Who cleans for the cleaners, and why?

I never do this !! As you said, after all I am playing my cleaner to clean my house for me.

Only thing I do is to remove some offending articles (if any) lying around the place (and NO, I am not telling what is an offending article)

LOL! I certainly do - and I think to some extent it is only reasonable. You are paying someone to CLEAN, not tidy up your crap - and believe me, as someone who did lots of cleaning to support herself through uni, you get a lot more cleaning for your buck if the cleaner is not also having to to lots of tidying.

I had one woman I worked for - I cleaned on Wednesdays for her - who would leave Saturday's dinnerparty dishes for me to do 4 days later!! Yeeeeeeeccccccchhhhh! Can you imagine! And her horrible kids would have so much crap encrusting their rooms that getting under it to vacuum might take as much as an hour for both kids.

Heehee - I fear I left a hot iron on the glass protecting her desk on my last day in that slave pit, and broke it, and, although it was an accident, I was not unhappy - she was totally unreeasonable in what she expected.

I NEVER expect a cleaner to do my loo, by the way - nor to tidy up after me.

Hmm...well d-, are dishes from last night's catering okay with you (didn't get in until 1 AM)? Lol...no kids, but the loo is a must for me. Seeing as I can only afford to get people in twice a year, it is the heavy stuff that is necessary, dusting, kitchen, floors, bathroom. The rest we can maintain. No windows or anything. Incidentally, the loo was cleaned by us already, but a second go is always nice I agree though, the tidying part should be done, otherwise, it is a waste of money.

I agree with dlowan, but that is the practical reason. You don't want the cleaners to spend time, on the clock, tidying your place. I think that people also do not want strangers to invade the personal space in ones life. So to me, there is an ambivalence about having a cleaner in my house. I want the house cleaned, but he/she does not need to know the intimate details of my life.

There is another practical matter. No matter whether the cleaner is bonded, honest and reliable, you never really know. You don't want the cleaner to be privy to personal information (so get rid of those notes, and the bank statements that you have lying around the house.) Worst case scenario, you don't want to tempt fate by leavings valuables in plain sight.

Speaking of which, where are my slaves anyway?

Cav - you haven't lived until you have cleaned off rancid, baked on fat and sauces and such from a dinner party for 12 from four days ago - no rinsing or any other tidying of plates and saucepans etc done - done six loads of washing in a TWINTUB -and hung it out - (some people will know what I mean), cleaned a four bedroom house and done the ironing- in three hours.

I can't imagine catering stuff can be that bad - surely most folk do as I do when cooking for large numbers, and clean as they go?

Ha ha, d-, it is not that bad...just a few doodads brought back from the gig last night. Yes also, I totally agree, 4 day old dishes are completely stinky and festering, and I would never put anyone through that! Also, I never ask cleaners to do laundry. Nevernevernevernever....and we have machines in the building...

Phoenix, one cleaner stole liquor from us while I was out shopping. I hear ya, and the financial stuff and valuables are well hidden. I am trying out a new franchise, so we shall see how it goes.

Holy crap, they are kids! However, they are working hard...

I used to have a woman come in every 2 weeks and do some cleaning and I always cleaned up in advance. In my case it was mostly because I dion't want her putting things away and me not be able to find them later. The 1st time she showed I didn't do anything before hand. She cleaned up and put papers and such wherever she thought they should go but it took me weeks to find some of them again. I had left out some bills and a bunch of genealogy research paperwork and she just shoved everything into drawers and closets.

After that I put that sort of stuff up before she arrived so she could just concentrate on things like dusting, moping, etc.. and I never had teh problem again.

She did have this quirk about rearranging my living room though. I'd come home from work after she had been there and the living room would be totally rearranged. I'd put it back how I wanted it and 2 weeks later it'd be the same thing all over again. lol

fishin'- Are you sure that she wasn't interested in marrying you?

LOL! That was a good one Phoenix...

I smell 'clean' and there is lots of clanking going on, a good sign...check it out, live cleaning pseudo cam....btw, I tried 'Maid Brigade' this time round.

If she was Phoenix, she nevah told her hubby! lol

<making note - Maid Brigade>