In my opinion, there's a difference between picking up before the cleaning woman comes and cleaning before the cleaning woman comes. I move all my crap out of the way, shoes back in the closet, make piles if papers are laying around. This way the cleaning woman can actually clean, versus move all my stuff around to clean around it.

I second Sharon R. I tidy (daily), cleaning person cleans (every other week).

I am my own cleaning woman, so I tidy up for myself and then follow myself with the dustrag.

Yesss, there is a huge difference between cleaning and picking up before the cleaning lady comes.

I tidy up a bit to be nice to the cleaning crew...my desk can be hazardous to their profession!

Who knows what's underneath of the top looks like that, right?

:-)

There is a difference between clutter and dirt. The cleaning lady is supposed to help keep the dirt at bay. That is awfully hard to do if every surface is covered in clutter that can't just be tossed. If a clutter bomb went off in my apartment, I would definitely feel the need to whip it into shape before the cleaning lady arrived.

Same here: I tidy up and put junk away so she will concentrate on the yucky cleaning stuff I hate to do (bathroom, floors, kitchen, dusting).

Yup, I totally agree with the other posters. My housekeeper is there to clean, not to pick up after my messes. So I straighten up a bit before she comes (put dirty clothes in hamper, put dog toys in crate), but I don't actually do any cleaning (dishes, dusting, sweeping). That being said, since she comes every other week, I do try to keep things in decent shape between visits (dust-buster random dog fur, keep up with dirty dishes).

As far as any, um, "special projects" go, I keep those in their own personal box on a high shelf in my bedroom closet. I would be mortified if my Catholic Mexican housekeeper (or her 11-year-old daughter, who sometimes joins her when school's out) accidentally stumbled on these.

I also pick up before my gal comes to clean, and move things off of my dresser tops and shelves so that she can dust. I figure the less time she has to spend moving my stuff around, the more time she has to clean.

I pick up all my clutter as well. My cleaners just left, and I love it when my house is straighten, and clean. Oh it is such a lovley feeling! Since I am having a baby in the next few weeks, it is something I am enjoying as much as possible till this little baby bomb goes off!!!

Ditto to all the other posters. When I was little and my dad made me pick up my stuff before the housekeeper came, I was really frustrated and confused; that was before I understood the difference between tidying up and cleaning - and how much work cleaning is!

Like dblitz, I am the cleaning woman. With so many people here having the luxury of paying another person to clean, I can see why I'm painting old shelves and re-purposing them while everyone else is keeping Ikea in business.

I work from home and have students come to my apartment. I can't let it fall into a state of disarray or dirtiness so I'm always on top of it.

I tidy the clutter and I give both toilet bowls a quick cleaning with the toilet brush.

Yes, cleaning the toilets is her job -- but I'd rather give them a quick once over before she does it more thoroughly.

I tidy before they come mainly because they are better able to really clean if they don't have to shift my stuff around. I know it is probably silly, but I figure they will care more about keeping my place clean if I care about keeping my place clean.

and I second lizzy's comment. I never understood my parents picking up before their cleaners until I got cleaners of my own.

Wow, after all the usual talk here about saving money, I'm surprised how many of you hire out the cleaning!

It's more a matter of practicality. Our cleaning girls are very nice, but they have no illusions about me: there have been weeks when I've barred them from a room simply because it was a disaster, and asking them to clean it would really be above and beyond. In addition to it being considerate towards them though, clearing off surfaces and stowing the clutter before they arrive means that I'll be more likely to find whatever was in the way than if I leave it for the ladies to deal with.

totally agree. I pick up and put things away before she comes because I know if I don't do it, she will, and then I'll have no idea where they are!

first of all, cleaning ladies are so worth money, especially if you are working. i have better things to do after working a long day, even a decent pay long day. second, yes I do pick up before she comes. then she does a thorough job and then some. when i put everything away, this also means I know where everything is. i had 5 boxes of aluminum foil once because it took me a while figure out where she had put them in my kitchen :(

I once shared a 4 bedroom apartment with 3 other roommates. They all decided to get a cleaning lady. Not wanting to rock the boat, I didn't say anything against it. I didn't like the idea of a stranger coming into our house, snooping around and invading our space. The cleaning lady came every Monday...I cleaned every Sunday. Crazy...I know. The place was always spotless when she arrived. I left her some token tasks. It always amazed me that she stuck around for 3 hrs and cleaned. We battled it out for 6 months. I eventually moved out (not b/c of the cleaning lady). ;-)

Our cleaning lady is my husband's grandma (she does that for a living, and we pay her), so yes I clean before she comes. It's bad enough when a complete stranger has access to all your stuff, but when it's a relative, well that can just get downright uncomfortable. Plus, we're newlyweds and I don't want her to think her grandson married a total slob (she's fully aware of how messy he is). I really appreciate not having to clean the bathroom, so I don't mind picking up a bit before she comes. Small sacrifice.

They can't really do a good job if you don't clean first. Otherwise, half their work is piling your stuff up so they can clean counters and floors. They are worth it, because a good cleaning lady will do a thorough cleaning: scrub the floors, dust, vacuum rugs and furniture. This is stuff that's hard to effectively do well without taking a long time, unless you do it all the time. The cleaning lady does it in 2-3 hours, it would take me at least half a day, and I'd rather spend my weekend doing other things.

I was told Merry Maids and such are $90/hour, I definitely cannot afford such services, but the woman I know charges $15/hour which is more than fair!

I've considered hiring a cleaning person, but my hang-up is that I don't trust someone else to do it right.

I declutter before she comes. I always thought that was the way this whole thing works...your cleaning person gets YOU to clean!

First, $15 an hour isn't a living wage in America. So depending on how you look at it, it isn't "fair" at all.

Second, I'm completely utterly shocked at how many folks pay to have their homes cleaned. I make very good money, I work long hours, I have an hour and a half commute (each way), I love my home, and I clean it myself. I've never even considered doing anything else. I'm not trying to prove anything, just offering another perspective.

hja - I never would have even considered the idea of having a housekeeper, except that my husband, long before I married him, had his grandma doing it (since that's her trade). It was a good thing, really, and he wasn't really home often enough to get it all that dirty or to clean it. Everyone joked while we were engaged that she was going to be out of a job when we got married - they assumed that because I would soon be a wife, I would automatically become the housekeeper. I put the kabosh on that idea real fast.

She only comes once a month, and she does the cleaning tasks we'd rather not do, like scrubbing the tub and vacuuming the stairs. We keep the place picked up and in-between we usually have to sweep the hardwood floors in addition to daily cleaning like kitchen counters etc. But, having her come, even just once a month, is a luxury that I've truly come to appreciate, and it means that the whole place really gets a good scrub-down once a month. I probably wouldn't be dedicated enough to do that to my own home if I wasn't getting paid for it. (And $50 a month is a great bargain, imho, for not having to do some of those less-than-fun cleaning tasks.)

That being said, when we sell our house and move a few cities over, she will probably no longer come and clean, because we'll be too far away at that point. I guess we'll have to figure out who has to do which tasks, since there will inevitably be things that no one wants to do (scrub the toilets?).