Messy and/or dirty homes

[Anonymous]

For six months I worked for a nice couple who treated me well and was compensated fairly competitively but their home was filled with millions of toys, broken and new and scattered all over the place, they never vacuumed or cleaned the floors, had months old crumbs stuck in the couch and were just the filthiest people possible. The one time I visibly tidied and cleaned they seemed embarrassed and told me fifty times I needn't have done that. The kids were nice, but I declined the offer to continue with them after the summer purely because I started having to bring inside shoes and couldn't make myself sit on the floor in such filth.

Have you worked in homes that were messy and cluttered? Dirty? How did you deal? When the position ended, did the working environment play a role in it?

If you broached the subject with the NF, what was their reaction?

[Anonymous]

During my first meeting, I always ask about their housekeeping services, specifically "how often"?

[Anonymous]

I am a neat freak by nature and I tend to get super grossed out by dirty and filthy homes.

But if I truly loved the child and the family, I could probably deal with the grossness if I was paid well and had job security because that means more to me than a little filth.

But if we're talking about a filthy bathroom or dog poop that I have to scoop up on a regular basis, then I would most likely have to leave. Even I have my limits.

[Anonymous]

I worked for a family for over 2 years. The house was disgusting food everywhere. Clutter, dirty dishes stacked up. Each day I cleaned for about 2 hours sometimes more. I would leave the house looking decent, never good because of all the clutter. The next day 13 hrs later it would be trashed again. Vicious cycle but with 4 kids I think they decided to give up on ever cleaning. The anxiety I felt every morning walking into the mess was awful. I didn't quit over it though eventually the family moved. What bothered me was that I spent hrs each day cleaning things not in my job description and they never once thanked me. Even joked that if I was a housekeeper I would be fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:During my first meeting, I always ask about their housekeeping services, specifically "how often"?

LOL. Wow. Living off the rich, are we?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During my first meeting, I always ask about their housekeeping services, specifically "how often"?

LOL. Wow. Living off the rich, are we?

Who cleans your shared work space? You?

[Anonymous]

I have worked for families on all ends of the cleanliness spectrum. I worked for a family once that literally; No joke, they could have /easily/ been on an episode of Hoarders. They had several rooms that couldn't be entered because they were literally completely full from floor to ceiling. Lots of dirty old toys and board games and clothes, but just trash also. Their children were older; they had an 18 year old who had just moved to college and a 13 (almost 14) year old, who I picked up from private school on the other side of town, drove home, prepared dinner, helped with homework, etc.

I remember at one point their son confessed that he could no longer sleep in his room because his mom had just left too much dirty laundry in his room and on top of his bed, so he'd been sleeping on the couch for months. If their kids had been younger I would've definitely called child services. Another factor was that they were friends with another client of mine. It was weird, both parents somehow held down high profile jobs; they made plenty of money. I honestly think they were too embarrassed to even hire help (and I'm sure the hoarding psychological issues didn't help). They also were well regarded by my other client, I think they went out of their way to not have friends over to their house.

I made the mistake of trying to help with cleaning the house and laundry and dishes. I folded their laundry and sorted it into laundry baskets (one for mom one for dad one for son), and clearly labeled with large signs ("clean laundry for Chris," etc). They wouldn't put it away and it would end up just getting dirty sitting out after a week or two. I stayed doing dishes but then they started letting dishes pile up for many days at a time (I worked Tuesday to Friday and I'd come in on Tuesday to find dishes from Friday night and Saturday morning etc). Attempts to clean the house were similarly squashed.

When the school year ended and I moved on they told me (without my saying anything) they were going to take time off and focus on getting their house in order. I sincerely hope they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During my first meeting, I always ask about their housekeeping services, specifically "how often"?

LOL. Wow. Living off the rich, are we?

Who cleans your shared work space? You?

Different situation and you know it.

[Anonymous]

My husband thinks it's ridiculous that I spend extra time picking up on Sunday evening so the nanny can have a decent place to care for our kids the next morning. Thanks for sharing your perspective from the other side and affirming that my effort is for good reason. Sure, we're paying the person and helping us around the house is part of the job, but I don't think cleaning up after a weekend's worth of family activity is part of the job - you should get a mostly clean slate Monday morning, at least as far as the common areas of the house are concerned. So I try to have an empty sink, dishes cleared, all toys in their proper place, floors swept, and carpets clear for a good start to the week. I just think that any picking up around the house is secondary and I can't guarantee that the kid will be accommodating enough for you to clean up after us for half the day on Monday. You may get busy tending to the baby instead and I don't want the nanny to feel she has to make the baby wait while she does our dishes.