Hi, my name’s Die Fledermaus and I’m neurotic about cleaning at the end of sits. I will even clean spaces I haven’t used. It means that the last day of any sit is always written off for cleaning. My partner sometimes comes with me and he finds my cleaning neurosis absurd, but I just can’t help it. On the last sit, he insisted on going out for lunch on the last day, but I couldn’t enjoy it; I was too anxious about the cleaning. The craziest aspect is that I’ve actually been known to break things in cleaning them, sometimes even items I haven’t touched during the sit. Doh!! (The HOs have been very sweet and understanding, thank Heavens!)
I’ve often left houses cleaner than I found them - a LOT cleaner - not that that’s always been noticed by the HOs.
I suspect it’s a result of being a hopeless people-pleaser ; I don’t just want good reviews, I want actually to make people happy. I rather envy the sitters who say they just tidy up after themselves, or aim just to leave a place as they found it. I think I need help.
I wouldn’t pay for cleaners. That should have been mentioned before committing. And being alone, I don’t make much of a mess. The biggest issue is I cannot wash the sheets before leaving, but that is discussed. I think broom/swiffer and wiping down counters, bathroom wiped down, and clorox spray in the shower works. I am not going to dust all the stuff I haven’t touched.
Inevitably we tend to spend around 4 hours house cleaning and I like to think we leave it as clean or cleaner - it’s really difficult as I get quite stressed that they might think it isn’t clean enough! Our last sit we definitely cleaned more than necessary or than I imagine they expected. But I equally, as we are also HO, I put a lot of effort into making sure our house is clean when people arrive to sit with us, and I certainly don’t expect to have to clean and tidy up. I don’t think what HO save is appropriate, as sitters also save a bunch so for me it’s not relevant. Also, if it wasn’t for the fact that our cat would probably get too lonely only a longer period (and I’m not 100% sure about this), and we worry about house burglary in an empty house, I’d prefer to have our regular “come in a feed” cat sitter, as I know her, she is utterly reliable and sweet, unlike some sitters I’ve had over the last few years (nothing major, but just not great either). When we move I hope not to have to use THS as much. Unfortunately, I’d love to have a regular cleaner but I haven’t found a reliable one since our long time cleaner moved too far away to clean. It is tricky though, but an ok balance overall for longer sits I feel. However we did start using hotels for shorter sits, not worth the hassle.
I hear you! I have been reflecting on being a people pleaser and a house sitter recently, perhaps this needs a topic of its own. However, I have come to the conclusion that house sitting is not conducive to overcoming people pleasing tendencies, and can in fact make things worse if not kept in check.
I have now cut back on things like gifts for the home owners, and am more selective about the sits I sign up to. After all, I am providing a service that, while I enjoy it, is not always easy and can be energy and time consuming. Therefore, your own comfort is imperative and should be considered as important as the home owner’s. People pleasers often sabotage themselves in favour of pleasing others (who probably don’t even notice). Look after yourself
@NETime
I see what you are saying. But hosts wanting their house left as they found it is a very reasonable request. So if they have really clean houses, then yes, it probably does require more work to return it to the state it was in when the sitter arrives. So if it were to be less than that in particularly egregious ways–not small things-- then docking the sitter on cleaning would not be unreasonable.
Though I imagine for many people, even very clean people, they probably aren’t expecting absolute perfection, and are most concerned with how their pets were cared for. But I know it is a big area of concern for many sitters so there is a lot of self-imposed pressure that probably leads a lot of us to clean more than is expected.
I have seen people on the forum state they lean towards more ‘regular’ ‘lived in’ looking homes since it makes them feel less pressure compared to houses that look very high end and immaculate. For people who find the cleaning truly hampers their enjoyment of the experience–as opposed to just thinking it is a pain but just comes with the territory–they might find this approach works better for them, especially if they spend a lot of time sitting. This doesn’t mean they would treat these homes with any less respect and regard, but the need to clean as thoroughly probably wouldn’t seem necessary.
When you floss your teeth in front of the mirror, bits of food fly out and stick to the mirror. Leaving those would be gross.
I think if you’re doing things like wiping out sinks and cleaning toilets every day, it may add up to as much time as doing it all at the end of the sit just one time.
I think it does depend on how much you cook, among other things. I always cook most meals. And also how large the house is — I sit in some quite large homes. And finally, as I’ve said, if you sit in a higher end home that’s immaculate like in a magazine, it takes more polishing work to keep it at that level.
Yes, as I’ve mentioned in other comments, I’ve tended to sit for people who have very nice, higher end homes that they keep absolutely immaculate. To “leave it as I found it” requires literally polishing things like the long granite counters in the kitchen.
Oh dear, I don’t find that happens when I floss, but again i do that every day. If it did then I’d just clean it straight away, as you say it would be gross to leave it there for any amount of time so why leave it until the last day.
It literally takes 30 seconds to wipe the sink after i’ve brushed my teeth. Why on earth would I want to leave
toothpaste in the sink everyday to clean at the end of the week 2 week/month ?
I prepare an evening meal each day, sometimes cooking, sometimes salad but I clean up as i go along, eat, wash up, put clean pots away. The only thing I will leave for next morning is maybe a mug or wine glass.
I’ve stayed in some fabulous high end houses. They have been immaculate when I’ve arrived and no bother at all to keep that way and I’ve been invited back to every sit that I have done.
No matter how big or small the home is I still only use one bedroom, one bathroom, one living room and one kitchen. I don’t even go into the other rooms after I’ve been showed around.
From my perspective, the whole point of this is a mutually beneficial exchange.
I give you a clean house, you give it back to me as you found it (or better is all the more great).
If I have a cleaner employed, I would operate as normal and pay the cleaner to clean at the regular interval even with an HS there unless they said they didn’t want it and were going to do it themselves.
I would not expect you to pay for it unless it was like a really really long sit and I came back to a home in a state of disarray/you didn’t take care of the house.
If you know you’re a bad cleaner, but you’re good at minding pets, we can talk about it beforehand and arrange something. I had one instance where I came back to a home that had sticky floors, dirty dishes, etc. It took me 2+ hours to rest the house. I told the sitter and asked them to pay a cleaning fee. No issues and they knew who they were and were accountable about it. Moving forward, I ask explicitly about cleanliness levels because it’s important to me that, as with style of pet care, we are aligned around the standard of home care.
I think something that I continually see people forgetting is this site is called trusted HOUSEsitters. You are there to mind the home and the pets in it, not just the pets. I’m not expecting my home to look like a professional has done a deep clean, but I am expecting to not have to spend hours cleaning up after you have left. As an HS, my perspective is I’m the HO’s proxy while they’re gone at the very least for basics in keeping things running and I want them to come home to things just as they were left.
Also, not everyone is able to afford or has budgeted for a cleaner, I don’t think it’s fair to expect an HO to clean up after you on a mutual exchange site.
That being said, (imo) an HO asking you to pay for a cleaner “just because” does not seem to be in the spirit of the platform.
We all have our strategy on how to approach “the final clean”. I’m one of those that clean as I go along so it’s not too arduous on the last day. It’s something that has to be done. We don’t like to walk into someone else’s dirt and I’m sure the hosts think likewise.
As for cleaners, I’m one of these old fashioned people who clean the night before the cleaners arrive. Don’t judge me, blame my mum. No one should have to clean the dirty bathroom apart from the people who made it dirty.
I’m sorry to hear that you had to spend money for cleaning out of your own pocket. In my pet sitting experience, I have always been mindful of cleaning the home and leaving it in a clean state to show my respect. I have been better at cleaning up before leaving the pet sitting home, so it would be nice if the cleaner could come on the last day to clean it so I don’t have to worry about it. It’s good to have a conversation with the owner to to understand their expectations, so that neither of you are surprised when they come home or when you leave and find out later on.
Can you clarify the difference and how my description would insinuate the latter as opposed to the former?
Maintain the house and give it back as you received it. Take care of the pets. That’s literally what I wrote.
If maintaining status quo to the best of your ability in a mutual exchange environment makes you a housekeeper, I’m not really sure what else to say other than agree to disagree?
I’ve had an A-ha about what bothers me, based on the exchange between 2 people above: “It’s Trusted Housesitters, after all” (so therefore you clean the house) and the response from someone else “But it’s not Trusted Housekeepers/cleaners”…YES.
Every other duty we must fulfill as sitters is supposed to be spelled out in the listing. Not just pet care. For example, if there is any kind of garden or property maintenance required. If it’s not, the sitter has grounds to cancel or at least just not do tasks sprung on them after the sit is agreed to or begun.
BUT I almost never see house cleaning addressed in any listings and rarely in Welcome Guides!
That’s why I always bring it up to see what the HO expects and reach agreement. The WGs I get almost always tell me where the cleaning products are but NOT the standards I’m supposed to meet. But when they tell you where the vacuum, dust mop, wet mop, bucket, etc is you start to feel…“I guess I’m supposed to do a big cleaning here, aren’t I?”
So I think this may be the root of my discomfort: House cleaning is expected and assumed, but HO’s don’t tend to address it directly, in either the listings or the WGs. They imply you’re supposed to do it, and even do quite a lot of it by listing all these cleaning materials and equipment. But in nearly 2 dozen sits, no HO has ever brought the subject up with me, even after we’ve been talking for an hour. I always have to ask what they expect. And they often seem to feel rather awkward about it as well.
We include the definition of a reset in our house guide. We also state explicitly In our listing we expect the home to be kept clean and given back as it was received.
We also ask explicitly what the expectations are around what care for the house looks like and if there is anything to be aware of.
Vet the sit well. Ask all the questions. If there is something that I realise I’m making an assumption about related to the home or the pets within it, I did not vet the sit well enough.
And if you as an HO come back to a home that is not the way that you like it and you did not call anything about it out in your guide, that’s on you. Everyone has a different definition so whether it’s in your guide or happens on a call or during orientation it should be discussed.
Similarly, if you as an HS have not made sure expectations for the home were clear to you, what is on/off limits, and checked to get it in a guide someplace, I mean….
If maintaining the home to our standard in either direction isn’t feasible, it’s a no for applying/accepting.
We just clean the rooms we use, and shut all the doors to the ones we don’t (unless the pet parents have stated the kitty likes to sleep on their bed, or something similar). We’ll only go in those closed-off rooms when there’s a need to water plants or, on longer sits, to run taps to ensure there’s water in the bath/shower/basin traps.
