Osn't imnotandrei; that was me, forgetting whose computer I was on (and who was logged in to LJ).

Let's try that again:

When we had professional cleaners, we instructed them explicitly to ignore all piles, don't even straighten them, don't touch them. And they didn't. They just cleaned around.

We also put certain rooms (e.g. the bedroom; here it would be the office) off-limits.