To sack the cleaner?

I like the sound of your cleaner ! She's confident , seems to think that you need sorting out ( maybe you do ? ! ) must like coming to you and is certainly enthusiastic . It sounds a bit like that Obsessive Cleaners programme ? I would give her another chance and if you still don't like her style , tell her you'll manage fine now thank you . Be nice .

This rang some bells with me. I am disabled and now work from home, I use housework as a workout to try and maintain some fitness and mobility. I have a fitness watch that records it as an activity. The house isn't immaculate, but it's not too bad at all.

Previously I worked out of the house as well as from home and the house was definitely not immaculate!
I have a friend who needed some extra cash some years ago and she offered to come and clean for me. However it soon became clear that she expected me to help her as she cleaned.

She was under great stress herself at the time and was often distracted and unfocused in her work - she used half a bottle of expensive spray cleaner in one session in the bathroom, covering every surface in thick foam and looking at me blankly when I asked her why, then apologising profusely.

Another time she left the bathroom mats in the garden and I only realised after it had rained, they had to be washed and dried by me - extra work, obviously.

She never put anything she cleaned in the kitchen away but left it for me 'as I knew where it went', even though I did show her my cupboard storage systems.

Finally, she refused to clean for me one day because I hadn't cleaned and tidied as I usually did, to make it easier for her to clean and tidy. We agreed that was it as regards her helping me.

We repaired the friendship gradually and are once again good friends, but it took a while.

At this point, I got a professional cleaner in who WAS professional, unlike yours. She and her daughter left my kitchen, hallway and bathroom immaculate in just one hour from whatever states they were in. They were fantastic. When I stopped my work outside the home I could no longer afford them, sadly. They were fine about it, they understood.

My lovely professional cleaner would never have humiliated me by taking before and after photos. She was totally focused and organised in her work, unlike yours.
She told me that she often cleaned houses in far, far worse states than mine. Which was no doubt true.

Let your cleaner go and get a true professional in, one who won't judge you but will help you to live your life as you want to and need to.

Are they before and after photos she plans to use to check up on your tidying, rubylady? She sounds more like your mother than your cleaner. You're not one of her teenagers! She comes to clean rather than tidy so I think it's sensible to tidy your things away before she comes to maximise the time she has for cleaning but it's ridiculous of her to expect your house to be as clean as she left it last time! I think she's in the wrong job!

What does AIBU mean, I'm fairly new on here and it takes me ages to decipher what some people are talking about DIL DS DD etc is there a code list somewhere

Try finding a cleaner on streetlife.com - you will then get people who will recommend someone who does their cleaning. I get most of my tradesmen from this site as its local and when the same name comes up again and again you know they will be good. Your cleaner sounds a nightmare and you don't really need the extra hassle. Get rid!

She would drive me crackers!

She should be doing exactly what you want, no more, no less - and as for taking photos
Treating you like a naughty girl whose mum is telling her off for messing up the kitchen after she's cleaned it!!

The clue is in the name - CLEANER
she is there to make your house cleaner, not you uncomfortable.

Poor you, and what a cheeck that rude woman taking photos in your house, and telling you what to do, taking over in YOUR home, get rid! say you dont need her any more, she doesnt actually need to know why, say you will try to manage on your own, far less stressful than having that mad woman around. Good Luck

Ruby,i ran my own cleaning business and would never have been like that with anyone, she is taking the mick. If you cant do it face to face do it by text and if it makes you feel better pay her for what would have been her next visit (i wouldnt), ask a friend to be there if you dont want to do it by text. YOU DESERVE BETTER.

I've always had a cleaner until I retired. Some stayed years others lasted a few weeks. YOU ARE THE BOSS! SACK HER!

AIBU means Am I being unreasonable.

Personally, I would LOVE a cleaner/gardner/cook.chauffeur, but on a UK state pension that must be ME .....sadly ! I try to keep the place clean, but it doesn't seem to be as clean as my French neighbours ...I think they must spend all day cleaning as their houses are immaculate ! bah humbug ! I hate heavy cleaning, as in moving beds, furniture, etc and turning the mattress and putting on a new divan thing, which means lifting the mattress up ! I am not a domestic goddess, and I really WISH I could afford one !

Mind you, my dad, when he was 80, was told by social services he needed a cleaner, which he had to pay for, as he had sold the family home and moved into a retirement flat ....he kept her for about a month, then got rid of her, and when I asked him why he said 'She moves things' !!!! I said that's what she's here for ....so that you don't have last weeks' breakfast egg cups still on the table, or a months worth of newspapers on every chair ....... He refused to have another cleaner and refused to let me or anyone else move anything ! When he died, we found he had hidden the meals on wheels in the fridge and gone to Woolworths or the pub for his lunch (not a catered retirement flat) .....the neighbours told me he always looked smart (he did) ...because I found thirteen, yes, 13, of those zip up clothes bags with worn once or twice clothing in, whilst he bought new every week ! bless him ...it was his money, and up to him how he spent it .....he enjoyed his life as it was and that's all that mattered !

Rosemary55- look under acronyms at the top.

My daughter in laws mother was cleaning for a retired hospital consultant for 3 years or so. He had an indoor swimming pool and told her she was welcome to use the pool on the condition that she did not wear any costume just nude. She often took him up on his offer. He has died and left her £450,000 in his will, so I assume she was a very good cleaner.

Or a very pleasing on the eye good swimmer

I am so sorry for being so blunt rubylady, but this cleaner of yours has really got to go.
To take 'photos of 'before and after' cleaning and then telling you to keep it clean is beyond belief and quite frankly an odd thing to do.
She sounds like a control freak and I truly suspect that she will get worse the more chances that you give her. She will try to take over completely.
Definitely report her if she is with SS or an Agency.
If she is a private cleaner, then get rid of her asap.
Something is not right.
Good luck.?

There are cleaning agencies who send round cleaners who work in the nude ( I think they bring chaperones with them) not sure what the hourly rate is!

This woman is taking advantage of your kind nature, if it makes you feel any better offer to give her a reference, all you need to write is to state that she was honest and reliable. Good luck.

If the cleaner thought there was too much stuff sitting around, as someone suggested, why would she think it was a good idea to start unpacking things?

If she had any problem with what she was asked to do she should have discussed it in a sensible way.

Glad you've decided to sack her, ruby.

She's been fired! I sent a text to ask her why she took the photo of the kitchen yesterday but she didn't reply. I then followed it up a while later with another text to say that I wanted her to delete the photo and that I no longer needed her as I had been on to SS and they would help me out from now on. I have had SS round recently and so I will just phone them or find another cleaner privately. She tried to phone then but I ignored it. She sent a text, told me that she had deleted the photo and wished me well. Onwards and upwards.

No, my DS is not a filthy slob, just a normal teen. We just decided that we wanted the summer to ourselves with no one coming in and being bossy like she is. In the meantime, like I said, my DS did do the hoovering and it was kept on top of. Obviously with him not being here now, I need someone to take over from him doing it.

biker lovely to see you back on, you don't seem to have been around much recently.

You did the right thing, taking photos was an intrusion of your privacy.

Normal teens are filthy slobs,it's part of the job description

They suddenly improve when they get their own places!

There is an ad in my local newsagent for a naked cleaner. £20 an hour.

What gender?

I use an agency cleaner on a needs basis. About twice a year I do a whole house deep clean and I ask for two cleaners for half the time I expect the job to take if you know what I mean. That way I'm not disturbed for too long by their presence. I've asked for two cleaners for two hours one day next week because I've had decorators in and a refurb of the bathroom. They come, they do as I ask them to do, they leave and I send the money to the company owner. Job done and it's nice to know the whole house is clean and fresh again.

In time I think I will probably need help on a more regular basis and she knows that so is happy to work on this ad hoc basis for now.

Good luck with your search for a new cleaner ruby. She was a very strange person indeed. Nude cleaners sound strange too!

I haven't read all the posts on here, but would just like to comment that both my cleaners (past & present - I don't need two at once!) have said they quite like things to be messy as they can see what they've achieved. But then they were/have become my friends. I know many people wouldn't think this was a good thing but it's worked for me

BTW I totally agree with Jalima about teens/young adults. Their own places are immaculate.... until they become parents! This is known as Grandmothers Revenge.