House cleaners

[mofongo]

I want them to be able to focus on cleaning. I run the dishwasher, so they can empty it, I also wash/dry a massive load of laundry the night before. They wash the sheets. I pick up everything, etc. They come every other week, I obviously have to vacuum with the stick multiple times in those two weeks, as we have animals. Sometimes I do a quick/dirty vacuum the night before b/c as pp said, don’t want them to think we live with hair balls on a regularly basis, ha.

[eb777888]

Nov 6, 2024 21:33:08 GMT -5 janegold said:

I’m surprised so many people make the beds! Changing sheets is a chore I do not enjoy and is one of my favorite tasks to outsource to the cleaners!

We make the bed every morning and it feels weird to leave it unmade, like it feels sloppy or something (don't come at me, this is a *me* thing, I have no judgement of those that do otherwise). Then I just use that day to throw on fresh sheets so it's extra clean. 

[rachers]

Nov 7, 2024 9:58:25 GMT -5 eb777888 said:

Nov 6, 2024 21:33:08 GMT -5 janegold said:

I’m surprised so many people make the beds! Changing sheets is a chore I do not enjoy and is one of my favorite tasks to outsource to the cleaners!

We make the bed every morning and it feels weird to leave it unmade, like it feels sloppy or something (don't come at me, this is a *me* thing, I have no judgement of those that do otherwise). Then I just use that day to throw on fresh sheets so it's extra clean. 

I still make our bed too because it’s part of my morning routine (I WFH). But maybe I’ll stop on the days they come. I’m the obnoxious over pillow hoarder.

[texasharleygirl]

Nov 6, 2024 14:43:10 GMT -5 gottadobe said:

De-clutter and a quick vacuum due to the dog hair... so we don't look like completes slobs.

Same here!!!! 

[sarahsays]

I make sure things are put away and there are no dishes in the sink. It only takes about 10 minutes as we have a small house and keep it generally uncluttered anyway.

[texasharleygirl]

So, I should have said tidy up/put away, but that's what I meant.

My husband is a clutter bug and I have learned to deal with it. (I deal with it when he goes hunting for five days..... shit disappears to the trash and/or goodwill.) Ya'll would DIE if you saw his desk and all the paper, etc. Anyways, after working a full day, and making dinner, etc... I get just so discouraged to tidy up. I see the dust, I see the baseboards, etc and it just makes me anxious. He finally said that we could get a housecleaning crew because he finally recognized that is part of my anxiety.

They came yesterday and OMG... I am so farking happy!! Floors were clean, house smelled wonderful, they even cleaned the ceiling fans!! They even tidied my bed up (and I had already made it). Last night, we had our dinner and I didn't have to feel so overwhelmed! We talked last night about making an effort to put things away, etc.

Happy Wife, Happy Life!!

[sdlaura]

texasharleygirl I remember the first time DH and I had our house cleaned by someone other than us. We came home from work that day and just wandered around the house, marveling at how clean everything was. I’m glad you also enjoyed it!

I remember one of my former coworkers saying that she’d switch to scavenging for food before she ever voluntarily scrubbed her own toilets again 🤣 This was before I’d ever had my house cleaned, but now I get what she was saying.

[texasharleygirl]

Nov 7, 2024 15:32:40 GMT -5 sdlaura said:

texasharleygirl I remember the first time DH and I had our house cleaned by someone other than us. We came home from work that day and just wandered around the house, marveling at how clean everything was. I’m glad you also enjoyed it!

I remember one of my former coworkers saying that she’d switch to scavenging for food before she ever voluntarily scrubbed her own toilets again 🤣 This was before I’d ever had my house cleaned, but now I get what she was saying.

I am with you!  I would rather scavenger for food rather than have to mop, dust, and scrub toilets.

[livinitup]

We basically clean the house 2x a month before my house cleaner comes. It takes a good, hearty effort to get ready for her to clean for 3 hours.

It’s wonderful when she comes and I walk around to clean floors and bathrooms scrubbed, freshly made beds, and the kitchen sparkling.

I have greatly reduced the “stuff” in our house, so regular tidying is possible & helps it always (mostly) look good. But the having stuff off floors, put away, sheets washed/ready for the bed, garbage out, bathroom cleared, pet stuff picked up, newspapers recycled- that’s the CLEANING before the cleaner comes. I even make an effort to do all the floors the week she doesn’t come because I can tell the difference.

Having a house cleaner is a lot like prepping for dinner guests except you don’t have to shop for food or cook. But you do have to have the house ready.

[k3am]

Nov 7, 2024 8:16:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

Like others, I de-clutter. It's a two-fold thing - I want my cleaner actually cleaning, not also having to tidy. But also, she'll "tidy" things away to places you don't think to look, so I try to make sure there isn't anything she'll relocate on me. (Before you ask why I keep her when that could be really annoying, she's reliable as hell and not expensive. She's also used by others in my family, so I knew going in that this was something to prep for.)

The upside is that I'm a very cluttered person and having her clean drives me to tidy up every two weeks. And over the years since I started using her, I find that overall, I'm less cluttered in the in-between times.

And like janegold, I have her change the sheets and I LOVE it.

Everything on this post, down to reliable as hell and changing the sheets. We have a husband/wife team and the risk of things getting “Gene* and Gloria*’d” to somewhere they won’t find for weeks is enough to motivate us all to tidy up on Wednesday nights.

[dreamcrisp1]

I try to tidy up so there’s no laundry on the floor, areas are tidy and easy to clean, and my son’s thousands of papers is organized lol.

Our cleaner comes weekly so she does all of the actual cleaning. I never have to do more than vacuum between visits. I love her.

[Wallflower]

Nov 8, 2024 12:29:26 GMT -5 k3am said:

Nov 7, 2024 8:16:08 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

Like others, I de-clutter. It's a two-fold thing - I want my cleaner actually cleaning, not also having to tidy. But also, she'll "tidy" things away to places you don't think to look, so I try to make sure there isn't anything she'll relocate on me. (Before you ask why I keep her when that could be really annoying, she's reliable as hell and not expensive. She's also used by others in my family, so I knew going in that this was something to prep for.)

The upside is that I'm a very cluttered person and having her clean drives me to tidy up every two weeks. And over the years since I started using her, I find that overall, I'm less cluttered in the in-between times.

And like janegold , I have her change the sheets and I LOVE it.

Everything on this post, down to reliable as hell and changing the sheets. We have a husband/wife team and the risk of things getting “Gene* and Gloria*’d” to somewhere they won’t find for weeks is enough to motivate us all to tidy up on Wednesday nights.

LOL - We call the tidying "Brenda-cizing."

[jobae1234]

I think it’s so funny when people mock prepping for house cleaners. We’re not ultra rich where we have a full time maid, who is going to pick up after us, learn our every quirk and preference, know where everything goes, etc. It would take so many more hours for that to happen. That’s like a $500 service.

And- as a person who this year lost her house cleaners for 10 months for financial reasons and then got them back- YES it saves a ton of time to have cleaners, NO it’s not pointless to hire them if you have to do so much prep, and NO to the idea that “you might as well just do it yourself at that point.”

I obviously have many feelings about this after the year I’ve been through! I also have a mother who has mocked me endlessly about “not cleaning my own house.”