Making sure your cleaner can work efficiently is easier when you communicate your expectations ahead of time and tidy up your home a bit. Often, cleaners have to navigate around unexpected messes, active pets, and kids, which can make their work more challenging. Here’s a look at what your cleaner wishes you would avoid doing to make their job easier.
Not Securing Pets
While some pets are relaxed when visitors come to their owner’s home, others can become anxious and stressed around cleaners. To prevent possible aggressive interactions, securing pets in the garden or in a bedroom is best.
Forgetting to Provide Necessary Supplies
Cleaners often bring a few cleaning products and tools, but they must use some of the products in your home. Molly Maid recommends having a vacuum, bucket, rags, all-purpose cleaner, white vinegar, grout cleaner, an extendable duster, and other cleaning supplies to help your cleaner.
Failing to Communicate Special Requests in Advance
Any special requests should be communicated in advance to ensure your cleaner is prepared. With prior notice, cleaners may be able to plan their workflow to accommodate the additional tasks.
Moving Furniture Without Asking
Mop Stars writes that housekeepers may move smaller, lightweight pieces of furniture to clean under them. However, larger items like beds and sofas are less likely to be moved by a cleaner, who is “unlikely to risk damaging the furniture or injuring themselves to move it.” Some cleaners will be willing to move furniture if you let them know in advance.
Leaving Dishes in the Sink
Leaving dishes in the sink creates unnecessary clutter, forcing cleaners to deal with messes when they could be doing deeper cleaning. Leaving dishes in the sink for too long is also unhygienic and can attract pests, like ants and cockroaches.
Ignoring Clutter Before Cleaning Day
Excessive clutter on surfaces, including in the kitchen and living room, makes it difficult for cleaners to do a thorough job. More items on the surface also raise the chance of something getting accidentally damaged or broken.
Expecting Laundry to Be Done Without Prior Agreement
Mop Stars notes that most cleaning services “don’t do laundry, linens, dishes, or other chores that could be considered daily tasks.” Smaller companies and individual employers are more likely to do laundry for an extra cost.
Leaving Personal Items in the Bathroom
For privacy and hygiene reasons, cleaners prefer not to handle personal hygiene products like toothbrushes, razors, and toiletries. When your cleaner tries to work in the bathroom, these items can also get in the way of cleaning sinks, counters, and showers.
Not Valuing Their Time
Last-minute cancellations can leave cleaners with gaps in their schedules that they can’t fill on short notice, reducing their earnings for the day. Adding tasks without extending their cleaning time can also rush them and lower the quality of their work.
Overlooking Their Comfort
Proper ventilation, air conditioning in the summer months, and bathroom access are essential conditions for cleaners. Overly harsh conditions and restricted access will make cleaning your house an unpleasant experience.
Not Providing Feedback
If your cleaner is doing something you’d like changed, it’s best to let them know sooner rather than later. Constructive criticism will help them adjust their services to meet your needs better, and positive feedback can boost morale and motivate them.
Misplacing Valuables and Sensitive Items
Cleaners can accidentally dispose of small, valuable items if left in areas needing cleaning. Ensure that sensitive documents and personal items are tidied away to avoid situations where cleaners are wrongfully accused of mishandling or taking items.
Expecting Cleaners to Work Around Renovations
When your house is undergoing renovations, there will be plenty of dust and debris. Cleaning in areas being worked on is inefficient during this period, and the likelihood of cleaners damaging unfinished work or getting injured will increase.
Using Excessive Amounts of Cleaning Products
Only a few core cleaning products are needed for your home. Using too many products can be wasteful, unnecessary, and harmful to your health and home environment. The American Lung Association warns that many cleaning supplies “release dangerous chemicals, including volatile organic compounds,” that “can irritate the eyes or throat, or cause headaches and other health problems.”
Leaving Windows Open in Bad Weather
Leaving windows and doors to the yard open in bad weather creates extra work for your cleaner. Rain and dust will undo their work, and rainwater can damage window sills, floors, and furniture.
Not Emptying the Trash Regularly
Accumulated trash, especially a full garbage bag sitting on the kitchen floor, attracts rodents and insects and emits unpleasant smells. These smells can permeate the house, and cleaners will have to spend a decent amount of time cleaning the overflow.
Ignoring Their Health and Safety
Safer, eco-friendly cleaning products protect your health, your cleaner’s health, and your family’s and pets’ health. Architectural Digest recommends a universal cleaner by Safely, AspenClean, and baking soda as eco-friendly cleaning products for your home.
Setting Unrealistic Expectations
Cleaners can only do so much in a set amount of time. Understanding this will help you set realistic goals for their sessions and prioritize specific tasks to ensure important areas are well-cleaned.
