Housework/Cleaner

We've tried to find a cleaner but they're like gold dust round here!

Yes, go for it.
With me being a bit incapacitated at the moment and DH no longer a spring chicken, it's taken us days to do just the minimum of housework because we couldn't find a cleaner.
Having someone to clean the windows inside would be wonderful. However, I did have the oven cleaned professionally the other day (daren't use it now).

To anyone wanting a home cleaner Having cleaned and ironed in many different household settings - a long time ago now, but do please ensure sure that your vacuum cleaner is up to the tasks you are expecting to be undertaken in the time allotted.
Time wasted faffing about with tools that are variously broken /lost/don’t fit, or difficult and dirty to handle dust bags or canisters will not endear you to your prospective cleaner.

I follow the advice of eminent author Somerset Maugham (though not quite so eminent myself…) if I can pay someone to do a job, I’ll pay them.
What a blessing a cleaner is when getting older, recovering from surgeries, ill health etc, although I had one before all this happened to me.
Choose someone young, recommended and after staying around the first few times, go out and do some necessary stuff and leave them to it.

Go for it Denil Yes Callistemon21 cleaners in my area are like gold dust. Have been trying to find someone for ages without any luck. They seem to be a bit like the hospitality trade since lockdown who struggle to get staff. I have asked around as it is so much better to have a personal recommendation but the cleaners who are out there just don't have the capacity to take anymore jobs at the moment.

I used to work part-time as a cleaner. 90% of the clients offered to help or did a little cleaning too. That's really nice. I think if you book a cleaning job, you better take that time for yourself. You're not lazy if you don't want to clean, not everyone likes to do cleaning. Cleaning companies exist to free you from the worries of home :-)

I understand your worry about feeling lazy watching someone else dash around doing the chores you used to do yourself. I feel the same about my gardener.
At 83 I feel quite entitled (don't like that word but can't think of another) to employ someone, but giving orders doesn't come naturally to some people.
I spend the whole time he's here hovering around not knowing what to do or say, and feeling very uncomfortable. I don't know whether to 'help' in case it looks like interfering, or stay away which looks like indifference.
Its so embarrassing I feel tempted to stop employing him, I dread him coming (but my garden looks nice)
So I know just what you mean.
I wish I knew the answer.

What is the difference between employing a gardener or cleaner and employing a painter and decorator, plumber or electrician?

When we employed a gardener, for a while, when we had a project that had become beyond me, I treated him like any other workman. let him get on with the job and offered him tea/coffee at regular intervals. I would do that with a cleaner as well.

They do not want you harrassing them round the edges and getting in their way, so do not do it. Go and sit somewhere out of their way and leave them to it. Do not waste their time in idle chatter and say thank you as they leave. Remember you are PAYING them, they are not doing it for free, Would you feel 'lazy' if paying someone to paint the outside of the house or bedroom?

Had one for over 30 years (obviously not the same one) my lovely lady, has been with me over 20 years.
She's in weekly about 2.30 hrs.

Couldn't be without her, total treasure.
She also Cleaned for my Late Mum, going in twice a week hour at a time, more social than cleaning as such with her.
And my sister.. Once a week.

Both my Children have cleaners
My one looks after my DD as well.
DS not in the area but I know she would look after him too.
If you find a Star hang onto them, you won't regret it. Ours is a gem.

I’m 79 in September and also thinking of having a cleaner to do the heavy jobs like the kitchen, downstairs cloakroom, bathroom and en suite. I have back problems due to a bad bout of sciatica in March and also I now have osteoporosis. This year is the only year I haven’t done Spring cleaning and Although my back pain is much better I know that cleaning out cupboards etc will make it worse. DH, also 79, is also finding keeping the garden up is challenging but won’t contemplate getting a gardener.

I think making a martyr of yourself, if you can afford to pay for the help, is pointless.

M0nica

I think making a martyr of yourself, if you can afford to pay for the help, is pointless.

It is but finding help is not easy.

But most people's worries seem to be around accepting they need help or being uncomfortable around having cleaners in the house working while they do not.

Yes Monica you're right, but knowing this doesn't stop us feeling uncomfortable when someone is doing the chores, that we feel are our chores, for us.
I don't think there's a way past it apart from hoping time will make it feel more normal.

I have a cleaner 4 hours a week and I do almost nothing in the house because I loath housework. I just cant be bothered with it and see no value in it. You clean something and it needs doing again a few weeks later. I even get the cleaner to unpack and put away my Tesco shopping.

I have a policy that if something does not bring me money or enjoyment I avoid it if at all possible.

Dull women keep immaculate homes.

I do my own cleaning and gardening because I can do it more quickly and effiiciently than any hired help, but the moment I cannot do it, in will come the hired help.

We already do it with our French house, where for the last 10 years we have paid someone to cut the grass. I did it for 20 years, but as we only visit every five or six weeks and the grass grew so long, i reached a point where cutting the grass hung over my head like a cloud before every visit and until it was done because it had become so exhausting.