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

No, I am the cleaner!

I have never had a cleaner before but I’m recovering from a hip replacement and I have as a favour my son and DiL ‘s cleaner for 1.5 hrs a week for £20! after cleaning for them . It’s just for 5 weeks , but was a bit mortified when she said she would do my shower with “special “ stuff next week ! I did tidy up a bit but can’t do much else . She just does all the floors , bathroom , kitchen and changes my bed for which I’m very grateful . Next week I think I will be able to flick a duster round !!

In the days when I worked and I had a cleaner, yes I did.

Tidying is fine but cleaning ? Before the cleaner comes ? No way,

No I don't clean before she comes but do tidy so she can get on with the main part.
Hardly dare mention the pay rate here - £8-10 an hour. And if you pay more the word gets round and you're not popular!

No I don't do it as he is here all the time anyway.

Sparklefizz - I know! ? Yesterday she did a three hour ‘maintenance’ clean for a man with a learning disability that I support - and charged £60 for that! (Though I have to say she earned her money.)

Cleaners here usually charge £15 an hour, but the laws of supply and demand are in their favour as it’s a seaside town with a high number of retirees. I was the ‘lucky’ one who responded to the cleaner’s online advert the quickest - followed by about thirty others who weren’t so lucky. She had three vacancies coming up and I grabbed all three; for me, my parents-in-law, and the man I mentioned above.

A friend of mine is a Dental Nurse who earns pennies over £10 an hour and she’s planning on cleaning on her days off.

No, apart from emptying the kitchen bins.

Not really, I just tell DH to put away his left out "rubbish" before she comes.

I don’t have a cleaner but I’m sure I would clean before she came. Otherwise she might gossip about me to her other clients.?

grannyactivist £35 for 2 hours? Crikey! I hope my lovely cleaner doesn't read that as I could never afford her at that rate.

Perfectly reasonable to tidy the place so the cleaner can get cleaning. Makes better use of her time.

I have never had a cleaner, but do have a chap clean my oven every 6 months. I always clean it before he comes.

When I was working full time, my cleaner came on a Thursday. My four kids (and any houseguests) would tidy up very well on a Wednesday evening - but never at any other time. She never saw how bad things got!

No - I know her well now and don't do any cleaning or tidying before she comes. Our house is very untidy - we prefer to work in garden than house!

Because it’s easier to dust, hoover and polish if everything’s tidied away off floors and surfaces?

Not that I have a cleaner now, but when we lived abroad and I had what they used to call a ‘houseboy’ (yes, I know) I did try to tidy up for him.
When I first had one, though, supplied by dh’s company, I used to feel guilty enough to start doing some household job while he was there - e.g. cleaning the windows. But he’d take that as a reproach (‘I do that, Madam!’) so I soon learned to chill.

When we were both commuting and working I used to have a cleaner every Friday - to have a nice tidy house while we were home at the weekend. Thursday night would see me rushing around cleaning to make sure it was all tidy so she could clean, sometimes until midnight ?

After a few months we got rid of her. Partly because she kept breaking things. Partly because I came home unexpectedly one day and found her sitting on the sofa with her son watching our videos.