Cleaners

[Piixxiiee]

Talk to me about cleaners please. Never had one but both working fulltime and 2 young kids and me having to work in evenings too- something has got to give so looking at getting a cleaner.
How much? How often? What do they do? (Kitchen?bathrooms? Hoover?) Thanks

[BackforGood]

How much ?
-Like most things, it will depend where you are in the country. If you use an agency, you will pay more as well. I am in the Midlands and my wonderful cleaner charges £10ph and prefers to use her own cloth, sprays etc.
She does 2 hours per week, term time only (I had 3 teens at home when she started and it was a non-starter for her to come in the school holidays).
Your cleaner will be able to do a bit less to begin with and will speed up as she gets used to your house. Decide if you want her for 2 hours or for a specific set of jobs. Some people on MN get quite angsty if the cleaner leaves 15mins early, rather than thinking it is fine if she goes through everything a bit quicker.

I have kitchen, 2 bathrooms, hall, landings and 2 x stairs and 2 x living rooms done each week. There is usually a good 30 - 40 mins then when she does whatever I ask - might be bedrooms or even -very very occasionally-- ironing.
Some cleaners don't iron. Some people like beds to be changed.

What I take from cleaning threads on here is people all want different things, so communicate with her as she isn't a mind reader. Personally I don't want her to be shifting furniture and doing stuff I was never doing before she started, I want her to do what I would otherwise do, but some people are quite offended at a 'lighter touch' clean Neither is right or wrong, as long as she knows what you are after.

I LOVE coming into the house after she has been. It literally puts a huge smile on my face every week, 3 years in. Best money I spend.

[florencesthoughts]

Hi

Our cleaner charges £12 p/h, we have her 2 hours every 2 weeks (no kids and the flat is not dirty). She cleans everything, she changes the bed sheets (and I change them the time in between she is not here). If she finishes 'early' she'll ask if there's anything else to help with, sometimes she cleans inside windows and some weeks there's nothing extra for her to do.

Only problem I have is cleaning before the cleaner comes 😃.

Best money we've spent. Stopped all the arguments about chores.

[TheHighestSardine]

Ours is £14/hr, 2.5 hours a fortnight. She does hoovering, dusting, bathrooms but not kitchen (that's my domain ).

Talk to your cleaner about what they want - DO NOT GUILTILY CLEAN BEFORE THEY ARRIVE that is madness. But do tidy the place so they can get to everything they're asked to clean - or give them full info where to stack/tidy away stuff and pay for the time that takes.

First time through the house will be a learning experience for you both, be there to advise, make notes of weird shit as you go, and hand them over. It might take a couple of visits to do the first clean.

Talk to them about what you want; immediate feedback if there's something you want done differently. Communication is always key when working with people.

[JoJoSM2]

Ours does one day a week and charges £12p/h. She cleans the house, changes bedsheets and does the ironing. Every now and again she’ll do additional days for deeper cleaning, eg inside the fridge or the inside of windows etc.

[JoJoSM2]

We do try to tidy up before she comes so that she can get on with her job.