Cleaning News, Views and Tips Blog

Along the Finchley Road from Hampstead you can find all the help you need with a domestic cleaner in Swiss Cottage. With over 36 helpful professional cleaners to call on.

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