People who hire everything out- who notices and takes care of deep cleaning/one-offs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My relatives just add the one-offs to the list of chores for the house cleaner to do that week. If there's too much, she can't do it all, and will spread it out over several visits (over several weeks), unless the homeowner wants to do it themselves. Some people do it themselves, because they're not the type to wait around while something curdles, but others are fine living with the problem until it's fixed by someone else (and disabled or elderly persons are also in that category).

I can't afford to outsource anything, so either it sits undone, or I muster up the courage to do it: this week I cleaned the walls and baseboards that my fluffy dog likes to brush against, because after several months he ends up leaving an oily deposit that contributes to "old house smell". I have a keen sense of smell, like PP, so anything smelly bothers me until it's taken care of.

But I'm not good with clutter. My space is small and the piles of books and papers never go away. I just dust them...

For the dog walls: try a spin mop in a bucket of hot water and a cleaner that cuts oil, like Mr clean or ammonia. Just a quick swipe with the spin mop isn’t as thorough as scrubbing all the baseboards by hand, but you’ll get 80% of the result in like 10% of the effort.

Ok that actually sounds fun and now I want to try it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I frequently hear the advice “just hire everything out!”. That makes sense if you live overseas and have 2-3 people on staff, but how does it work here? For example, I was thinking about this when I realized that the LL Bean water hog mat under my dog’s food and water dish stinks. So I had to go outside and scrub it with oxyclean and hose it down, and now I have to remember to bring it in before it rains.

Do weekly cleaners notice this stuff if you find the right ones? Do you have to list all possible one-offs or deep cleans and they rotate through them? Are there special cleaners who do this? Or do you have another method for managing the intermittent things that need to get done but aren’t obvious?

I’m fine managing it on my own now, but I never see any of my neighbors doing this kind of stuff and I’m wondering what secret I’m missing.

You don't see my DH scrubbing the car mats? You don't see us taking all porch furniture outside to clean the room 1x per year? Maybe you're just not paying attention?

No, I think I need to move! This is how I was raised but I don’t see it in my neighborhood. The last time I was scrubbing the car mats my nosy neighbor strolled by and just stared like I was an actor making candles in colonial Williamsburg.

We live near a bunch of indoor cats who don’t seem to clean. You’re my people.

[Anonymous]

Weekly cleaners have set things they do every week but you can leave them a note asking them to do two or three specific things each week also. Plus it's good to have a deep clean four times a year - those cleaners do more.

[Anonymous]

We do a lot of it ourselves. But my weekly cleaners also notice when the fridge needs to be cleaned out and take care of it. But ive had the same team for 8 years and paid then all of covid not to come. I also schedule a deep clean which takes 3 people 6 hrs once a year.

[Anonymous]

All the posters answering either have weekly cleaners or someone who comes 2X each week. What about the households who have a cleaner every other week? My bet is that it doesn’t get done.

[Anonymous]

My weekly cleaner would never do this. I do 99% of these types of tasks. I do them sporadically with no set schedule since I’m still too busy with kids and work. At some point, I plan on pulling checklists off the Internet and getting more systematic. Who knows if that will ever happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I frequently hear the advice “just hire everything out!”. That makes sense if you live overseas and have 2-3 people on staff, but how does it work here? For example, I was thinking about this when I realized that the LL Bean water hog mat under my dog’s food and water dish stinks. So I had to go outside and scrub it with oxyclean and hose it down, and now I have to remember to bring it in before it rains.

Do weekly cleaners notice this stuff if you find the right ones? Do you have to list all possible one-offs or deep cleans and they rotate through them? Are there special cleaners who do this? Or do you have another method for managing the intermittent things that need to get done but aren’t obvious?

I’m fine managing it on my own now, but I never see any of my neighbors doing this kind of stuff and I’m wondering what secret I’m missing.

“Hiring everything out” does not equal “weekly cleaners”.

You have a chip on your shoulder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the posters answering either have weekly cleaners or someone who comes 2X each week. What about the households who have a cleaner every other week? My bet is that it doesn’t get done.

Your major complaint is that the dog bowl mat doesn’t get cleaned and thus you think an every other week cleaner is a waste?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do a lot of it ourselves. But my weekly cleaners also notice when the fridge needs to be cleaned out and take care of it. But ive had the same team for 8 years and paid then all of covid not to come. I also schedule a deep clean which takes 3 people 6 hrs once a year.

with your regular cleaner or someone else? this is what I need

[Anonymous]

It is extremel rare that someone likes to clean.

Even a cleaning person. If you happen to have such a cleaning person, they will be way ahead of you and do all that needs to be done without asking.

[Anonymous]

Our cleaning team comes once a month, and they actually clean the cats' feeding area. However, since they do not come as frequently, I have to tell them to start focusing their cleaning on other areas - for example, I noticed last time they came, our lower level was barely cleaned. We are trying to manage our clutter better so we can have the house stay cleaner so our service can be more effective. A cleaning service usually only has a couple of hours to clean, and once they are done, they don't care if stuff is left unfinished.

[Anonymous]

These days I use Task Rabbit quite a bit. There seem to be many more taskers working in the DC area now than there were five to ten years ago. It used to be more of a NYC thing.

I do not have dogs, but would a restaurant drain floor mat work better? Maybe with a thin Armor All mat underneath?

[Anonymous]

For the dog messes, I have a set of old towels that have been handed down to the dog, and I use one under his water bowl. He doesn't make too much of a mess at the bowl, but does dribble in random places because he carries water in his mouth after drinking and then opens his mouth and out it comes. So we put down towels when we notice a dribble on the floor. Once a week, all his towels go in the wash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These days I use Task Rabbit quite a bit. There seem to be many more taskers working in the DC area now than there were five to ten years ago. It used to be more of a NYC thing.

I do not have dogs, but would a restaurant drain floor mat work better? Maybe with a thin Armor All mat underneath?

You would call Task Rabbit to wash and replace the absorbent mat under the dog dish? Or sponge off the baseboards in a couple of rooms and then leave? Is this what they do now?

I have used Task Rabbit for discrete "bigger" things, like move a monster sofa up three flights of steps. Or install a new flag holder on my porch column, using a masonry drill bit. ie, a job too small for a contractor to come out, but something I couldn't do along.

But you're saying they will come and swap out a stinky dog mat and then just ... leave? If so, I cannot imagine what that costs. And I'd feel like arranging the completion of that task would take more mental energy and coordination than just doing it myself. But correct me if I'm wrong

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I frequently hear the advice “just hire everything out!”. That makes sense if you live overseas and have 2-3 people on staff, but how does it work here? For example, I was thinking about this when I realized that the LL Bean water hog mat under my dog’s food and water dish stinks. So I had to go outside and scrub it with oxyclean and hose it down, and now I have to remember to bring it in before it rains.

Do weekly cleaners notice this stuff if you find the right ones? Do you have to list all possible one-offs or deep cleans and they rotate through them? Are there special cleaners who do this? Or do you have another method for managing the intermittent things that need to get done but aren’t obvious?

I’m fine managing it on my own now, but I never see any of my neighbors doing this kind of stuff and I’m wondering what secret I’m missing.

You don't see my DH scrubbing the car mats? You don't see us taking all porch furniture outside to clean the room 1x per year? Maybe you're just not paying attention?

No, I think I need to move! This is how I was raised but I don’t see it in my neighborhood. The last time I was scrubbing the car mats my nosy neighbor strolled by and just stared like I was an actor making candles in colonial Williamsburg.

We live near a bunch of indoor cats who don’t seem to clean. You’re my people.

I have a car that is 13 years old and have never scrubbed car mats. Why must car mats be scrubbed?

I also choose not to have pets, which keeps things much cleaner.