From a chair I can't clean. Had a young woman, she would do anything I asked but didn't have a real plan on doing somethings regularly, but was great at odd things (like going in the pool full of water and cleaning decorative tile rim) but her regular cleaning was not up to my standards. We talked life stories too much. In fact she visited today. Let her go, have 2 women-team that comes every 2 weeks (I'm an organizer, things stay pretty nice). I was impressed by first time they cleaned, a supervisor came to check their job. Each time they come, on a rotating schedule, they concentrate on chosen areas and deep-clean. They change my sheets, something I sure can't do and DH isn't great at. Now, they do extra stuff (like putting up a shower curtain, etc) for no extra pay. I'm sure to ask only once in awhile. They both hurt their knees, were out at same time, and another team came. I wasn't so happy with them. Glad when my ladies returned. They do small things like carry hot lunches to table for me, get something across a rug I get stuck on. It's an expense, but needed, not a luxury.

I show respect to them and they always give it back. When I was young I cleaned, college summers was a union janitor (We had fun) so I know sometimes people don't get the respect we all deserve.

I too, live in a small town where there just aren't any agencies close. We found a cleaning lady for my DS through my DH, as her Dad works w/DH, but that's an hr away from us. I know several of my friend's have cleaning help, so may ask them about their services.

I called one lady, but she's going to be quitting, as she has bad knees.

Good for you Kitty!

We had Merry Maids for a few years. I really liked them. They'd send out a team of 3 or 4 girls to clean, and it usually only took them about an hour and a half to do it all. Really enjoyed that.

Then one day, they sent out a team with a new girl. I discovered that she stole $20 out of my jewelry box. I called their boss and reported it (they were still cleaning upstairs) and then went upstairs to tell the girl that was the head of the group. It was kind of difficult to get across to the girl what was wrong (they all spoke spanish and not much english) but she realized what was going on pretty quick and knew who did it.

The girl who had done it came running into the room before I had said anything, and was telling the head cleaner that I was a lying "expletive" (I know more spanish swear words than anything else in that language) and had pretty much admitted what happened before I could say anything to the girl.

They had to wait here until their boss showed up. We never did call police, and it wasnt until the next day that we realized she'd gotten away with about half of my mom's good jewelry. Which was worth close to a little over $1000. The boss gave me my $20 back out of her own pocket. We never did get my mom's stuff back. We did get a year of free cleaning from the owners tho...so that sort of made up for the theft.

It did cause my mom to get a phobia about cleaning people. Now we have one person, the owner of her own cleaning service (she has about 4 or 5 employees) who cleans our house now. She does the cleaning herself for us. We trust her more than her employees because we figure she's not going to risk her company's reputation by stealing from us.

It is a bit irritating tho that she calls out sick a LOT. (four or five times this year already) And she's got weird ideas on where she should be cleaning, kept telling me she charged extra for baseboards and panel doors. I'm guessing that's why she charges $115 now instead of the $95 that she charged to have one of her employees clean.

She does a better job on the upstairs than she does on my basement. She makes my mom's bed up neatly and changes her sheets, but she doesnt do mine. The way she's made my bed for me is weird too..she just flips the blankets back up and doesnt straighten out the lumpy bits...but she does that for my mom's bed.

My dad's the one who hired her, so I dont complain about the way she's cleaned my room. I am going to ask her to clean my bathroom in a different order than she does tho. She starts with the toilet, and cleans up from there...using the soapy toilet water to wipe down the counters (ewwww...even if it's soapy, it's still icky!) I always want to wipe the entire bathroom down after she leaves with bleach wipes. But, why should I have to clean my bathroom a second time after my dad's paid her money to clean it once.

At least she cleans everything else really well. She even gets the inside of the toaster where all the crumbs from the toast fall into and cleans under the refrigerator and along the sides of the stove and the washer/dryer where it always gets really dusty. She'll even sweep the front porch before she leaves. So, that kind of makes up for my bathroom.

Good for you, Kell, remember, when you hire a cleaner, you must lower your standards. Let's hope they can prove me wrong!

Funny how this disease can shift our priorities, isn't it?

If you are not getting what you paid for dont be afraid to FIRE THEM! I hire on a month by month basis. After one month we will re evaluate how things are going. We will re evaluate MY money, and your job. If its not working out, I wont hesitate to ask them to go home. I give the same speach when I hire them. I CAN and WILL have you arrested if I find you have stolen from me. I wont hesitate to call the police and have them put you in jail. As an ex prison nurse, living with an ex prison Lt. the threat comes off much more real. I am also quick to lock up what I dont want stolen or cant replace. Take pictures of your valueables so you can ID it later.

I agree that you are not going to get the same job as if YOU were on your knees scrubbing the kitchen floor, or wiping out the radiator with a qtip, but you deserve to at least get basic services for a basic price. My house isnt filled with children, and only 2 adults living here. The basics are just fine by me.

I am glad you spoke out against the girl who stole from you. way to go! That is one of my hiring requirements. You MUST speak a language that BOTH of us can understand so that I can communicate with you. If your entire team can only communicate with you, then your team is worthless to me. Dont tell, but I speak spanish, italian, cherokee, and well...dabble in a couple of other languages.

I'm sorry so many have had a bad experience with cleaning crews in the past.

I sincerely hope that these gals work out and do a good job. I'm going into this with that expectation. They obviously need the job and I need the help.....so hopefully we can help each other!

My son is off on Friday but won't be home...but his police car will be parked in the driveway. If that doesn't instigate some honesty I don't know what will!! Guess I could wear his duty belt and gun holster the entire time they're here!!

I'm going to wait until my worker guys have cleaned up after themselves this week and call the maids next week.

Let me know how they do, for you, on Friday, Kelly.

Erin~ I've gotta say it is inexcusable for your cleaning lady to clean the stool first and use the same cleaning rags on your counters etc. You definitely need to point out the nasty germs she is spreading onto your counters etc. She should know better.

Funny how people have to tell cleaning people HOW to clean. That just blows my mind.

No. NO. NO!

Hire your own cleaner and keep that broad out of the kitchen!