5 hours

Ah well that makes perfect sense and ties in with all I said above about agency cleaners specifically. That is, paid a pittance, because even when agency fees are factored in the fee is still usually very low.

Add to that the fact they had to go to an agency to get their work in the first place...with people queuing up for good private cleaners, why would they need to?

How did you get to hear of them to start with?

5 hrs should have all the bathrooms clean, and then the rest of the house too. They are taking the piss saying they can’t. Time to trial someone new.

The OP states once per week, but doesn't state how many people come, only that they do five hours in total. The problem with having more than one person doing the cleaning at any one time is (and I am guilty of this) there can be a lot of chat going on which holds up the cleaning. You also have to allow time for each person to unpack on arrival (coats etc, toilet stops, and so on) as well as time to pack up. I could easily spend a good ten-fifteen minutes in total across the start and end of a job in just organizing myself, so if that's two people in attendance it becomes half an hour off the cleaning for two people, 45 minutes for three, and so on.

Added to which, no two people clean the same, to the same standard, at the same speed. I only ever used to charge a fixed price for each job, so it didn't matter how long or quickly I took to clean, I only ever said to clients if they weren't happy with my work then it was important to tell me specifically what was wrong in terms of the quality and not the time. Not that people ever did complain, it was the occasional "Oh I don't think you will have seen this Bonnie as you have to be in the armchair at the time, but could you just..." and that sort of thing.

That helps to gain a better insight, although £18.50 each is not a lot for them to be charging for what they do, not when you consider that the "true" cost of hiring someone on minimum wage is estimated to be minimum wage + 30% to cover NI, holidays, other employee benefits, of which sick pay can take it way over than 30% guide figure...on the current NMW of £12.2ph, another 30% takes that up to almost £15.90.

You're caught between a rock & a hard place, as you may change cleaners and find that what you previously got for £18.50 wasn't bad at all...but then conversely if none of what you get now meets your needs then it's money wasted.

Maybe do a sort-of flow chart and ask yourself if you could manage without them at all. Or is what you pay worth it knowing they will turn up and do some cleaning so as to help keep a lid on it. Or could you cut the hours from five to three and ask what they will do in that time, so that you're not spending money having rooms which are not that important to you cleaned to a mediocre standard, etc.

5 hours a week, is that 5 hours on one day or is it split out over the week?

Try another cleaner.

You ask around, and be prepared for people to be very tight-lipped, as no one wants to risk losing their cleaner by recommending them to a "better" client.

Harsh as it sounds, good cleaners (and tradespeople in general) do not advertise. A cleaning company may need to advertise so as to keep a balance of work coming in vs. cleaners leaving them / hiring new cleaners, but it would be rare to find anyone who works for themselves advertising for clients, unless they'd just started out.

There also seems to be an idea that by going to a company or to an agency that you'll get a better service - but as I've explained in another message above, if the people who love the job are working privately and getting & retaining clients easily, you have to question why someone wants to go and work for a cleaning company.

"Deep clean" has no measurable meaning, it's like saying something has a "bad smell", it kind-of paints a picture, but its actual usefulness as a phrase is subjective.

In the case of the post you are referring to, it sounds to me like the cleaner in question is liable to maintain a very satisfactory cleaning routine, but gives more attention to different areas on a week by week basis.

It all comes down to what people want - I only ever cleaned for a small number of people although I had some clients for almost six years. Some people like the older clients wanted me to go in and just make things better for another week, with no great attention to details; other clients (especially those who were out at work) needed me to manage their cleaning for them and would tell me what their absolute priorities were so that I did what they needed. I remember one lady who was a teacher forbid me from moving any furniture on a regular clean, as she said there was enough to do in keeping everywhere going for another week.

She told me that she would move things during the school holidays, which she did, although I was allowed to be more thorough if I went in to clean when they were physically away on holiday and therefore not needing a weekly clean.

But to be frank, I could have been the worst cleaner in the world and they would have still hired me, as they liked me and I was incredibly reliable. It was rare I ever had to cancel anyone.

Well this is a matter of perspective. On the one hand £400 a month (so about £92 a week) is a lot of money to spend on anything that you don't get good value from.

On the other hand, based on five hours a week that's less than £18.50 per hour, which is an OK-ish amount for a private cleaner (I'd expect to pay more), but a ridiculously low amount to pay if you are using a company who sends staff.

I've done a bit of private cleaning in the past, not much of it, really just to help people out, and it was not on my list of favourite jobs. I certainly would not like to be doing it for a company where I'm sent all over the place to clean for people I don't even know, for minimum wage.

Based on what my clients used to tell me, they only went to cleaning companies as a last resort, and seemed to accept that standards would never be that high, no matter how much they paid. As one lady told me, she found that all the really good cleaners who loved this sort of work were already working for themselves privately, on far more money than a cleaning company could pay. On that basis she didn't believe anyone who worked for a company could be that great or interested in the job.

Cleaning agencies are even more slap-dash than this, it seems, using people who are going to all the bother of being self-employed and yet need an agency to get them their work. Based on some of the prices I've seen quoted, I can't see how any of them were scraping minimum wage.

OP, it really comes down to the fact that you don't think you're getting good value. Good cleaners only ever come by recommendation only and you'll be lucky to get onto their waiting list, so I suggest you make some very discrete inquiries with a view to changing in the future. Do bear in mind though that a lot of people struggle hugely with the reliability of their cleaners and may accept a lesser quality cleaning experience over one where you never know if anyone is going to turn up at all.

They are taking the piss

For 5 hours every week, I don’t expect the towel radiator to be that dusty. Even if they’re cleaning that place once a month, dust wouldn’t build up that much. You need to change cleaners.

Our cleaner doesn't do cobwebs or skirting boards, but she only comes for 2.5h for a 3-bed and also does some tidying, change bedsheets etc.
5h sounds very long indeed.

5 hours once a week to clean a four bedroom house that is tidy when the cleaners arrive and they are not cleaning properly - you need change cleaners.

I’m conscious this might derail the thread - but what do you mean by deep clean once a week?

It takes me at least 4-5 hours to deep clean a room - but by deep clean I mean clean the carpets with the rug doctor, shampoo sofas, wipe out drawers, clean the walls, dust down behind radiators, dismantle the oven to clean properly etc. I genuinely deep clean each room in my house once a year, and in between keep it hoovered, mopped, dusted and surfaces wiped down.

Bathrooms are deep cleaned more often because they’re much easier to do and there’s less difference between a normal clean and deep clean when you’re using bleach for a normal clean.

Is my definition of a deep clean different to others? As it always confuses me on here, and I can’t see why you’d do it once a week (or indeed how it would need to be done that often, or how you’d have time to do anything else to keep on top of stuff during the week)…

We found her from our local group, and on recommendations.

We have the same size house and pay a bit more for more weekly hours BUT my cleaner is just amazing! She will do anything, see dirt where I can’t and will move stuff clean under beds, deep clean each room at least once a week. Some just know and those that need to be told the very obvious things I would just let go.

I use Nextdoor and give them a list of very specific tasks eg "wipe dust from radiator", "hoover skirting in all rooms". Last time I changed cleaners I tried out 3 until I found one that cleaned to a standard and timeframe I was happy with.

I am in London where every other person on Nextdoor is looking for cleaning work.

I am a cleaner & I do all of that on my jobs, it's basic cleaning cobwebs probably don't need doing every week I tend to do the jobs that don't need doing every week now and again so each week I will do a bit of the now & again jobs. But the shower tiles & round taps is just basic cleaning. X

Sadly they are taking the milky. That is simply not good enough. Your house should be spotless.

Can I ask how people find a good cleaner? Do you contact an agency / use someone recommended by a friend / advertise locally?
Hope you don’t mind me asking on your thread OP!