The Challenges of finding a good cleaner
Let’s face it, cleaners are often (but not always) a bit of a disappointment. In fact, an expat friend of mine described having a cleaner as being like going to a restaurant and having to make the dessert yourself.
How did you find your cleaner?
Usually, finding a cleaner is a matter of asking colleagues and friends if they can recommend someone. This in itself is a challenge as people have shall we say different standards of what constitutes “good”.
The first cleaner I had in the Netherlands was recommended by a friend of mine. The cleaner was an incredibly nice guy who managed to convince me that he needed a minimum of five hours to clean a 120 square meter apartment. But ok, even though I was a bit sceptical about this, I let it slide, charm goes a long way. Initially, I was quite pleased with the results until one day I dropped something and had to put my hands underneath a cabinet to retrieve it. The floor underneath the cabinet was covered in dust. I then noticed that actually, the living room cabinet was also dusty. As I started to take a closer look at the work he was doing it appeared that his preferred cleaning methodology was to clean around objects but never on them or underneath them.
If excuses were worth money
I’d be a millionaire. I arranged to meet my cleaner and I gave him some polite feedback about his various blind spots. He then had the cheek to ask for more time to clean and was actually quite offended that I had the nerve to ask him to clean under things rather than around them. So we parted ways. I then had a barren period where I did the cleaning myself, which really isn’t something I’m good at nor interested in. There are so many better things to do in life. Cocktails, Playstation, eating out, who has the time to clean? After that, I’d had enough and used my old friend Google who came up with a company called Helpling who have a lot of positive reviews for providing cleaners so I thought I’d try them out.
Finding a cleaner with Helpling
Finding a cleaner with Helpling is easy like a Sunday morning.
Go to their website.
Simply enter your postcode
Choose the day and time you’d like to have a cleaner and indicate if you’d like to have ironing or not and if you have pets.
Then choose a cleaner from the results
You can click on the reviews and then proceed to make a booking. Enter your payment details and you’ll receive a confirmation of the booking.
The benefits of using Helpling
Every cleaner listed on Helpling has an individual profile where you can read reviews from their other customers. The biggest advantage is knowing that the person you’re about to give keys to your apartment to has had their identity checked and verified by a third party. This means that while on holiday you don’t have to lose sleep about your leopard print sofa or gaming system going missing. Another big win is that if your cleaner decides to go off and take part in the Voice or become a tempter on Temptation Island, you won’t be left high and dry as there are plenty of cleaners registered on the platform.
It’s a secure and worry-free way of finding a good cleaner who you can easily replace if needed. More importantly, as you’re dealing with a platform rather than an individual you have more security than you would normally have when working directly with an individual recommended by a friend.
Never being one to pass up an opportunity, I contacted Helpling and am able to offer a 10 euros discount when you sign up using the code shallow105. If you’re looking for a cleaner, then sign up here.
The things I do for my readers!
No participants of Temptation Island were hurt during the writing of this post.
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