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Quick vox pop

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Goodness Gracious Meme

14:32 / 25.02.03

Would/do you employ a cleaner?

Would/do you work as a cleaner?

Whisky Priestess

14:35 / 25.02.03

No.

No - unless I couldn't make enough ends meet either working a bar or street corners.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:37 / 25.02.03

Nope to all four. Just get the vacuum cleaner out you lazy hussy...

14:42 / 25.02.03

Maybe. If I had a bigger flat, or worked longer hours, i would think about it. I would feel very odd about someone cleaning up after me, but then I don't think that about the cleaners clearing up at work, in hotels etc.

And yes, I've worked as a cleaner, if you count working in a hotel and cleaning rooms. It's not too bad, there are worse jobs.

14:52 / 25.02.03

BiP,

Yes, I do employ a cleaner. She is very nice and we have become good friends. As you're Brighton based I can give you the name of the agency, if you are after one - all the cleaners we have had from them have been great, and really nice people. PM me for more info...

And if it came down to it I would work as a cleaner - if that was all the work that was available.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:52 / 25.02.03

No, partly because of incoherent feeligns of guilt, partly through stinginess but mainly because my flat is too untidy for any cleaner to achieve much without endangering their own life. I think I may reach a breaking point soon and get somebody in to do the kitchen and bathroom, because I never have the time/inclination to do all the detail stuff.

I wouldn't rule it out - I've had jobs before that have involved cleaning duties. I'd probably go for a lot of other things first, though, just because I'd be shit at it. Would quite possibly prefer it to data entry, mind...

14:58 / 25.02.03

I used to have a cleaner when money was no object.
I used to be a cleaner when it was.
Not great work, but not too bad either.

14:58 / 25.02.03

No - I quite enjoy it actually, but only if burdened is shared. Shitbastard housemates who neve do a fucking thing get on my nerves but the place isn't super nice anyway so it don't matter...

Also would have wierd guilt feelings...

Why?

15:23 / 25.02.03

Yes. I'd employ a cleaner. Why would you feel guilt? because we are living a society where some people can afford to have other people clean up their shit whereas some people have to do the cleaning? My mum employs a cleaner for her house and pays £10 an hour, that's better wages than I've ever had for a job. But not all cleaners get paid that well.
I've worked as a cleaner and would do it again if need be. There's definately worse jobs. The cleaners I worked with spent most of their time chatting and getting away with doing the minimum amount of work possibile.
anyway guilt, does it come down to the fact that in the 'natural' state of affairs we 'should' all be doing our own cleaning, or is that just a load of bollocks?

15:33 / 25.02.03

Have no moral objection to doing so but have never had and probably will never have the money to do so. Quentin Crisp and I have much in common on the houseworky front, so squalor forever more it shall have to be. More importantly, I can't imagine letting someone else have that much access to my private space.

If the wages were good enough, I would happily clean up for people. When I worked as a nurse, clinically, particularly as a very junior nursette, I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. It can be a very therapeutic activity when it has to be done. I liked taking a gleaming, scalding hot bedpan out of the steriliser, having seen that particular process through from start to finish. Getting all plasticked and besteriled up to irrigate a wound was great fun too.

But that level of cleanliness and bugfreeness is unhealthy in one's private life, imho. One friend has solved the problem by paying his mother to come round and keep his house clean. Pity mine's several hundred miles away.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:35 / 25.02.03

Dude! I so want a steriliser. What are they? How much do they cost?

15:36 / 25.02.03

No - I wouldn't employ a cleaner for pretty much the same reasons as Haus. My mother used to have a cleaner come once a week and she always felt obliged to clean up before the cleaner came. It was in a period when I was home a lot (bunking off school) and I always hated being invaded like that. I get round to cleaning eventually, and once I've started I find it quite theraputic.

I once considered being a cleaner because of the hours - early morning work would've suited me when I was in college. At the moment I am too flaky to hold down any sort of job, but when that changes I am fairly unlikely to consider cleaning work because I'm lazy and it doesn't appeal. And yes, I do know that makes me sound horribly spoilt. But I also know that I have never held down a job for more than two months and I'd have better luck firstly if I wasn't so fucked in the head and secondly if I at least vaguely liked the job.

15:43 / 25.02.03

I hope that answer didn't piss anyone off. Sorry, BiP.

15:45 / 25.02.03

Is a steriliser like an autoclave? I want one of them for my dungeon. When I have a dungeon. If I have a dungeon.

17:16 / 25.02.03

I can see it now - Cholister's trained attack dogs dragging unwitting postmen downstairs to the Autoclave in the Dungeon. I'd pay money to watch that.

Yup, like an autoclave. Big kiln or oven like thing in the wall of the sluice. Open door, put filthy horrible foul-smelling urinals or bedpans therein (having examined /tested contents, whatever), close big shiny metal door with satisfying clang, press switch and scalding hot water blasted the the thing surgically clean. Cue student nurses in huddle, having fly fags and a good natter, until time to remove sparkling clean piece of equipment for repositioning under next bedbound invalid. The Staff Nurses and Sisters were too grand and important to come near the sluice, so it became an informal social room for us juniors. We even used to smuggle toast in there from the breakfast trolley, iirc.

Feeling all nostalgic now. Happy youth that was spent wiping arses and clearing away piss and shit. Good grief, such a sicko, me.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:20 / 25.02.03

I actually do employ a cleaner. He's a friend of mine, which makes it kind of weird. He volunteered, cos he needs the money but won't do a proper job. (And he's obsessive about tidiness. He's brilliant.)

I used to be a cleaner, many years ago. At Westlands Helicopters in Yeovil. Now that was a weird job.

17:36 / 25.02.03

Would/do you employ a cleaner?

I will employ a cleaner just as soon as my secret island fortress is complete. Seriously, I probably wouldn't. I wouldn't feel right about someone else cleaning up after me. I made the mess, I should clean it up. Anyway, I like cleaning. It's kind of soothing.

Would/do you work as a cleaner?

It wouldn't bother me if I had to. A number of places around here are willing to work around school hours and I like that. I need a place that will be willing to work with me. Cleaning isn't all that bad, as long as I'm not cleaning up used condoms, syringes, and the like after some wild party. At that point, I might get a bit disgusted with it all.

Rollo Kim, on location

18:09 / 25.02.03

My Mum's a cleaner. Loads of my Aunt's are too. I did a bit myself when my 'office job' couldn't pay me enough to live on. It's a way to make a bit of money. But I wouldn't employ a cleaner. I'm working class, we don't go in for that sort of thing.

18:18 / 25.02.03

I'd employ a cleaner if there was a need, but in a two-room apartment, why bother? What I need is a tidier. But I wouldn't want to have someone messing with my stuff. What I need is to be tidier.

Sure, I'd work as a cleaner, but I'd prefer to do something else with a bit more human interaction. I mean, you talk to people sometimes, but I should think for most of the time you've just got the hoover for company.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

18:21 / 25.02.03

1) Yeah, but only if I was really fucking busy doing really important shit, like if I was a superhero or something. (And I'm still not saying I'm not a superhero, okay? 'Coz I just might be.) I'd pay the person a decent bloody wage tho'. Other wise they might give away my heroic secret identity.

2) Have done, several times; will do again.

19:15 / 25.02.03

I've done both, although hiring someone to do something I should be doing myself rubs me the wrong way.

The kind of cleaning I've done, I should add, is not the kind of cleaning you're talking about. I've been one of those guys who goes into the apartments to clean up after the tenants split, owing three months rent, power's been cut off and months worth of food left in the non-operational fridge.

Got a great sleeping bag doing that.

It's smelly, nasty work. Easier if the landlord is planning on replacing the carpet.

19:18 / 25.02.03

Oh, and I should mention that my family has always had cleaning ladies growing up, and has always been pretty buddy-buddy with them. There's a class dynamic going on, I guess, but nowadays I think my mom buys antiques from a former cleaning lady's store without thinking much about it. It's just something you do, you know?

19:47 / 25.02.03

Sort of - the college employs cleaners ('scouts') to come round every day and empty the bins, and clean the rooms once a week etc. Because students can't be trusted to keep their rooms clean - or even to have access to a hoover, which is a bit annoying. I'm really messy, but not unclean, and I hate having someone in my room cleaning it even if I'm not there... I'd rather pay a bit less rent and do it myself, but then they can't rely on all of us to feel like that, so you can see why they do it.

And yeah, I'd do it. In fact I might ask the college if they'll give me some work over the vacation - I'm completely bust and I could do with some money. It's quite satisfying. I especially like cleaning with Brasso or Duraglit. Will polish for food.

22:40 / 25.02.03

I can thoroughly recommend getting one if you live in a shared house and you have a little money to spare. We had one, couple of hours on Monday afternoons doing all but the bedrooms (at £7 an hour between four of us) and it saved all those tedious it-might-be-my-turn-to-clean-it-but-I-did-the-fucking-TOILET-on-Tuesday arguments. And you get a nice clean house once a week. I felt weird about it first but she seemed friendly and happy doing it and, her English as it was, probably wouldn't have got much work elsewhere.

I've never worked with cleaning as my sole duty but I've worked in bars and there's a lot of behind-the-scenes cleaning in that, some of it more than a little pungent, as you can imagine. Yes I probably would do it if pushed. Why not? Seems honest enough work to me.

23:12 / 25.02.03

Would I hire a cleaner? No, I don't think so. Like grant, I wouldn't be comfortable asking somebody to do something that I should really be doing myself.

If you've come into some money, though, remember who your friends are.

23:57 / 25.02.03

No, I'm too shy. Home is where I don't have to talk to people, I don't even answer the phone these days. Besides, I like cleaning. I suppose that my house wouldn't pass the white-glove test, but it's okay for me.

Probably not, because the secretary gig pays better for less hard work. And it's pretty far down the food chain in the corporate setting, so it's fairly easy work to get. When I worked at the coffee shop, it was a favorite thing for the owner/managers to say that everybody should be willing to do anything even plunge the toilets (said in italics, just like that). But I looked into my heart and saw that I was not willing to plunge the toilets, and I said so. And there was nothing they could do, I was an angel about everything else. So I happen to know that's my personal limit.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:33 / 26.02.03

No - I don't think I'd hire a cleaner because like a lot of others, it'd just make me feel guilty about crap I wasn't doing.

I have worked as a cleaner in the scungiest bakery in the world, so I can do it. I don't know whether I'd want to again. As KCC suggests, there's a marked difference between polishing the plate and doing some more disgustipatory things, too.

01:48 / 26.02.03

No, again, guilt. I'd probably bus my own table at restaurants if they'd let me.

No, because I'm a slob, and would thus probably be rather bad at it.

01:59 / 26.02.03

I have been one. It never involved toilets (a bonus, I think) and wasn't that unpleasant.

Employ one? Absolutely not. I know I was once stupid and naive enough to try to live my politics rather than being a hippiecrit, and I'm through all that idiocy these days, but even now I couldn't look myself in the eye in the mirror if I had a cleaner, really I couldn't.

wembley can change in 28 days

06:47 / 26.02.03

I worked as a cleaner, and it certainly had its moments of "this sucks," but it wasn't nearly as hard work as trying to direct 7-year-olds in a play.

I wouldn't employ a cleaner, because I keep my surroundings pretty spotless as it is. If I didn't have time or energy to do that, and lots of money (inconcievable to me at present), sure I'd hire one.

No star here laces

07:58 / 26.02.03

1) Yes. I concur with whoever made the comment about shared houses. If there are 3 or more of you in a house, it is well worth splitting the £20 or so it'll cost to get a cleaner in once a week between the three of you - think of the pointless arguments saved. If you're anything like me, my shared house experiences involved more time arguing over cleaning than actual cleaning.

Of course, now i live on my own I have no need of a cleaner.

2) Yes. I learnt how to do hospital corners, a useful skill.

09:54 / 26.02.03

I have a cleaner - the wife.

No, no, but seriously, folks... When I moved into a shared house a few years back there were four of us and there was already a cleaner in situ, who used to come once a week. It felt a bit weird, paying someone to clean up the mess, but as it turned out the girl who was "top bwoy" and ruled the house with a rod of iron used to make us all clean up before the cleaner came anyway.

Goodness Gracious Meme

12:32 / 26.02.03

cheers all.

Was curious as i've just started a cleaning job. And have the same feelings of 'ickyness'/misgivings about employing a cleaner that others have here. But am quite happy to be one - it suits me down to the ground, in fact.

Is an odd posish.

12:39 / 26.02.03

my family had staff when we lived in africa, a very colonial positiomn, i agree, but one that provided several people with a good wage and support if anything went wrong medically or legally. also, it was great fun having someone around when i was a kid who was not my parents. i learned swahili when i was four years old from our nightwatchman, speaking it better than many locals, and have since forgotten it all.

i have cleaned, but only as part of a larger job.

i hate doing it, but only because it has to be done. anything that 'has to be' is to me an anathema.

13:25 / 26.02.03

interesting to re-read this thread substituting the word 'prostitute' for 'cleaner'...

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