One of my clients has a cat that, from my understanding, hates everyone including her. When Im there it follows me and hisses. Im scared shitless of the thing. Ive made my client aware. She agreed to keep it in a seperate room that I dont clean with the door shut when shes not there. BUT even when she is there I swear she makes matters worse by chasing it and pissing the thing off further. Anyway, I went there today and the cat wasn't locked in the room and this has happened a couple of times. Client just laughs it off, apologizes and says she forgot. Im about over her and her spawn of satan cat. How do I nicely tell her Im done? Oh plus she likes the house to be 78 degrees, we agreed on 72 and past couple of cleans shes had it set on 74

Wish I took photos but yesterday and today we did a deep clean on the house with my mom helping. They left the house in a rush and it was dirty ( I drove them to airport)
They are in for a cool surprise in two days. So hard to hide the surprise. Over 20 hours total.
We took two days off for this as both my brother and his wife work full time and have kids. So worth it. How do I keep the secret. I was thinking a magic eraser down the hatch. Anyways thanks for reading. I just wanted to do something great for my brother, who’s so great to his kids. Life cycles.

Hello fellow cleaners! I work at a senior living facility that has independent apartments we clean weekly. These are like any other typical apartment (though our residents tend to have very fancy things because they are on the wealthy side). Soft scrub with bleach—specifically the gel form (it’s in a blue bottle) has been our main savior in cleaning. All of us rely heavily on it but suddenly we are unable to find it ANYWHERE. It is a staple everyone uses, literally the worst of our cleaning supplies to completely disappear off the face of the earth.
Yes we are going to use the other kinds for now but the problem is they have grit in them that can leave a film and requires rinsing.

So what I need is recommendations for alternatives. (Cleaning gels)
It needs to be available in bulk and reliably so. We live in the US Midwest area. We use it to clean countertops, stoves, sinks, showers, and tubs. We need something that can get pot scraps, dark marks, tough stains, etc. off especially on white surfaces.

I really appreciate any suggestions as we are kind of scrambling right now for what to do, thank you!

What's the recommended way to find someone who'll do a good job?

Hey everyone,

I’m currently sitting in my kitchen feeling incredibly awkward. I have a bi-weekly cleaner who comes to help keep on top of things. Today, she did a walkthrough, looked around, and literally told me, "Honestly, your house is too clean. I don't even know what I'm supposed to scrub."

I guess I have a bad habit of "pre-cleaning" before the cleaner arrives because I'm terrified of being judged. I vacuumed, wiped down the counters, and put away all the clutter yesterday. Now I feel like I'm paying someone to just follow me around and judge my cleaning standards, or worse, that she thinks I'm wasting her time!

Has anyone else ever been "fired" or called out by a cleaner for being too tidy? Do I intentionally leave some mud by the door next week just to give her something to do?!

Through word of mouth I found these women who clean homes. They are great. I deal with the owner and she send 2 women twice per month. They spend between roughly 1.5 hours. My home is 5 bed 2.5 bath 3000 sq ft No cleaning the 5th bedroom other than a vacuum, no basement cleaning. The office is barely used. I keep the house clean and clutter free in between. They charge me $200 each time. I feel they do a pretty good job. Sometimes I find some dust here or there. But I guess I am just wondering if this is too fast.

I made a mistake in my vac request post I said 4000sq ft but it’s actually 5,400sq ft. I have a Oceader spin mop and I use it for a 4,000sq ft home but it takes a hour and a toll on my neck. The 5,400 home has way more open floor space. And it’s hardwood floors, not the shiny kind. I don’t love flat mops but I’m thinking it might be my best bet. Rope mops need so much squeezing out and lugging around the big yellow bucket sucks. (I use them at my commercial cleaning job). I want to cover a lot of ground in less time, save my neck and back. But do flat mops actually clean that well? Do they pass the paper towel test? Will I have to have several covers and stop and switch them out 10x? Show me all the mops and tell me the pros and cons please and thank you!

How are you doing showers and bathtubs?
Are you charging extra for barefoot? Because that is not sanitary AND it’s a fetish. If a cleaner was barefoot in my home I would be so grossed out.
Please explain yourselves!
Edit: I should have explained that I am in the US. I did not intend to be culturally insensitive to my barefoot friends!
Things are incredibly weird on my country right now. Everything has become weird and solo female cleaners have to be aware of these things.

Hey fellow cleaners, to start I have a condition called POTS & also SVT which make me dizzy and sick feeling quite often. I push through but working a standard job wasn’t feasible anymore so I started pet sitting. This led to a pet sitting client hiring me as their house keeper once every two weeks. I’ve since picked up another cleaning client but truthfully it is physically taxing with my condition I just need some income. (EDIT: we’re in NC)

The first cleaning client has been a problem from the start but I’ve made a lot of excuses for her and assumed I was being dramatic. I don’t get paid fairly imo (not sure if I’m allowed to say the amount here). (EDIT: 100 for the three hours) Every time I come in her house is a disaster. It’s just two people: the client and her husband & two cats. No kids. I myself have 15 rescue cats at the moment and my house has never been this messy.

Every surface will have food crumbs, grime, and clutter. Dishes will be stacked up across the kitchen counters and dishwasher will be full. She wants me to declutter first every time which can take up to an hour depending on how bad it is that day. Minimum 30 min. She also wants me to do the dishes. Which would be fine if it weren’t so many. The toilets will have feces all over them, even down the front. Bathroom counters will be just as bad as the main house. (EDIT: we’re also expected to do the pet room & clean up two weeks worth of cat pukes from various surfaces) She expects me to get it done in 3 hours.to get it done in that time frame I often have to bring my partner along with me.

It should’ve been a red flag but when she asked me to take over housekeeping she said that ‘for some reason’ her last few cleaners would just stop showing up or wouldn’t go through their whole checklist etc. I see why they dropped her and never replied now but I’m in deep.

I’m appreciative of the extra income. Where I’m frustrated and ready to quit and/or set boundaries is: she’s now asked me to complete the clean before noon every time. That may be easy for others but with my conditions I need a lot of time early in the day to get my body right before I can do the work. Any time I do heavy work before 10 am I end up sick for days. I don’t know WHY it’s just how my body functions. I told her when I started that I cannot start earlier than 10am; aside from my conditions my partner works a very late shift and wouldn’t be able to help before that time AND we have so many rescue animals that need morning meds & treatments.

Would I be in the wrong to say no and back out of cleaning for her if we can’t come to an agreement? I don’t usually set boundaries, it’s something I get lectured about from my friends and family. I let people take advantage of me and I’m working on that. But with this being a client and I’m staff I’m unsure if I even have a right to say no?

Hello!

I am new to this community, and new to residential cleaning in general! I’ve never worked a job like this before, and yesterday was the end of my first week. I got on at a small, family-owned cleaning company and it’s been awesome! We only work Monday-Friday from the hours of 8:30-5:30.

The work itself is deeply rewarding and I love being able to help people. Especially older folks who have trouble maintaining a home themselves. However - I am injured - I am so exhausted - I am hungry all the time, haha. I was wondering how long it takes to adjust to this new role, and become faster and more efficient. (While still doing an amazing and thorough job.) and I was wondering how long until I don’t feel like my entire body is cramping! I’m 22 years old, and I am just getting SMOKED by my older co-workers cleaning circles around me. It’s like they don’t even have to catch their breath!

And any other cleaning tips/advice would be helpful! Thanks!

The situation: One of the places I clean is struggling financially, so they fired several people, including the office manager who did payroll. Said office manager agreed to stay on for a few weeks to train the person who would be taking over payroll. That time ended and she left. New payroll person worked for a week or two, but now hasn't been seen in three weeks, which means payment for my last invoice (I'm a 1099) is a week overdue. No one I've asked knows anything about it or when she's coming back. (Yes, this place is a shitshow, but I can't afford to give it up at this time, unless... see below...)

Come Monday, I intend to speak to the general manager again and make it clear that I *need* to be paid. I'm willing to work one more week if I can get a solid timeframe for payment, but if the answer is still a vague " I dunno", then I am *not* willing to work any more until something is figured out. I understand that doing so may place my contract with the business in jeopardy, but the situation is getting ridiculous and I don't want to work for free.

How would you frame this professionally, kindly, but firmly? I'm not looking to go straight to threatening small claims court. I actually have a very good relationship with the general manager and know he's not trying to deliberately screw me over. He's as much a victim of the poor higher management as anyone else.

ETA: Removed a small identifying detail and clarified some information

WARNING LONG POST

For context- I just started two weeks ago so I’ve only been twice.
When I first met her she told me that she had a previous cleaner that had to quit for health reasons and that it had been approximately 6 weeks since they had anyone cleaning their house. She is giving me about a 3 hour max time limit but it has taken me 3.5-4 both times because of all of the requests

She instructed me on the first day to deep clean her guest room for a relative that is staying with her, she told me that the guest can NOT have any dust or it will irritate their condition…. But the room was insanely covered in dust. It took me about 1-1.5 hours to deep clean top to bottom everything in the room like I was told. After that she told me she was happy with how it was but acted like I took too long to get it done without actually saying that.
She then asked me to do four other rooms (one being a bathroom) in the remaining 1.5 hr time frame….. but wanted them all dusted, windows cleaned, vacuumed/swept and tidied. She also asked me to scrub the windows, blinds, and window sills because she said they needed it…. And scrub the tub and shower.
Well I ended up not getting to everything because it was 10PM by the time I finished doing 3 rooms (everything she requested in each one).

The second day she told me to clean the living room, kitchen, dining room, and if I had time - her room. The previous time she told me she wanted all of the windows cleaned completely because they were “gross” (her words). So I dusted the three rooms, wiped baseboards because they were filthy, had to scrub each individual blind (on 2 windows) because there was grimey dust caked on each one very thick… there was no way to quickly dust them, and had to scrub multiple sticky mystery dirt spots off of every shelf and table (pet friendly home so normal lol) . Swept as I moved from room to room and again once more when I was completely done, I cleaned the grime off of the oven and fridge, dusted/wiped the kitchen cabinets. At the 3.5hr mark (as I was finishing up the surfaces she told me to clean, and getting ready to mop) She asked “well have you pulled all of the appliances out and cleaned the counters and the backsplash? And have you cleaned inside of the fridge yet?” It felt like the more I did, the more she added on. Mind you I was doing all of the things she had mentioned and asked of me and running out of time. Then she goes “yeah I’m not the OCD type of clean, just tidy” ….. ok.

Then as I finish the counters she says “I’m going to stop you and have you start mopping now” so I apologized and got the mop and mopped the 3 &1/2 rooms and cleaned the mop and bucket. At the end I apologized for taking so long to do everything, which looking back now I actually was rushed through each room.

I texted her today and let her know I could come by and tidy up anything I didn’t get to for free since I ran out of time yesterday. She replied that she got up early this morning and dusted (all of the things I had already dusted that I promise you were NOT dirty or dusty) and told me a list of things she did that she didn’t ask me to do for her. She also told me she polished the table and chairs and the cabinet by the table, which I had also already done….. and dusted a chandelier that I scrubbed thick sticky dust off of 😭…..?

I feel irritated and maybe even a little offended because I know that I went above and beyond and left nothing dirty for her to have to re-clean. I’m very thorough and wouldn’t half-ass something when somebody is paying me to help them. I just didn’t acknowledge that she said that when I replied because I didn’t even know how to respond to that.

Am i the issue in the situation or am I just overthinking everything? I just feel like she has very high expectations but I don’t have enough time to get it all done. Especially when I think she isn’t being honest about how long it has been since she’s had someone cleaning her home. (Totally not an issue- I don’t judge, it’s not my place. But it just seems dirtier than a house would be if someone was cleaning it 6 weeks ago on a weekly basis) (I would know I have two kids and 5 animals 😂)

hey all! i have worn a hole through my work shoes! i need to replace them, so i’d like to hear from you guys what you wear when you’re working.

the ones i’ve been using for the last few years are just some running shoes from on running, and they’ve been pretty comfy, but i don’t know if maybe there’s a better type of shoe for our line of work than running shoes? or if that’s what you guys wear, what are the comfiest ones you’ve found for work?

thanks in advance!

edit to thank y’all for your input! i’ll research all suggestions and figure out which shoe will be best for me! i appreciate all of your suggestions!

My husband and I will be away on a week when we have a regularly scheduled cleaning. Our housecleaners often come and go without us here, but when we leave for more than a day or two we shut the house down and it’s too complicated for someone else to open it up and then shut it back down. What do you expect from your clients when they leave for vacation, or for other reasons can’t have them come in and clean? I’ve considered asking for a make-up day in December, when I could use extra help anyway, so they aren’t losing income. But I am open to any thoughts, including just paying them for the missed service. To note, they’re very busy so I’ll give them two months notice. I know it’s common practice to just call it a skip, they don’t come in and I don’t pay them, but surely they budget for the income they think they’re going to have, just like anyone else does, and they can’t just run out and get a client to fill a 2 1/2 hours hole in their schedule. Thanks for any experience/thoughts you can share.

Hello, my husband and I are planing to hire soon. We have a dog who isn’t kenneled but very kind with people. Ideally I would built a relationship with who we hire so they can work when we aren’t home. Are some people okay with my dog being free roaming in my house? I’d probably be home the first couple of time to help facilitate meeting my dog. But overall are some people comfortable with working when the homeowner isn’t home but a dog is?

Wondering if it is out of pocket to request litter box cleaning (3 boxes, 2 cats) along with a regular house cleaning?

We scoop regularly but I hate doing the full dump out and clean of litter boxes even though we got pretty easy to clean stainless steel boxes. It doesn’t seem THAT different from oven cleaning etc.

What would your thoughts be if a client wanted to add litter box cleaning to a monthly visit?

Eta: Sorry for the accidental rage bait to those of you who really didn’t like the oven comparison. That was solely from an elbow grease perspective. I promise I know that food drippings and poop are very different things.

Very interesting to get such a wide variety of responses! Thanks to everyone for sharing their perspectives!

F24. I’ve been working HK at a hotel for 6 months now. Never worked in HK prior. I was wondering how anyone else deals with joint/muscle and all around body aches? Today, I’ve noticed all of my fingers are aching after my shift. To add, I have to wear wrist braces at night to keep my wrists stabilized, I feel as if I have develop minor carpal tunnel syndrome. Any advice, home remedies, or general input would be appreciated.