Does anybody else clean for the cleaning lady?

[Deleted]

Our cleaning lady is coming in today for our monthly deep clean.  Last night and this morning I ran around folding laundry, picking up and straightening, washing dishes, scooping the litter box, taking out trash and composting, etc.  Does anybody else do this or am I just crazy?

I did leave her a couple inches of dust to deal with though. 

[tarheels]

Well, I don't clean on that level. I do straighten though. Life's been super busy for me lately, so I try to carry my dishes into the kitchen from the coffee table (sad bachelorette life eating in front of the tv), pick up dirty laundry off the floor (like I said, sad bachelorette life), etc.

I sure as heck don't take out the trash since that's their job! This house has been a wreck for the past couple weeks though - I feel bad for them. I think I might need to give them a spring tip!

[Deleted]

What's a "cleaning lady"?   

[IIOY]

Back when I was single and had a cleaning crew come once in a blue moon, I did, mostly to remove what I perceive to be obstacles to them doing a thorough cleaning job. That meant picking up clothes, moving dishes into the dishwasher, etc.. I also put away any sensitive materials, such as financial information, as well as jewelry and other valuable.

[boiler717]

No, but I am kinda OCD about the house. My cleaning just demoted me down to biweekly instead of weekly because she said she was wasting her time weekly. LOL.

[Deleted]

In my defense of taking out the trash, I have a highly sensitive nose and assume everybody can smell a mouse fart the same way I can.  I don't always take the trash out b/c she does do that, but when I flipped the lid to throw something away after dinner and my nose was brutally assaulted, I dediced to take it out so nobody else would have to suffer.

[Deleted]

I straighten things up.

[SusanBAnthony]

I put stuff away and genially declutter. How can they feel clean otherwise?


Not tht I actually have a cleaning lady. But when I had one for a month after dd was born, that is what I did.

[peach]

I used to have a cleaning lady. I would always spend the night before tidying, not cleaning. She can't clean if every surface is cluttered....I get more of my money's worth when the house is ready for her.
I always did all the laundry and cleared all the surfaces, meaning I cleaned up the toy disaster in DD's room, cleared off the coffee tables and did the dishes.
then when she came in, she could dust and scrub and mop without wasting time moving piles of stuff or putting things away. I'd rather pay her to scrub my floor than put my daughter's toys away KWIM? And if she finished before her time was up, I got bonus things like her washing walls or cleaning my fridge shelves.

[tarheels]

Hm, it's interesting how many of you just have them to purely clean, nothing else. I'd die if mine didn't pick up as well (pile the junk mail neatly, put the spare change in the jar, put the magazines in the basket, put the shoes I kicked off under the coffee table on the stairs, etc). For me, the picking up is like 60% of what I want them to do for me. DH (when we live together) and I are clean people - the house is never dirty (95% of the time, things just need a quick wipe down), but it does get cluttery and messy. I've fired housekeepers before who don't straighten as they go, though good communication during interviews often avoids it. I mean, I don't care if my coffee table's clean if there's still crap spread out all over it and the mess is stressing me out.

[Deleted]

As much as I would love to have a cleaning service come clean our house, DH gets annoyed about how much prep we'd need to do prior to them getting there. Like making sure DS's toys aren't everywhere. Making sure DH's clothes aren't everywhere. Putting away piles of mail so they can dust. Then DH being the uber paranoid one, hides all our valuables just in case.

[boiler717]

Mar 7, 2013 16:17:44 GMT -5 FormerlyRR said:

Mar 7, 2013 11:28:04 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

No, but I am kinda OCD about the house. My cleaning just demoted me down to biweekly instead of weekly because she said she was wasting her time weekly. LOL.

Bwhahaha! I thought my mom was the only one this happened to. She was demoted to every three weeks.

LOL! I'm glad it has happened to someone else!! I do a lot of dusting / swiffering in between cleanings or else it starts looking messy. She said she had a helper with her one day and she kept getting confused on what rooms they had cleaned or not and she was like, "trust me, Boiler would notice!"

[lolc]

I don't have a cleaning lady though I would love one!! One of my good friends had one though and he always cleaned up before she came. He and his partner often left her with nothing to do because they are neat freaks.

[pamela]

We do pretty much everything you describe. Except maybe trash unless it's overflowing. She does straighten up and will do the couple of dishes from DS's breakfast.

[SusanBAnthony]

tarheels my issue is that how does the cleaning lady know where anything goes, unless she is there a LOT? Sure she can tidy a lie of junk mail, but I just do that kind of easy straightening up as the mail comes in. But she isn't going to get the junk mail actually dealt with, or the more complicated stuff put away.

Honestly I am type a about cluttery crap being put away, it gets done every night as soon as the kids are in bed. It is the bigger cleaning jobs that I am lazy about, and piles of paper that I need to deal with by making a phone call or something like that.

[Deleted]

I do too. 1.) Because it makes her job easier and I want the best possible job done and 2.) because she lives in our neighborhood, we see each other out and about, and I don't want her to think we are dirty!

[mrssavy42112]

This is N/A for me. But I do have a friend who has a cleaning lady come in 3x a week and she cleans both before & after. She is admittedly OCD. But hey, if it makes her happy, then who cares.

[Deleted]

I don't clean, but I definitely tidy. I want her to spend her time cleaning, not picking up my clutter!

[pamela]

Mar 7, 2013 15:14:40 GMT -5 tarheels said:

Hm, it's interesting how many of you just have them to purely clean, nothing else. I'd die if mine didn't pick up as well (pile the junk mail neatly, put the spare change in the jar, put the magazines in the basket, put the shoes I kicked off under the coffee table on the stairs, etc). For me, the picking up is like 60% of what I want them to do for me. DH (when we live together) and I are clean people - the house is never dirty (95% of the time, things just need a quick wipe down), but it does get cluttery and messy. I've fired housekeepers before who don't straighten as they go, though good communication during interviews often avoids it. I mean, I don't care if my coffee table's clean if there's still crap spread out all over it and the mess is stressing me out.

Mine straightens up anything we leave out.  But we only have her for 2.5 hours, so I'd rather her spend the time on the real cleaning and DH and I take an hour the night before and do a quick clean up.  And when she does put things away, I sometimes have to spend extra time finding them.  Like the piece to a sippy cup she doesn't recognize as a baby thing ends up in a random kitchen cabinet.