Thinking of getting a cleaner once a month

[walkingonthemoon]

My friend has a cleaner in fortnightly and swears by it.

I'm struggling to keep on top of things and wondered (budget permitting) that once a month for 4 hours or so would help - just to blitz the bathroom, kitchen, hoovering and mopping of kitchen and laminate downstairs.

Anyone else do this And if so, how much does it costs approx?

Taa.

[mousymouse]

I would (and do) 2 hours every two weeks.
largish 2 bedroom flat.
9 pounds per hour
money well spent

[FourArms]

I don't have a cleaner to do this, but bear in mind if you do get one, that it will take a cleaner a lot longer to do this once a month than it does once a week. Grime builds up, and doing it monthly would be like a fresh start each month, whereas weekly is almost maintenance cleaning.

[cyb]

agree once a month not worth it

I used to have once a fortnight, £24 for 3 hours

Now once a week! and its still a tip a day later

[thisisyesterday]

agree that weekly or fortnighrtly is far better if you can afford it
my cleaner does 3 hours once a week and she needs that to do our 3 bed house upstairs and down. she doesn't even always get all of it done if there is tidying to do too (usually in kids room!)

week before last she couldn't come and by the next week the house was in an awful state!!
i wish she could come more often lol

we pay £10 an hour

[lillybloom]

I have cleaners in once a month. They do all my skirtings, windows, oven etc. All the things I never get round to, then I only have to do the weekly routine. It works out great for me.

[scurryfunge]

I paid £45 for less than an hour, once a week....not worth it.

[bran]

scurryfunge, how on earth did you end up paying that much?

[clemettethedropout]

Our cleaner used to come every week for 2 hours. She now comes every fortnight for three hours. We pay her £60 month.

[Julesnobrain]

£10 an hour. We're in London. Some times you can get an AP who wants extra work to do it a bit cheaper if you live in area when familys have AP's. Personally I think you would need to have someone in a min of every other week. with you just doing the basics.

[Thelongroadhome]

We have an agency cleaner every week for 2 hours. She does the kitchen, 2 bathrooms and brushes and washes the floors. The agency gets 2.25 an hour and the cleaner £6.50 an hour. I love it. It means I still have to do the bedrooms but that suits me as it makes it affordable and no hassle as I don't need to make sure the bedrooms are tidy.

[DreamsInBinary]

Do it!

It really makes an enormous difference, although I agree with others than two hours a fortnight is significantly better than four hours monthly.

I would rather give up food than my cleaner.

[DreamTeamGirl]

Same here DreamsinBinary!!!

I used to have fornightly and now have weekly, tis a godsend and not a luxury for a working mum

[scurryfunge]

bran,it was an agency that will remain nameless....I needed a cleaner when I broke my leg.

[LaTrucha]

We pay £15 once a week. We've just started due to a windfall and my heavily pregnant / toddlered state. It is absolutely bloody marvellous and I don't know if I will ever be able to stop having a cleaner.

Ask around: more of your friends than you realise will have one (I've found) and you'll find a reliable cheap one more easily that way than any other, IME.

[KiwiKat]

We have a cleaner once a fortnight, and pay her £20 for 2 hours. It's just so NICE to come home from work to see a clean house, and we try (but fail) to stay on top of things in between times.

[walkingonthemoon]

Everyone - thanks so much for replying - all really helpful. I am gonna see if the recommended cleaner is free to do 2 hours per fortnight... exciting stuff! (I clearly need to get a life!)

BTW, sorry I abandoned thread - been one hell of a week and forgot about logging on to check!

[notcitrus]

Used to get one once a month - 2-bed place pre-kids, so not huge. Problem was agencies refused to do monthly so ended up getting a one-off clean and getting the cleaner's mobile number.

Now do fortnightly/three-weekly (cleaner is very pregnant so has handed over to her friend who isn't always free, but we don't want to look for anyone else)