Cleaner Advice

[VanityCheek]

Please share your wisdom wise Mumsnetters!
DP and I share a 4 bed,2 reception room , 1 bathroom house. We both work full time and on top of that DP has a side business while I am studying part time for a postgraduate degree
We have thought of getting a cleaner in - two questions:

1. How long would it take a cleaner to do the whole house?
   It is fairly tidy- there isn't anything complicated to vacuum around or that would need lots of dusting. Just the normal basic furniture (e.g. a sofa, TV and coffee table in living room). The kitchen for example has all dishes washed and put away and bins emptied.

2. How would I go about finding a good cleaner? I don't know anybody else who has one living nearby (with WFH all of my friends/colleagues no longer live in the same city). My only choice at the moment seems to be agencies - the quality is apparently variable but at least the cleaners will be fully insured and background checked.. or am I being naive?

Thanks for any help in advance!

It does depend on what you want doing.
I would say 2 hours a week would be plenty for your circumstance but I wanted someone to do similar level of cleaning to what I would do. I don't normally pull sofas out and clean behind them, or wash skirting boards etc etc . There are many threads on here over the years describing levels of cleaning that are alien to me. If you are one of those people, you could probably find jobs that are going to take longer. However, if there is one couple living together in a house and working all day, how much cleaning can the house need?

Re finding a cleaner, a personal recommendation is highly valued IMO. I really would ask anyone you know "if they know anyone who has a cleaner they can recommend" you'd be surprised how many people have cleaners, that don't necessarily advertise the fact. Or colleagues / neighbours etc might know of someone else that has a cleaner even if they don't themselves.

Ours takes 2.5 hours for a 3 bed, 2 reception room house.

We found her through word of mouth.

Is there a local FB group you can ask on?

Thanks - I’ll post on our local page

@BackforGood

It does depend on what you want doing. I would say 2 hours a week would be plenty for your circumstance but I wanted someone to do similar level of cleaning to what I would do. I don't normally pull sofas out and clean behind them, or wash skirting boards etc etc . There are many threads on here over the years describing levels of cleaning that are alien to me. If you are one of those people, you could probably find jobs that are going to take longer. However, if there is one couple living together in a house and working all day, how much cleaning can the house need?

Re finding a cleaner, a personal recommendation is highly valued IMO. I really would ask anyone you know "if they know anyone who has a cleaner they can recommend" you'd be surprised how many people have cleaners, that don't necessarily advertise the fact. Or colleagues / neighbours etc might know of someone else that has a cleaner even if they don't themselves.

That’s a good point - I’ve googled ‘cleaning tasks’ and picked all the ones I want them to do

I’ve seen that some clean the light fixtures and polish the door handles every clean … that’s over the top IMO 😂