If you're a control freak how do you handle cleaners, etc. in your house?
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Anonymous
| 10:26, do you work outside the home? Are you interested in therapy for your issues? |
Anonymous
| OP, do you have children? |
Anonymous
OP here. Thanks for the replies, they've been, er....interesting. 
So other people would not be bothered by a big stain/handprint on their freshly painted walls? You can't get that sort of thing off on flat paint. Here are a few other examples: Person comes in to measure for blinds. They fling out their tape measure and as they're reeling it in it scratches our newly painted walls that DH painted just weeks before and leaves scratch marks. This was totally unncessary and could have been prevented if they had only been more careful. This annoyed us tremendously. I said, "please be careful with that tape measure. This wall has just been painted." Only then was she careful. This kind of thing annoys me because contractors don't tend to treat one's home with respect a lot of the time. I've seen it over and over again. Or another example: workman comes in to fix something, and sets his workbox down on brand new couch, not the floor or kitchen counter. I mean, come on. What is up with this sort of thing? Yes, I have a beautifully painted and furnished house, with brand new furnishings, and brand new floors. I want to keep it looking nice. That means no one touches the walls to mess up the paint job, no one wears shoes in the house, if you bring in bags, etc. you're careful not to scratch the walls, and you don't just throw down your stuff on my brand new upholstery. |
Anonymous
| OP - I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. Do you plan on having kids? If yes, then hire a house cleaner now. And let go of the fact that they don't clean perfectly. I tend to like things neat and organized, but with 3 kids under 6 years old, I just have to let certain things go. You may also want to consider getting a pet. Having a pet will be good for you if you are going to try to have children. It will teach you to let go a little and I you REALLY need to do so if you want a happy future with children. |
Anonymous
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Why can't you paint over the stain on your master bedroom wall?
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Anonymous
OP here. We have pets. Three cats, have had them for years. The cats' mess is never an issue and they are not destructive (they have plenty of scratching posts, etc.). Yes they track litter sometimes and vomit in different places occasionally but those are all things that can be cleaned up and not cause a permanent issue. Plus, the cats are indoor cats so they're not tracking nasty stuff from outside. The handprint on the wall is permanent and unless we re-paint the wall (and it's a very large wall) there's no way to get that kind of thing off. It's not that I expect the cleaners to clean "perfectly." I expect the cleaners to respect the house, my instructions (i.e. don't touch the walls), use common sense not to scratch things (i.e. don't drag a heavy knick knack across my brand new wooden end table), and be careful when, say, windexing a window so as not to stain the drapes with glass cleaner. |
Anonymous
OP. are you looking for justification for not getting a cleaning service in your house? Are you looking for validation that we're all OCD like you? What exactly do you want? The way people handle cleaners, etc. is to get a recommendation and not micromanage the service providers. |
Anonymous
The reason is that we had painters paint this room because it has cathedral ceilings. The wall with the hand print is one of those tall walls that DH wouldn't be able to do because of that. Because of the type of paint I think just painting over a small area to disguise the print would look more noticeable than the print itself. Plus I shouldn't have to paint over it, the cleaning lady should have listened to my request when she came in to not touch the walls and not touched the walls. So irritating. |
Anonymous
Do you have any real problems, or not? If not, maybe that's why you obsess over trivial stuff like this. |
Anonymous
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You know, I used to be much more neurotic in this way (not as bad), but I've learned over the years to lighten up or I'll end up too stressed. Ultimately, other life issues became more important. When my wife's health needed much more care (my wife has a genetic disorder that complicates our lives), I ended up having to sacrifice my cleaning standards and to let someone else take care of some things. I also realized that if I stressed over the house AND over my wife, my own health deteriorated and we couldn't afford that. So, after looking long and hard at my priorities, I slowly learned to ease back on my neuroses. Having twins has made me lose even more of my neuroses. Things bother me, but I've learned to keep moving on and accept a huge number of things that would have bothered me no end in my single days.
We used to be a shoe free house. We're now a shoes optional house. And you know what? Most people come in, look around and immediately take off their shoes. If you put a shoe cabinet next to the door or a pair of shoes that have been taken off, it signals to many that you have a shoe-free house and they should take off their shoes. Even if you just put out a pair of shoes by the door mat when you are expecting people in, it seems to trigger the response or at least a question "Should we take off our shoes?" We have a plumber who refuses to wear his shoes in our house (he's been our plumber through 3 houses and didn't do this in the earlier ones, but won't keep his shoes on in our new house). We interviewed several cleaners and during the walk-through inspection for the cleaning quote, I watched how the cleaners behaved. It gives you a good idea of how they'll treat the house when they clean. For example, the most recent one was a mother-daughter team. They took their shoes off when they came in. They daughter pulled her sweatshirt sleeve over her hand to touch a couple of things...those types of actions speak much louder than words. I would make sure that when you interview, you walk through the house, talk about your concerns and see how they address them. I've found that a 30-45 minute walk-through of the house discussing issues really tells you a lot about the way they'll treat your house. For contractors, yes, get a box of the shoe covers, keep it by the door, let the contractors know that you expect them to either take off shoes or wear the shoe covers inside the house. Put a basket by the door where they can put the shoe covers when they walk out. I've found that the basket serves as a visual reminder to take off the shoe covers before going out. It doesn't always happen (there are always those who will walk out with them...tell them to throw them out if they wore them outside). You can get a box of 100 (50 pairs) for $4.69 + $3.99 S&H at ecrater: http://www.ecrater.com/p/11462545/100-pcs-disposable-shoe-covers-carpet. Cheap for the peace of mind that it will buy you. Basically, it's a bit of compromise...look for people who will try to be as respectful as possible and then lighten up a little to accept if/when they fail to meet your expectations. Good luck. |
Anonymous
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I would suggest you use more durable paint and floor finishing so that every little touch doesn't destroy your walls and floors. Houses are meant to be lived in. Yeah my floor has scratches and there are probably handprints on my walls if you look close enough (although magic eraser is a big help!). Who knows why the cleaning lady touched your wall. Maybe she tripped on an area rug and put her hand out to keep from falling. Maybe she was reaching up to dust off a frame and touched the wall in the process. I doubt she went around putting her hand on the wall for the sole reason of making handprints.
There is a big differnece between being clean and tidy and being OCD about it. If you clean 2 hours a day, and are this uptight about walls and floors, you are bordering on OCD. Do you ever have guests over? You can't control every single motion every person makes. Yesterday someone was putting a piece of furniture together in my house and the board slipped and scratched my leather chair. I was annoyed for about 3 minutes, gave my little be careful speech then moved on - its a chair. |
Anonymous
No, not really. My wife and I painted most of the walls in our home and many with flat paint. Keep the paint around. You can do a quick touch up and as long as you use a dry brush (take the brush, put just a little paint on it and rub it back and forth over the edge of the can to remove as much paint as possible), then feather it on (brush it back and forth so that the center of the painted area gets more paint and the edges get less, it will dry evenly. As long as you use the minimal amount of paint, flat paint will not show the touched up area unless the paint is older and has faded from time. With new paint, you should be able to touch up without it being visible (as long as there wasn't any indentation/scratch to the wall/drywall from an impact). When our house was brand new, the builder left a small quart container of the paint they painted the walls with. It's basic builder white, but we've still used it a number of places to touch up scuff marks like when we've moved furniture. I've done plenty of touch ups with the builder's or our later purchased paint. Yes, the cleaning lady should have been more careful, but she wasn't. Accidents do happen. Instead of steaming about it, you should just touch up the paint and then find a new cleaning lady. |
Anonymous
This would really annoy me. Now every time you look at the chair you feel annoyance from the careless mistake that person made. Yes, it's just a chair and I'm not the type of person to value things but dings, scratches and stains when it could have easily been prevented if the person had not been careless does annoy me. |
Anonymous
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OP, you do seem to mention your freshy painted walls getting messed up a good bit.
I think with your housecleaner situation, you really made a mistake letting anyone into your house while you still had wet paint. The problem with the contractor measuring your windows and then retracting the measuring tape a few weeks AFTER the walls had been painted seems a bit odd to me. I think you were right to warn her not to scratch your walls, because you seem more protective than most people aout those walls. I agree with others that the next time you get those walls painted perhaps you shoudl look into more durable paint, or paint that will allow you to touch up after these minor assaults of life take place. If you have children down the road at some point, be aware of your hot spots, and perhaps do not invite other people, or their children, over to your house on playdates. Arrange playdates at a separate location so you do not need to worry about people letting their children loose in your house and possibly allowing them to scuff the paint off the baseboards. |
Anonymous
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Hmm, I have 2young boys and a very clumsy DH. My house was built in the 50's. Due to most of these things we have mostly hand me down or (good-looking) consignment store/yard sale furniture.
Our hardwood floors are original, and we painted 5 years ago. Our floors have no noticeable scratches and between our magic eraser and some touch-up paint our house looks great. Honestly, I think this has more to do with OCD (and I am very particular myself) than it does with actual incidents. OP, we don't wear our shoes in the house either, but if we have company or a contractor I just clean up after they leave. Assuming these people arent walking through fields of dirt and mud, maybe you are being so persnickety that they get annoyed at being treated like they are a muddy dog in your house as opposed to a human being and they are being less careful because of that? Try a different, less unfriendly approach and maybe people will be more careful with your things. |