I consider my living space as my “safe zone.” I am not as conscious of not rubbing my eyes or nose when I am home. My concern with a cleaning person coming to my place is she could be infected without knowing it, and her infection probability would be higher than other people because number of contacts she may have. She could leave her droplets at your place without knowing it. Of course I am one of those people who takes over 30 min to unpack my grocery. I assume all of my delivery people are infected with the virus.
Completely agree. If she has been elsewhere, anything might be on her clothes or in her car and she might bring it into my house. I am not willing to risk where she may choose to sit for a moment or put the bucket down, or what have you. I can control where I or DH go, but cannot control where someone else goes. I can do my own laundry (its in the dryer now and just changed the sheets) and clean the house for the time being. This is a first world problem.
DH was on an international teleconference when the lawn guys were outside. He apoplogized for any background noise, but was careful not to say that iw tas lawn maintenance folks. Some of the people on the call may have very different living situations, and bringing up lawn staff may have been very insensitive.
@MomofWildChild – I agree with you. So long as she is wiping things down and wearing a mask, I see the risk as incredibly minimal. . I’ve seen no empirical evidence that having my cleaning lady come increases our risk in a meaningful way.
@oldfort my risk tolerance sounds about the same as yours.
I paid our cleaning person for a month and a half when things shut down here. She said her husband and son who worked at restaurants were both laid off. Don’t know if they’ve found other employment, but have to assume if they did it is in a high exposure environment.
She’s been with us for decades and I will absolutely continue paying her but am not comfortable with her being back in the house since my high risk hubby is working from home.
Not having fun scrubbing toilets and mopping floors but I tackle a thing or two a day. Haven’t dusted or vacuumed the upstairs carpeting yet so probably need to take a closer look at some things. ?
I have 6 furry animals and a lot that needs cleaning. I’m working more than full time right now from home. My husband does really well with the cleaning and getting the robo-vac going in between, but having my cleaning person every 3 weeks is very worth it to me. We’ve had a couple other service folks in the house out of necessity, too, and we are healthy so far.
DW and I are in the same boat. We are working at least as hard as we were before this started. The situation that led us to hire someone to clean haven’t changed.
I believe the risk is essentially zero. I’d suggest that if you believe it higher than that, your feelings are not based in science but in irrational fear. Show me data to prove me wrong.
Ordered Wet & Forget Shower from Amazon. Came seriously leaking (+1/8 ish gone) and was refunded with no need for return. We’re using the rest once a week in each of our three showers. Effectiveness tbd.
What go-to cleaners or appliances do you like? Our Dyson V8 Animal with a big pack of accessories from Costco is in daily use for us.
Just put a check in the mail for my cleaning lady.
She won’t even consider starting to clean again until SAH is lifted in NYS. And I don’t want her to come until it is safe for her and my H and me. I will keep paying her.
At this point, I am not too concerned about the safety of the cleaning lady being here, if she is comfortable to work (and she wants to). BUT since we have 4 people at home constantly working, on the conf call, studying, we don’t know where to hide for 4 hours without being disrupted. We could go to the basement but I need to work quietly. I don’t want to be in the same floor when they are cleaning. Of course we continue to pay her, and cover her rent. DH decided that we will help her with the rent for the rest of the year. Her rent is less than 1000 a month so it’s really not that bad.
D19 has been doing a lot of cleaning too so it’s not bad. She really does a lot of chores around the house without me even asking. She does laundry for the entire family, she cleans all the bathrooms once a week, all the vacuuming, mopping and dusting. My little girl is all grown up.
I would consider having my cleaning woman come if she was wanting to work. My husband would not. She normally comes once a week and stopped coming once the county issued stay at home orders. She said she wanted to follow the rules. I paid her for an extra month. I’ve been managing by keeping to the schedule I had with her. On my cleaning day I clean the bathrooms and wash and change my sheets. Vacuum the carpets and clean the wood floors. It’s just two of us and I’m finding we are actually neater when we don’t have the cleaning person coming.
My in-laws are continuing to have their house cleaned weekly. We don’t think it’s a good idea but they feel it’s little risk. The main cleaner lives on their property and isn’t going out. Her friend who helps lives on another ranch property that is locked down to visitors. My inlaws don’t understand that she is a risk regardless of who goes in and out of her home. The stupid thing about it is my in laws are super neat and their house is spotless.
I don’t get the not wanting the gardeners to work. They are outside and I have no interaction with them.
I had a housecleaner came every other week prior to the pandemic. The last time she was at my house was 3/4. I had already cancelled the next cleaning before any SIP regulations were put in place as we were not going to be home (but we were). I’ve paid her for each skipped cleaning. I am extremely lucky I can afford to do so. She just told me that I am the only client who has paid her at all. I know she depends this income and plan to continue to pay her for as long as I can.
My DH continues to work outside of the house and is exposed to people who are known to be positive. He does take every precaution but I feel like I need to protect her more than we need to be protected from her.
I waiver back and forth on this topic, and sometimes my wants overtake my needs. On the one hand I would love my house cleaned the way my lady does it, especially when I don’t have to do it; she is worth every penny she gets! She is only one person, she wears a mask and gloves, and I think is careful. On the other hand, I can’t exactly ask her where she has been, and even if she has only been to a few houses, that is just more people she is exposed to.
I like where someone above mentioned their house was their safe place, and I totally agree. If I allow her in, it is not longer as safe. But, my husband travels, so he also is bringing in possible viruses, but that I have no choice in.
Her day is tomorrow, so I am waiting to see if she text about time to come. I think we left it as while SIP was on, it was best she not come. Since that is not over, I would assume she won’t be looking to come tomorrow.
I wish we could have landscapers come but that is forbidden right now. Working outside like that seems relatively low risk to me. However, we have not had regular yard work done for a while so we don’t have to cancel it…it’s just that I would like to start having some or at least get some spring cleanup help.
I am paying the housecleaners without asking them to come. It just seems like introducing too many variables, mixing our possible exposure with theirs as they live in a different town and work in different homes. I miss them, though! We used to always clean our own house until about a decade ago when I was overwhelmed by a convergence of demands on my time…now I have retired, so I should be able to handle it, but I’m not super-excited about taking back the serious house cleaning! (I usually do a light cleanup on the off-weeks, but that’s not at all the same!)
I just feel like the housecleaners really need the income so I hope their other clients are also paying them. I also pay them for them when we go away on vacation.
When I used to housekeeper/nanny while kids were young, I paid them regularly whether I needed them or not. Other moms used to ask me why my sitters never left me (not for lack of trying on their part).
We don’t have a cleaner nowadays, but MIL is returning from Florida soon and will have a cleaner coming to her house before she gets here and probably regularly once she is here.
She also has home health aids, mowers, shrub trimmers, pool maintenance, gardeners to plant and weed, delivery and other maintenance people. She’s an economic engine unto herself. If the salons still aren’t open, she will probably have some clandestine arrangement for her weekly hair and manicure management, as she does in Fla.
Is all this a good idea? Probably not, but it’s not up to me.
Probably far from the norm but my housecleaner told me she’s actually making more during the pandemic than before. Many of her regular customers are paying her while not using her services. She’s filled those time slots with new customers who are either not home while she works or cleaning empty houses for a realtor (big job = money making). It’s like she’s getting paid double for time spent. It will be interesting to see what happens when all this settles. She supposedly told the new clients she’d be going back to her regular schedule. We’ll see.
There’s nothing really wrong with what she’s doing but, at the same time, if doesn’t feel right either.
^I don’t have a problem with it. Housecleaners work so hard. Nice that she’s getting a break for a change.
(In a similar vein, I am thrilled that NAMI Maine got PPP funds even though wealthy donors are filling in the gap during the pandemic. They can use PPP money for overhead (payroll, etc.), which is huge. Most grants and donations come with strings attached, so those funds can’t be used for payroll or overhead. They are predicting a SURPLUS for the first time in many years. It’s such a wonderful organization that I don’t mind their windfall.)
Just got my dogs back from their bath and grooming. Despite my best (unprofessional) efforts, they were both matted but good. They came back to me with their flowing locks turned into crew cuts and look hilariously adorable.
Groomer is the only one in her storefront location. She had me let the dogs in while she stood well back. She went over to them only after I closed the door. We talked through an open window more than six feet away from each other. I wore a mask, she didn’t. Did payment with credit card # over the phone. It came to $252 for around four hours, I rounded up to $350.
