This Is What Your Housekeeper Wants From You.
After our post on How to Clean Before the Housekeeper Comes, readers wanted to know a lot more about how to hire a cleaning lady and how to deal with any delicate or awkward situations. We spoke to Beatrice Rojas, owner of C&B Facility Services in San Antonio, and she answered all of our questions.
How to choose a service
You have options. You can hire a personal cleaner through Craigslist, through a personal referral, or through a service like Handy . Or you can hire an agency that can send different cleaners to your house at different times. With a private cleaner, you can pay cash directly and you can build a more relaxed professional relationship. You will also know exactly who comes to your home every time.
The agency often costs two or three times as much, Rojas says, but payroll taxes and insurance usually cover those costs. The agency can also send a team; Rojas often leads a team of three to clean the house, tackling multiple rooms at once, so they can clean an entire house in a couple of hours. If you are looking for a level of professionalism and protection from damage, an agency may be your best option.
If you use Handy, please be aware that the company faced a National Labor Relations Board and Class Action Claim complaint due to its handling of workers and paid compensation following a DC lawsuit due to misleading background verification statements and other complaints consumers.
How to set the cost
Most cleaning services prefer to charge a flat rate per visit. But this rate is based on an estimate of your needs, an estimate of the time taken, and the application of their hourly rate. (This can be anywhere from $ 20 to $ 90 an hour or more.) To set this rate, Rojas says, it’s important to walk around your home or office with a cleaning lady describing what you want to do or not do.
The flat rate balances everyone’s incentives: Your janitor won’t be able to make any more money from you bumming, but he can count on your recurring payment without haggling.
According to Rojas, the problem is that you are breaking the agreement. If you clean before the cleaning lady’s first visit, but not before subsequent visits, you are simply cutting their paycheck. Now they will have to decide whether to decide with you, or dump you for the sake of more honest clients. So cover whatever you can now and stick to it because it’s easier than fixing the misunderstanding later. Set expectations for things like:
How to prepare your home
As we said, clean up the clutter ! Get it out of the way so the cleaners can do the actual cleaning. The clutter prompts your janitor to just skip the area, cleaning only what is visible, or to throw everything in a pile with less care than you yourself. “Shoes are a big thing,” says Rojas. Throw them in a closet where they won’t ruin the vacuuming process.
“Take your valuables away,” says Rojas. This is partly to prevent theft, but most cleaners do not want to jeopardize a stable job. This is really to prevent the embarrassing situation of a cleaning lady slipping your money into a weird drawer or vacuuming your earring.
Valuables can be locked; Rojas is not offended. Or you can just put them in a drawer. “I don’t want to see money in your house,” says Rojas. “You can expect me not to open your furniture.” But it is very inconvenient when something disappears and the client suspects the cleaner. So do your best to prevent this suspicion.
When Rojas moves anything of value, she tells the client to avoid such discomfort. So if your janitor keeps telling you that he had to move, take the hint and start cleaning better.
Rojas also asks clients to close any weapons and other weapons. Also put away your sex toys and anything else that might be inconvenient for the cleaning lady. (Rojas hates to see a room full of taxidermy.) If it is important for you not to point this out, again, talk about it at the first meeting.
How to handle a cleaning lady correctly
Get out of the house. Rojas hates cleaning when the customer is at home; since her team cleans several rooms at once, it is difficult to do without an extra person. “Your home is my workplace,” says Rojas. She had clients who would not let her vacuum while they were on a business call, and these clients are not given priority later.
If you plan to be at home while cleaning, a private cleaning lady may be the best option for you. When I was working from home, I would go to a coffee shop, or my janitor would just tell me when she needed access to the office. Like many of these rules, it depends on the nature and work habits of the cleaner.
If you have CCTV cameras, put them away too. They make the cleaners feel distrusted, invaded and abused. Hidden cameras are of course out of the question and illegal in many places. Your janitor will find them. Don’t go to court.
According to Rojas, sexual harassment by customers is a big problem in the industry. Your janitor cannot afford to check your bio, so he relies directly on what he sees. Set good boundaries, make it easy to trust, and always warn if someone is in the house when the cleaning ladies arrive. Again, your home is your janitor’s workplace and is where labor laws apply.
How to communicate
Too many unpleasant surprises and the cleaner will drop you. (Or reveal your gross habits in their memoir .) So, as we say all the time, bring everything up at a glance. Be professional but open-minded and be prepared to keep looking. It is better to spend some time looking for the right cleaner than to face disputes or even lawsuits in the future.
So, in the first session, talk about everything: who provides the consumables, what they need, when the cleaning starts and ends, what will and what won’t, what customers will be there, what cleaners will be there, whether the cleaner will be insured. And, of course, payment details. Then, if something changes, fix it. If you have more work to get done, find out if it affects speed. Cleaning is a very personal matter and good customers are best treated.
If this all sounds boring, well, yes, you invite people into your house to touch all your things for money. It’s Complicated! But it’s still better than vacuuming.