pay someone to do things you find boring, why wouldn't you? I pay contractors to do other jobs for me. Why is vacuming/dusting/whatever any different? I'd rather spend 1-2 hours working on a task that:

a) I actually enjoy doing
b) I can do more efficiently than cleaning
c) Covers the hourly rate of the cleaner, so another person is earning some money
d) Leaves me with extra money that I wouldn't have earned if I'd wasted that 1-2 hours on cleaning

Making bread is easy. Are you hand-making a loaf of bread every time you want a sandwich? Or did you pay someone in a bakery to do it for you?
Do you make all of your furniture from scratch or buy items from shops?
What about clothes? Do you knock up a pair of jeans on a sewing machine when you want a new pair? Or do you pay (usually underpay) someone else to make them for you?

[genovese]

"Between the ears" that you might like.

I'm not on FB but I saw a bunch of the posts. Haha great and very beautiful content
My avatar is a close up of Chester. I try and play with his ears as much as he'll let me

Okay back on topic, cleaning cleaning cleaning...

[Percy]

I wouldn't put anyone through the trauma of cleaning up after me

[genovese]

^ Especially after your latest Amazon delivery today

[Percy]

Originally Posted by genovese

^ Especially after your latest Amazon delivery today

[Your Mum]

I rented a room in a house a few years ago and my landlord/housemate had a cleaner. She accidentally walked into my room one day when I was bollock naked, just out of the shower (get a good mental image of that now). The full length mirror on the wardrobe door ensured that she saw everything. She screamed (probably hadn't seen one that big before).

[Shy_pretty_Angela]

She probably did it deliberately!

[Your Mum]

Originally Posted by Shy_pretty_Angela

She probably did it deliberately!

She's only human.

[Seagull]

Originally Posted by Your Mum

I rented a room in a house a few years ago and my landlord/housemate had a cleaner. She accidentally walked into my room one day when I was bollock naked, just out of the shower (get a good mental image of that now). The full length mirror on the wardrobe door ensured that she saw everything. She screamed (probably hadn't seen one that big before).

[choirgirl]

I'm more likely to be the cleaner than to have a cleaner. It is funny though that people expect you to be chatty.

[Appear]

@sammy is on the money. There are plenty of easy things we outsource that we could do ourselves - cleaning isn't any different. And if anything it's better for it to be monetised so someone else can make money from it.

We have two for about 1.5 hours every two weeks to give things a more thorough once over than our cursory wiping and occasional hoovering done day-to-day. They're £15 an hour each (and they're independent, not agency). They are more than worth it - they get through a lot more than we could in the same time and the house always looks immaculate after.

We both work full-time and would prefer not to spend a couple of hours of our weekends cleaning, so it makes sense for us.

Also, our cleaners have cleaners themselves (and I don't bloody blame them). It's a virtuous circle.

[Jen.]

My cleaner comes for around four hours a week, which would probably translate to at least 5-6 hours a week were I to do the same tasks myself since I'm not a professional and she works pretty fast. I've got far better things to do with my time than spend an average of an hour every day doing household chores, such as my actual job where I get paid more than a cleaner (so the time spent working instead is financially justified).

Although there's no reason to justify it anyway, when some people prescribe how others should live it's often based on nothing more than the justifications for anxiety avoidance they've told themselves. E.g. "I couldn't handle having a cleaner in my home, therefore it's silly to have one because..." Or even "I would feel too self-conscious wearing shorts in public, therefore it's silly to wear them because..." Adults paying other adults to do things they don't want to do themselves isn't like being a baby, it's like being an adult.

[LittleMissMouse]

No, because I would also do that thing of spending the couple of hours before they were due tidying up and cleaning everything myself on the basis of not wanting the cleaner to think I was a skanky mare.

[Shy_pretty_Angela]

Oh I dont as I cant ! They have to tidy

[Merritt]

I'm not terribly untidy these days, but would probably benefit from having someone mitigate dust and grime buildup every once in a while. I should keep on top of it myself, but I don't. 5 minutes into a bit of housework and I realise I don't actually care enough to bother (unless it's reaching shameful levels)

I can't get past the feeling that if I don't deal with it myself, I should just live with the consequences, especially as I'm at home all day. But others have made a fair point that even if you're physically capable of doing it yourself, it's no big deal if you'd prefer to pay someone to do something you find unpleasant/boring/tiring. People pay to have their car washed and have meals cooked for them, etc, after all.

Originally Posted by Your Mum

The full length mirror on the wardrobe door ensured that she saw everything. She screamed (probably hadn't seen one that big before).

Big wardrobe doors can be very alarming if you aren't used to them.

[AuroraSky]

I don't want the commitment of a regular cleaning contract, in case my finances get worse, but twice my place has been such a mess I have paid extra for a big declutter/ deep clean. Both times it was roughly £150 for 5 hours work and it did help quite a bit at times when I was very "stuck", but unfortunately both times once the clean was over I thought "this is great, all nice and tidy how I want it" but both times I let things slip again quite quickly. I should say that social anxiety isn't my main mental health issue, bipolar disorder is, so in some ways I know I don't function the way "normal" people do. Never quite sure if this is for a chemical imbalance reason or a "learned helplessness" one or a bit of both.

[Shy_pretty_Angela]

Thats the beauty of a regular clean. It makes it easier if you have one every week or so.
I dont know that I would have bothered if I didnt develop my illness but I feel so vulnerable like I was dropping stuff on the floor and not able to pick it up and my neighbour wasnt helping out. So I knew I needed some help! I think it depends on a persons circunstances!

[AuroraSky]

If you have a cleaner you think is doing a good job, you can afford it, and the cleaner is doing a task you would find hard physically to do, it sounds like a win and something worth making sacrifices elsewhere for. I have seen lots of people complaining about their cleaner not doing a good job for the money on different forums so sometimes it's not just "should I get a cleaner or not?" but "how do I find a reliable but fairly priced cleaner?".