If you’re faced with the prospect of cleaning a filthy bathroom, being able to pay a cleaner to do the dirty work instead might seem an ideal arrangement. But many people react in the opposite way: tidying before the cleaner arrives to avoid embarrassment at being slovenly, a phenomenon we might describe as “cleaner guilt”.
Guardian columnist Homa Khaleeli highlighted the issue, quoting one cleaner who was annoyed by the excessive reactions of some of her customers:
Some people clean up too much. It makes me feel guilty because there’s nothing to do. Why waste products cleaning the same toilet again if you have already done it?
At the other end of the scale was the client who left sex toys lying around to be tidied away (though we’re not told whether they were cleaned first).
I’ve never hired a cleaner, and in the fiscally unlikely event that I did, I think I’d be happy to let them get on with it. But I’d like to know what others think. Have you ever suffered from “cleaner guilt”? And have you found any strategies to overcome it? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Why having a cleaner isn’t always domestic bliss [The Guardian]
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