How do you instruct a cleaner??!!

I work as a cleaner, I have been with each of my ladies for a few years and had a couple other long term ones before (sadly passed away) and each one wants different things.
One spends at least half an hour chatting before anything even gets started - and then says what she wants done which is usually a "quick flick around the bedroom/ensuite" and vac/dust living room. So I choose what that means re skirting/windows etc. Occasionally do dining room. If windows or polishing silver is her choice then something else doesn't happen. We also have a cuppa when I finish and usually spend another half hour (sometimes more) talking.
Another has so much stuff, on every surface/wall it takes ages to dust and vac so that hour and half is easily filled with little time over for doing much else.
My third house, lovely clear of clutter downstairs so that's easy to get around. Each week an extra thing done with the general clean - windows one week or doors washed down another etc. Upstairs has teenage sons room which is usually a bomb site so that's a "do what you can get too" in there lol. Her room is easy and then her study another clean what is clear. If I have a bit of extra time I sometimes iron a couple bits.
To give a room a deep clean something else would have to not get done in all of them. It takes longer than some people think.
I chat with all of them as I go, including the cats!
I went to have a try out for one family a few years ago and what she wanted done in a couple of hours was amazing, so I told her I wouldn't be taking the job and she phoned a couple days later asking me to reconsider if she gave extra hours (as many as you need) but I declined as I knew she would be one who would expect more and more. One of my ladies lives a couple doors away so I know she hasn't kept a cleaner for more than a couple of months.

That is a very sweeping statement if I may say so varian.

varian, we are neither rich nor posh but have a big family, a biggish house and lots of outside interests.

I have never had a cleaner but if i had i think i might be the type to go round the house prior to cleaners arrival. Generally i dislike housework and only go for it when visitors are about to descend.
Having said that i sometimes wish for someone with a fairy duster to whip round and give it some magic sparkle.

Surely having a cleaner (unless you are disabled) is the very definition of being rich, if not posh.

I'm sure there are 'employers' who do take the p but there are those of us who are happy to have someone who obviously cares about what they do, does it well and us up for a friendly chat as well.

Our cleaner has been with us over 10 years and also cleans for our son and, until she moved, one of our daughters. I think we must be a happy fit.

I've mentioned before one cleaner we gad who always left the kitchen chairs in the window seat - to prove she had done the floor!! Unfortunately, when we tried to move the kitchen table it was stuck to the floor.

Yes as bohemian says we all have different priorities. My daughter has a small cleaning business and discusses with each employer what their needs are. Then she gives each room a good clean and has a routine for keeping on top of things. Some employers try to add tasks such as ironing etc but she has to be firm and say time is limited if they want a good job done. She has a waiting list of customers.

I'm a rare one here that has the boot on the other foot. I did private house cleaning for c5 years/20 hrs a week until I retired. I could write a book about it. I was often referred to 'the little lady that 'does' for me'.

In my experience there's an ingrained attitude towards us that do so called menial work. I've had employers following me around room to room inspecting what I'd done as I do it, then there's the 'elastic list', with a little bit being added on every week ('could you get up on a ladder and clean the top of the picture rail as well') employers that don't/won't talk to me on my arrival, there's the mountain of fat caked washing up piled up to the ceiling which takes half my time before I've even started on the 'real' cleaning...the list goes on. Yes, there's also been wonderful friendships made.

I believe we all have different personal standards and priorities. Most want sparkling baths/toilets/sinks (I won't even go into stories of the state of some of the toilets I've had to scrape out) shiny floors, mirror working-surfaces, everything polished, dusted, moved (even beds and sofas) practically a miracle performed in 2 hours every week, all with the whoosh of my magic wand and trusty vacuum cleaner - just call me Mary Poppins!

I could go on for a long time here - but am going to zip up for now and start writing the book. I feel this hasn't really added to the discussion and will probably be overlooked, but it's certainly got a lot off my chest. There's two sides to every story.

I don't agree that visiting a cleaner in their own home is a good indicator. Our cleaner will cheerfully admit that she lives in a mess but my house is always done to a high standard.

I think it is a bit hit and miss - I have used an agency and found they had locked me out of the house and they really cut corners.

Carol58, is right. A good cleaners shouldn't need to have a list. Our cleaner does upstairs one week, down the next but kitchen and bathrooms every week.

Any decent cleaner shouldn't need instruction beyond 'please don't touch that item/room/ area' . I worked as a cleaner for a few years when my kids were younger and money was short, never had any complaints and was in fact so much in demand that I had a waiting list! I could go through a large 4 bed house with huge farmhouse kitchen & conservatory in 4 hours and leave it spotless. Skirtings dusted, cobweb free, floors hoovered, swept, mopped, surfaces dusted & polished, kitchen cleaned, windows cleaned ( but not all of them every week!) bins emptied etc etc.. In fact everything I do at home apart from a deep (Spring) clean which would be for instance - taking down curtains, laundering cushions, beating rugs etc. Yes, it was exhausting but imo cleaners are relatively well paid and I felt I needed to earn my wages. I would say visit any potential cleaner in their own home when interviewing; you'll soon see what their standards are!

I give mine a list of jobs to do, including a couple she only need do ‘if you have any time left’. I also stay in and I do the rooms I haven’t asked her to touch. That way the whole house gets done quite well.

DM, who was very houseproud, employed a cleaner when she was no longer able to do it - this woman (a neighbour) used to 'dust around the ornaments' which annoyed DM intensely.
When they were allocated a 'home help' the home help used to get through quite a lot in an hour, including cleaning the inside of the sitting room window. DM was very impressed. Of course, that was many years ago now.

I’m not sure if you’re asking too much bluesmum. When we had cleaners the most effective came via an agency. I walked round with someone from the agency and compiled a list which was used by the cleaner as a checklist. Some jobs each time, some alternate visits. It worked well. Only had a problem with one person who just didn’t come back. One woman who had cleaned our home for a few months and returned a couple of years later when we had been doing our own cleaning said she could tell we had done it ourselves - not up to her standards . Maybe try an agency?

2 hrs. Piece of piss. I would have done that with time to spare in my day.
None of you have obviously never been a chambermaid.
But I do like cleaning, and I'm very good at it.
Now where's my ?

So she’s dusting polishing and hoovering five or six rooms plus hallway and steam cleaning utility and kitchen floors then a thorough clean of one room That’s a fair bit for two hours and twenty pound

When I decided to get a cleaner I looked on the internet and booked through an agency. The agency provided some one who suited the hours and days I wanted, police checked all their employees and provide cover if my cleaner is ill or on holiday. They also can act as a go-between if I have any problems with her. I pay £8.50 an hour direct to the cleaner and £2.50 a week to the agency. They provided written lists of what needed to be done in each room. The cleaner and I went through them together and ticked the boxes so we both knew what she would be doing.
She's been coming for about 6 months now and she has been a great help because I have MS and get very fatigued. What she does in 2 hours would take me all day.
I know it costs more to use an agency but I felt more secure that way, I was quite worried about letting a stranger into my house at first.
I hope you have better luck next time. Perhaps if you write down everything you want doing, step by step and room by room then get your new cleaner to sign it before she starts working for you.

When I decided to get a cleaner I looked on the internet and booked through an agency. The agency provided some one who suited the hours and days I wanted, police checked all their employees and provide cover if my cleaner is ill or on holiday. They also can act as a go-between if I have any problems with her. I pay £8.50 an hour direct to the cleaner and £2.50 a week to the agency. They provided written lists of what needed to be done in each room. The cleaner and I went through them together and ticked the boxes so we both knew what she would be doing.
She's been coming for about 6 months now and she has been a great help because I have MS and get very fatigued. What she does in 2 hours would take me all day.
I know it costs more to use an agency but I felt more secure that way, I was quite worried about letting a stranger into my house at first.
I hope you have better luck next time. Perhaps if you write down everything you want doing, step by step and room by room then get your new cleaner to sign it before she starts working for you.

When I decided to get a cleaner I looked on the internet and booked through an agency. The agency provided some one who suited the hours and days I wanted, police checked all their employees and provide cover if my cleaner is ill or on holiday. They also can act as a go-between if I have any problems with her. I pay £8.50 an hour direct to the cleaner and £2.50 a week to the agency. They provided written lists of what needed to be done in each room. The cleaner and I went through them together and ticked the boxes so we both knew what she would be doing.
She's been coming for about 6 months now and she has been a great help because I have MS and get very fatigued. What she does in 2 hours would take me all day.
I know it costs more to use an agency but I felt more secure that way, I was quite worried about letting a stranger into my house at first.
I hope you have better luck next time. Perhaps if you write down everything you want doing, step by step and room by room then get your new cleaner to sign it before she starts working for you.

When I decided to get a cleaner I looked on the internet and booked through an agency. The agency provided some one who suited the hours and days I wanted, police checked all their employees and provide cover if my cleaner is ill or on holiday. They also can act as a go-between if I have any problems with her. I pay £8.50 an hour direct to the cleaner and £2.50 a week to the agency. They provided written lists of what needed to be done in each room. The cleaner and I went through them together and ticked the boxes so we both knew what she would be doing.
She's been coming for about 6 months now and she has been a great help because I have MS and get very fatigued. What she does in 2 hours would take me all day.
I know it costs more to use an agency but I felt more secure that way, I was quite worried about letting a stranger into my house at first.
I hope you have better luck next time. Perhaps if you write down everything you want doing, step by step and room by room then get your new cleaner to sign it before she starts working for you.

When I decided to get a cleaner I looked on the internet and booked through an agency. The agency provided some one who suited the hours and days I wanted, police checked all their employees and provide cover if my cleaner is ill or on holiday. They also can act as a go-between if I have any problems with her. I pay £8.50 an hour direct to the cleaner and £2.50 a week to the agency. They provided written lists of what needed to be done in each room. The cleaner and I went through them together and ticked the boxes so we both knew what she would be doing.
She's been coming for about 6 months now and she has been a great help because I have MS and get very fatigued. What she does in 2 hours would take me all day.
I know it costs more to use an agency but I felt more secure that way, I was quite worried about letting a stranger into my house at first.
I hope you have better luck next time. Perhaps if you write down everything you want doing, step by step and room by room then get your new cleaner to sign it before she starts working for you.

When I decided to get a cleaner I looked on the internet and booked through an agency. The agency provided some one who suited the hours and days I wanted, police checked all their employees and provide cover if my cleaner is ill or on holiday. They also can act as a go-between if I have any problems with her. I pay £8.50 an hour direct to the cleaner and £2.50 a week to the agency. They provided written lists of what needed to be done in each room. The cleaner and I went through them together and ticked the boxes so we both knew what she would be doing.
She's been coming for about 6 months now and she has been a great help because I have MS and get very fatigued. What she does in 2 hours would take me all day.
I know it costs more to use an agency but I felt more secure that way, I was quite worried about letting a stranger into my house at first.
I hope you have better luck next time. Perhaps if you write down everything you want doing, step by step and room by room then get your new cleaner to sign it before she starts working for you.

When I decided to get a cleaner I looked on the internet and booked through an agency. The agency provided some one who suited the hours and days I wanted, police checked all their employees and provide cover if my cleaner is ill or on holiday. They also can act as a go-between if I have any problems with her. I pay £8.50 an hour direct to the cleaner and £2.50 a week to the agency. They provided written lists of what needed to be done in each room. The cleaner and I went through them together and ticked the boxes so we both knew what she would be doing.
She's been coming for about 6 months now and she has been a great help because I have MS and get very fatigued. What she does in 2 hours would take me all day.
I know it costs more to use an agency but I felt more secure that way, I was quite worried about letting a stranger into my house at first.
I hope you have better luck next time. Perhaps if you write down everything you want doing, step by step and room by room then get your new cleaner to sign it before she starts working for you.

I suppose you could have asked her to do it how you would. Maybe she does clean around things. (See the 'houseproud' thread)

In my experience a cleaner either gets it or doesn't. Sounds like this one doesn't. It doesn't seem like too much to me. Imo opinion that doesn't seem to much.

And she was the one that suggested two hours would be "plenty"!!!!