House cleaning in Covid

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PinotGris
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House cleaning in Covid

Post by PinotGris »

How are you managing with house cleaning in Covid?
We have suspended our services and I paid my cleaner for 2 months.
Our state has opened up essential services including hair dressers. I am ready to get her in but the spouse is reluctant.
What are you doing? Are you continuing paying your cleaner? Have you resumed the service?
We are only two but it is not easy to maintain the whole house as we are both seniors. I appreciate my house cleaner for her work more than I ever did.
stan1
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by stan1 »

Have her wear a mask and you leave the house while she cleans so no contact. Ask her to minimize the team size if there is more than one person. Have her open windows when she is done and you come back a few hours after she leaves if you want an extra margin (or you stay outside or in the garage). Scientific proof? Probably not going to get that. Is what I describe above lower risk than going to a barber or a sit down restaurant? I suspect most would say it is.

Each person is going to have to make their own risk assessment. Risk is a continuum. Very little is 100% dangerous or 100% safe. You can drive 56 mph in the 55 zone and won't get pulled over but it is much more likely you will be pulled over if you are also weaving unsafely or have a burned out headlight.
Warning: I am about 80% satisficer (accepting of good enough) and 20% maximizer
fposte
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by fposte »

My cleaners wear masks and request that homeowners either leave the house or stay in one room where the cleaners aren't going while the cleaning happens. It seemed to work fine; these are also very fast-working cleaners, so it wasn't an all-day affair.
squirm
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by squirm »

Why not just leave while their cleaning?
Swansea
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by Swansea »

In my situation, the house keeper lives in the most heavily affected Covid19 section of the state, which has been heavily impacted. So I am still making do my myself for now.
Jags4186
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by Jags4186 »

While I appreciate the sentiment of not wanting a cleaner I. Your house, services have resumed. It seems to me you are not comfortable with a house cleaner at this time. Time to let her go vs continuing to pay for no services.

In 6-12 months we will likely have a vaccine and then you can look to hire in home cleaning services.
finfire
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by finfire »

Shock, horror but I am cleaning my own house! And it works!
sailaway
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by sailaway »

Could you leave while the cleaner is present?

Stay in a room that you don't have them clean?

If you have an open plan, could you just kind of be chased around the house by them so that you are keeping distance? Bear in mind, that 6 ft is a bare minimum for people at rest, not for someone lugging cleaning supplies around and getting down on the floor to scrub something and...

I would still ask them to wear protection, but if you can stay reasonably isolated from them, perhaps you and your spouse can come up with a compromise. I have noticed that in my sphere, all of the workers are wearing masks, most of them properly. Here at least, they understand that it is what they must do to keep their jobs right now, even if they don't buy into the public health arguments.
livesoft
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by livesoft »

I always leave before the maids come. We paid them when they didn't come, but they asked to start coming again, so we said OK and now let them come again. Same maids for almost 25 years. We've seen their children grow up, too. I went out and hiked more than 9 miles when they came last week.
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dcdowden
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by dcdowden »

We just had our house cleaners (2 sisters) come last weekend for the first time since February. Things are opening up in Illinois and our numbers have decreased dramatically. We left the house while they were here and then enjoyed more fresh air on the deck for awhile after that. We had been spot cleaning ourselves, but the house really needed a full cleaning.
Katietsu
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by Katietsu »

Also, risk of a cleaner can be quite variable. Do you trust them to wear their mask properly? To use hand sanitizer BEFORE entering your house? To use good hygiene while in your house? To use best practices while in other’s homes? They should require you to wear a mask, leave the house, or isolate yourself. If they are not demanding this of you, then they may be unnecessarily exposing themselves to other clients. Unfortunately, this is also a time when you must judge someone’s personal life. If they have or will participate in riskier behaviors like attending large group events, eating out at busy restaurants, hosting extended family gatherings, etc, I would not want them in my home.
Additionally, each visit represents a new risk. Can they come less often and do a more thorough job?

How important is the cleaning to you? Can you let your standards drop? Quite frankly, most cleaning is purely aesthetic and not necessary. But I know that some issues can represent a health hazard or a risk of permanent damage to property.

And the number of new cases is quite possibly going to increase as the reopens progress, especially in populations who do not believe in social distancing. So, I would reassess from week to week.
Last edited by Katietsu on Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
lostinjersey
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by lostinjersey »

We haven’t had our cleaner in since Feb, and prob won’t until July. We’re still paying her.
kacang
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by kacang »

Ours wear masks & gloves when cleaning our home, we also stay out while they are cleaning. I was initially nervous about it, but have gotten more comfortable.
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PinotGris
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by PinotGris »

Thank you for sharing your experiences. Lots of good points to consider.
The county she lives in is actually doing better than ours.
I can provide fresh gloves and mask so she does not have reuse.
Those who have resumed. what do you do after she leaves? Do you wipe down anything?
lws
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by lws »

I clean the house myself, a bit at a time.
I am fortunately one of those healthy and vigorous seniors.
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TxAg
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by TxAg »

Ours came back in May
Hug401k
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by Hug401k »

TxAg wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 2:13 pm Ours came back in May
+1- Mid May. We are not seniors but we have kids. She wears a mask and we get out of the way.
stan1
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by stan1 »

PinotGris wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:50 pm Those who have resumed. what do you do after she leaves? Do you wipe down anything?
We haven't had a house cleaner in but we have had HVAC guys and handyman in the house several times. We did nothing special after they left. Everyone wore masks, the 2 HVAC guys couldn't keep 6 feet apart from each other but they stayed 10 plus feet away from us. All seemed to move a little faster than normal (get in, get it done, and get out). All tried hard not to touch things.
Warning: I am about 80% satisficer (accepting of good enough) and 20% maximizer
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PinotGris
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by PinotGris »

lws wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:59 pm I clean the house myself, a bit at a time.
I am fortunately one of those healthy and vigorous seniors.
That's what we have been doing. But I really appreciate that my cleaner does for me and would like to get her back and pay her.
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quantAndHold
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by quantAndHold »

Cleaner wears a mask, washes her hands, and puts on a fresh apron and a fresh pair of gloves. I hide in my office with the door closed, and she doesn’t clean in there. After she leaves, I give it a half hour for the air to settle, then go out and wipe down all the surfaces again with Clorox wipes.

We also wipe surfaces down with Clorox wipes every afternoon, in case one of us got into something while we were out and about during the day. We’re being careful, but we are getting out of the house and doing stuff.

I tried cleaning the house myself for about six weeks. The house never got clean. Lesson learned.
keystone
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by keystone »

We paid our cleaning person for about 2 months until I started to feel like enough was enough. She was willing to start cleaning, so we've been having her come one day every other week. We leave the house for a few hours and do family hikes. I actually look forward to it because it's a nice break from working.

She wears a mask when she enters the house, but I highly doubt she keeps it on while she's cleaning.
fposte
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by fposte »

PinotGris wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:50 pm Thank you for sharing your experiences. Lots of good points to consider.
The county she lives in is actually doing better than ours.
I can provide fresh gloves and mask so she does not have reuse.
Those who have resumed. what do you do after she leaves? Do you wipe down anything?
I waited for an hour or so before coming out of my room. I didn’t wipe anything down, since the surfaces had all been wiped down with cleaner anyway. I could probably have wiped the door handles but I forgot.

I don’t have comorbidities, cases aren’t high in my area, and actual transmission via surface seems pretty low in likelihood, so I was mainly focused on the shared air. The mitigations in place were enough for me on that.
JediMisty
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by JediMisty »

PinotGris wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 1:50 pm Thank you for sharing your experiences. Lots of good points to consider.
The county she lives in is actually doing better than ours.
I can provide fresh gloves and mask so she does not have reuse.
Those who have resumed. what do you do after she leaves? Do you wipe down anything?
My cleaners have come throughout this pandemic. I offered to pay if they are not feeling well, but they'd rather work. Most folks have discontinued their service. I isolate myself when they're here. Then I wipe down high contact areas like switches and door knobs and faucets with disinfectant after they leave. I leave their salary plus a special trip the same place as always - my master bath counter. They only clean the kitchen and bathrooms. Since I'm working from home, it's nice to have their service. I've allowed them to flex their work hours due to fewer clients. No way I'm firing them. They're trust worthy and work very hard for their money. I also offer them anything "useful" for them or the church. My cash flow is bad due to having fewer renters due to the pandemic, but I'll dip into savings before letting them go. As long as I work (or have retirement funds) they'll have a job from me. I'd rather paint or do other cost effective DIY than clean toilets.
harrychan
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by harrychan »

We resumed. We keep the kids at the in laws, I stay in my room, she wears a mask. We also pick her up and send her off using an uber or lyft.
This is not legal or certified financial advice but you know that already.
MDfan
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by MDfan »

We started up again in June. Our cleaners wear masks and gloves. I have no problem. I just hang out and work in the basement while they're here.
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PinotGris
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Re: House cleaning in Covid

Post by PinotGris »

Thank you all for your input.
My house cleaner will start next week. I will have masks and gloves for her. I have been paying her directly from my bank while she was out and I will continue to do the same. She cleans the entire house and changes sheets.
One thing out of the pandemic we have been cleaning ourselves and it has not been hard since we are only two. I dust and vaccum and wash floor as necessary. But I will be happy to see her back.
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