How look should this take? (how much time do I need a cleaner for?)

[PaperdollCartoon]

Hello lovely Mumsnetters. I'm thinking about getting a cleaner but not sure how much time I'd need one for. DP and I both work long hours and it's just us and two cats at present. I can do it all but I've never been very good it at, I'm more of a do what's needed right away and worry about the rest later kind of person! Ironing just seems to take up entire weeks of my life. DP is very helpful and probably tidier than me, but also very busy. If I could get someone in to help so we don't have to spend our precious weekends together on household chores that would be great, because I love a clean house but honestly I'm a bit useless at making it happen!

So the upshot is, I'd love to get a cleaner but no idea how long things should take to do? I can spend half an hour or an entire day cleaning the living room depending on my mood, I can clean the bathroom twice a week or not for a month, sometimes we iron a shirt a day as we need it, other times we'll share and do several loads in one go. Basically I make it up as I go along, so trying to work out how to outsource it to someone else isn't easy!

My question is, how long would it take you (or another reasonable person) to clean my home and would therefore help me work out what a cleaner would be doing and how long it should take as I'm paying by the hour. It's a one bedroom maisonette (so there's carpeted stairs to consider) big living/dining room, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and a hallway. I'd want kitchen, bathroom fully done, sweeping, mopping, dusting, hoovering etc. Cat hair gets everywhere so that probably doesn't help. Plus ironing for two professional people, so lots of shirts/suits and things. Thank you so much in advance for your help!

[anotherdayanothername1]

I live in a similar flat (but no stairs) and I Pay for two hours cleaning and an hour ironing per week

That's general cleaning. Ironing rarely gets finished so I do a few bits a week too

I'll ask her to do a deep clean of the fridge and/or oven very rarely

£35 a week

[PaperdollCartoon]

Thank you anotherday, that's helpful :) the ironing always takes me YEARS so I imagine it's different when someone just gets down to it. This cleaner (friend of a friend) charges £10 an hour so thinking a couple of hours cleaning and a couple of hours of ironing?

[anotherdayanothername1]

That should be more than enough to get everything done. You can always see how it goes. You might for example want to have four hours every other week, and three the rest. Four hours a week would be amazing if you can happily afford it

I would expect bed sheets to be changed as well as the things you mention.

A good cleaner will use their initiative and just see what needs doing too as well as the basic stuff you list.

[BallsforEarrings]

We are a cleaning company we don't provide ironing so I'm not sure about that but we do high quality detailed cleaning on either a weekly or fortnightly basis.

A rule of thumb for expected time-frames is: small home with few occupants can be maintained within two hours, a larger three bedroom family home with one bathroom needs about two and a half to three (depending on the family and how they live) and four bedroom, two bathroom home around three to four hours (depending on how they live). We work in teams of two (occasionally three) so obviously two cleaners take half the time but the same man-hours of work are supplied as with one cleaner.

These time-frames work in most cases but in preparation to the clean, in order to make these times work, we do need the homeowner to pick up the house and make sure major clutter is stored away, also nobody should be using the rooms included in the cleans or you would need to factor in at least an extra half an hour if the cleaners are to try to clean rooms that are in use during the clean, you also can't expect a detail clean of a room which is in use by the homeowner during service, the cleaners can only work around them in those instances (obviously) so not great value for money in these instances, best to have the rooms prepared for cleaning for the benefit of all parties.

Fortnightly cleaning is a little more expensive than weekly as extra time is needed due to the extra week's build up in between cleans.

HTH