She cleans out the inside of the cookie jar but not the inside of the oven.
ALSO WORKS FOR:
Dog walkers, housepainters, gardeners.

PASSIVE
Lie. Say you're having renovations done and won't be needing her anymore. If you're truly timid, plant a Dear John letter. "I couldn't do it face-to-face or even over the phone, so I left a pink slip by the door and I changed my locks," says a man from Arizona. "I never heard from my housekeeper again."

AGGRESSIVE
If your housekeeper has done dirtier deeds than failing to clean — say, if she was spotted on Main Street wearing your favorite skirt (as happened to one Rhode Island woman) — you may want to be more direct. "I was so aggravated that I left her a voice mail telling her she was robbing me blind," says the woman.

PREFERRED
Be nice — after all, she's got your keys. "Unless I was caught stealing, I would want to know why I was being let go," says a housekeeper in New Jersey. Say, "I appreciate all you've done, but I've been disappointed with this and that and I'm letting you go." If the parting is amicable, give her two weeks' notice.