Polish Cleaning Lady

We had used Anna for about a year. Despite her occasional, what I called «spaziness,» which included a no-​call-​no-​show, and a few times where she was late (and thus I was late for work), a couple sicknesses, her e-​mail getting «hacked,» etc, we still loved Anna. The main reason we loved her was the quality of the cleaning she did. We were very happy that she was SOMEHOW able to get our stovetop completely clean, despite crud that had been completely caked and dried on there. We were very happy that she cleaned the showerhead so that it was spotless. All in all, it was a great cleaning throughout our entire small apartment.
However, as another poster has recently mentioned, Anna has apparently disappeared. She has not returned phone calls, e-​mails, etc. I don’t know if she has just decided to stop cleaning for everyone all together, or if she left the country, or what. So I can no longer recommend Anna — she’s a nice lady, but I don’t think she’s cleaning anymore — at least not for me!

Time for an update… It’s been two months and Anna hasn’t returned my MANY emails, voicemails, text messages and phone calls. She has my keys and refuses to return them. So much for this great cleaning lady. Doesnt matter how good you are if you go MIA every few months. word to the wise — steer clear of Anna.

It goes to show how important it is to give a full and accurate review on Unilocal.I understand how people like to be nice and see the positives in an experience, I’m one of those people but Anna has hit that angry nerve in me and I can’t let it go. She is exactly the kind of person that I wish would be thrown on an island somewhere, never to be heard from again. How can you not understand the importance of trust and how people’s security can be broken by the lack of response.
I read a few reviews from my friends and expected the same great service of which they raved about. I didn’t bother to read any others which is my mistake. So I set something up a time/​date in a matter of a week with emails back and forth. The morning of, she was late (which was no big deal to me but she didn’t call) but I will say she did do a great job in cleaning the place. Even still with all of the following hassle it’s NOT WORTH HIRING HER.
1500 sq ft apartment, 2 bedroom 1 bath, 3 ½ hrs of work = $ 120
She was given a key and set up to come every 3 weeks for $ 80
She even confirmed the day (Monday) and time.
She didn’t show up that day or the next, or the next, so on.
That week emails were sent with no response.
Friday, Anna sends an email that she will come this Monday.
Monday no Anna, more emails, then I start to call.
At this point I just wanted my key back but got no response and to this day still haven’t.
I had to have the locks changed $ 150 but I am more upset that a person would take your keys and not realize how important TRUST is. Then I read the review about how she STOLE something from someone, it made my sleepless nights wondering if someone would break in valid. I still may contact some people about Anna to get my $ 150 back, but this is a good start… WARNING others about her!

My first experience with Anna aka the Polish Cleaning Lady: Flawless. For a second, I thought I had accidentally walked into the wrong condo. Who knew my vintage high-​rise space could be so gleamin’ clean?
My second experience: Nada, nope, nil, nothing. As in, it didn’t happen. I was stood up! But, she did email me back the very next day to let me know she had fallen ill. I could have rescheduled, obviously, but chose not to as I had to go ahead and clean my place with a visitor (my cousin from St. Louis) coming in that same day.
Anna does one bang-​up job when she’s on top of her game and feeling fine, but at this time, I certainly don’t feel comfortable making recommendations for her services to new clients. Just thought y’all should know!
Hope you’re feeling swell soon, Anna.
xoxo,
Miss Jelena

Anna cleaned my home in Chicago for 1.5 years… and I still standby my early analysis that she is a fabulous cleaning lady at a very good price, and just an overall very sweet human being.
However, I would feel remiss if I did not update this to reflect the current state of the union. I do believe Anna is/​was having some pretty serious health issues that impacted her ability to show up for appointments, respond in a timely manner via phone or text, and just overall achieve good customer service. I’ve heard this from several friends of mine as well… and though it saddens me, I do not want folks to be misled by my original review from 2009.
During her last cleaning for me (when I was moving out of my house 6 weeks ago, and getting it spiffed for a new tenant) she was so very sweet, did a fabulous job and told me not to lose touch because she had known me for awhile.
I believe in Anna, and her abilities and certainly cherish her as a person… but as of now, cannot recommend any new clients contact her for cleaning for everyone’s sake.
I certainly hope it changes… and wish Anna the best! Right now though… I’d look elsewhere for a new cleaning gal.

I forgot to update this last month when everything took a dive. As the reviews on this site suggest, you cannot beat Anna as far as cleaning services go. Assuming she shows up. There seems to be a weird recurring phenomenon though, that if for some reason she can’t make an appointment, she falls of the face of the Earth for the rest of time. I had an appointment with her back in February, I think, and sure enough, she didn’t show. Not the end of the world; figured she’d accidentally overbooked or something, so I emailed to reschedule. Called. Emailed. Called. Rinse, Repeat. No contact ever again.
I don’t know if she’s embarrassed or something, like if she misses an appointment she has to then pretend to have died, but it was very disappointing. I was genuinely worried about her well-​being until I came back on to Unilocal and saw that this is a common occurrence, even with regular customers.
Again, if you can get her to show up, you won’t regret it, but it’s dicey. I wouldn’t gamble on it if you’re planning a party that week or anything.

Booked her for 12÷6÷2010; she never showed up and is ignoring email and phone messages.

Anna cleaned for me about five times and did a good job. However, things started to go downhill last month when she missed a scheduled appointment, but I was understanding and asked her to come back another time, but then she failed to show up to the next scheduled appointment and that was it for me. She also took something from my apartment (she admitted to it) and despite repeated efforts to get her to return it to me over the past couple of months she has not. Do not recommend.

After a long weekend with friends it looked like we used every dish, cup, spoon, fork, and knife in the place. On top of that I had been dog sitting the week prior. Needless to say the place was a disaster and blanketed in dog hair.
It’s a wonderful thing to walk into a clean place after work with all the dishes done and barely noticing the dog was there.
2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment (1000 sq ft) whipped out in 1.5 hours for about 70 bucks. Very nice. Worth every penny.
Efficient and spotless…’nuff said!

Now I don’t mind cleaning, but I needed help. Work was crazy busy, I was living alone and by the time I got home I had no energy or time to clean. Burning the candle at both ends can get pretty exhausting. I consulting a few friends as to possibly attaining a cleaning service, when the mistress of all knowing Colleen C suggested I use her. After reading from other friends on how great she is, I decided to call her in and have her check out my place and lay down a price.
When we finally synced up our schedules she checked out my place. Giving it a good once over, she determined it wasn’t bad and that I kept it in pretty good condition. Yay!
Except the bathroom. Which was filthy. Extremely filthy. Oops. Never said I had been able to clean it lately…
The price she threw at me, made me do a double take. That’s it? That’s all you want? Um. If you’re sure… okay!
Now I know she is a luxury to have, but she saves me hours of sanity when her and her helper come through to clean. I had issues with my basement when I stayed down there for a period of time. I suspect it was the owner’s cat that got me all stuffed up, sneezy and wheezy. Now I can stay down there for hours at a time and be fine.
Anna is on time, friendly, quick and affordable. She is also trust worthy to say the least. She has certainly made me glad that I have invested in her services and given some sanity and a clean apartment to boot!

Anna remains the best thing that has ever happened to my life, at least in recent memory. She cleans every last nook and cranny — seriously. Not a spot left un-​scrubbed. And my apartment smells so clean and looks so good when I get home from work on Thursdays. Its a delight.
Not to mention Anna is more reliable than clockwork — she always comes when says she is going to and shows up on time. She calls when she is late and is generally very awesome. I continue to not be able to recommend her highly enough.

Anna did our move out cleaning and did a great job. I’ll admit, once we decided to move out, we got a little lax on doing any deep cleanings. And in the last month we pretty much gave up entirely. So Anna and her co-​worker had quite the job in front of them… especially because I decided to dye my hair the last night there, so of course this would be the time my discovered encased-​in-​plastic-​gloves fingers would squeeze the bottle to hard, sending it catapulting end over end, into the air, COVERING the entire bathroom with specks of «roasted chestnut» dye. It was everywhere. On the walls, behind the toilet, on the mirror, on the walls, in the shower. It even made it to the hallway floor!
I cleaned it as best I could, but a few hours later I noticed reddish brown streaks all over the walls. Good-​bye damage deposit.
Well, Anna and her friend managed to make our entire 1500+ square foot 2 bedroom apartment spotless, including the destroyed bathroom! It took around 3 hours total and cost $ 90 plus tip (Anna herself is $ 15 an hour, but she brought a friend to make it take less time).
So why not 5 stars… well Anna didn’t clean the inside of our fridge or the inside of our oven, which I assumed was standard practice. In my original email I mentioned those things specifically. When Anna called me back, her or my phone kept cutting out so I couldn’t hear what she said — maybe she explained that she didn’t do those things. I may have been a misunderstanding, but having to go back to our apartment at 8pm to clean those things was annoying. It wouldn’t discourage me from hiring her again, I would just be more specific about what exactly she does.

I just had Anna here to clean my studio apartment and came back to find it glowing! Everything was excellent from the dusting, to the polishing and cleaning of my floors and tiles. I highly recommend Anna’s services!

Anna was AMAZING. My house was immaculate — REALLY REALLY immaculate — she got things clean that I didn’t know could be cleaned — I just assumed I had to repaint/​replace. She was beyond thorough in every room of my house.
I have a dog that sheds a lot and there wasn’t a hair to be found when she was done. She is meticulous, so be prepared to have her there for as long as it takes — but SO worth it!
I Absolutely recommend Anna– she is the best deal for QUALITY in town.

Let me just start by saying that my house is absolutely immaculate!
Anna removed dirt and grime from corners of my house I had never seen. I am thrilled with the results. This woman is very hard working! She refused to take a break or even a sip of water the entire time. I was a bit uncomfortable at first, because Anna is very pregnant, but she said it was good exercise for her, and after all, it’s her body.
She started in my bathroom. I heard a loud crashing noise. There was cracked drywall, and a gaping hole where the towel rack had been fixed to the wall. Anna was mortified. She immediately called her husband to come over, and assured me that he was a professional painter and would fix it for me, which he did.
The only reason I did not give Anna five stars was because she took forever to clean my house. I did a pre-​cleaning lady clean up of my condo, and I thought it wasn’t that bad. But, by Anna’s standards I was living in filth. The first time, she charges by the hour, so I kind of felt like the meter was running. Originally, Anna said it would take her about 4 hours, so I had budgeted $ 60, but it took almost 6 hours, so I ended up paying her $ 85. She said the next time would be a flat fee of $ 55.
Now, I am looking for a Polish Painter to come and paint my bathroom.

Anna cleaned my apartment for this first time this past weekend and she did a fantastic job! When I got home it looked & smelled so good, probably cleaner than it has been since I moved in. Upon close inspection I could see she was extremely thorough and didn’t miss a spot. She was also very flexible and moved one of her regular appointments to help me out since I was in a bind and needed someone quickly, and she even brought her own cleaning supplies when asked. She was incredibly nice & courteous on the phone and in person, and even e-​mailed me afterward to make sure I was satisfied. She charges only $ 15 an hour for a first-​time cleaning and a flat rate of around $ 50 for regular cleanings (may vary depending on the size of your place), which is the best deal you will get in the city without sacrificing quality. I will never use anyone else but Anna as long as I live in Chicago.