117. 5 Things Your Organizer Won't Tell You - Part Two

In the conclusion of this two-part series, only for subscribers, we'll finish up the conversation we started in part one about what your Pro Organizer, Cleaner, Landscaper... won't tell you when you aren't being the ideal client. 

Transcript

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Number four, your household employee passes her responsibilities on to the independent contractor. This was a pattern I started noticing the second time I was there, especially. Because the first time I was there, she said, okay, I do the bed and the child's room. I do the clothes. I do the laundry. The second time I was there, the homeowner asked me when I got there, can you do the child's bed? Can you change the sheets? And I said, Okay. So I went ahead and stripped the sheets. And then when the nanny came back, I said, now I was asked to do the child's bed, or I thought you were supposed to do that. And she said, Oh, yeah, I am. I well, I normally do. Did they ask you to do it? And I said, Yeah, they asked me to do it. Oh, okay, well, I'll do it. Okay. A little bit of confusion, not a big deal. Then I go to the kitchen. She says, Well, I'm getting ready to fix lunch. And I said, Okay, well, you know, when I come, I really need to be able to go through the house. And I can start, you know, in different areas, but it really needs to be consistent each time so that I know what rooms I'm supposed to be in when someone else isn't going to be in there. So I immediately went into the kitchen because she said, okay, it's probably going to be another 10 minutes. And I said, Well, I can get most of this done in 10 minutes. And so what I did was I went in and I actually cleaned, but dishes are not part of my responsibility. They're normally the household employee's responsibility. And I had already mentioned that to the client. And so later on, I had already left the room, went to a different room. She comes in and says, Well, let me know when you're done in the kitchen. And I said, Well, I am done in the kitchen. And she goes, Oh, what about? And I said, The dishes? And she said, Yeah. And I said, the dishes aren't part of my responsibility. And I said, I clean the sink and the surfaces. And I said, I don't mind doing one or two glasses or one or two bowls. I said, but, you know, you've cooked, you've got all of these greasy pans. I don't know what's clean or dirty in the dishwasher. I'm not really sure what's going on with, you know, some of these cups and plates. And they really didn't have a system. And, but they weren't asking me to organize that. They weren't asking me because she had set up a certain system that worked for her. And so then we got back on the group chat, and then the homeowner started a separate chat with me. And that is where the homeowner would ask me a couple of questions. And I'm like, well, I'm not sure what's going on because she told me that was something I was supposed to do. And the other thing that was frustrating is that sometimes I would ask the nanny a question and she's like, oh, yes, we're going to put it on our list because we have to have that done before you come back. And then when I would come back the next time, she acted like she had no clue what I was talking about. And I'm like, we have to solve this problem before I come back. It's taking way too much time. Okay. So important. If you have hired people to come out and all of a sudden they just don't come back, ask yourself, okay, was I trying to get a deal? Was I trying to get a discount? Did they say that the amount that I was willing to pay was kind of low for what I was asking? And then if you have a household employee, even if it's a nanny, and even if she's only supposed to work with the kids, she is also contributing to the mess of the household. And even though if it wasn't the nanny, it could be someone else who lives there. You have to take in consideration if no one is cleaning up after themselves, and trust me, no one was. No one was cleaning up after themselves. That weekly job becomes more of a deep clean as opposed to a maintenance clean. Okay. Part of coming every week is that you should be able to do less every single week because yes, you're coming more often. But if you're going every week and there's more to do, that's a completely different story. They're actually making you a household employee without your consent. Okay. Because they're wanting you to do a lot of the daily stuff that should be done by either them or the person they've hired who's contributing to the mess of the house. Okay. Number three, your house is high maintenance. Okay. I've already told you the story about the driveway. Now, some people may say, listen, who cares? I live in a bigger city. I have to pay for parking. I have to walk to the house that I'm going to, I have to carry everything, I have to lug everything, I have to roll everything. Trust me, I understand. In bigger cities, you may have more work to do to get there, but you're also compensated for that. Okay. So if you live in a high maintenance house, if someone has to go up a very long driveway to get to you, or it's hard to get to you, maybe you live down a dirt road and when it rains, it's really muddy. There's lots of scenarios where I've gone to a house and I'm like, crap, this is not gonna be fun. The clients that I really enjoy going to, I actually have a spot in their driveway at their house. And it's not where, like, it's not like no one else can park there. It's just every time I go there, I know exactly where I'm gonna park because there's always a space for me. There's always a spot, and I'm out of the way, so I'm not blocking anyone. So I'm never asked to move my car. I don't have to worry about, you know, another contractor coming and I have to move so that they can get in. Everybody else really plans that out well to where I'm respected as a contractor because it's very difficult. That first day that I left, I actually had to carry half my stuff down the driveway and then walk back up the driveway because I wasn't gonna drive back up because all the cars were up there and the other contractors. And then I had to go back down a second time. And so it literally added another 20, 25 minutes just trying to load up and leave. I was already done working and I was almost there another half an hour just to be able to get my stuff and go. That is high maintenance. The other part of being high maintenance is if your house has a lot of stairs. I used to work for a townhome and luckily she was lovely. She was a great client. The house was easy to navigate. It's just there were a ton of stairs. And so when I would get there, I would always go to the very top floor first and work my way down. And it wasn't that big of a deal because I could park out front. I had to code the house. She was rarely home. I was able to get in, get out. It was actually a really good gig. And that just naturally ended because we were heading off in other directions. But that house I wouldn't consider high maintenance just because it had a good flow to it. And she was very tidy and she kept up her own house in between me coming there. Now, if you have a lot of stairs, if you have steep stairs, one client I went to years ago had brick stairs on the outside of the house, and they were pulling away from the house. And I actually did fall and land on my tailbone. And it probably took three or four years for that to even start to heal. It was horrible. And no, I didn't sue him. It was, it was a very tough situation because it just, it was one of those things where it was like, okay, I'm not going to be back for a while. And it took a while to rehab and I lost out on a lot of work, but it was a very high maintenance house. They had very slippery floors, weird steps, it was just weird hallways. It was just very high maintenance and not a lot of plugs. Okay. That's another way that a house can be high maintenance. If you don't have a lot of plugs and I have to bring a lot of extension cords, or you have a lot of furniture covering up plugs, and I have to try to like push out a dresser to get to a plug. Those are the kind of houses where it's like, ugh, just every little thing is adding more work to my plate and it's making it more high maintenance. Okay. Number two, you don't communicate well. This is why I told the entire story before I went down this list, because as I'm going down this list, I know you're going back to that story saying this client really did hit every item on this list. It was, okay, who am I taking direction from? And the third time I was there, unfortunately, it took the third time I was there for the other spouse to physically be there. And that was the organized one. That was the organized person, not the one I was dealing with before, not the nanny. Those two actually, you would think, would cancel each other out, but they just absolutely amplified the whole situation to where if I had taken direction from that other spouse the very first time on everything, it would have been a completely different experience. But the husband was looking for a deal. The husband had never given the household employee specific task in terms of how she was going to interact with a contractor. And at some point I said, listen, I don't care who I take direction from. I just need to know what's expected of me. Okay. So if you're in a household where your spouse is doing all of the talking, okay, if they're the one negotiating the crew, communicating with the crew, and also trying to figure out everything else and a crew isn't coming back. At some point I would say, okay, you know what? I'm the organized one. Let me try, whether they like it or not. Because when that person stepped in, I was like, oh, this is really unfortunate. Because if we had just started out this way, I think a lot of things would have been different. And I really do think that it would have been an okay fit if the household employee, if the nanny hadn't jumped in, because I think part of the problem too was that she had been trying to outsource a lot of things for a while. And I have a feeling that once she did it to the first couple of crews that went before me and then I wasn't working out, I think she was starting to feel exposed. And so I think there was, you know, kind of a situation where it's like, well, we'll just keep looking, we'll just find somebody else. Because I come in with feedback, I come in with truth, and I come in with an organized, detail-oriented mind. And so when people try to push things on me, I'm like, okay, you know, I don't mind doing this, but we've got to figure out, you know, how this is compensated. You know, am I going to be financially compensated? Am I going to have some task taken away from me in other areas so that I can do this? But yeah, if you don't communicate well and you're not commuting with other people in the household, when one spouse says to me, Oh, I'm not sure. I haven't seen my wife in a couple of days, and they both live in the same house and neither one is traveling. They literally were sleeping on opposite sides of the house because both of them were working and trying to do different things. It was like, okay, this just doesn't feel like a really high-functioning household, which again, I'm going to tell you this is going to be an upcoming episode where high-functioning people live in low-functioning households. Okay. So I want you to kind of make a mental bookmark that that is coming up because that will be a really good episode. And I think some of you are going to be like, oh wow, we consider ourselves really successful people, but our house is in shambles. Okay. So just keep that in mind. Okay. The number one thing your organizer won't tell you is you're not paying on time. Okay. Because this was kind of the nail in the coffin for me. The very first time I went and worked at this household, I got in the car. I said, Hey, I'm finished because the homeowner was in and out. I said, I'm finished. I'm taking off, blah, blah, blah, whatever. This is what's left in the dryer, or, you know, just kind of giving them some handoff instructions. Like, this is where I left off. All this other stuff was done. I'm going to see you next week. And he comes back and says, Okay, cool. I'll pay you tonight. Okay, I'm sorry, what? Like, at what point did we discuss you pay me later? Like, I'm a contractor and I'm leaving the property, and you already know, we've already discussed the fact that you can send Venmo and you're on your phone right now. So it'd be different if he didn't respond right away. Like, let's say someone's in a meeting, and this is why I do give people flexibility. Because I understand if I'm leaving the house and I text them, let's say it's, you know, I'm leaving the house at 245 and I text them and they don't respond. Most clients will respond at like 3 or 3.15 and say, hey, I'm sorry when you left, I was in a meeting. I'm gonna go ahead and pay you now. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry you had to wait. So nine times out of 10, I get in the car and I drive away because I know the client is gonna pay me as soon as they can. But for some reason, he gets on the phone and responds right away to my text, but then he says, I'll pay you tonight. So here's the thing about contractors, and here's how I do business. When five o'clock, six o'clock hits, I want to check out, I want to clock out. I'm a single mom, I've got a child, I've got stuff to do. Sometimes I leave a client's house and I go run errands, I go pick up groceries, I go pay bills, I go pick up my child from a play care that cost money. And so when a client doesn't discuss it with you first, I'm sitting here thinking, okay, I'm getting ready to be paid by this client. They're gonna send Venmo. I'm getting ready to go pick up my child. I'll use my Venmo card to pay for that. And some of us really do cut it close. I mean, being a self-employed small business owner, I think some people assume, oh yeah, they probably have lots of reserve. Some of us have to pay all of our bills and we have to front certain things for equipment and supplies and all of that. And so when we go to a client's house and we go to leave and they pay us, sometimes there's not much of a buffer there. Now, luckily for this particular time, I just happened to have a decent little buffer, and that's why I was like, okay, I'm gonna let it go because there must be something going on where he can't pay me the second. So then I go the second time and I leave. And I think, okay, he knows that I left. He acknowledged that I left. He didn't say I'll pay you tonight, but I'm assuming he just thinks it's okay to pay at night at like 11 o'clock. But I'm like, okay, as long as I get paid tonight, whatever, I'm not gonna make a big deal about it. Next morning I wake up, no payment. And so I'm like, hey, I didn't receive payment. Oh, hey, sorry about that. I'll get that over to you. And then he asks me a question. So then I don't respond. And then he asks me another question, I don't respond. And it has nothing to do with the payment, it has to do with him and his house and what he wants. And so then I send a Venmo request. And as soon as I send the Venmo request, he pays it and then I answer his question. So then when I go back the third time, and this was part of this whole, okay, you know, I've been there twice, I've already seen enough, I've seen plenty, okay, because of the five things. I know that this guy's looking for a deal. He's looking for someone to come in and do all this work for this low rate. Number four, I know that the household employee is trying to pass off responsibilities and she's getting paid very well. And she has a lot of downtime because the child is also in school. So it's not like she's with the child 24-7 and didn't have time to run her own errands, and she sat on the couch and took a couple of phone calls one day. And it's like, okay, so you're passing off these responsibilities to me, and I'm supposed to take the lower rate, and you're supposed to get paid well and have all this flexibility. That's not gonna work. Your house is high maintenance, it's hard to find, it's hard to get up to. You've got lots of contractors in and out. We all have to try to work around each other. This is a high maintenance property. You also have construction going on, and you want me to clean up every single time I'm there when there's just gonna be more construction dust the next day. Listen, I understand that some people have to live in the property where they're also renovating, but you also have to understand that construction dust is a deep clean type of project. It is not easy. Plus, I have to go home and clean my equipment because now I have construction dust in my equipment. Okay, so it's extra work, it's high maintenance, it's very high maintenance. You're not communicating well, you're not telling me what you want, you're telling me some things that you want to have done, but then you're also texting me halfway through and say, Oh, can you go ahead and do this? I just thought of this. That's not communicating well. And then you're saying, Oh, the nanny will tell you what you need. And then I'm trying to communicate with the nanny, but she's like, I don't know. Are you supposed to do that? Okay. And then number one, you're not paying on time. You're you you're deciding when you're gonna pay. And then even when you're deciding when you're gonna pay, you're still like you keep pushing, you keep pushing that line. You keep pushing the goal further and further. And so when I showed up on the third visit, I said, okay, went ahead and came up with the schedule. Here's your new rate after the month. I said, I'm here today and I'm also here one more time. So this will start after the one month. Here's what you're gonna get. Here's your new rate. If you keep me, I'm going in on vacation in a few weeks. Here are the dates, I'll be gone because I'm self-employed and that's what I want to do. Right. And I need to be paid by no later than 6 p.m. same day, or I've got to add on a $25 late fee. Okay, so when I left on that third day, the minute that I said, hey, I'm leaving, I got a payment within 10 minutes. Okay. So there were some things that were coming together. And like I said on that third visit, the other spouse was there and we had a really good conversation. And I tried to explain some of these things, and she was very receptive to it. But I think it was just a little bit too late, at least for me. And I really don't think that the household was ever gonna be functioning any better than it was. Because again, a lot of people just throw money at something. And for the people who say, listen, whatever it takes, we like you, we know that you're taking care of us and our house. What is it gonna cost? What do you charge? For those people, I'm more than willing to bend over backwards and say, this is what it's gonna cost. And I'm still giving you a deal. Like honestly, I am, because you guys are so great. When it comes to this household, this household became an episode for me. I was like, oh my gosh, I have to talk about this. I have to talk about it because guess what? The other organizers that you've hired, the other cleaners that you've hired, no one is going to tell you. No one is gonna tell you. And when I went back that third time, I said, listen, I'm not sure what the expectations are. I mentioned two times, two visits in a row. We need to talk about the household employees' responsibilities, the nanny's responsibilities, because it sounds like that there should be more going on since the child isn't with her all the time. But I just need to know where that line is so that we don't overlap and there's no gray area. If something isn't done, you know exactly who to go to and how it should run. And on one hand, they said we really appreciate you noticing all these things. We appreciate your feedback. This is called verbal tipping, by the way. Anyone who's ever been a waitress or a waiter in a restaurant knows about verbal tipping. You know what? You did such a great job tonight. Thank you. All of our food was great, it was timely, we really appreciate it. And then they leave you like a 5% tip. It's verbal tipping. Hey, you did great. And they think that the accolades is gonna pay your light bill, right? So those of you who've worked in the restaurant industry know exactly what I'm talking about. But when you're going out to someone's home, you're paying for gas, you're paying for the time that you're gone, you're paying for your car maintenance, um, you've got equipment. Like I said, sometimes I come home and I spend another hour or two just cleaning out my equipment, preparing for the next person. If I'm heading out to a purely organizing assignment the next time, I gotta figure out what's coming with me, what isn't coming with me. So there's a lot we do at home. I've sketched projects at home. If I'm redoing a pantry, I've got to measure it out. I've got to come home, I've got to figure out, you know, the dimensions of different things. I got to figure out are those stackable? Oh, wait, they used to be, but then they changed how, you know, the the ones from Amazon are stackable, but not the ones from the container store. So there's a lot of things that we have to do at home. So when people say, oh, I can't believe how much you charge, you're not realizing how much we're actually doing for you and how much we're taking off your plate. And a lot of people, when they get to that point where they feel like they're not being appreciated, they just don't show up again. So if you're getting ditched a lot, if you're getting ghosted, I want you to look at these five things and I want you to say, hmm, have I, have I done any of these along the way? Like, am I paying the person enough? Like they said this was their rate, but they asked them, but I asked them if they could do it for less. Stuff like that. Those are the things I really want you to sit down with everyone in your household and say, okay, listen, yes, we have an organizer coming, but we have to lay out some ground rules so that when she comes, we don't scare her off because she's coming out, she's, you know, she's matching the last crew that was here. She's matching the rate, even though she charges more. She has to climb up and down that driveway. And at the end of the day, you've got to pay the people. Okay. As soon as they go to leave, you got to pay them because when they leave, they want to be gone. They don't want to have to chase down money. They don't want to have to sit down to dinner with their family at 6:30, 7 o'clock, wondering if a payment is going to come in from you at some point in the evening. That's not fair. That's not fair to do to anyone. And most companies, how many times have you had a plumber come out and they sit in your driveway until you pay? Most contractors have to have payment before they can even leave the property. So if you do have a contractor that says, it's okay, y'all, like just get it to me in the next couple of hours, then you need to pay in the next couple of hours and you need to pay as soon as you can. Don't wait until the very last minute and say, Oh, I forgot to pay the organizer. Oh, you know what? I should probably pay the cleaning crew. You know, oh, we probably have to get that deposit to the movers. If you're serious about the people coming in to help you, if you're serious about getting help, then you have to make sure that you are a solid part of this equation and that you know what the expectations are of you as the client so that you can set up your contractor for success and they actually want to come back next time. Okay. I hope this episode was helpful. Thank you for listening, and I will see you in the next episode.