# Cleaning Ladies don´t have a clue sometimes?



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

We have used my sister in law's cleaning lady for several months on Thursdays all day, 8 1/2 hours. A few times I was home recently and she was wasting most of the day scrubbing bathrooms and floors of the bedrooms that are closed doors and only used when visitors are here. I finally told her to stay concentrated on the things that are actually dirty, please. 

Well this snowballed into her first not doing much the rest of that day and missing the next Thursday and when we went away for 2 weeks telling her not to come in.

I have been cleaning everything the same as she had been doing minus the redundant cleaning she always did and finish in 90 minutes or so and have found many more things to clean that she never bothered with for another 90 minutes each week and still find more every week and the house looks better than ever.

This is the 3rd cleaning lady we have had and the same thing happened with the other two.

I have been thinking of just cleaning lightly and forgetting the cleaning ladies altogether and once in a while get some help do do some heavy cleaning.

Yesterday this latest cleaning lady after a few weeks of not coming told us she has a new Thursday house to clean. We are actually relieved she decided to go where the routine fits her style of cleaning.

We still see her several evenings a week at my in laws house but there she is happily cooking and ironing and scrubbing all the 8 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms most of which are never used anymore.

I am now thinking some of you might have noticed this same system with your cleaning ladies.


----------



## conklinwh (Dec 19, 2009)

AlanMexicali said:


> We have used my sister in law's cleaning lady for several months on Thursdays all day, 8 1/2 hours. A few times I was home recently and she was wasting most of the day scrubbing bathrooms and floors of the bedrooms that are closed doors and only used when visitors are here. I finally told her to stay concentrated on the things that are actually dirty, please.
> 
> Well this snowballed into her first not doing much the rest of that day and missing the next Thursday and when we went away for 2 weeks telling her not to come in.
> 
> ...


Amen! I can't show this to my wife or she will really go off. Worse thing is that we had a really good cook/housekeeper when we rented in San Miguel. After moving to Pozos we did have somebody that was more than adequate. Unfortunately after 4 years she said that had started a business. Our ability to find replacement has been less than successful for all of your reasons.


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

This is what happens when you micro-manage workers. Let them do the work. When my cleaning lady comes to clean, I move outside or take my laptop to my neighbors. I return when she is done and the apartment is clean.


----------



## Ken Wood (Oct 22, 2011)

Our cleaning lady hung the moon. She is absolutely precious, and is very skilled, as well as quite innovative when the need arises. She only comes once a week for a few hours, so it is not a huge expense for us, but, I suspect that it means a lot to her budget. She has a family at home, including twin 6 year old girls, and they are obviously the priority in her life. She occasionally allows us to send something home to the girls, at Christmas, birthday, first day of school, etc, but, is very adept at keeping our relationship strictly as it should be. To keep out of her way, we take off on her arrival and ask her to lock up when she leaves. We are moving into our new house very soon, and have tried to work something out to continue her weekly visits, but, it would be a one hour bus ride and is not going to work. We will miss her, she is one who always seems to exist within a little cone of happiness, and her ever present smile is infectious to us.


----------



## conklinwh (Dec 19, 2009)

What you both describe would be very true for our 1st two experiences but not ours since. 
We do not micromanage but the place just doesn't get cleaned other than superficially.
Now we live in a very small town with less than 30 expats so the experience pool is very shallow as well as small.


----------



## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

When we first hired our maid, she asked us what we would like her to do. I told her to do whatever was needed and that she was the 'expert'. That has worked pretty well for almost a decade. She's still with us & often brings daughters to help and to shorten her hours. She has access to everything and house & pet sits whenever we travel. Never a problem.


----------



## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

I have a small home so 4 hours is enough time for my housekeeper, she arrives and I take off, when I return all is clean and the house smells Fabuloso........


----------



## Longford (May 25, 2012)

AlanMexicali said:


> We have used my sister in law's cleaning lady for several months on Thursdays all day, 8 1/2 hours. A few times I was home recently and she was wasting most of the day scrubbing bathrooms and floors of the bedrooms that are closed doors and only used when visitors are here. I finally told her to stay concentrated on the things that are actually dirty, please.
> 
> Well this snowballed into her first not doing much the rest of that day and missing the next Thursday and when we went away for 2 weeks telling her not to come in.
> 
> ...


Lack of education is the root cause. That's been my observation for a very long time. 

Why have a cleaning lady if you don't reallly need one? Just, as you said, get one several times a year for a top to bottom house cleaning. Or, hire one for a half-day instead of a whole day. Leave a list of what's to be done and check-off the list when she's one. No need to leave home for the time period. Just stay out of her way.

I've had both good and not so good cleaning ladies. Mostly, I've cleaned my small place(s) myself when in Mexico.


----------



## conklinwh (Dec 19, 2009)

Longford said:


> Lack of education is the root cause. That's been my observation for a very long time.
> 
> Why have a cleaning lady if you don't reallly need one? Just, as you said, get one several times a year for a top to bottom house cleaning. Or, hire one for a half-day instead of a whole day. Leave a list of what's to be done and check-off the list when she's one. No need to leave home for the time period. Just stay out of her way.
> 
> I've had both good and not so good cleaning ladies. Mostly, I've cleaned my small place(s) myself when in Mexico.


My wife is an artist. We retired to Mexico so that she could go to her studio and paint. Also, I'm not going to start taking the lead in cleaning even if my back could hack it.
Yes, we have had good experiences but presently not so good and that problematic under Mexican work laws but we are working to get resolved.


----------



## terrybahena (Oct 3, 2011)

We are the only expats in town, at least right now. We have the high school age daughter of a friend come on Mondays for about 3 hours. At first we wanted her to do windows, but hubby wants them just so, so he does them. She does bathrooms, kitchen, and all the floors, plus dusting (the salt water film that gets on everything). She also sweeps our huge patio even though the wind is always blowing. The thing is, it's good for her, she makes a little pocket money- it's alot to her and not much to us- and it's good for us cause I don't want to clean toilets. It's not a super immaculate job but we don't pay a super salary either. And if I want something "just so", I can tell her and she's happy to do it. Our place is not too big, either.


----------



## dongringo (Dec 13, 2010)

If you had my cleaning lady, you would have problems keeping your eyes on the job (presuming you are heterosexual). 
Actually it would be interesting to know how many expats wound up getting cleaned permanently. Probably none, because it is a hard thing to admit.


----------



## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

terrybahena said:


> We are the only expats in town, at least right now. We have the high school age daughter of a friend come on Mondays for about 3 hours. At first we wanted her to do windows, but hubby wants them just so, so he does them. She does bathrooms, kitchen, and all the floors, plus dusting (the salt water film that gets on everything). She also sweeps our huge patio even though the wind is always blowing. The thing is, it's good for her, she makes a little pocket money- it's alot to her and not much to us- and it's good for us cause I don't want to clean toilets. It's not a super immaculate job but we don't pay a super salary either. And if I want something "just so", I can tell her and she's happy to do it. Our place is not too big, either.


This is the perfect attitude. If you want perfection, pay for it. If not, be happy with what you get for so little money.


----------



## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

mickisue1 said:


> This is the perfect attitude. If you want perfection, pay for it. If not, be happy with what you get for so little money.


If you want perfection, do it yourself. If not, be happy with what you get.


----------



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

mickisue1 said:


> This is the perfect attitude. If you want perfection, pay for it. If not, be happy with what you get for so little money.


So little money does not equate here when you see the way wages really are and how hard and smart many people have to work for less than what a cleaning lady gets from us here in SLP.

Here is a Washington Post quote from a recent article about the present situation in Cuidad Juarez and what the average factory worker gets paid per day there:

"“It is a completely different ballgame now,” said Hector Murguía, the mayor. “Our city is no longer a town of ghosts.”

Families have begun to celebrate birthdays in restaurants again. At night, a few customers wander into the downtown cantinas, once a no-go zone after dark. The recession is over, and the assembly plants, which pay about $13 a day, are humming. Some 20,000 jobs have been created, according to city hall."

I don´t think it is much different than what they get paid here in San Luis Potosi so $175.00 pesos [$13.00 US] to clean a new large house is a good oportunity for anyone, I feel.

Years ago [about 6 or 7 years] I used to give people $200.00 pesos for a couple hours work but when the light went on upstairs some friends of mine were getting less than $200.00 pesos a day for 9 hours of hard work I stopped doing it and calculated it to about $50 or $60 pesos for a couple hours work and there were no complaints from anyone.


----------



## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

joaquinx said:


> If you want perfection, do it yourself. If not, be happy with what you get.


That, too.


----------



## BryansRose (May 25, 2009)

I have to agree with the original post. I've finally given up on having a "muchacha" at all. I may try again someday, with a young person, but the middle-aged or older muchachas have this what I call "muchacha mentality" that has nothing to do with actually cleaning, just making things look nice. They will spend all sorts of time on things I've asked them not to do, they will not use the cleaning products I _have asked them to use, it's more important to have an empty garbage bag in the kitchen garbage bin, all bright and clean, than to get the grease off the walls and counters. My last muchacha would not use the vacuum cleaner, she swept everything, even the rugs. Yikes! I was going to try to talk to her, but I'd just had enough of the whole mentality. Now my house is cleaner than it's been in months. 

So, you are not alone. _


----------



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

BryansRose said:


> I have to agree with the original post. I've finally given up on having a "muchacha" at all. I may try again someday, with a young person, but the middle-aged or older muchachas have this what I call "muchacha mentality" that has nothing to do with actually cleaning, just making things look nice. They will spend all sorts of time on things I've asked them not to do, they will not use the cleaning products I _have asked them to use, it's more important to have an empty garbage bag in the kitchen garbage bin, all bright and clean, than to get the grease off the walls and counters. My last muchacha would not use the vacuum cleaner, she swept everything, even the rugs. Yikes! I was going to try to talk to her, but I'd just had enough of the whole mentality. Now my house is cleaner than it's been in months.
> 
> So, you are not alone. _


_

The way you describe it is the way it is with them also.

This might just be a San Luis Potosi thing. All 3 are middle aged and have been full time maids for some of the 6 sister in laws I have here and basically have been in thier employ for many years. They all have taken care of thier kids while growing up, did the cooking, shopping nearby for food items to cook with, the laundry, and ironing everything in sight and mopping the floors, sweeping outside and watering etc..

Now that my wife´s nieces and nephews have grown up and left home, most of them, these maids are still hired to come to clean the houses once a week and these particular 3 are full time at the parent´s house now doing similar functions as before when the kids were young and care taking my mother in law who is an invalid after a major stoke.

I presume over the years they did not spend much time cleaning everything because my father in law´s house in generally dirty except the floors, patios, kitchen and bathrooms, mopped and scrubbed daily and he is the one with the 8 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, most of which are closed up and not used. Do the math: 3 full time 8 hour maids 6 days a week each, and they are there all 7 days and 2 overlapping in the late afternoon 5 days a week and the house is not that clean. 

The 2 washing machines going all afternoon and only my father in law and mother in law actually live there with some relatives visiting regularly from thier hometown not that far away.

When I have a nap on a bed I notice the next time the beddinig has been changed whether I was on top of the bedspread or got right into the bed to sleep over at night.

2 of them are excellent basic Mexican food cooks and everything is made from scratch, a big plus, but we do not need the same kind of maid service they do/did, just cleaning._


----------



## edgeee (Jun 21, 2012)

dongringo said:


> If you had my cleaning lady, you would have problems keeping your eyes on the job (presuming you are heterosexual).
> Actually it would be interesting to know how many expats wound up getting cleaned permanently. Probably none, because it is a hard thing to admit.


You sly dog, now i want to move to Mexico more than ever.

On the other hand i realize it's silly to think that way. (But it doesn't mean i don't).

Are we drifting into a subject that should be (or not) pursued in the junkyard?


----------



## dongringo (Dec 13, 2010)

Since when is "loving your cleaning lady" on your local porno channel? 

These women do the most menial work available- So they go overboard and wash down the patio that no one trod before. K- rist the little money that they earn is not up to your supercilious scrub on knees expectation? 

My last maid in the US I paid $60 a day and she probably did the work of my 5 1/2 half days Mexican maid in one day except for clothes washing and the interminable washing of tile floors, instead of the blow out vacuuming in a fully carpeted house.

Maybe there should be a new thread: Nickeling and diming your household employees. And only hire ugly ones, if your spouse is competitive.


----------



## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

dongringo said:


> Since when is "loving your cleaning lady" on your local porno channel?
> 
> These women do the most menial work available- So they go overboard and wash down the patio that no one trod before. K- rist the little money that they earn is not up to your supercilious scrub on knees expectation?
> 
> ...


So I shouldn't hire the handsome gardener, just in case?

DANG.


----------



## BryansRose (May 25, 2009)

AlanMexicali said:


> The way you describe it is the way it is with them also.
> 
> This might just be a San Luis Potosi thing. All 3 are middle aged and have been full time maids for some of the 6 sister in laws I have here and basically have been in thier employ for many years. They all have taken care of thier kids while growing up, did the cooking, shopping nearby for food items to cook with, the laundry, and ironing everything in sight and mopping the floors, sweeping outside and watering etc..


Yes, you might be right. SLP is a bit old-fashioned. My Mexican friends don't understand my frustration, but they're all seniors who've lived all their lives with muchachas. 

I've adapted to and even enjoy a lot of the cultural differences here in Mexico. But this one is just too much for me. :confused2: I know they are providing a service in the way that they think is right; I'm like you, though, it's a service I don't need.


----------



## dongringo (Dec 13, 2010)

mickisue1 said:


> So I shouldn't hire the handsome gardener, just in case?
> 
> DANG.


Of course not! "Boy Toys" are perfectably aceptable, but do they do windows?


----------



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

*Later*

After 3 1/2 months of housework I have had enough. Does anyone have a good cleaning lady they can recommend?  :confused2: :behindsofa:


----------



## BryansRose (May 25, 2009)

OOOOOOOOOH! Someone from SLP! Hi, neighbor. 

If I knew of a good cleaning lady, I'd grab her for myself.  I have one now, and she cleans well, but she's rather unreliable, and sometimes doesn't show up, and doesn't call. I can ask her if she needs more work, but I can give only a mediocre recommendation. Are you looking for just once a week?


----------



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

BryansRose said:


> OOOOOOOOOH! Someone from SLP! Hi, neighbor.
> 
> If I knew of a good cleaning lady, I'd grab her for myself.  I have one now, and she cleans well, but she's rather unreliable, and sometimes doesn't show up, and doesn't call. I can ask her if she needs more work, but I can give only a mediocre recommendation. Are you looking for just once a week?


Once a week for the whole day would do. Large house. We do the laundry. Thanks. Alan


----------



## BryansRose (May 25, 2009)

I'll ask her. She may not have a whole day, though. One of my problems has been (and I have a small house) that she gets paid to clean the whole house, but before she is finished she tells me she has to leave. It's "I can't drive after dark, no tengo lentes". So we changed to mornings, and now it's become "I have to pick up my grandson at school at noon". 

If you're still interested, I'll give you her phone number and you can see if you can work something out. As I said before, she does clean well, things are much better than they were with my other muchacha. She uses the vacuum cleaner, for instance.


----------



## conklinwh (Dec 19, 2009)

dongringo said:


> Of course not! "Boy Toys" are perfectably aceptable, but do they do windows?


Could be an interesting severance discussion!


----------

