Cleaning Lady Horror Stories - What's yours? **

shlomitsmum

Sun, May 26 2013, 1:59 pm

They used come and move at glazier pace ,do a crappy job and then charge me $65 bucks I don't boss people or hover so I get taken advantage of , I am tired of it.... So I clean myself now and reward myself the $65 LOL

I had one steal a vintage diamond ring .
My Parents :
were robbed blind of luxury Items ...Picture running into your nanny dressed in your mums clothes AND CHANEL BAG at the local mall Rolling Eyes

caught aupair showering with boyfriend in their room...

Mil : Caught FIL in their BED with the nanny after a flight was cancelled and she returned home unexpected shock

eschaya

Sun, May 26 2013, 4:30 pm

This happened to a friend of mine when we were, say, 7th grade or so. The housekeeper comes crying and hysterical to my friend while she was studying, or doing her homeword - her mother wasn't home at the time - saying something incomprehensible about sick, and baby. Then she leads my friend to one of the bathrooms and shows her a bloody mess in the toilet. My friend had no idea what to do.
We figured out years later that the cleaning lady must have had a miscarriage, but she was coming to her employer's 12 year old daughter for help... we barely even knew how babies came out at that point. My friend was traumatized for a while after that.
I totally don't blame the poor lady. But my friend didn't need to see that and was not the right one to deal with it.

For better of worse, I don't have enough cleaning help to really have a horror story. Though the woman who comes once a week... after she cleans my floors I have to open all the windows to air out the house because it smells so bad. Don't know what she uses, but I"m usually gone when she is at my house. Would love to find someone better but can't really afford it.

rachel91

Sun, May 26 2013, 4:48 pm

This isn't anything that happened with my cleaning lady, but just a story about another one, when I was still a girl someone called me up (erev shavuos) and told me that they were sure that their cleaning lady had stolen their camera, but they needed someone who knew russian to talk to her, so I went there ( she was in the middle of cleaning) and I started talking to her, she denied everything at first, but after 10 minutes she asked me to come out with her, I did( reluctantly) and she nearly fell on her knees and admitted that she took it and that she'll bring it back, but I shouldn't call the police! So they didn't call the police, she brought the camera back AND continued working there( to my surprise)! It was quite an experience))

amother

Sun, May 26 2013, 5:48 pm

Years ago my friend came home to find all the dirty laundry that had been in the laundry basket neatly folded and put away in the drawers....

Disclaimer even though I am amother (since many of our friends know that particular story).... most of the time when I am treating myself to cleaning help, I am really very satisfied and grateful....

amother

Sun, May 26 2013, 5:57 pm

Amother so family won't figure out my user!

My mother had the laaaaaaaaziest cleaner in the history of the world...

She would come in and the first thing she'd do was rewrite the list of tasks my mother had written out for her.

I don't know what she dusted, cos she'd have a duster in her hand, but there was dust on an awful lot of things for an awfully long time (maybe she missed it off her list) and cobwebs in the corners of rooms that sat there for months. On principle I wasn't going to touch them, as I explained to my mother, since she was paying this woman to remove them but she was clearly too busy rewriting lists!!

One day my mother and I were skype-ing and she left the room for a few minutes but left skype on. Said cleaner came in and rather than cleaning, began flicking through a pile of photos on the shelf! And when I told my mother she just laughed!! Cannot begin to tell you how infuriating it was!!

tikva18

Sun, May 26 2013, 6:15 pm

My cleaning lady isn't so good. She cuts corners, sits a lot, reads, wastes, time, and doesn't do a good over all job. I want to fire her but my dh says I can't.

Oh, by the way, I'm the cleaning lady.

That would be because back when we could sort of afford cleaning help... I had a lady steal my kiddush cups. Got a different cleaning lady who broke the glass top to my dining room table. Got a different lady who stole my ds' only pair of shoes (he wore his snow boots to school that day and left his shoes at home) and my digital camera.
This was when I gave up and became a cleaning lady for my family.

shlomitsmum

Sun, May 26 2013, 6:25 pm

tikva18 wrote:

Me too!!

Tova

Sun, May 26 2013, 6:43 pm

DrMom wrote:

My cleaning lady makes mistakes sometimes. We all do. Luckily, there hasn't been anything I would classify as a "horror story."

I'm grateful we can afford cleaning help.

Are you me?

amother

Sun, May 26 2013, 11:51 pm

Amother, because I've told this story so many times!
We used to have a cleaning lady for 2-3 years- shared her hours with the landlord.
My husband used to ask me what's happening to our liquor and scotch in the cabinet - noone really drinks in our house and we had some vintage bottles that were given to ous for our firstborn Shalom Zachar.
One day I come home and see our cleaning lady drunk, passed out in my bed, with a lit cigarette in her hand (we are not smokers), laundry basket with clean laundry next to her, laundry covered in ashes. I try to wake her up and she doesn't budge - I had to call DH at work and ask him to help me carry her down. We called her a cab and some relative to call pick her up.
She calls me the next day telling me that I owe her $16 (for the hours she slept Very Happy

and the work she didn't do), and I said "No problem you pay me $60 for the alchohol you consumed and I will pay you $16 for taking a nap" - never heard from her again.
Of course, we then discovered 2 of our watches were missing and we had to get rid of our bottles, since she said she drank from the bottles and "forgot when to stop"
But...she cleaned well!
B"H haven't had a cleaning lady for years, and don't miss it.

southernima

Mon, May 27 2013, 2:59 am

just felt like I had to stick up for the awesome cleaning ladies!

I have an amazing cleaning lady and had had her for 2 years. I both work full time and go to school full time (at a premier, intense university) and I would NEVER be able to do it without her! She has helped me turn over (and rumplenacht) for pesach twice, move twice and unpack twice. She is a lovely trustworthy person. She has a key to our place and comes and goes and she has never taken anything ever. The worst thing that happened was she dropped something down my garbage disposal that caused me to need to repair it. She offered to pay for it. Obviously I would not hear of it!

All of my cleaning ladies have been pretty good, fortunately! Only one was very sweet but a terrible cleaner (and very expensive) after 2 months I had to let her go, but I felt terrible because she was a lovely lady.

After reading these posts I feel very fortunate!

amother

Mon, May 27 2013, 5:15 pm

My cleaning lady saw a small black "thing" (that had previously fallen off my key ring) on a high shelf. She thought it was a cigarette lighter, and decided to try it out (for fun I guess?). Rolling Eyes

It was pepper spray, and she got herself right in the face with it. That room caused anyone that walked into it to cough violently, and took about and hour to air out. She took about 30 min of paid time to get back to herself.

Good Riddance. Rolling Eyes

amother

Mon, May 27 2013, 8:54 pm

My cleaning lady was cleaning my bedroom and I had my heels out of the closet b/c I had a wedding the night b4. I went to check on her and I saw shes wearing my heels!! I guess she wanted to see how cute she looked in them!

Shana_H

Mon, May 27 2013, 8:59 pm

We have the best cleaning lady, just ask my children, she's been cleaning for us faithfully for close to 20 years, she's reasonable and realiable, she seems to be available whenever the need arises, no mess is too big for her, she acomplishes everything with such grace, always with a smile on her face, she does the bathrooms, the kitchen with the sinks full of dishes and all my pots too, she does laundry up the wazzoo, she's also watched over many a book report and reasearch project with the kids, she's never stolen a dime from our home, she's the best, she's so appreciated by our family - SHE IS ME!

amother

Tue, May 28 2013, 12:06 am

I had a cleaning lady mop my hardwood floors with undiluted pinesol. We all went skating in my living room for many days and had to warn ppl that when they come in to be very careful how they walk so they wont slide.
Same cleaning lady asked for 30 extra dollars to clean my fridge. Not bec. it was so dirty but bec. she hates cleaning them and it takes awhile to do. She also didnt know who I was when I went to my bedroom to change from a snood to a sheitel.

oliveoil

Tue, May 28 2013, 8:20 am

amother wrote:

You could've just rewashed it yourself...

MuppetLover

Tue, May 28 2013, 2:47 pm

We stopped having a cleaning lady years ago when
1. Cleaning Lady #1 yelled at DH and tried to tell him that he was lazy around the house (DUH lady, if he HELPED MORE, YOU wouldnt have a job!)
2. Cleaning Lady #2 kept stealing DS's clothing for her nephew. I saw them in the mall wearing my sons "Tzhal" tshirt
3. Cleaning Lady #3 had immigration officals follow her to our house, arrest her for being in the country illegally and the she MAMASH dropped dead from the shock of the whole situation. BTW, this happened AFTER LICHT BENTCHING on a Friday night in the MIDDLE OF THE SEUDAH. Aside from the whole situation being sad, we are now the hopping guest house in the community.

We gave up on cleaning ladies after that and I do what I can and hide what I cant in a closet.

amother

Tue, May 28 2013, 2:57 pm

my cleaning lady is horrible.

She only washes the toilets when they make her want to puke or if she is having company that may use it. My fridge... well I cant remember the last time she did that, other then "spot clean" small spills. good thing its not a white fridge. my stove- well she wipes down any pieces and big spills once in a while.

She finally started cleaning the house 2x a week- once for shabbos and each room gets cleaned an additional time during the week. tho she hasnt added the bathroom to that "rotation" yet. The floors tho have not been mopped in months. they are starting to look it to.

oh wait... thats me embarrassed

anon for obvious embarrassed

reasons.