The first – and best – cleaning lady I had was in the
1970s when living in Mallorca. Rosario was fantastic. She came in for a couple
of hours a week to clean up after me and, if I left any clothes lying around
she would take them and do them with her family wash. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t
get them back until the following week and was doing 7 days a week/10 or 12
hours a day so got through a lot of clothes!
I have had a lot of cleaning ladies over the years,
some were good but there were some who left a lot to be desired.
In the late 1980s when living in London I tried a
cleaning lady. First tip – if your cleaning lady tells you she takes off her
glasses to do the work because she doesn’t want to break them – don’t employ
her! As the weeks went by I began to get a tad suspicious. Then one evening
when I got home I could smell cigarette smoke. Got me thinking. We had a man
who came to cleaning the communal areas and I had a word with him. He thought
she wasn’t doing the two hours so next time he arrived before her and parked
his van in the car park. She arrived – and about 15 minutes later she left. We
reckoned she went in, made a cuppa and had a fag then left. Bye-bye!
Other funny things some ladies have done/not done…..
Unwrapped a package of 12 loo rolls and lined them up
on the floor (along the wall). As she had thrown the wrapper away I ended up
with 12 individually wrapped loo rolls. (Kitchen paper, of course).
When interviewing I emphasized that due to my
disabilities the most important jobs for them were dusting and using the vacuum
cleaner. Without exception they insisted in starting in the kitchen and leaving
the vaccing until last. Consequently only the centre of the living room carpet,
one push up the hallway and around the bed and that’s yer lot!
It seems to me that if you want a cleaning lady to do
the job properly you need to supervise. Of course you also have to listen to
her life story and who did her wrong during the past week.
And friends keep telling me that now I am 80 years old
and disabled I should have a cleaning lady!!!!!
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