Dirty Pants And Used Condoms: The Reality Of Being A Cleaner For 20-Somethings

We're the most financially squeezed generation ever and yet loads of us have cleaners. Here, professional cleaners confesses what it's actually like to clean for a bunch of broke 20-years-olds

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by Sophie Cullinane |
Published on

Last week, I made a particularly startling discovery. It was the last week of the month and I was down to my last £20. I'd living off the same batch of lentil stew for breakfast, lunch and dinner; walking an hour into work and back every day to save the bus fare and had been woefully, miserably, cataclysmically wine-free for the last nine days. Things were pretty bleak.

But when I went through my bank statement to figure out how I'd got myself into a less than ideal situation for an allegedly 'together' person nearing her late twenties, with a good job and a passable grasp of basic arithmetic, I got a bit of a shock. The reason I was completely skint wasn't because I pissed my wages all up the wall on a couple of big, expensive nights out. Nor had I wasted it all on clothes that I didn't need, nor a holiday I couldn't afford. I was in the red because I'd paid a team of cleaners to come round to my flat and do a job I could very well have done myself for free twice in the last four weeks. And at £40 a pop, that really adds up.

You might think I'm mad, but I'm certainly not alone. Whereas, once, employing a cleaner was seen as the reserve for the wealthy (or, at least, for people our parent's age), now more and more allegedly cash-strapped people in their 20s are getting in the professionals to clean up their mess.

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And despite the fact that a sizeable portion of our generation are struggling with crippling rental prices, a dwindling jobs market, it seems like a sizeable portion of us (me included) are willing to cough up a big chunk of our income if it means we don't have to do our own housework on our weekends or when we get home from the office.

'We don't take our client's ages when they register with us, but anecdotally we've all noticed a massive hike in the number of young people using our services,' Mike Richards, area manager of City Cleaners, explains to The Debrief. 'While I'd say the vast majority of our clients are families, there's a growing market of young people, especially in inner cities, who pay up to £280 a month to clean their rented homes. It used to be that they'd get us in to do a deep clean at the end of a tenancy or after a big party, but now it's becoming much more normal for them to employ us one or twice a fortnight. It's a bit odd to me because my 20s was all about penny pinching, but we're certainly not here to judge.'

It's a relief to hear there's no judgement, especially considering some of the states I've left my house in after a houseparty on a Tursday night. 'If I'm honest, it was a bit of a shock at first,' Gemma Hartley* who works as a full-time cleaner explains to* The Debrief*. 'I clean for a house rented by four girls in their early twenties and there always seems to be someone asleep on the sofa for me to clean around, and can be a bit awkward! I guess they just have parties that last all week. In another house, there's often weed on the table and I've had pick up a used condom from a bedroom floor, which was pretty unpleasant. I've also now learnt that any drawers in the bedroom are off limits – I've tried to put clothes away before and found a sex toy – it's not the sort of thing you forget. Obviously none of this is really that big of a deal, but it's just the sort of thing that would never happen with my family clients.'

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For Tara Blake* – who cleans for three houses filled with girls in their 20s – the vast majority of her experience has been really positive, but she does admit that some of her clients have seemed quite entitled. 'I had one client who treated me like a surrogate mother,' she tells The Debrief. 'She wanted me to clean her dirty pants, put on her bedsheets and do all her washing up. Obviously it's part of the job and a certain amount of that is to be expected, but most people understand that my job is to clean, not to tidy, and you should probably do that stuff for yourself before I arrive. Saying that, I've had clients in their 50s who are just as bad, but I guess you just expect a bit kore camaraderie from people in a similar financial and living situation as yourself.'

Before you immediately cancel my cleaner forever, Tara does want to make it clear she's pleased that more and more young people are deciding to get professional help to clean heir homes. 'They're mostly lovely and I'm always just grateful to take on more work. If that's the way they choose to spend their money then that's up to them. Plus, a lot of the girls I clean for work just as hard – if not harder – than people I know I'm their 30s, 40s and 50s so many of them simply don't have the time to clean their homes. Why not? Just be careful not to bankrupt yourself!'

Good advice, now for some more lentil soup…

Like this? Then you might also be interested in:

The Eight Housemates You've Definitely Had

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Picture: Rory DCS

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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