Do you have a cleaner?

bouicca21

my ex-wife used to tidy up the place before she turned up. Crackers.

Is this a male thing? My ex also seemed to think that tidy and clean were synonymous.

Mojisola

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I
-as a cleaner I saw far too many pubes. I don't think anyone should have to see mine. Same for grubby toilets and the contents of bins.

-I live alone and value my privacy. Trust me, your cleaner is judging you as they sweep the nailclippings off your floor.

Our cleaner doesn't see these things because we don't leave that kind of mess around! Just because you have a cleaner doesn't mean that you don't keep the place presentable the rest of the time.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Mojisola wrote: »

Our cleaner doesn't see these things because we don't leave that kind of mess around! Just because you have a cleaner doesn't mean that you don't keep the place presentable the rest of the time.

I have seen quite unpleasant things in other people's bathrooms!

Mojisola

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I have seen quite unpleasant things in other people's bathrooms!

But that's because they are messy so-and-so's - not because they have a cleaner.

oystercatcher

I wouldn't dream of leaving nail clippings lying about or hair in the plughole for our cleaner. She is just there to do the hard work that I can no longer manage.

It is very intrusive having someone in your house moving your personal possessions around. I dread my current cleaner leaving and having to get used to a new person.

lush_walrus

Noctu wrote: »

Assuming she stays 3 hours a time, and you pay £10/hr (being conservative)... 3 times a week... my mental arithmetic says you're paying approx £400 per month on a cleaner? Is that right? :eek:

I hate to admit it but yes that's roughly right. We actually pay her a yearly salary now. She's been with us a long time and I value her so highly shes an extended member of our family. Both husband and I have businesses and have 3 young girls so are really tight on time. We are tidy as we have to be with 5 of us but without our cleaner we really wouldn't manage to keep anything clean. I became quite paranoid about cleaning after our first child so it's a lot but worth it for me.

sulphate

We used to. Employed one in February when I was feeling horribly ill from being in the early stages of pregnancy, looking after a 2 year old, working part time and trying to get the house looking spectacular so we could sell it. It made a lot of difference. Although I agree with another poster that the amount of housework we have to do involves so much more than cleaning! Maybe we are just bad at tidying up! We moved last week and cancelled it as our expenses will be higher with a bigger house and little one starting nursery soon. It was £117 a month for a 2 hour clean once a week so couldn't justify it. Miss her already though!

sulphate

trailingspouse wrote: »

Yes, I have a cleaner. In fact, she was here just this morning. She comes for 2 hours a week, and basically hoovers and dusts, and cleans the bathroom. She charges £12.50 an hour.

Several factors came together that resulted in me taking her on (she's been coming for about a year now)
- a new Aldi opened nearby, meaning I no longer needed to use Sainsbury's. I reckon I'm saving £25 a week.
- my OH worked in India for a while. It seemed to be part of the culture that, if you could afford it, you should pay someone else to do certain things for you. Doing them yourself meant you were effectively denying work to someone else.
- I had a bad hip, which made carrying the hoover up and down stairs quite difficult (although it's since got better..)
- I work from home, and my time is better spent working on the business than on housework.
- I've never particularly enjoyed housework (although I do like a nice clean house) - I realised I wouldn't get to heaven any quicker by doing it myself.

It's a funny thing - people are very judgemental of women who employ a cleaner. As if we 'should' do it ourselves. No-one thinks twice about me employing a window cleaner, or taking my car to the car wash, or even getting my eyebrows waxed - but deary me, you would think the world was about to end when they hear I have a cleaner!

Look how many ways I've felt I had to justify it! But taking the car to the car wash? It's perfectly OK to just say, 'Nah, can't be a***d doing it myself'.

Completely agree!! My MIL made some snide comment about us having a cleaner the first time I saw her after having a complicated miscarriage. I'd just spent 3 weeks in and out of hospital and neither of us much felt like doing housework. !!!!.

thorsoak

We used to have a cleaner when, with a husband in hospital, 4 children, 2 cats & dogs, a 5 bedroomed house, half an acre garden and working full-time, there were better things to do with my "leisure time" than keeping the house mucked out - so as long as everyone tidied up their own messes, my lovely cleaner who came in for 4 hours on a Friday meant that the house was clean - and it was wonderful. Olive carried on coming - though doing less hours - until she retired - but would insist on coming down the week before Christmas - to "make the place respectable" as she would put it.


Now I'm getting older, (74) with dodgy knees that mean I can't get down on my hands & knees any more - and still with three dogs & 2 cats (different ones :-D) I'm looking at my budget to see if I can't afford someone to come in once a month, to deal with the ceiling/walls and skirting boards etc - just to keep the corners etc clean :-)

enthusiasticsaver

We don't have a cleaner at the moment but would if we found for health reasons it was difficult to keep on top of housework. I only work part time and retire in a few months time so have enough time and energy to do the housework myself, with OHs help from time to time.

My mum has one but she is 82 and my brother has MS so he has one too. My sister is moving back to full time work so says she is getting one too. If you can afford it and don't have time, inclination or energy to do your own why not?