Why is my new house keeper not cleaning things good & having issues with cleaning?

My new housekeeper does a decent job, or she did at first, but now she is slacking off big time & complaining about having to clean my house.

I tip her well. Her flat rate is $50 but I pay her $70 each time.

She usually arrives half an hour late too although she lives close by me. It’s very frustrating!!!

I think that there us something wrong with her or she’s just lazy as she left my husbands bathroom dirty. I told her that the toilet us still dirty & to please clean it.

She claimed that she couldn’t get the ring off which wasn’t true as she was able to remove it.

She made excuses instead of apologizing to me & claimed that she was out of cleaning supplies. She brings her owm stuff.

If I could find someone else who charges around the same price, I’d replace her.

She leaves the floors so wet that I almost tripped & fell 3 times in the kitchen!!! I told her to dry the floor as I almost fell & she said she dried the floor, but she left a few wet spots on the floor.

Unbelievable! No apology for that either! She didn’t sweep the corner in the living room. I had to ask her to do it.

I had to ask her to clean the inside & outside of the microwave too. I checked everything as I don’t trust her now.

I was nice about things & said could you please clwan this area, etc…

She then went from talkative to being almost silent like she was upset with me. It was weird & childish tbh.

I am not paying her to leave my house dirty still. I’m not picky, but she literally didn’t clean certain place.

Thank goodness that I checked everything. Why would she have that attitude? I wasn’t thanked for the money either. Wth?

Rude! Did she expect me to say nothing & be happy with a half a@@ed job?

Has anyone ever had this issue with house keepers before? I’m nice to her & she disrespects me by showing up late, taking forever to return calls & texts? So rude!

Not to mention that she’s usually late by half an hour & she never tells me that she’s running late too.

Most house keepers tend to have similar attitudes too I noticed. Especially the cheaper ones. They shouldn’t clean houses if they don’t like cleaning other peoples homes.

It’s like they just want to do light house cleaning only.

Did I do anything wrong? I watched my tone & I was ven told her to forget about vaccuming under the couch cushions after she was here for 2 hours.

She complained about it being a lot of work. Wth? Ugh!!!

How can I talk to her to not get her upset next time? I didn’t do anything wrong. She’s obviously extremely sensitive to any feedback.

The first housekeeping service was through a "chain," so we'd get different cleaners each time. The first few were amazing, but then they got progressively worse.

The girl we have now is wonderful, but her English isn't good. There was an issue with the kitchen floor being wet, so now my wife leaves out a few bath towels for her to dry the floor with.

My computer is flaking out, but I want to suggest that you tell her what you'd like her to clean next time when she leaves. That way it's not a surprise. And then text a reminder to her the day before to ensure that she brings the supplies.

You posted almost exactly this same thing in July. Same housekeeper?

$50? How many hours does she spend cleaning? It’s awfully low rate. You described so many tasks. No way one would do all of that for $50. Not in 2024. These are 1990s rates

Sorry to hear that. Why do you think that they het worse? The idea about leaving out towels is good. Thanks

It’s good that you found a good one. A lot of them don’t speak much English. Thankfully this lady speaks it well.

OK, will do. I usually have her clean the same room & the same things.

No, she’s a new lady. The other one left my bathroom dirty after i told her to please clean it I unfortunately didn’t check it again before she left

Her daughter who translated everything on text claimed tgat she couldn’t get the stains out. That was a lie as everyone ekse could get the stains out.

She didn’t evrn bother to vacuum the bedroom. I was nice & I tipped her well too

She didn’t charge much either. Either she’s lazy ir she deliberately left things dirty do I wouldn’t call her back.

The kid & her wete very rude & she said she never had to work so hard to clean anyone else’s house before

That was rude & unprofessional. They shouldn’t clean houses if they don’t want to actually do any cleaning

She spent more time organizing stuff I never asked her to organize .

It seems like you constantly need to check on things & watch them or they won’t do much of anything

Didn't you just say you pay half aꟊꟊ money for the half aꟊꟊ job? Looks balanced.

She was here for 2 hours. Regardless of price, I’m still paying for a service.

It’s not OK for her to leave my house dirty still Wgen zu say dirty, she didn’t even clean the toilet or the floor in the living room

It was like she was hoping that I wouldn’t notice or say anything which is rude

Hiw would you tell her to clean things if she meft things dirty?

Why would she get upset at me? I wasn’t rude & I tipped her $10 extra too.

Also, it’s rude & unprofessional to show up half an hour late with no text.

I let that go though. It’s almost impossible to find a good house ckeaner

Most of them seem to do whatever they feel like, ugh.

It’s not possible to clean all that in two hours. I mean you could if you don’t do a good job. No way anyone could do all that thoroughly in two hours. But she likely doesn’t want to stay longer because she’s being paid peanuts

The agency would send the best maids to a new client. But then those maids would get reassigned to newer clients, and the mediocre maids would take their place. And so on down the line.

As well, I think the owner wasn't good at hiring good people, so the talent pool would decline through attrition. The last maid was pregnant, surly and uncooperative.

Excuse me, but are you telling me that since I’m not paying them much that I deserve to have a half a$$ed job done?

First of all, I tipped both ladies way over the usual amount, They set the low prices, not me.

I hope that I misunderstood you.

She is fast. She set the flat rate, so she can stay to clean here as long as it takes. It was HER decision to want to leave after 2 hours.

I guess that she was tired? She set her own rate. I paid her well. I paid her $70 instead of $50.

II don’t deserve to get a half a$$ed job. I’m paying for a service. If someone came over to your house & still left it dirty, wouldn’t you be upset too?

I nicely asked her to clean what was still very dirty & untouched.

All she cleaned was 2 small bathrooms, made the ned & vaccumed only in our bedroom, cleaned the counters, microwave & sink & floors only in the kitchen & the floor in the hallway & living room too & a coffee table. That’s it,

I agree that you should expect good service if the housekeeper set her own rate, @jesyka.

But I also think it's a lot to clean for such little pay. Perhaps this was her first job and she wasn't aware that she should be charging more. If so, she should find a way to discontinue the work.

For $130, our girl does the bathroom (full tub and two basins), vacuum and dust LR and MBR, including the hallway in between, clean kitchen (stove top, sink, counters and table) scoot downstairs to vacuum the stairs and landing and finally mop the floor. No windows or cat litter scooping.

Occasionally I'll notice spider webs in corners or crumbs on the counters behind the appliances. Sometimes the Swiffer will snag on something and remain behind. But overall, she does a good job and does special requests with pleasant demeanor. My wife and I really like her, and we gift her generously at Christmas.

And all of this was back when we had three cats and a huge black lab. The job's a lot easier now that we're down to just two cats.

Sorry to hear that. Good help is hard to find.

Thanks. This lady is probably 55 years old at least. Idk why her prices are so low. Maybe it’s to attract more clients?

Yes, that is exactly what I have said. When you buy cheap grocery, do you expect top quality? Or if you buy cheap beef, do you expect to get marbled beef?

Why do you think people work in a different way? If you hire someone for pennies, expect the same output. Your attitude seems too much of a common manager. No, people are not interchangeable. And if they are not US citizens or are poorer than you - that does not mean they are worse than you.

Excuse me, but why do you think that I have an attitude just for expecting a clean house?

I’m not being unreasonable. When you buy ‘hamburger’, don’t you at least expect it to be fresh?

Your logic is flawed as I have paid for ‘better’ service that wasn’t the best service there is.

I never said that I was better than them. You are WAY off base with your strange assumptions.

It looks like you should give her a prioritized list (verbal or written). Put what is most important at the top, and the least important at the bottom. She will get to all she is able to within her 2 hour time working from most important to least important.

If you want the microwave wiped down inside and out, or parts of the couch vacuumed, she may not have time to clean a bathroom. You're leaving it up to her to decide what she will do with the list of chores you have asked her to do within her time span.
If you are giving her a list that would take more than 2 hours and expect her to do them all in 2 hours, that is inconsiderate on your part. You can't just keep adding more chores to be done within a 2 hour time frame and then be upset that some of the cleaning is shoddy, as she has had to work quickly and not thoroughly.

Nor can you keep adding chores and expect her to stay longer without any extra pay. If you want her to stay for 3 hours, you pay her $75.00 plus her tip. $25/hour is a good price. If you take advantage of her low price, she'll turf you. You may think you've got the upper hand, but you don't. Treat her well.

You will find people are fair to you, when you are fair to them. Appreciation goes both ways.