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[quote=Anonymous]This is going to get me flamed for posting the most inconsequential gripe ever, but it's something that drives me nuts!

I have a housekeeper who I like, personally. She's a kind person, and kind of down on her luck. We started using her when DS was tiny. She subsequently suffered some major health problems, has no health insurance, and told us how much she relies on her cleaning income. We aren't wealthy and hadn't planned to keep her on after DS was small, but at the same time, neither DH or I have the heart to let her go. She's now been with us 3 years and we've given her a 10 / raise twice. She makes a high hourly rate, but we know she has no benefits, etc).

There are a few issues. First, she doesn't like to use our cleaning products and sometimes uses bleach even when we ask her to use vinegar only as a disinfectant (In addition to the environmental concerns, I have a major sensitivity to bleach, triggers asthma and skin problems for me).

Second, we initially hired her to clean our upstairs. For a while, our downstairs was being remodeled so she didn't have to clean that (which she was, originally). We felt bad about cutting her salary so we continued to pay her as though she was cleaning the entire house. When the basement was finished, she never started cleaning it again. DH asked her to and she seemed really annoyed. She does it, but I feel like she's giving it a cursory cleaning at best.

Third issue is really strange. But when she dusts, she takes everything off of all of the shelves. And then she puts the things back in a straight row. She does this for everything. picture frames, plants, candles, vases, knick knacks, you name it. We are pretty minimalist, so there's not that much stuff, but what there is is never how I left it. It's never even close. I guess my question is: is that typical? I feel like it's not that hard to just move things as you dust, and put them right back, or at least try to get them close to how they were.

She also puts EVERYTHING that is out, in the house, into my son's toy boxes, but not necessarily in the same one or the same place or in any logical way. Things that have ended up in my kids' toyboxes or cubbies (and we have a lot of these cubbies): swim goggles, mittens, shoes (mine), our dog's leash, candles, pictures, mail, coasters, an outlet cover, and concert tickets.

I think because we've had some small issues before and ignored them, both because we sympathize with her situation and want to be kind and also because we've never really become comfortable telling a grown woman how to clean our house (it's not that i have problems giving direction; I have employees at the office - I think it is specifically, having a housekeeper in the first place), we have lost perspective here.

Am I out of line for expecting her to comply with our wishes, from the major (no bleach) to the pet peeves (is it just psycho to ask her to stop lining things up or putting weird stuff into the toyboxes?). If not, I wonder what the point of paying someone to clean is if you have to go around and fix and search for everything after.

Our family is not really that messy; a large part of why we keep her on is that we think she needs the income. But, obviously, we also REALLY like when the house is clean. Aside from the issues I've mentioned, the house looks good when she's through.  [/quote]

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