Cleaner fortnightly or weekly?

[BurbGirl2013]

Hi all
I'm due with our first baby in 2 weeks and have decided to get a cleaner in before baby arrives and after.

We live in a smallish 2bed cottge, small bedrooms and bathroom but larger open plan living room/kitchen/diner.
I've almost signed up via an agency who charge £45 for 3 hours/2cleaners. They bring all materials/equipment with them and I'm sure could fit in some ironing (inc bed clothes) given our house not that big for 2 cleaners over 3hrs.

But is fortnightly almost pointless? Does it become a tip fairly quickly or can a really longer/deep clean if only twice month still make massive difference? It's either this or finding a £10 p/hr cleaner weekly for 2 hrs. Thanks.

[bigTillyMint]

I would say weekly is better as otherwise you are going to have to do a proper clean once a week too. However, you won't need 2 cleaners for 3 hours - I would have thought 3 hours of one cleaner would be plenty.

[SpencerPercival]

Weekly.

[thenicknameiwantedisgone]

Are you sure that they are giving you a total of 6 man hours as that would only be £7.50ph?? For an agency that is very very cheap. Are they giving you 3 hrs of cleaning which two cleaners will do together, thereby taking 1.5hrs.

My 5 bed house doesn't have six cleaner hours per week.

By the way I'd always go weekly if you can afford it.

[Olbasoil]

I would of thought it was 1.5 hours as well. How often did you clean yourselves ? I have a weekly cleaner & still do a lot of housework & I'm not particularly house proud either

[BurbGirl2013]

Thanks all I'll find out had a feeling that seemed too cheap!

[BurbGirl2013]

Olba we try and clean up after ourselves but I'm naturally quite scatty/messy so the thought of keeping it clean enough for new baby is scary...

[comemulledwinewithmoi]

Every week

[mydoorisalwaysopen]

I changed my cleaner from weekly to fortnightly. I found it stressful tidying up before the cleaner came (otherwise she would tidy and not clean and we would not be able to find anything. Also she was blatantly cutting corners which isn't possiblewith a fortnightly clean . I feel I get better value and I'm not houseproud so don't do much in between.

[didireallysaythat]

I found two hours every two weeks fine. But we are out of the house at nursery, school and work from 8:15 to 6:15 and I'm not house proud. Plus I couldn't face tidying up more frequently !

[Viviennemary]

I think a good clean once a fortnight or once a month even is a lot better than somebody coming twice weekly for a couple of hours. I think the deeper clean with two cleaners is a lot better value for money.

[PoppyWearer]

We do fortnightly via an agency and as a PP has said, with all the palaver of tidying up and trying to stay out of the way/out of the house with the DCs and working around nap times, I really think any more frequent would be too much effort!

I find that a very quick against-the-clock blitz clean in the no-clean week (90 minutes at most, includes mopping and hoovering) is enough, although I still need to keep on top of kitchen floor mess in between times as we have a) a cat and b) messy toddler mealtimes. You won't have to contend with mealtime mess for a while though.

[yegodsandlittlefishes]

1.5 hours, 2 cleaners, Weekly. I'm envious!

[JugglingChaotically]

Weekly! Have just gone to once a week from twice a week and the dust really builds and in dire need of hoovering by end of week. DCs all at school and DH and I work full time though we do have a dog.
No idea how many dust bugs we'd have on once a fortnight!!!
Agree though suspect quote is for 1.5 hours as suspiciously cheap for agency.
Also FWIW I have always found non agency better as agencies I've used swap round whereas if you get one person they get to know you and house and can be more flexible to target what is most urgent. Also much cheaper - almost half here so better value.
Good luck!

[Showtime]

I've recently found it's best to have two cleaners coming in on alternate weeks, ie a weekly clean.

[BananaPie]

I've got a fortnightly cleaner. It works for me as it helps me keep on top of things, but I do clean a bit in between (and I want to do some myself as in my experience all cleaners miss bits that eventually do need cleaning!)

[FlatCapAndAWhippet]

I clean and am employed by an agency, as others have said I'm sure your quote will be for 2 x 1.5 hrs.

If you're not going to do any cleaning in between your cleaner coming then opt for weekly. If you intend to do what I would call a daily whip round like tidying up, hoovering, kitchen wiped down and tidy, bathrooms the same, beds made etc etc then fortnightly is fine.