Cleaning News, Views and Tips Blog

Over the next weeks we will be giving you cleaning tips for different parts of the house. The areas that we will concentrate on are the living room, kitchen, bathroom, floors and also other general cleaning tips such as getting rid of bad odours.

Making use of these tips can make this most arduous of tasks more bearable if you do the cleaning yourself and do not employ a cleaner to do so. It will also make the cleaner’s life easier.  

Cleaning Tip No 1.

Schedule your house cleaning, from cleaning the oven to taking out the trash.

Everyone has his or her own idea of what ‘clean’ means. If you take a look in a number of different homes, you will probably see different degrees of cleanliness. A person’s house that does not seem to be as clean to you, may seem to be spotless to them or to someone else. Different people tolerate dirt and mess differently.

Once you have an idea of how clean you actually want your house to be, you can decide just how often each task will need to be done. Set realistic deadlines. If you work forty hours a week and take care of a family, you may not be able to wash your floors two or three times a week. Although, the more family members that can contribute to the household tasks, the better your chances of having the clean home you desire. But, having more family members also means having more cleaning to do.

To decide how often you will need to clean, you need to decide how clean your home will be. Do you want it to be tidy, clean or absolutely spotless?

Tidy: Things are picked up and look neat.

Clean: Everything is clean and ready for unexpected guests.

Spotless: You could eat off of the floor.
Next time: The household cleaning schedule in detail.

Because you are the employer of the Cleaner, you must ensure that your household insurance policy provides Employer’s Liability cover in respect of domestic servants, with a minimum level of cover of £10,000,000 per claim. Most household policies have this cover but you should check with your insurer if you are unsure.

 While your Household Insurance policy should cover injury to workers while working on the inside of your premises, you may find that it does not cover work outside such as gardening or cleaning the exterior of buildings. Do not ask your worker to do cleaning on the outside of your building.

 Where your cleaner is also contracted to do any outside work, such as gardening, check that the appropriate extension to your household cover has been added.

 Your cleaner should be covered by an insurance policy that normally includes Public Liability cover providing for a maximum payment of £1,000,000 in the event of damage to or loss of your property. Cover applies provided that this damage or loss is caused by the negligence or omission of the Cleaner.

 Damage to property will not be covered if it is considered the client has contributed to the damage - for example, as we have said, by supplying the cleaner with inappropriate cleaning materials.

 Accidents do happen from time to time and the purpose of the insurance is not to cover everyday minor accidents to low value breakages, but to provide cover for major disasters and damage.

 Most insurance policies will only cover loss or damage to property if and to the extent that the loss or damage is of value in excess of £100.

 Where any claim is of a value in excess of £100, the employer is liable to pay the first £100 of any such claim. Theft of belongings cannot be and is not covered under most household insurance. Fidelity Guarantee insurance to cover dishonesty would be very expensive and in any case would have only limited cover. Prevention is better than cure.

 Bleach damage caused by spills of cleaning fluids containing bleach is not covered under many insurance policies. We do not recommend the use of concentrated or neat bleach. (Whilst you may keep bleach for your own use, you should not permit the cleaner to use it. Alternative safer products are available.)

 Next article: Over the next few weeks we will present to you a series of cleaning service tips .

There are a number of things that you should be aware of when you employ someone for cleaning. When you clean your own house, you can use practically any cleaning products you wish. When you employ a cleaner, however, you are under the Health & Safety legislation legally obliged to provide a safe working environment.

You can use your own system of  colour-coding to avoid the risk of cross-contamination. We would recommend the following:

  * Yellow for kitchen and food preparation areas

  * Blue for general low risk areas, excluding food areas

  * Red for toilets and sanitary appliances, including bidet and toilet brush holder.

 This is for your own protection. The colour-coding system is simple and easily understood. The golden rule is to have your cleaner work from the cleanest areas to the dirtiest, and to start in the kitchen before doing the toilets and bathrooms. Differently colour-coded cleaning materials should be kept separate from each other. The cloths provided should be high strength long-lasting cloths by Vileda or other quality manufacturers. They are normally designed to be boil-washed and reused, so save yourself some expense and instruct your cleaner not to throw them away after a few uses.

 Avoid supplying abrasive cloths and abrasive cleansers. In the event of damage to surfaces, insurers will view the use by a cleaner of inappropriate materials that have been supplied by the client as ‘contributory negligence’ by the client. Insurers will not meet such claims. Instead we recommend the use of non-abrasive cleansers and cloths.

  * A Safety Kit

 Make a small First Aid Kit available for the cleaner’s use. Safety Goggles should be available for high level cleaning work and goggles should be worn when mixing chemicals and for oven cleaning.In the next house cleaning article we will talk about insurance that you need.

There’s a stranger in my home!

Before taking anyone on, you must be very careful that YOU are not about to break the law!

* Illegal Aliens

There are many ways that someone who was not born in the UK has arrived here and made themselves available for employment.

First and foremost, you’ll want to check they are not illegal, otherwise you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law, facing a criminal record and a fine of £5,000!

You’ll want to see their Passport plus Home Office Documents, including Work Permit, Business Visa, Grant of Status (Exceptional Leave to Enter or Leave to Remain), which must have the Home Office stamp inlcuding date and must contain a reference number, starting with the first letter of the surname of the applicant. (We have seen obvious forgeries- obvious when you know what you are
looking for).

* Au pairs

Au Pairs originating from outside the EU are only allowed into the UK when they are assigned to a particular family at a particular address. In 2005 legally an au pair can work for a maximum of 5 hours a day and have two days free. For this they receive an ‘allowance’, not a wage, because they are not eligible for ‘employment’. So, beware that you don’t take on an au pair from your neighbour! Otherwise you’d be in trouble and your neighbour’s au pair will find herself whisked out of the country. Worse still if you yourself have an au pair - don’t help her to find work as you could be charged with aiding and abetting. 

Dust To Shine receive calls every week from young girls with exotic accents seemingly unaware that they are contravening the laws of the country. When their English is bad, often it is their host family phoning for them and doing them a favour in trying to get more work.

Continued in Part 5.

Dust To Shine has found, for every domestic cleaner that rings us for an interview, they’ll be as many as three others to whom we refuse because they have no references, cannot speak English (at all), are illegal workers, or are just casually enquiring to show willingness for their Job Seekers Allowance. For every cleaner that is actually booked into our interviews, two will either not bother to show up or they’ll come without the required documents. You need a good cleaner vetting procedure.

Cleaning is a business where it is twice as difficult to source the supply, the cleaners, as it is to obtain clients! It takes twice as long to get a cleaner on to our books as it does to take on a client. Also, in London, despite scrutiny and inquisition, cleaners last on average four to six months (they tell us it’s for life!), compared to a client who lasts from one to two years or more.

When they first start, your new cleaner will be on their best behaviour. It is often only when they are IN the job that they reveal their qualities. We now consider getting quality staff an elimination process not a selection process. Apart from the obvious layabouts who we filter out over the phone, we cannot for certain tell in advance which cleaners will prove reliable and competent.

* Conclusion

There are no tests for cleaner ‘attitude’. Pessimistically - it is a numbers game.

Cleaners are independent, varied human beings over whose actions you have no real control. The most important thing in a worker, that you can only assess when they’re in the job is The Three A’s :

 Attitude!   Attitude!   ATTITUDE!

Part 4. How to take on a domestic cleaner without breaking the law!

The ‘Triple-A’ Domestic Cleaner is rarer than you might think!

You are about to take on a cleaner privately to clean your home on a regular weekly basis. You have obtained their name and phone number from a neighbour, or a local notice board, or even a simple flyer through your letterbox, or you may have advertised in your local paper. If you are a past employer of domestic staff you will know what to expect. If this is your first time, you may be in for a
surprise!

Things may not work out. Cleaners, like all other human beings, can let you down. For instance, when you phone them, they may agree to an interview and change their mind - and NOT tell you. They may attend and then turn the job down (and you might not be told either). They may start but give up after a few weeks. The stronger the economy, the more this sort of thing happens. It can be frustrating for you.

Despite all your best efforts in finding a cleaner privately and getting them started, things may still not work out. Be prepared to be let down! If you are very unlucky, you may have two in a row not work out. Sometimes you could have interviewed three cleaners in a row - and none get started. On average you can expect to be let down 1:3 cleaners before one settles into a regular routine.

Some cleaning staff may start with great promise and then turn out to be unreliable. Difficulties in attracting the right domestic staff increase in periods of low unemployement. A domestic cleaner will let you down and this WILL happen more often than you might expect.

So how do you source the right domestic cleaner?

Continued in part 3.

This is the first of a forthcoming series of articles and snipets of information about domestic cleaning issues.

Covering why the perfect cleaner is very rare to find on your own, how you can find your ideal cleaner and keep them, getting the best from your cleaner, cleaning products, security and why household insurance is a must.

To get started here’s one simple principle: You can get a good cleaner privately with out using an agency that you are happy with only if you persevere.

However the problem is that more than 90% of people who are trying to obtain a cleaner do not have the time nor the inclination to do so. In this day and age with, in most cases both partners working, they do not have time to do this much less the time to do the housework themselves. This is when they turn to an agency.

Continued in part 2

Cleaning Tips that work?
Cleaning a foul-smelling waste disposal doesn’t need to be a struggle, pop in some ice cubes and a cup or two of vinegar in to the waste disposal.  Switch it on for a few minutes to allow it to crush the ice. The ice will clean the blades as well as getting rid of the grime and grunge it has an added bonus that the vinegar will get rid of the germs hidden in places you can’t see.