Introduction: Do Cleaners Tidy Up?

One common question often asked when hiring home cleaning services is, “Do cleaners tidy up?” The general answer is no, home cleaners are not expected to tidy up before they begin cleaning. However, some cleaning services may offer you the option of including tidying. In this article, we aim to provide a brief overview of the common question surrounding whether or not cleaners tidy up, and delve into the expectations regarding home cleaning services.

Clarifying Expectations When You Hire A Cleaner

Clarifying expectations is important when hiring a cleaning service, as all customers will have a slightly different view of what a cleaner should be expected to do. As someone who works in the cleaning industry, I can tell you that the views of what a professional cleaner should do are very wide and varied. Most customers expect you, and other customers, to be of the same view as them. Clearly this is not the case as almost everyone has slightly different expectations to the next person. Therefore, communication and understanding of what to expect from a cleaning service is really important to avoid stress for all further down the line.

Understanding Standard Cleaning Services

Let’s start by understanding what standard home cleaning services generally include.  Standard home cleaning services typically include cleaning and sanitising bathrooms (toilets, sinks, showers, and floors), dusting and wiping down surfaces in all rooms, cleaning kitchen surfaces and appliances, vacuuming and mopping floors, and taking out the bins. Additional services such as laundry, ironing, and cleaning interior windows may also be offered at an additional cost.

What Does Tidying Mean?

Now we know what cleaning generally means, what is tidying? Most people would accept that picking things up off the floor and putting them away where they should be is tidying. But there are some greyer areas of tidying. Tidying generally means putting things away. Tidying before cleaning enables you to get easier access to surfaces so that the cleaning process can be more effective. For example, washing the dishes would probably be tidying in my view. I would not normally expect a cleaner to do the washing up. But that’s something that is sometimes up for debate! The other thing that varies between one household and another is the level to which tidying is the norm. In some households there are few things left out on surfaces. Everything has a home. In other households more clutter generally lies around with no real place to go. It’s easier to clean when there is less clutter. Tidying is therefore also a lot about reducing the general clutter that lies around your home.

Why Cleaners Generally Don’t Tidy Up

Domestic cleaners generally do not tidy up. There are a number of reasons why this is the case.

Time Constraints

To maximise efficiency, cleaners will prioritise cleaning tasks based on importance. When your cleaner arrives they will tend to focus on cleaning high-traffic areas such as the kitchen and bathrooms first, then move on to less frequently used spaces. If the client tidies before the cleaner comes then the cleaner gets more time to both do more cleaning and spend more time on each part of the cleaning process. In this case you would therefore expect a better outcome. If the cleaner has to tidy first then the amount of time left for actual cleaning is substantially reduced. Therefore, they either do minimal cleaning across all rooms, or focus on the high traffic areas and don’t reach some of the other rooms. Tidying a room can sometimes take almost as long as cleaning, particularly if the cleaner has to learn where everything goes first.

 Scope of Work

The scope of a cleaner’s tasks do not normally include tidying. Tidying is not cleaning as such. It is getting the room ready to be cleaned. Tidying requires the person who is tidying to know where everything goes. That is clearly much easier for the homeowner to do than the cleaner. If the cleaner has to do the tidying they may get things in the wrong places and this may frustrate the customer.

Requesting Tidying Services

Some cleaners and cleaning companies may offer to tidy first if you ask. In my experience, most do not as it overly complicates the process and makes the job much longer. There is also more scope for misunderstandings when tidying is included.

Tidying is Very Bespoke!

One person’s tidying is not tidy according to another person. Customer’s priority and expectations on cleaning are wide enough, but for tidying they are even wider! Furthermore, knowing where everything should go is a bit of a nightmare and can make the task even longer.

Additional Costs

Expect to pay more for tidying services if you are offered it. The cost of cleaning is mainly made up of labour costs and of course this depends greatly on how long it takes to do something. In my experience, customers will often underestimate the length of time it takes to clean. They underestimate even more the time it takes to tidy. A living room may take let’s say 20 minutes to clean, but is likely to take twice as long to tidy and clean. If the homeowners have children you can easily end up spending more time tidying than cleaning. Therefore, when looking at additional costs for tidying you can broadly expect to double the cost. If you want to pay more for tidying then some cleaners will be happy to do it for you.

Clear Instructions

If you do ask your cleaner to include tidying be very clear with them where things go. Expect things to be misplaced, particularly in the first few weeks. Don’t assume the cleaner will naturally know where everything goes. Everyone’s home is unique. Expect the learning process to take some time as the cleaner gets to know what ‘tidying’ means for you. Be patient.

Conclusion

In conclusion, hiring a house cleaner does not normally include tidying. However, some cleaners are happy to include it as part of the service. If they do include it expect the process to take a good deal longer and therefore to cost more. Be prepared before your first cleaner visit and be patient in the early weeks as the cleaner gets used to where everything goes.