If you have ( or are) a housekeeper or ‘cleaner plus’, what jobs do the do?

[BoogleMcGroogle]

I’ve just been offered another day a week at work to focus on an interesting project. I’ve done the maths and it’s enough to pay for a housekeeper for two days per week. With the kids getting older, and having struggled through the last year with no help, that’s a dream come true!

We are interviewing someone next week to work six hours per day, two days a week. We live in a five bedroom cottage.

If you have ( or work in) a similar arrangement, what, apart from cleaning gets done? I was hoping some laundry, tidying, ironing, bed/ towel changing, plus extra jobs when there is time like cleaning the fridge, cupboards etc.

Is this a reasonable ask? What jobs could be expected in that time?

There certainly ought to be time in 12 hours per week for him/her to do laundry, I would have thought ~4 hours should be enough to do normal cleaning assuming a base level of reasonable cleanliness (if it needs more attention at first you could just ask to focus on the cleaning the first few weeks to get it to a point where it can easily be maintained) and maybe the same again for linen changes, laundry and ironing (depending on how much you want ironed, if you are an 'everything must be ironed down to underwear' person and/or you have 4 children all in school uniform maybe allow longer), that leaves another 4 hours for 'deep cleaning' type things and/or 'extras', wiping down skirting boards and paintwork, sorting through linen/towels and getting rid of anything old, defrost freezer, descale appliances, de-limescale taps, run maintenance cycles on appliances etc. The only thing that may be difficult especially at first is too much tidying and organisation as s/he won't know you and your house that well so if for instance you have massive piles of children's toys around, until she knows you better she won't know what lives where, what is outgrown and can be binned, what's precious etc etc. But that could be something to do further down the line.

Other things that I have heard of housekeepers doing (not suggesting yours could do all of these every week, but things to consider and discuss with your potential candidates depending on their preferences and skills, some of these overlap with e.g. a nanny role): food shopping, batch cooking, errands (e.g. taking things to/from post office, getting clothes dry cleaned), walking dogs, cleaning out pet cages/washing pets bedding, reviewing/sorting wardrobes esp for children and getting rid of outgrown or worn out things, light gardening (weeding etc.), sorting and filing household paperwork, supporting children's social life e.g. buying presents for parties, sorting costumes etc...

Before lockdown 1 we had 6 hours a week of our 'cleaner plus'. On 1 day she did normal cleaning (5 bed house, but only 2 beds needing routine cleaning) inc bed changing, the other day she would do something specific like sort a few kitchen cupboards out, do a deep clean in a room, do ironing, fold laundry, sort out ds's drawers/wardrobe, that sort of thing. In other houses I know she'd organised wardrobes.

Thank you. That is really helpful. I think 12 hours might be quite generous, bit I hope she’ll be able to do specific jobs too. I might ask her to unload the grocery delivery, as that’s a job that seems to take hours when the kids and dog ( all of whom filch newly arrived food) are around!

Unloading the groceries could be a good one as it would pair with a fridge wipeout and clearout of out of date food and a cupboard food rotation/tidy. If you have minimum stock levels (I always like a spare butter and cheese for instance, and a rice in the cupboard when the jar is below 1/4 full) you could have a shopping list they can add to when noticing you'll need something
With laundry, you would probably want to get a towel wash on before they arrive so that it is ready to go in the dryer and the next wash on so that everything gets done in the time and you aren't left washing/drying/folding bed sheets. Our sheets get all folded into one of the pillow cases so that its easy to grab the right set for the right room.
Another thing mine did ( I really miss her, 10 years she was with us and decided to retire during lockdown) was sew in school uniform name tapes which was a massive time saver on something I hate doing

Yes it's difficult as the fewer hours you offer the harder it is to get someone good but I think ideally I'd do one day of 6 hours (or 2 days of 3 hours) which should be plenty to clean and do at least some laundry, and then use the other half of the money to outsource some other tasks, e.g. dog walking, gardening, maybe get a Gusto or HelloFresh subscription for meals, unless for e.g. you find someone that's a dog lover or loves to cook and would be happy to do those extra tasks (but I think it's more common to find a cleaner that just wants to/is good at cleaning)

Don't know, but I'm jealous!

Thank you so much for all these ideas. It’s laundry and cleaning we need her/ him to focus on. As well as dreaded shopping unpacking! Luckily I love cooking and we have a big garden which is DH and DS’s hobby, so those jobs aren’t a problem. Dog already has day care twice a week, but also gets a long walk each day, as DH enjoys that too.

We have a lady coming to chat tomorrow who used to be a florist, so I’m hoping that might mean the odd lovely arrangement of garden flowers. She sounds nice and caring. Fingers crossed!