How do you "manage" your cleaner ?

[poorly]

I have recently increased my hours at work and am using a cleaning company at home for the first time.

It is lovely to come home to a cleaned house but, they are expensive and I don't think they are doing everything that was on the list to be done. e.g they haven't been doing under the sofa cushions. Not the biggest issue in the work, but it is on the list of things they said they would do and makes me wonder what else isn't being done.

I went for a company, rather than a private cleaner, as I liked the fact that the "management" is someone elses problem. They have a list of what should be done regularly and deep clean 1 room per week on a rota.

A friend has a private cleaner who she recommends highly, but I have some concerns.

• Who decides what your cleaner does - do you leave a list? have an agreement of what is done reg, plus a note of anything extra? what if she thinks your extras are unreasonable? or does she manage it all herself?

-Who is responsible if she injures herself/damages your property? Would my house insurance cover it?
-Would I be responsible for her tax etc?

Thank you

[CMOTdibbler]

I have a private cleaner. She decides what to do, although for instance I'll tell her if we are expecting guests, so she'll def do the spare rooms that week, rather than what she usually does is to only hoover them weekly, but dusts 3 weekly. She'll also pull the dining table right out and polish it then (she decided that)

But basically, she is so great that I let her get on with it.

Accidental damage is covered by house insurance.

I don't employ her, so am not responsible for her tax/NI

[mrsmaidamess]

My lovely lady does the same stuff each week, hoovers, dusts, cleans floors.

But she tidies like a dream and if I need the beds changing she manages to do that too!

I pay her cash, never thought about tax, but I'm not her boss IYSWIM.

[poorly]

Thank you

So what is a reasonable amount of hours to pay for and expect a average sized 4 bed house with 1 bathroom and a good sized kitchen to get a decent clean?

We are not particularly tidy, so there will be the clutter of toys in the DCs rooms and the dining/play room, but the rest of the house isn't too bad and we don't have lots of niknaks etc.

[mrsmaidamess]

I pay £8 an hour. I have a 4 bed house with 3 bathrooms (preen) and a largish kitchen, which she doesn't deep clean, just floors and tops. She comes for 3 hours a week.

[CMOTdibbler]

Mine comes for 4 hours a week. In that time she deep cleans the kitchen, hoovers downstairs, dusts, cleans glass doors, cleans mirrors, cleans downstairs loo, bathroom and ensuite upstairs, hoovers upstairs. She tidies as she goes round.

With the time left over she'll change the beds, clean either office properly (if one of us is out and it's tidy enough), do some ironing, dust bedrooms, clean the fridge/oven/cupboards, or do some ironing.

I pay her 10 an hour as she always takes some ironing home to do, and she never tells me enough time for this.