Please, can a cleaner help me estimate my house?

[AlaskanOilBaron]

I'm in-between cleaners, my old cleaner who was with me for years has left to have a baby and I just hired a new one.

I feel torn between the idea that the new cleaner is taking the piss, and my old cleaner was super-human and I'm being unreasonable.

My house is about 2300 sq ft over 5 floors. I am a rather neat/clean housekeeper and in addition to not letting it fall into disrepair, I spend about 1.5 hours preparing the house for the cleaner i.e. making beds, collecting dirty laundry, hanging/putting clean clothes away, filing away papers, running/emptying dishwasher and so forth. There is zero tidying, only cleaning.

My old cleaner did the whole house plus ironing in 4 hours on a Monday, and a bathroom/kitchen clean in 2 hours on a Friday. This is obviously not a deep clean, but as I say, I'm pretty well on top of the house.

Today the new cleaner came, and it took her the first 2 hours to iron 9 shirts, which set her back. She spent the next 3.5 hours cleaning the top 4 floors, but didn't get to the lowest floor and made oversights throughout e.g. cups on shelf behind the couch weren't cleared away, microwave was not cleaned, breadbox etc on top of countertop wasn't moved for cleaning, and so on.

I have no doubt that she worked very hard, am I being very unreasonable?

For clarity, she was here for a total of 5.5 hours.

I'm a cleaner and I would say that the more you clean a house the quicker you get! An unfamiliar property is more time consuming as you need to look for sockets, see what needs attention, decide what to tackle first etc - you find a rhythm after a few visits.
Saying that ironing is not the new cleaners forte... 😁😂

Agree that any new cleaner will be slower at the start. But TWO HOURS for 9 shirts!!! That should take 30-45 min.

Cleaners tend to fall in the pootle-around camps or the speed-demon camp.

Sure, probably should have said that she came with the old cleaner once but today was her second day on her own. I agree you need to get to know a house.

Agree that any new cleaner will be slower at the start. But TWO HOURS for 9 shirts!!! That should take 30-45 min.

Yes, this really knocked my confidence - I iron all a fair bit and I'd say it takes me (as you say) 4-5 min a shirt. That's watching TV and having a nice time (which is what I told her to do).

2 hours to iron 9 shirts is a pisstake. I've timed my own ironing, and I'm no expert, and I did it in about 5 mins per shirt.

DustOffYourHighestHopes mine pootles while I’m here, cuddles the baby, entertains the toddler, chats, one of us makes the other a cup of tea. Once she’s helped me get the two of them out of the door to playgroup she is either a total whirlwind or she stays longer than she should!