5 WAYS TO GET YOUR HELP TO CLEAN BETTER

So you’ve finally found that perfect house help that knows how to care for your kids. They love her.  She’s wonderful. Now, if only she could improve her cleaning skills… Is it even possible? Are you asking for too much? Are your expectations too high? We are born with different skill sets and are talented in some ways more than others. But wouldn’t it just brighten your world if your Help were great with the kids as well as the cleaning? I’d say it’s worth a try.

These 5 tips might get you there. Plus I have a bonus tip at the end of this post. It’s my secret and it’s done wonders for me.

1. Show her exactly what needs to be cleaned. If you come from my part of the world, then you might like to get your help from the village. In your modern home may be the first she ever saw a gas cooker or refrigerator or washing machine. So you can imagine, she may not have the experience of using these things…let alone cleaning them. I know, that sounds rather extreme, but it’s not far fetched. Showing your help exactly what you want cleaned will bring clarity and narrow the scope. What seemed to be overwhelming when looking at the whole house is now manageable just because you narrowed it down to a few things or areas that actually need cleaning. Create a list of different chores everyday showing exactly what you need cleaned. 

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     2. Show her exactly how you want it done. So I mentioned earlier that you and your help come from different worlds. You’ll be doing yourself a huge favour by showing her exactly how you want your chrome faucets cleaned before she shows up with steel wool. It’s actually  not common sense.

You will have to show her how to chuck the bits of food from the Utensils before putting them in the dishwasher or washing them in the sink to avoid clogging up your plumbing. You will have to demonstrate exactly how you want your bathroom cleaned to avoid cross-contamination, because remember, she also helps in your kitchen. By showing her HOW to clean, it should improve the results over time. Think of it as a sport…it takes time, practice and consistency.

3. Do clean-ups together, frequently. I know you’re busy with work. But this is your home. If you want things done properly, you’ll have to directly get involved in maintaining it. And that includes cleaning. Just pick a day, like the first Saturday of each month to do some cleaning together with your Help. Please avoid doing the whole house in one session, because this is meant to be a tutorial kind of thing. If you jam too much information into one cleaning session, you can be sure that nothing is going to stick. And since you want her to remember your method, you may have to focus on one area a number of times and repeat the cleaning-together exercise until things begin to sink in.

4. Provide proper and adequate cleaning tools and products. When there isn’t sufficient cleaning 

cloths your house will inevitably look dull because of that thin layer of dust that’s left after using a cloth loaded with dirt. In order to clean better you need to have a good supply of cleaning cloths. In one cleaning session for a 3-bedroomed house, your help should use 3 to 4 cleaning cloths. When one gets loaded with dirt, she can move on to the second cloth and so on. This way, you’ll avoid spreading the dirt carried by one loaded cloth. Invest in microfiber cloths, which are great for picking up dust. Also get used to the handy spray bottle, which greatly helps with equal distribution of soapy water and at the same time reduce wastage.

5. This is probably the most important and the most basic at the same. More than showing what and how to clean, more than having the right material, more than doing cleaning sessions together, encourage your help to thoroughly clean the cleaning cloths or mop straight after use. Nobody likes to handle a dirty stinky floor rag. If your help has to work with a dirty rag or mop, then she is de-psyched to do the job even before it started. Has this ever happened to you? You walk into your house in the evening tired from work and a smell hits you like a tonne of bricks…like something crawled under the sofa…and died. So why would a mop get to stink so badly? Because it’s always dump. Little micro-organisms start to fester and before you know it, it has a whole eco system of bacteria. In order to avoid having a smelly mop, not only must you clean it, but it also MUST dry. So you’re probably wondering how do you keep a dry mop when you need to mop up the kitchen floor every couple of hours or so? It’s simple, keep two mops! When one is being used, the other is drying up. This way, you’ll always start your day with a clean, fresh mop.

  BONUS TIP: Appreciation and acknowledgment. Give lavish praise for a job well done. It works all the time. If you noticed that the windows look extra clean, you should praise your help for the good job. If your home office desk has been dusted and arranged neatly, then thank her and praise her for the good job. When an employee feels appreciated, she will go out of her way to impress you. If you praise her for cleaning something very well, you will start to notice that she wants to do better in other areas. Give this a try. Slowly, you home will stat to look, smell and feel better.

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