To ask about getting a cleaner.

We have a 5 bed 3 storey house with 2 bathrooms & downstairs cloakroom/washroom.
We have a cleaner who comes 2 hours 1 week and does hall & stairs, main bathroom and floors in the living/kitchen/diner room we mainly live in at the back. Next week she comes 4 hours and does those plus 2nd living room/bathroom, wash/cloakroom & the 3 big bedrooms. She also deep cleans various things in the 4 hour days on rotation.
One bedroom is basically a box room at the moment & one is OHs study and a tip so she doesn’t do those as seems not worth it.
It’s £15 an hour which I think is super reasonable and we found her via a recommendation from a neighbour.
It’s 100% worth it and it also gives you a push to keep on top of tidying up. It would definitely be one of the last luxuries we would cut.

Your cleaner is not there to clear your clutter as they are not housekeepers. Housekeeping offers that and cost usually £22p/h upwards. Have a look on polo and tweed agency. The clients are high end and pay for what they want. £28 p/h

We have a 5 bed, 3 bath and our cleaner does upstairs one week inc changing beds and a bit of ironing - 3 hours, and then downstairs and a bit of ironing the following week - 2 hours. £14.50 an hour and it forces us to keep the house tidy!

To clarify.. £20/hr, £80 per visit.

Similar house OP.

5 beds but 3 in use.

We're fairly tidy and she wouldn't have time for that anyway.

All floors hoovered and mopped.
En-suite, 2 x bathrooms and WC.
Kitchen, living room, dining room (not used).
She's offered to change beds but I've never got the linen ready.
She cleans handles, cupboards and fridge front as needed.
She might tidy the laundry room if she has time (god knows how).

The works like a dog for 4 hours every 2 weeks and we pay her £80.

She is worth every penny.

I have a 5 bed (sounds similar to yours) and 4 children (so they create a lot of chaos). I am also disabled so.cant do a lot myself although DH does a lot.and the children all have chores... (Which they do with varying degrees of reluctance )

I advertised for a home help rather than a cleaner and made it clear it involved things like tidying /laundry as well as cleaning.

She comes for four hours a week (2 x 2 hours) and it definitely really helps make a dent but probably we could do with her coming another couple of hours a week.

My house is a similar size. It's a busy house with kids, their friends and a dog!

My cleaner does four hours a week.

I have a 4 bed and my cleaner comes every week for 2 hours. Costs £30 per week. I still have to clean regularly but I never have to do my bathrooms or any dusting, just hoovering, mopping and cleaning the kitchen. I change the beds myself as well.

We have a 5 bed, 3 bath plus downstairs loo. Our cleaner comes for 5 hours a week and does kitchen, bathrooms, hoovering and mopping floors, dusts, cleans all surfaces, hoovers the soft furnishings on a semi-regular basis, ditto washing inside of windows and internal glass, gives a selection of our youngest's toys a clean, changes bedding and puts them in the wash. Payment isn't comparable cos I'm in another country but I pay my parents' cleaner £18 an hour. I think it's the top end for where they live but she does a really good job in their cluttered house and my mum gets on really well with her so it's worth the extra.
I found my cleaner through a friend who also uses her and my parents' advertised on their local Facebook group with an introductory discount offer so I asked her to do a deep clean in their kitchen and bathroom and found she did was really good so we kept her on.

Our cleaner is weekly and alternates some of the jobs so they're done fortnightly.

Ours is a six bed, two bath and a loo. Two of the bedrooms are used once every six weeks.. Our cleaner does 90 minutes’ ironing every week too.

She does six hours every week, £15/hour and I provide all the cleaning equipment and materials. I think I’m going to start paying her extra, even though she hasn’t asked for it, as I think that’s started to be quite low.

She says she likes our house because it means that she only does one job that day, and doesn’t waste time travelling.

We got her through an agency initially, and then she set up on her own.

@Flippityflipflip I just posted that a 5 hour clean is what we do. I always am a bit at people who want anything more than a surface clean for a 4/5 bed house in 2 hours. I sat down and discussed with my cleaner how long would it take to what I need and 5 hours works for us.

We have a 4 bed, 3 bathroom house. Dh, ds, 6m old and myself. We have a cleaner 10hours a week. I would say if you want surface jobs done then anything less than 10hours would do. We prefer deep, proper cleaning including laundry and ironing so 10 hours works for us. This includes, floors, skirtings, fridge clean, bed linen changes, organising cupboards. It really depends on what levels of cleaning you need. Our cleaner is 16.5 an hour and worth it. Our weekends are completely clear and free of any cleaning and just a quick tidy on days she isn't here.

I have a cleaner for three hours a week at £20/hr.

It’s a big house but we don’t use all of it (two adult household) so every week she does:

Large kitchen with open plan dining and living area- vacuums and mops, good clean of countertops and fronts of all cupboards/ovens etc. Plus dusting, generally making things look nice. This is our biggest room and seems to take about an hour.

Sunroom- dusts and vacuums.

Hallway and downstairs loo- high-shine porcelain tiles so need to be mopped and then thoroughly dried (they’re a nuisance). Clean toilet sanitary-ware and mirrors. Some dusting.

Sitting room- dust, mop and vacuum wooden floor. Vacuums sofa and turns and beats all cushions.

Sweeps down the wooden stairs.

Vacuums landing- some dusting.

Main bathroom- cleans all sanitary-ware, mirrors, shower screen, mops and vacuums floor.

Master bedroom with dressing room and en-suite- vacuum, mops bathroom floor, sanitary-ware, changes king-size bed. Dusts.

Some of our spare bedrooms are used as offices as we both WFH so tidy those ourselves.

She’s AMAZING and has been with me for years now. Found her through ad on a local website.

I have no idea how she does all of that in 3 hours. Realistically, I pay her for three but she leaves once she’s finished so tends to be under 2hrs 45mins.

I have to say though, our house is kept pretty tidy and clutter-free so she never had to tidy or organise. If you want someone to work around some clutter/kid-mess then you’ll need to discuss with them and allow them to determine how long it will take.

Four hours a week at £15-20/hour. Recommendation by far the best way to go, but if you don't know anyone with a cleaner get a few in, show them around and be very very explicit about what you need them to do. Not all jobs will need to be done every week, but you might want to have the fridge cleaned once a month, for example.
Not all cleaners like to do all jobs.
They should then be able to tell you how long it takes. They may recommend the first couple visits they do a deep clean so it will take longer or they do a few rooms each time, then they can do normal cleaning after that.

Cleaner here. I'd say 4 hours. If that's too pricey then I'd ask cleaner to come 2 hours a week and rotate areas, I think you'd feel the benefit from a weekly clean. I charge £15 an hour and bring all supplies including hoover and mop. I'd be prepared to wait for a good cleaner to have a free slot and definitely go on a recommendation from friend or colleague.

I’m a single parent, working eith 3 kids. I pay £25 a week for 2 hours each week. I have a 4 bed house and my cleaner changes 2 beds one week and 2 the next week so they all get changed fortnightly.
definitely worth the £100 a month!!!

Following your update, that's very similar to what I have done in 2.25 hours. I actually wish the cleaner would do 3 hours, I feel there could be a better finish if she did, but she insists 2.25 is enough. So for you probably 2.5-3 hours weekly.

Cleaner here... 3 or 4 hours a week @ £12.50 an hour...
3 hours of generic jobs and an extra hour a week for windows /paintwork /beds changed...

We have a similar sized house and pay £60 for four hours per week. They do the beds on rotations - two one week, two the next, they also wash and hang out the bedding. That’s with their products And hoover but our steam mop.

I have a similar/slightly bigger house and we have 2.5 hours a week but no bedding/laundry jobs and not all showers need cleaning, office is excluded etc. We find that fine.

I'd say minimum 2 hours but this would be quite basic, 3 hours will be better esp if you want the beds doing.

Prices seem to be minimum £15 ph these days, our latest £17.50

My cleaner definitely cleans away clutter - she comes every week and has done for years, why wouldn’t she know where things go? It’s absolutely part of her job to clear clutter.

So, OP, this will also affect* slot time