Executive housekeeping & holiday lets

I've ranted about scrubbing executive housekeeping before but seriously................. it seems like I have to have a RANT every August.  I soooooo hate holiday makers in August.

I'm probably going to RANT about the same old things that I ranted about last August and probably the August before that and the August before that???  But August holiday makers are an absolute nightmare.  The respect for other people's property is non-existent!  I know - I've looked after two holiday lets for more than 10 years.

Most of the year looking after holiday lets is a well paid, relatively easy job.  Outwith the school summer holidays, visitors seem to look after the properties they are staying in and there are never any major incidents.

That all changes in August.............................

In August the whole world seems to arrive in the South West and the whole world arrives with squealy brats, dogs (that they haven't actually told the letting agents about, but that's a whole other rant) and extra people (that they haven't actually told the letting agents about: again a whole other rant).  And every meal they have is either a takeaway where they just leave the remains strewn around the kitchen.  Or a fry up where they think it is totally acceptable to just shove all the greasy pans back into a cupboard.

Much as I don't want to have to wash horrible greasy pans; I would far rather they had been left out so I knew what I had to wash, rather than having to trawl through cupboards and re-wash every single item.  Oh and while I'm having a bit of a rant about dirty pans...................... why do holiday makers feel the need to 're-organise' every single cupboard and every single item of furniture???  I totally understand that the 'owners' of the property may not have organised their house in the way that holiday makers may have done.  And I totally understand that holiday makers may like to rearrange things to suit their weeks' stay.  Actually I don't understand that - you're on holiday................... does it really matter which drawer the cutlery is in, or if a chair is somewhere that you wouldn't have placed it?  But what I don't understand is...................... if you're staying in a holiday let and you move stuff around; why would you not have respect for the owners and move it back when you leave???

I've actually discussed 'August holiday makers' with quite a few people and one of my friends (who lives 'up country', has three kids and has stayed in holiday lets in the South West on numerous occasions) said that perhaps because the rentals are so high in August that people on holiday don't feel they have to do anything.  I can totally understand that but there's a difference between 'not doing anything' and totally disrespecting someone's  property??

Is it really ever OK to 'over occupy' (that will invalid the insurance should anything happen), allow dogs to poo on a balcony or in a communal area and just expect someone else to pick up after you leave, allow children to eat sweets/other stuff in bed and throw all the wrappers and discarded food under the bed, move the furniture around and change where all the crockery/cutlery is stored?  To say nothing about leaving a bath so dirty that soaking it in 3 hours of bleach and then scrubbing it for another half an hour still doesn't get it cleaned............................  Grrr...................

Renting a 'holiday let' IS expensive in the South West (it's a desirable location to go on holiday) but owning a holiday home here is not as lucrative as one might think. 

.................Most of the holiday let agencies are charging almost 20% for the privilege of owners renting out their properties.  Cleaning charges are about £20ph.  Then there's council tax, gas/electricity bills, wifi, TV licence, water bills, etc, etc, etc.  And also the charges for ridiculous 'call outs' where visitors say that there's something wrong, but it turns out that there's not?  Take today, for example; I'd finished cleaning property No.1 and was busy cleaning property No. 2 when I noticed that a maintenance man was in property No.1.  Letting agent had sent him to look at the shower hose because visitor had written on the feedback form that it was leaking.  As I'd just cleaned the shower using the shower hose I knew that it wasn't leaking.  And maintenance man confirmed this.  Why holiday letting agents hadn't just called me to check if there was a problem I don't know? But who is going to pay for this totally unnecessary call out?  The owners of course.  Not the holiday makers, who've had their holiday and are now on the way home.  And not the holiday letting agents who have absolutely no qualms about spending someone else's money.

Renting a holiday let in the South West is very expensive.  As I've said before, it's a very desirable location.

......................BUT .............................. just  a note to all you holiday makers......................  I know someone who rented out their two bed-roomed property for almost £1000.00 for a week in August.  Letting agent took 20%, visitor left iron on floor, new carpet was £300.  Why would you put an iron on a floor?  And with all the other bills that they had to pay they made £89.45 for a week long booking that had cost the visitors more than £1000???

Just saying................................

Recycling

Recycling

OK so todays rant is going to be about recycling. 

Now whilst I would guess that most of us totally support recycling; what I am about to RANT about is recycling done incorrectly. 

I live in a communal block of 12 properties.  We have a communal car park (where every owner has a numbered space), we have 2 communal bins where we can all chuck our rubbish, we have a communal courtyard which includes a whirly gig where any of us can hang out washing.

....................But what we don't have.................... is communal recycling.

Communal recycling would be great, but at the moment it is not an option for a variety of reasons.  Every property has 3 horrible flimsy bags that are supposed to be put out once a fortnight for collection.  We got these horrible flimsy bags about 5 years ago and at that point I stopped doing any recycling where I live.  (NB - I take my recycling to public recycling points).  There are two reasons for this:

1)  My house is small.  I have no room to house 3 bags of recycling for two weeks.

2)  When I first got my 3 flimsy bags (to replace the one plastic box with a lid that I could keep outside) I tried to do the recycling how the council wanted.  I put them out in the allotted spot on the allotted day and then I went to work.  When I came back from work, two of my flimsy bags were in the middle of the road and the other one was in the middle of the car  park???

At that point I gave up recycling at my property and decided to deal with my recycling myself.  I now go to public recycling points myself and have absolutely nothing to do with any recycling where I live.

.....................So here starts my RANT......................

One of my neighbours (who shall remain nameless) decided to put a load of recycling boxes/bags in the communal courtyard.  Now whilst I appreciate that her motives for doing this were admirable, the reality of this is less so.  Just how stupid is it to put out a load of recycling boxes when there is no plan in place for the collection of these?

In the summer half of the 12 homes here are holiday lets (including the said neighbours).  I know for a fact that 3 of those holiday homes have info in their information folders to say that there is no recycling facilities at the property.  BUT...................... if you were on holiday and saw that there were recycling boxes/bags in the communal area what would you do????.........................

a)  Chuck all your recycling stuff in there

b)  Dispose of your recycling stuff yourself

I know what I would do - I'd take the easy option and chuck all my recycling in the nearest recycling boxes??!!  And who cares how mixed up it is???

....................And here lies the problem..........................  The holiday makers haven't a clue when the recycling is going to be collected, and even if they do; they're on holiday so they're hardly likely to want to sort through all the rubbish, sort it out and then put it in the correct place for collection.  The neighbour who put all the recycling boxes/bags in the communal courtyard is renting out her place and although is somewhere local, hasn't bothered to come back on recycling day to sort out all the mess, so yet again (we had the same problem last year) it's down to myself and another neighbour to sort everything out.

Well it's not on.  Last summer after spending six weeks sorting through everyone's rubbish I made an 'executive' decision (when I found a used babies nappy) to get rid of all the recycling boxes/bags and stacked them up in the corner of the communal courtyard.  My neighbour who helped me sort them out agreed with me.  And let's just be clear here - we both do our OWN recycling so really should not have had to spend all summer sorting out everyone else's recycling/rubbish just because another neighbour had left a load of recycling boxes in a communal area and then buggered off?????(

This year I rebelled!!!

Took photos of all the rubbish (as above), sent email to 'said neighbour' telling her I was going to chuck the whole lot in the bin and copied all the other owners into the email to tell them why.  As far as I'm concerned communication is really important so I wanted everyone to know why I was doing this.  ...................I saw a rat sitting on top of the recycling boxes??!!

Obviously she wasn't happy.  Ranted and raved at me a bit.  OK ranted and raved at me a lot?!!!  

But hey ho, that's life.

At the end of the day........................  I really do think recycling is important.......................  But only if it is done correctly????

Middle class kids

I'm not sure if I should really post this.  I'm not sure if it's really an appropriate RANT for a 'middle aged ranting spinster'???

...............BUT......................... middle class kids really do my head in.

And by that, I mean they have so many privileges that they don't even realise that they have.

My nephews & niece are the most wonderful, caring, young people ever, but they live in a 'cocooned' world.  Their 'mummy' (my sister) has never, ever, worked since they were born.  She's been fortunate enough to have a 'high flying' husband in a good job so her role has been to 'look after the house and family'.

And I have to say....................... she has done an excellent job.  There's no way I could have spent 20 years doing what she has.

My sister and her family are like the Waltons??!!  Home cooked meals.  Proper packed lunches. Chauffeuring the kids around, here, there and everywhere. No social life.  No sex life because her husband is hardly ever at home. Lol.  Actually I don't know that?!! I don't discuss sex with my sister.

The kids mobile phones are paid for, their cars are paid for (including installing sat nav), they go on holiday with their mummy & daddy (all paid for of course) and most of their uni fees have been paid via mummy & daddy.  All they have to pay for is their tuition fees and to be honest,  if they'd bothered to get a job while at uni, the fees would have been at least half way paid off by now.  But of course they didn't because.......................  because what?  They didn't need to.

My nephews & niece's life is just sooooooo far removed from the life of the kids that I work with everyday.

Living in the SW, where I work, with a lot of teenage kids.......................  life is so different for them.  Their parents can't afford to pay their uni fees so the kids have to subsidise themselves.  Their parents  can't afford to pay for driving lessons for them because they're only earning minimum wage themselves.

The youngsters in the SW learn to 'fend for themselves' from a very early age.  They find part-time work from when they are 14-15 years old, they earn their own money, they learn how to become independent very quickly.

If they want to go to uni - they have to pay for it themselves.  Most of the kids who go to uni from the SW end up in more than £20,000 debt. Hardly any of them will get a job back home that pays more than the £20,000 (or is it now £25,000?) that one needs to be earning to pay back the uni debt.

Life for kids in the SW is so far removed from the life my nephews and niece are living..............

....................And yet life for my nephews and niece is so far removed from the life that some of their 'rich' uni friends are living.

.............But however rich my nephews and nieces uni friends are................. do they really have a clue how well off they are???  I don't think so.

My nephews and niece are aged  21, 20 and 17.  So not exactly babies.  They could all appear on the Jeremy Kyle show???  Fortunately I don't think that is one of their great aims in life. Lol!  But they still all consult their mummy on every single thing.  Ie, I ask the 21 year old what he wants for Christmas/birthday pressies and he says, 'Ask mum'.  The 17 year old phoned her mum (when she, her mum, was staying with me more than 300 miles away) because she thought she had concussion???  She was at school.  Surely most 'normal' kids would have just taken themselves off to the school nurse??!!  What on earth did she think her mummy could do 300 miles away?  And as for the 20 year old................. well he's apparently dyslexic but has 'worked really hard to overcome it' (my sister's words not mine) but at a parents night in his latter years at school, she apparently said to a teacher, 'You do know he's dyslexic don't you?'  Seriously?  If he's been 'signed off' from having dyslexia then I don't think that can be used for any 'special' treatment.

Oh and then my niece told me that she got 'extra' time for writing because she was a slow writer???

Really???

The world has gone mad!

So if my niece gets a job as a waitress, what's she going to do?  ..................Say, I can't take your order very quickly because I'm  a slow writer???.................

The sooner these 'over protected' kids realise that 'life is not fair', the better.

Life isn't fair.  FACT!  Get over it..................

There's always going to be people who are brighter, richer, more intelligent, better looking, etc, etc.  Instead of everyone pursuing claims because they're a victim of one thing or another, why not just accept who you are and start enjoying life.

OK - RANT over!!!