Out with the new, in with the old
I’m going to break up with my cleaning service tomorrow.
I pay someone else to clean my home and then bitch about it on the Internet. Poor, poor me.
Kyle hired them when I was a month away from delivering Oliver. I was huge and exhausted, and I could hardly bend over to pick up errant peas from the kitchen floor, let alone scrub out the bathtub. We were living in squalor (well, by my definition at least), and no nesting mother-to-be can abide the thought of bringing a newborn into such conditions.
We’d had a cleaning service before, back in New Jersey. They came recommended by a close friend, whose apartment always looked great to me, and I gave them a shot.
They didn’t last long.
Their slap-dash methods (yes, sometimes we were at home when they cleaned, so I saw them in action), their inconsistent schedule, and the weird places they put things (does a paint brush belong in a litter box?) were enough to irritate me. But when they simply left the key to our apartment on the concierge’s desk – and didn’t actually physically hand it to him – that was enough. Buh-bye.
This service is better. There have been no cancellations, and while they don’t put everything back exactly where they found it, nothing has been put anyplace completely nonsensical. I haven’t observed actual cleaning methods, but I’ve been disappointed with the results.
At first, I told myself to give them the benefit of the doubt. I know I’m a stickler, and even though they claim to be sticklers too, that doesn’t mean they’re up to my level of…stickletiveness?
But then I noticed sticky fingerprints that were still present after they’d cleaned. Crumbs still under the coffee table. Layers of dust still on the kitchen and bathroom light fixtures and bedroom ceiling fan blades. Drips of coffee still streaking the faces of the kitchen cupboards.
It wasn’t as if the kids had gotten home and run rampant. Vacuuming and dusting (table tops, fixtures, fans) and wiping down cupboards were part of the standard list of tasks, and it seemed like they were being accomplished half-heartedly, if at all.
I asked the owner about these things, and she told me that her employees respond well to notes reminding them of what needs to be done. I wasn’t altogether comfortable with that approach – it seems kind of passive-aggressive to leave a note reminding someone to do exactly what it is I’m paying them to do – but I tried it. And it worked – that week, anyway.
Yesterday, Kyle brought the ladder into the house so he could slice through the strings of some balloons that had gotten caught in the family room ceiling fan. In doing so, he knocked loose several enormous chunks of dust from the fan blades. I was not pleased.
Then I went after the toilets, which were looking pretty gross even though the service had been here less than a week ago. I won’t get into details, but suffice it to say that I was even more displeased.
I know I sound like an insufferable bitch, but remember that I’m paying these people – much more than average, I should add – to do a job. And it’s not getting done – not to my satisfaction and not in accordance with the standards they’ve espoused.
Yes, I could leave a checklist every week. But that seems even more insufferably bitchy. And again, for the rates I’m paying, I shouldn’t have to do that.
So I’m going back to my old methods – doing the job myself. It may not get done as often, but it will be done ten times better.
And it won’t be long before I can outsource some of the work to Tacy – for free.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:14 am
This certainly hits a nerve with me. I hate, hate, hate micromanaging people and although I’m happy to pay someone to clean, I am not as happy to leave notes that say, in essence, “please clean.” I have a friend who left little test stains in hard to find places to check how thorough a job his cleaning lady did. I always thought that if you had time to leave test stains, you had time to clean, but we all have different forms of entertainment!
Marinkas last blog post..The Terror Continues
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
I’ve been having the same problem but didn’t want to bitch about it because, really? Complaining about my house cleaner? Oh poor me.
We can bitch together, you and I. I caught mine dusting my dining room furniture w/ Windex. We won’t be keeping her for much longer.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 am
We’ve used a housekeeper after both girls were born but then I quickly went back to my cheap, control freak ways. I think about getting someone occasionally, but then I am one of those people who would clean “for” the cleaning person!
Jamies last blog post..Trampy, Toothless Tots R Us
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:12 am
I’m with you and good luck. I went through three ladies before we found a good one.
Your right it’s finding someone who does it like you…
My best,
Dorothy from grammology
remember to call gram
grammology.com
Dorothy Stahlneckers last blog post..Helping another blogger and prayer for my Grandson returning to Iraq
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I’m in the process of getting a house cleaner and I’m really worried I will be too picky to deal. The owner of the service lives in town and a ton of people I know love her, so I’m hopeful. It could be really awkward if I had to fire her.
Fairly Odd Mothers last blog post..What’s New?
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Oh that would be great if we could get a cleaning service…although my hubby just does it if I leave it too long for his taste.
You can bet that i’d complain if they weren’t doing the job I was paying for though. Telling YOU to leave a note? Ridiculous. How about telling your employees to do their jobs? Sheesh!
Heathers last blog post..One Quick Month
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I’m hearing way too much guilt about firing someone for a job poorly done.
That said, I still feel bad about firing my housekeeper like 7 years ago who by the end, was still taking $100 and trying to sneak out in 2 hours (!) after mopping my mattress. Don’t ask.
Mom101s last blog post..Lucky Charms: God’s Cereal
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I get this, I really do. We’ve had spotty cleaners, cleaners who stole, etc., and have had a pretty decent relationship with our current cleaners.
Yes, sometimes they put things in the wrong place or miss a surface here or there, but when we flew out to Colorado for a wedding and I forgot to pack my husband’s suit? It was my cleaner who dropped everything, got the suit and FedExed it to us in time for the ceremony.
Velmas last blog post..Privacy In The House
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:16 pm
You absolutely should not tolerate a sloppy job for which they should not need “instructions” on how to do and for which you are paying them and they are not doing it. It goes with the territory, “cleaning,” that coffee spots and crumbs and dust bunnies should not be haunting the premises after the job is “done.”
As an aside, and out of curiosity, I noticed the poll/question at the top of the page about children’s verbal communication skills…. Not to rant, but what about those of us with Deaf children? (I know it’s not YOUR survey, but I find it aggravating that services like this exclude children like mine.)
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
haven’t you learned from my ongoing lament about this very thing? about how i finally swore off cleaning services (and their half-assing) when bob was still not even walking? and how i gave in and hired an individual to do it when i got to pg this time to do it myself? and how she, too, did a great job the first few times and then lapsed into ongoing half-assing? and how i finally decided the cigarette butt in my driveway (immediately after she was there) was the last straw and i fired her ass and now just do it myself? and i’ll keep doing it myself, by the way, until i find someone who is as anal and crazy as i am and just loves to clean. (perhaps someone with a cocaine addiction–i hear they’re into cleaning…)
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I know how you feel. Don’t feel bad–it just didn’t work out.
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
This is very funny because I just recommended my current cleaning service (not the one you used) to my neighbor, and then flashed back to “what if it’s a disaster like the time with Julie?” Ha!!
mayberrys last blog post..Just suck it up and go to the pool
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I came home to find out that my cleaning person had been fired/quit (my roommate informed me). This of course after a few weeks of an erratic schedule and my coming home last weekend when she said that she would be coming to find that she had not come and I was about to flip my ever loving shit. That said, I am a messy person, but I keep my mess confined to my bedroom which will be taken care of tomorrow. I hate when the common areas are a mess. It drives me insane.
So yeah, now we thankfully have someone new starting this week and she is super anal retentive and likes to pay attention to details. I totally know how you feel. If you pay someone for a service you want it to get done and you want it to be done well.
Heather B.s last blog post..More for their benefit than mine
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:56 am
I’m getting ready to bring a service back into my house, so this resonates with me. My biggest question, why do you need to leave a note about the standard stuff? You leave a note for the obscure, once a quarter tasks that require extra attention. Reminding them to wipe the cabinet fronts in like reminding a 4-year-old to wipe his butt. It’s implied.
Catherines last blog post..Why Every Vote Counts
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:57 am
It could be worse…for instance…my cousin is my cleaning person and she fired me….she said we weren’t clean enough in between the time she was coming to clean that she could get the job done. We offered more money, she still said NO! How sad is that?
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Um, yeah, well….we are so disgustingly messy, that a little dust on the fans and paint brushes in litter boxes sounds like a huge step in the right direction. At least the housekeeper gave the paint brushes a home. Here? Well, everything just gets stuck into big piles of random crap.
So, when our cleaning lady comes (once a month, max), I never expect her to get to the fans. I figure she has so much other junk to wade through, we’re thanking our lucky stars if she even makes it to the toilets.
I guess there’s something to be said for low expectations after all, lol…..
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
No, you don’t sound like an insufferable bitch. You sound like someone who is paying fairly for a job that they expect to be done fairly as well. Cleaning houses may not be the most glamorous job, but as a paying customer you still deserve to have it done right. Nobody is forcing the cleaning people to work for the cleaning service- there are other jobs they could take. OK – end of capitalist sermon.
Manager Moms last blog post..To My No Longer A First Grader
June 24th, 2008 at 9:45 am
My complaint with my house cleaners? They arrive too early, and in the summer, my kids are often still sleeping when they come. I know! Poor me. But it does seem like a big deal to me since I am paying such a high fee.
You are brave to write this though. I once wrote something about the cleaning ladies, and the post wasn’t even about them, I just mentioned something and got about a million emails telling me that I am spoiled, etc. Mine do an awesome job, except for the one time we were all still sleeping and they cleaned around us and missed half the house in trying not to wake us up.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
This! This is exactly what I’m afraid of, and why I haven’t ever called and gotten a cleaning service to come!
It’s a shame that they aren’t even doing the job they’re being paid to do.
Jennifer, Playgroups are no place for childrens last blog post..The way things are
June 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I have lived this nightmare for way too long. The only cleaning service I had that actually did a better job than me (I call myself slackermommy so that should give you an idea of what kind of job I do) cost me an outrageous amount of money. I was such a bitch in the days following my cleaning day . I didn’t want anyone messing up the house after I spent so much money to get it clean . I had to go back to crappy housekeepers to save my mental health.
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