How to Talk to Your House Cleaner to Get the Cleaning You Are Paying For

Do you need to talk to your house cleaner to let them know their cleaning isn't up to par? Are you at your wit's end and just want the cleaning you are paying for? Do you feel you are being manipulated by your housekeeper or that they are taking advantage of you? You are not alone. Lots of maid services don't know how frustrated homeowners are with the residential cleaning services they are paying for. And before you fire your maid, you may want to have a heart-to-heart chat with the cleaning lady and re-set some #boundaries and professional expectations.
Today's Ask a House Cleaner sponsor is #SavvyCleaner training and certification for house cleaners and maids. (savvycleaner.com/join) And your host today is #AngelaBrown
** TALK TO YOUR HOUSE CLEANER CHAPTERS **
0:00 - How to talk to your house cleaner so you get the cleaning you're paying for.
0:05 - Meet Angela Brown the House Cleaning Guru
0:14 - A customer is expecting a good user experience
0:52 - Bad user experiences will cause you to lose your customer
1:35 - The house cleaner chit-chats and talks too much
2:23 - The maid is sloppy in her cleaning and skips rooms
2:50 - She doesn't pick up small things to vacuum or mop under
3:19 - Her vacuum isn't picking up stuff from the floors
4:13 - The homeowner has to reclean after the housekeeper leaves
5:00 - Keeping the maid is causing tension in the homeowner's marriage
5:57 - The cleaner is wasting time while running out the clock
6:38 - The homeowner is recovering from multiple surgeries and needs a cleaner for life.
7:20 - The homeowner feels manipulated and taken advantage of
8:17 - The cleaner steals the homeowners cleaning supplies
9:26 - It's time to hire a different house cleaner
10:24 - Set new boundaries and expectations with the new housekeeper.
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[@ladybugmom10]

I clean for a lady who loves to talk. Before I know it, 20 minutes has gone by. I don’t like to talk and clean, not even at home. I like to stay focused on the task. I actually prefer the clients to be away when I’m cleaning. And I always ask for a list.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Talking can become a big distraction. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

[@carolstout7978]

I have a lovely older lady who comes in to help me every other week. She is sweet and I inherited her when my father past and the family didn’t want to let her go, she started coming to my house. Earlier this year noticed her dusting was getting slack as well as other things weren’t getting done as well as before. I wondered how I should handle it when she came to me and said she couldn’t come for awhile because she was having cataract surgery on her eyes. Now I knew! She couldn’t see the dust! L0L Now my house is dust free and we are singing right along. I love your channel and watch most days. Thank you.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Thanks for sharing this. This type of information should be communicated early and both parties agree on next steps. It is wonderful that you were patient with her during the process. Thanks for watching the show and for taking the time to drop me a line. :-)

[@mycatiswaysmarterthanmosto8500]

Similar situation here..my BF and cleaning partner was slacking...not getting everything he should...he finally came to me and said..I cant see..I think it's time for glasses. We got him glasses, and boom hes cleaning better than ever.....when he remembers to bring his glasses...🤣

[@tabbyandjackson5395]

You didnt inhereit her shes not your property whYy would you talk like you own her

[@mycatiswaysmarterthanmosto8500]

@@tabbyandjackson5395 oh shut up.

[@tabbyandjackson5395]

@@mycatiswaysmarterthanmosto8500 hopully i will be inheritaing you soon

[@1Melody1963]

We tried having a house cleaner come-this lady never changed her mop water all the way through my house. Nothing was like we expected. So we didn’t ask her back. Second cleaning trial, the cleaning lady brought her 15 year old son who did nothing except walk around our home, snooping into things. Felt like he was casing our home. This cleaning job was just okay-not great. So didn’t ask her back either. Third try the lady worked about thirty minutes then went outside to smoke. Her whole time at my house was work half an hour, smoke, work, smoke. She did a pretty good job on my house, but left cigarette butts all over outside our back porch. That was the last straw-guess I will just clean my own house. Sigh.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Oh wow...sorry to hear that you didn't have great cleaning experiences.

[@Rabof28]

I only agree with this in part. I am an hourly cleaning lady. I have tons of clients who like to chit chat but I don't stop moving when they talk. When I start a new client they receive a cafeteria list of times and a cleaning check list that they compose. So I set expectations on prior and I still struggle with clients feeling entitled to my time and resources. So it goes both ways I believe

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Hey Amanda, the key to what you just said lies in this>> but I don't stop moving when they talk. It's clear that you have boundaries and have learned how to manage those who are lonely. Hats off for having a cafeteria list of times and cleaning items that keep you both on the same page. You are an inspiration to us all. 👏

[@Rabof28]

@@AskAngelaBrown thank you, Angela. I have all those because of your videos! I appreciate what you do!

[@Lucky20231]

Literally every time you say “the letter continues” I cringe so hard! I feel for this customer. 😰

[@AskAngelaBrown]

I know right? How many chances do you give a person? This is like the drip in the bucket that keeps dripping. And the customer keeps looking the other way, giving one more chance, offering patience, overlooking mistakes, sloppy work, and filling in the gaps for the cleaner. Unfortunately, there comes a day when the bucket is full and you take the whole bucket, and in a big swoop - you empty it and start over again. 😰

[@Lucky20231]

I walked a friend through firing her house cleaner a few weeks back. It was the same type of stuff, and my friend felt for all her life stuff, but she was showing up hours late, or not at all, and causing so much stress to her. She hired someone else and immediately told me she was so glad she broke that off. I empathize with people in these positions though-sometimes the things going on in life make it super hard to be predictable and dependable, but at the end of the day every transaction has to be mutually beneficial.

[@deniseneuendorf3577]

Thank you! I love your videos that come from the viewpoint of the homeowner. Lots of us subscribe!

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Thanks for watching and the kind words. I appreciate you. :-)

[@christopherleodaniels7203]

I tried an agency thru an app. My first experience was fine. The second seemed half done, and I wound up going behind and re-cleaning. The best experience I had was when I left a list.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Thanks for sharing this. I think the key is having the checklist. This way both the cleaner and the homeowner know what was done that day. It's difficult when homeowners have no idea what they are paying for and can't seem to justify the price of a cleaning company who seems to reinvent the cleaning process at each clean.

[@christopherleodaniels7203]

@@AskAngelaBrown …I also think the best thing my first cleaner did was tell me that “no matter how good or thorough someone is, everyone doesn’t clean the way you like it done”, so she encouraged me to give feedback at the end.

[@Queen-of-Swords]

Had exactly this situation and my own circumstances are similar. I am not looking for company! So, I drew up a list of the chores and pinned it up. In the situations where this was an issue, it never solved the problem. The cleaners in these instances... well... I should have trusted my gut.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

👍

[@RUT812]

My husband and I live in Mexico. We have clarified with her what her job duties are. Here’s our problem: I always end up having to rearrange my decorations because our housekeeper doesn’t put our things back where they belong. She also moves our things (shoes, cell phone chargers, etc.) & we spend a lot of time searching for these items. We have asked her several times to pay attention to where things go and put them back where we keep them. After looking for my shoes, my wrist watch, and my ear pods for my phone the last time she was here, my husband and I had separate conversations with her, once again telling her that we don’t like having to hunt for our things. I told her today (and this is absolutely true) that I’m a very organized and have a list of the things are stored in each closet and cabinet. I suffer from chronic osteoarthritis pain, so we need a housekeeper, but I have never left the condo while she cleans and more than likely never will.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Hi. It sounds like you are communicating with her very well. Hopefully she will understand! Thank you so much for your comment and for watching! ☺

[@RUT812]

@@AskAngelaBrownThanks. This is a frustrating thing for me because I don’t want our things to get legs and walk out the door.

[@jo-annemurphy2921]

Wow what a horrible experience I feel so sorry for this woman. I must say Angela you are a more tolerant person that I right at Line 1 I said get rid of her. I would not think twice about saying you know I thank you for your service I don't think we'll be needing you anymore and moving on. The situation is clearly making their lives miserable. I'm praying for a successful resolution🙏

[@AskAngelaBrown]

It's true, we all have different tolerance levels, and we all have different needs. I hired a girl who worked for me who was really co-dependent, needy, and chatty. She couldn't begin the day's work without a laundry list of "Hi, how ya doing, how's the husband? How are the girls? How is your dog? How is your health? Yadda, yadda. And she felt the need to ask me these questions EVERY DAY in return which annoyed me to my core. Once she was sure everyone was "okay" she would go about her work and do a great job. I had to schedule her 15 minutes early each day so she could get this all out of her system before she went to the client's homes. Otherwise...they got the endless stream of chit-chat. And if you skipped the questions (she took it very personally and spent all day worrying if you stopped liking her, or did she say or do something to offend me?) Argh! Different strokes for different folks. Know what I mean?

[@jo-annemurphy2921]

@@AskAngelaBrown oh my God you're killing me I'm laughing so hard! The house I'm going into today is the reverse. I try to get to work and lady wants to talk to me so the only thing I can do is listen and clean as fast as I can and get as much done as I can knowing that sometimes for her it's more important for me to listen then to clean her house! I thought about scheduling myself an extra half an hour just to talk because I feel like I need to get the job done

[@elizabethb3270]

Good points!

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Glad you think so!

[@bittehiereinfugen7723]

For a few months this year I hired an agency to clean our stairwell (apartment building). The to-do list was set by the agency and seemed conclusive. Unfortunately, the implementation was a disaster from the start and got sloppier from week to week. The icing on the cake was when one day nothing was done (really, NOTHING, not even the very sandy stairs swept) except to hang up the note on our door that they had been there and had done the work. Unfortunately, the agency could only be reached by e-mail, contact was difficult, and our repeated requests for improvements were always approved, but no one ever came to do it. It was a very frustrating experience and money wasted.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Oh wow, that's terrible! And not being able to contact someone by phone is a red flag!!

[@margyb7469]

There are a lot of cleaning businesses in Australia that are the same. They charge high prices and do little work

[@nubnsista]

This is very good advice to set the ground rules. I use a cleaning app (I won’t say which one) and the cleaners have all been subpar. I think I should’ve taken more control based on what you’re saying and had my own list instead of using the list on the app and specifically went over how I want the cleaning to be done. I think this will improve the experience. I will definitely do this in the future.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Glad it was helpful! Seems like you're already set, you got this!

[@leticiaurbach1720]

Angela what is the best cleaner to use on laminate floor? Thankyou for your videos.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

A damp microfiber cloth/mop. The key with laminate is to use the lightest (least amount) of chemical possible. Always use a pH neutral (Water or with a drop of Dish soap in a bucket.) Wring out your mop head until nothing more can be squeezed out of it before mopping.

[@audreymay9378]

Running the clock 😉

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Oh not coole, especially if they are not cleaning. Thanks for your input.

[@alicea5]

Nothing related to the video. Just wondering if you have or will do a video on cleaning stainless steel sinks, especially those that have daily water leak leading to white build up (or cloudy fog around the sink) and hard to get rid of stains!!

[@AskAngelaBrown]

You are correct we haven't done a video of this type. Is it possible to fix the leak> What is causing the white build up? Is it calcium in the water? It's difficult to troubleshoot a situation like this without more information.

[@alicea5]

@@AskAngelaBrown would it be possible to send you some images?? I would assume the cloudy build up are calcium. I partially can’t remove the hard build up stuck between the sink and the rectangle based, as there isn’t room to clean following the direction of the grain. If I tried removing the build up, I’ll leave ugly vertical marks against the horizontal grain. Most of the time, I have to scrape the build off carefully with razor and sometimes have to use sandpaper. I have one stainless steel sink that have a cloudy fog stain throughout the entire sink.

[@travisallen8158]

60 seconds wow. U play no games.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

When you're on the clock, time is money. Chitty chatting is for coffee breaks, not to be confused with cleaning time. 😍

[@travisallen8158]

@@AskAngelaBrown , exactly

[@mandersdaro8136]

I would not ever feel comfortable paying hourly, by the job is best, gives them incentive to get done faster. I do have a question. I have "friend", I say friend because she has only called out to me when she needs something which usually entails my time, money or both. She asked if I had jobs that I needed help with if I could call her because she needed extra money. So I did. Had a big dirty job that was going to be overwhelming for just one person to finish in a weekend. I offered to pay her XYZ by the hour. She came back with, "that's fine this time but in the future I want at least $ABC per hour since it's my day off so I'm basically working overtime". She has never cleaned for others . I was so annoyed I told her I didnt need help after all. I ended up hiring my young sons. Totally off topic. I know. But how would you handle someone like that?

[@jnbond]

I’m not Angela, but these are my thoughts on this matter: Although it sounds logical to your “friend” to think it’s realistic to expect time and a half/overtime pay for a job (she’s by the way not been hired to do before or in her field of work), it’s so not realistic to anyone else’s time and needs. It’s not important to anyone else that it’s her day off. To her credit she did indeed state she is trying to earn more money and may even have been offended you didn’t offer her more. She did set boundaries with what she was wanting and willing to do this time or any next time, but expecting overtime pay is not reasonable and using “it’s my day off” as a selling point to gain overtime pay, I fear she will find out soon enough, will not get her far.

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Hey Manders, doesn't sound like a friend at all. Sounds like a manipulative acquaintance. A person who only shows up in your life when they need or want something and never gives back to the relationship may be a good person, but they are not your friend.

[@theresa3471]

Hi angela wthat u clean in 4 hrs because jury people likely u cleaning 2 bedroom bathroom kitchen livingroom and more think 4 hrs it's not to mach for cleaning services some time they not have a good vaccum and pay 14 for hr or 15

[@theresa3471]

They think the workers are machines 😁😁😁😴I know I was working for them

[@AskAngelaBrown]

It sounds like you need to renegotiate the terms of the deal with the client. It is really important that clear boundaries and expectations are set so the customer gets what they paid for and you are not taken advantage of.

[@theresa3471]

Hi angela Friday I have one customer experience she wants one time a month 😁🙉I don't know but the stove is to duty great all the walls floors sticki the fridge 🙉I clean only the kitchen bathroom and her room in 5 hrs when she back home said u not clean the livingroom and dine room I tell her I need 8 hrs for cleaning all 💙💙💙💙💙😴

[@AskAngelaBrown]

Are you using a checklist? You can download one free at savvycleaner.com/worksheets use it on each job you do and leave it at the customers house when you are done. The items checked are the things you guarantee. This helps you budget your time, and then inspect your work when you are done. Using a checklist will make it easy for you and the customer to have the same expectations about what is delivered in exchange of the money paid.