Lucy's House Cleaning Service

I needed a very deep cleaning done. I have numerous health problems (and allergies) that make it difficult for me move furniture ( like bedside nightstands) to vacuum behind them, reach ceiling fans to clean, bend to clean baseboards or stretch to clean around door frames and window sills. Ms. Lucy's business card states she has been in business for over 40 years so I did not spell out every single thing I needed done as I assumed she knew what constituted a "deep" cleaning but we did discuss the general idea of what was needed. I did tell her it was hard for me to stretch and bend. She stated she charged $25 an hour. She was not sure how long it would take to clean since it was her first time in my home. She called my cell phone at 10:30 AM to let me know she had entered my house (in case a neighbor called). When my husband and I got home at 4:30 PM she was still there and had not yet done the bathrooms. By my math, that is 6 hours. 6 x $25 = $150. She stated she did not want to disturb our supper preparation and that she would come back the next day to finish. She charged me $175. I paid her and then she asked me, “How do I get sound on your TV with remote? I got a picture but I couldn’t get any sound”. Seriously? I paid you $175 and you’re telling me that you’ve been watching my TV when you should have been cleaning? Really? Now I do not mind someone bringing a jam box or a radio and listening to music while they work. I’m a big believer that music aids productivity. But if you are watching a show on my TV you are NOT working. She is extremely opinionated and offers comments on any and every subject that comes up in conversation. I did not hire her to be a consultant. I needed a house cleaner. I like people who are personable but Ms. Lucy never stops talking and offers her advice whether you ask for it or not. No matter the problem, she has a solution for it. She told me I needed to stop all dairy products to help my arthritis and to lose weight. She had dozens of anecdotes. She told me all about how she used to hang out with Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams back in the 70s. She told me about a band (called the $1.98 Band) she used to listen to that was scheduled to play at her wedding reception but had to play an audition instead. They later became The Doobie Brothers (which as I found out from Google was not true—their name before they were The Doobie Brothers was “Pud”). All of these little stories take time and when I met her, we’d just gotten home from work and we were tired. When we got home the second day, the toilet in my bathroom looked ok on the inside, but it had not been cleaned on the outside. There was hair and dust all over it. The floor had not been swept or mopped as there was hair all over it too. As far as I could see, the work she did was not deep cleaning. It was work I could do myself: general cleaning such as sweeping, mopping, vacuuming and straightening up. The only thing that I saw that she cleaned that I do not normally do was our sliding glass door to the patio. She did a good job on that. She did clean the ceiling fan blades but I do that also about every 3-4 months. So not only am I out $175, but my house did not get the cleaning it needed. Very frustrating.