11 Things Us Housekeepers and Cleaners Wished You Knew

Lauren Tavella
Nov 3, 2016
5 min read

1. Just be realistic.

Unfortunately wonder woman is not a cleaner and we are only human. However I'm sure if she was she could clean a 5 bedroom house in 2 hours! But allas we cant do that unless we have 2 or more of us doing this kind of job. Don’t ask us to clean your five-bedroom house and say you need it done in two hours, that's completely ridiculous! You need to make sure you give us enough time to clean everything properly. It's important that you have realistic expectations for your housekeeper / cleaner. After all, as much as we'd like to be, we aren't super women.

2. Make sure you have all the cleaning products and equipment we need. You know best what kind of cleaners you want used in your home so please provide them for us. It's our job to clean the house, not to worry about what cleaning products you have in stock. For example, some people want only organic cleaners used, some are picky about brands, and others have allergies; so to make sure we clean the house to your liking it's essential we have the tools to do so! We love Viakl its a great all round cleaning product.

3. Please don't ask us to babysit.

While we're cleaning that is. We can't give your house a proper cleaning if we're trying to look after your kid as well. Babysitting and cleaning are separate jobs, if you'd like us to babysit then that's a different discussion; one we're quite happy to have once we finish the perfect clean we were hired for.

4. If your house is a mess it makes it harder for us to clean. If you have boxes of clothes, dirty laundry all over the floor, and half eaten plates of food scattered around your house then it makes it very hard for us to clean. Of course we can try and clean up and around the clutter but that means you won't get as good a clean as you deserve. So as a general rule, it's always good to tidy up the house a bit before your housekeeper comes that way they can do the real deep cleaning like vacuuming and mopping instead of wasting time trying to declutter your house before they can actually get down to the cleaning part. But if you really can't do the clean before we arrive - allow for an extra hour or so - so we can sort things out for you.

5. A little bit of kindness goes a long way.

It's the littlest things that make people smile, so just show a little kindness to us. We understand we're working for you but that doesn't mean we should be miserable while doing it. A simple thank you while we are heading out or a text saying "Thanks for your handwork today, the house looks and feels clean, great job!" goes a long way. It makes us want to work for you and therefore we go the extra mile when cleaning.

6. Write a list out.

If you write a list out then it's easy for us to check everything off and make sure we accomplished everything you wanted. It's not that helpful if you only verbally rattle off a list, having it written down ensures the completion of every task, which makes our job easier and makes you happier. We love being given direction and lists is helps us manage your expectations of us. If we dont know what to do we normally just do a standard clean but if you want us to do it like you like it - TELL US - we love being directed to what to do...

7. We can chat, but not the entire time.

We love talking with our clients about their jobs or children but we only have so much time at their houses. It’s all right to play a little bit of catch up in the first ten minutes of our arrival but after that we have to put on our game faces and get to work. Please don’t take this as us being rude or uninterested in your life but you need to remember why you hired us, you dont pay us to chat and drink coffee / tea you have paid us to clean and keep your house - let us do that for you! So of course we can chat, but remember to let us get onto the job that we came here to do.

8. If you like us, then keep us!

If you hire a housekeeper or cleaner from a company and you like them and the work they do then request them again! Don’t keep switching around housekeepers, if you like the clean then keep the cleaner. This ensures a more consistent clean, they know the layout of your house, where all the cleaning tools are and most of all they know how you like your house cleaned. Plus it saves you from giving the first time spiel to every new cleaner that comes to the house.

“And here is where you’ll find all our cleaning products, and over here is the vacuum that’s a little bit broken so don’t let go of the handle completely or else it will fall apart completely, and over here"... Blah blah blah, sound familiar?