Does anyone else run around like a scalded cat before the cleaner comes?

My sister whos a hard working district nurse has a cleaner one day a week if her day off is the cleaners day she travels 120 miles to have brunch with me cos she feels embarrassed .

I've never had a cleaner. I'm not particularly house proud, but live alone and clean when I feel like it - which is when I notice the dust.
You couldn't pay me enough to get me to clean other peoples' houses!

fennel you do realise the minimum wage is £9.18 ph and the “living” wage is £9.50? Poor (in every sense) cleaner if they are only getting £8.

My cleaner is a very smart lady, she was in a professional position before she had her children, and then decided to become a cleaner.
She comes in a smart uniform and with a big smile , and is very thorough.
Downside, nurseries closed for covid, childhood illnesses, but I’m prepared to put up with that.

Me and OH always shared the cleaning and gardening but when we moved into this newly renovated apartment last year he insisted on finding us a cleaner. I was a bit miffed. What’s wrong with my cleaning? I am blessed with reasonably good health but with high blood pressure, not keen on using a step ladder or bending down to clean skirting boards. I always found dusting a chore and never got the hang of it. It just seemed to spread to another area even with a wet cloth. We now have a lady who charges £12.50 per hour using our equipment as she comes by bus. We round up the money and remember Easter eggs etc. I just tidy before she comes and she always checks the oven so it’s immaculate. I change the bed with help from OH as broken arm and shoulder held me up for a while and prefer to do our ironing. I bought a rather heavy iron but notice my shoulder is getting stronger. I don’t want to give up doing everything physical. We also have a gardener who is 80. Just because the landlord filled the coal shed with junk so we have no room to store a lawnmower. Things may change as so much “stuff” being loaded on EBay. That’s my specialty. LOL.

Nahsma - yes, I know. But we pay her much more than that. Just ask her not to broadcast it. And more "in kind".
The £8-10 ph was mentioned to me by someone I know, and I assumed it was common.
And I heard this morning from another friend that a local person has set herself up as an agency and also charges a fee.
Having said all that our cleaner has got another job in a factory which pays much more than her cleaning jobs. but it's only once a week which she alternates with her sister.
She's from Romania and has 2 children, worried about her parents still there. So we do try to look after her.

There was a time after my first husband left me that I was so short of money, even though a solicitor - young solicitors in the provinces, as I was then, don’t earn huge amounts - that I seriously considered taking an early morning office cleaning job to help pay the bills. In the end it didn’t happen but it was all I could think of. I have the greatest respect for people who make their daily crust by cleaning other people’s lavs.

May I just ask, how do you feel about security? Do you all trust your cleaners? Do you lock away valuables or paperwork eg bank statements etc. Do you check on references or what? I have never had a cleaner but seriously considering it now as finding several tasks really difficult now.

We always keep private papers in a locked desk. I don’t know what sort of valuables you might have but any nice jewellery or cash I would lock away too. It doesn’t have to be obvious that you’ve done so. My concern wouldn’t be so much a light fingered cleaner as a gossipy cleaner who has dodgy friends.

I don’t lock anything away, but I don’t think I’ve got anything worth stealing.
I admit, I’ve decided not to give her a key, I just wait for her to come and she drops the latch when she leaves.

I had to have help about ten years ago when I was 89 and found a lovely lady who would also drive me to hospital. After five years she had look after her elderly father. Then through “Next Door Neighbours” another lovely lady. She comes every morning for an hour or so not only to clean, wash up, supervise my showering and living in the next street is on call if I should have a fall, etc. Drove me thirty miles each way to hospital for treatment when I had cancer. Recently my previous lady became available so they alternately look after me.. l pay £16 an hour with which they are happy.

grannyactivist
If I am employing /paying for a cleaner then chance what anyone thinks as am happy to sit with coffee in my hand while the cleaner gets on with the cleaning
The cleaner can then join me also with a coffee as they will have earned it.

We started having a cleaner when I broke my ankle badly some years ago and never stopped! We always tidy before she comes. We pay £15 an hour which seems to be the going rate here. I would never expect her to clean poo stripes off the loo or clean the shower traps. Bad enough doing your own!

I used to have one for years when I worked. We locked the study where my husband's papers were, she didn't mind ,one less room to clean. She even looked after the girls when they were off school and I wasn't. It was extra pocket money for her.
I would say get one from an agency or on a friends recomendation. After my gem retirred the next one lost my key in a cemetry!!! It didn't have my name on just a code but for security I did have all the locks changed.
I must admit I felt uncomfortable when I was on holiday and it was her day so I usually took DD's out for a treat.
My mum longed for a cleaner to 'Scrub her steps", she was disgusted when she found out what mine was doing and thought I was lazy.

My daughter had a cleaning business and said her customers varied wildly from the really dirty to those who cleaned before she got there. The most annoying thing she found was the "can you just do...." adding another job to her list that had to be fitted in the time scale. In the end she said yes I can do that but I will have to leave the bathroom/ironing.

NO, he lives here.
Don`t want to take the job off him.

I working cleaning for a care home - £10.50 an hour. I also temporarily cleaned a private home to cover another cleaner for a few weeks and that was £17 an hour. I wouldn’t do private cleaning for under £15 an hour as that is the going rate (and I would expect the supplies to be provided).

Well here I am to say it was worth the extra tidying.

My house is fairly uncluttered, but The Wonderful Man is really quite messy and leaves a trail of debris behind him - so I took all his stuff up to the garage (yippee ?) and put away any stuff that was laying about so the cleaner had direct access to all the surfaces and floors - and she’s done a cracking job. ?

I tidy up. My cleaner comes for two hours a week and I want her to clean surfaces, not put away things. In those two hours she cleans my sitting room, kitchen, stairs and bathroom. I’d love to tell her to leave her phone in her handbag as she seems to spend half an hour on the phone and another half an hour in the loo! When I tell her to please make sure she cleans the basin plug hole, it has a trap that collects gunk) I get told, “I’m only here for two hours!”. My house is tiny, btw and I have myself cleaned for a while between jobs.

I wouldn't want a cleaner for that very reason. I'd be way too embarrassed by what they would find.
When I was a teenager my mum employed a cleaner. Every week she rearranged things in my bedroom so on 'cleaner day' I would race home from school to put everything back. I hated her! It wasn't that she randomly moved things, but my ornaments and bits and bobs were always moved to what she obviously thought were better places - always the same ones! It still makes me furious to think about it all these years on!

Jocork
My twelve year old granddaughter is exactly the same, she hates her stuff being moved.
She moves all my stuff around as well, to where she obviously thinks is better, I just move it back.

We had a cleaner when I worked full time and she was a local lady brilliant job .But she stopped working due to ill health.We tried several others did a terrible job .
We moved to a bungalow with a huge tiled kitchen diner and utility got a cleaner as couldn't manage it .She didn't clean the floors just hoovered the living room etc and ate our biscuits in the kitchen ! So struggle by doing it myself now

Years ago I used an agency, one girl kept bringing her child, one I set little traps for, to see if she actually moved anything, she failed. Then they sent me two at a time, they didn’t realise my teenage daughter was at home once, turned up late, left early and watched a lot of television.
Eventually they sent me a lady they had just employed, and she was a marvel, we had a very happy relationship/friendship for about ten years till I’ll health forced her to retire.
In you get a good one, you’re very lucky.

When our 3 children were young and I was working full time I thought a cleaner would be a boon, and she was. But the night before she was due I'd coax, bully or bribe the kids to tidy their rooms, which they could do in a flash, suspiciously fast in fact. Roll on 25 years, children left home and house sold for our downsizing. The last place to clear out was the loft where I had scarcely ever visited before. And behold! Horror of horrors and lots of self-blame....a dozen or more cardboard boxes full of jumbled long-forgotten kids' bedroom stuff!

My cleaner comes fortnightly. I tidy so floor and surfaces are possible to clean.