Does everyone have a cleaner except me?

Just a working class girl,so no couldn’t afford one if I’m home it gets cleaned!

I had a cleaner until the first lockdown.
She decided that she didn’t want to continue and I haven’t had one since.
My GD lives with me and she has been keeping things ticking over but we are getting a new one, we hope, after Christmas.
I really do appreciate it.

You say go for it nankate but £12.50 is a meal to a lot of people I don’t mean that unkindly but not everyone can afford that out of their pension

I ve never had a cleaner, even when working with kids I would never have a cleaner I don’t like housework but I would feel a complete failure if I had someone do my work for me
Neither would I like to have a daughter rummaging through my kitchen (I m sure she’s lovely luckylegs) but my daughters or son would never ever do that they never did it when they lived at home and wouldn’t presume now My eldest does ask me if things are in date occasionally, for instance one day she had toothache and asked if I had any clove oil I said of course and got a little bottle out of my medicine drawer She took one look and said I think you d better throw that out (it was 16 years out of date ???) she went and bought herself one and me one too, I still think it would have been ok

Sounds like you and your daughter see things differently Lucklegs I think she just wants what is best for you but sees it entirely from her own view point. Maybe you need to sit down and talk about how you want your home to be. Could you compromise by having a one off big clean with an agency once you have finished all the work you are doing. A lot of your time is spent helping your daughter so some help with house work would be good.

Oh dear, x posts. Maybe my idea would fall on deaf ears with your daughter ?

I don’t know If it would work for you and your DD luckylegs but if I was being admonished about the tidiness or whatever of my home by my DD, I would say to her that she was overstepping the mark by criticising and her manner was upsetting me and I would rather she stopped right now.
Would that work do you think?
I feel so sorry for you being upset. Please try not to let it upset you. ?

lemongrove I wouldn’t dare! She’s a very bossy headmistress and won’t listen to any back chat! She actually said I would tell her if I felt something wasnt right and it was for my own good!

We decided about a year back that we needed an occasional cleaner as it was just too much for the two of us. She comes every 4 - 5 weeks for 3 hours. We move most of the ornaments and bathroom paraphernalia before she comes, to make it easier for her.

We leave as soon as she arrives and go off to a pleasant riverside town nearby for coffee and cake. We visit their Waitrose and stock up, as well as looking around the charity shops. I always take my Kindle to read in the car or cafe if we finish our shopping early.

We really look forward to our morning out together. We come back to a pristine house. It is worth every penny and has stopped us feeling stressed about the state of things.

She also brings all her own cleaning materials.

It costs £12.50 an hour which is about the going rate in this part of the south east.

Go for it Luckylegs ?.

A older friend of mine has a cleaner but she went through her cupboards and threw away everything that was out of date leaving her with hardly any food in! That puts me off plus having to clean up before she comes of course.

Luckylegs I wonder how your DD would react if you gave her a lecture on how wrong things are in her own house?
Not well, is my guess.

I’ve never had a cleaner either, even when I worked full time. I think I would be like 3nanny6 and clean before they arrived. I do like the idea of a one-off deep clean though but it would depend on the company. A friend of mine was in poor health, couldn’t manage the heavy cleaning jobs and didn’t want to burden her daughter with the job so she booked a cleaning company and told them she wanted them to deep clean the whole house. She was really disappointed because they rushed the job and were only there an hour.

We just started using a hand wash cleaning service for the car and having seen the thorough job they do I will never clean our car again. We are also considering using an oven cleaning service though and somebody to clean the block paved drive, jobs we both hate doing.

Being retired and reasonably healthy and active I shall keep on with all cleaning and gardening until....I can’t do it.
The only thing ( luxury) I have is to have the oven professionally cleaned.

Thanks for replies. Unfortunately our daughter works full time and wouldn’t be able to do it for me. She wanted to pay me to clean for her at one time! She hasn’t really got anything to crow about as she has a cleaner, I do her washing and ironing, we pick her daughter up from school every day and they eat here at least three nights a week. She is fanatical about kitchen cupboards I admit whereas I’m not.

She gave me a real telling off last night, about decluttering, throwing stuff out, not buying as much stuff and the state of half the cupboard doors as I did half of them a few weeks ago. For my own good, of course. I’m fuming and have been stewing all night about it.

I flippin hate it too GagaJo except hanging out laundry which I love!

I don't have one but would love one. I'd even work a few extra hours a week to pay for one. Flippin' hate housework.

I had a lovely Latvian cleaning lady coming weekly for two hours , but she stopped during the first lockdown, I really miss her , she was so cheerfully and did more in two hours than I could do in a week !
I just moved from room to room as she whizzed around

Housework isn't my favourite occupation - I'd rather read a book! The cleaning gets done when either a) things are too dirty to ignore any longer or b) people are coming to stay.

Even so, I'm not convinced that a cleaner would necessarily do things to my standard (when I do clean). Consequently I wouldn't bother with one.

Our neighbour has cleaners as she isn't in the house all the year, having to live elsewhere part of the time. The cleaners arrive, spend about 20 minutes in the house and disappear again. DH goes in to check the post and plants and can't see what they've done, apart from leaving doors open or closed and messing up the post system. Waste of money.

Ask your daughter if she would like to do it for you? You could pay her less than a cleaner and it would stop her saying its not clean. My bet is she won't mention it again!

I’ve never had one but have been being nagged by my DS, DD1 and my goddaughter who all have regular cleaning ladies.
When we lived in Germany we were in a row of 4 houses. The German family had a cleaner, as did the Swedish family and the American family. We, the English family didn’t.
I booked an oven cleaning company once, and then felt guilty, cleaned the cooker myself and cancelled the appointment.
It’s just something I’ve always done, to the best standard I can manage.

Someone I used to see at work told me about a Christmas present she once had. Guests were coming to stay for Christmas, she was working full time, and the whole house needed a really good blitz.

He husband paid for a whole team to come in and do absolutely everything - oven, shampooing carpets, cleaning the windows, kitchen cupboards inside and out, you name it.
She said it was the best present she’d ever had!

I stopped the cleaner when I retired, as I thought I needed the activity it gave me and I quite like piddling around doing housework.

However if I live to a great age, I will probably employ another one.

I don't have one, but I am tempted to get one in after Christmas to give the place a good blitz, which I can then maintain. I manage ok, but I would love someone in to do things like clean the skirting boards, the edges of the carpets, the frames of the kitchen cupboard doors etc.

I have never had a cleaner. A lot of people do though, many of my dd friends have had cleaners for years... and she would love one but cant afford it.
I dislike housework so would really quite like one but i am retired and feel we should do this ourselves.
One day maybe, but for you luckylegs you are in the midst of decorating etc so of course your house is in a bit of state.

I don’t have a cleaner, never have. I won’t have one until I am unable or unfit enough to need one. While I am able and have the time , keeping clean and tidy ( enough) when there are just two of us is not a problem.