We are overseas in a place where having a cleaner is the norm and sort of expected in order to provide employment to locals. I've had a cleaner for 2 hours per week whilst I was working in the U.K. and found that they kept on top of a 4 bed house with 3 kids but I had to also deep clean or keep up with cleaning in between.
We have a 3 floor big 4 bed house provided by my husband's job here, all marble/stone floors, 3 bathrooms, 2 balconies. We've been here 2 weeks and I can see it's a dust trap and keeping it clean is a bit like painting the Forth road bridge used to be.
I was recommended a cleaner by an outgoing family after initially saying I didn't need one, and we met yesterday. She is utterly lovely, and I took her around the house to get an idea of how many hours per week to keep it reasonable. I was thinking 4 but she reckoned 8 which seems a lot; I know it's in her interest to do more work which is fine and I'm happy to pay as it's not a lot in the scheme of things.
But, what the heck do I ask her to do for 8 hours?! It's never taken me 8 hrs to clean a house (although I am lackadaisical with cleaning so maybe I have low standards!) All our discussion was in her language which I speak conversationally but not brilliantly and I know she said she was happy to do ironing, babysitting and anything else I needed but I don't know what I do need! My kids are 11 and 5 but don't speak her language yet and she doesn't speak very much English so although babysitting would be welcome I'm not sure how it would work.
I'm keen to provide employment if that's what's needed, but I don't want to take the piss, neither do I want to become a pampered princess who never lifts a finger (we don't have that much money!!)