Housekeeper?

[lking679]

Weird one but does anyone have a housekeeper?
In south East London and have a cleaner 3 hours a week, but have gone back to work on second maternity leave and wfh. Every break/lunch time/after work is tidying up, cleaning, laundry or cooking. Trying to make time for kids before and after childminder too obviously. Husband helps but we never seem on top of it working full time.
Wonder if anyone has a housekeeper to clean, do some laundry and maybe some meal prep?
Hopefully it will settle down soon!

I WISH

But my husband's boss has a FT family assistant. I think she does general tidying up as well as organising everything to do with the kids. I'm sure they would have a proper cleaner as well though.

www.childcare.co.uk/search/Jobs/South+East+London/Au-Pair

My friend had one when her kids were smaller. She did pick ups / cleaning etc. I remember thinking how fancy when she said she had a "housekeeper"!!

I did for a few months, she cleaned, did laundry, changed beds, picked up the kids from school and kept an eye on them (they were at junior school so not young) and put dinner on for us all, was bliss but she was injured on holiday and never found anyone to replace her

We have a cleaner/housekeeper for 6 hours a week who cleans, tidies, puts dishwasher on if necessary, makes beds, puts laundry on, folds and puts away. She'd iron if required.
It makes so much difference to us.
I've never had meals done, but locally there are a few people that advertise to fill your freezer with home cooked food to your preference, or you could try Simply Fresh or similar to have all the thinking taken out of cooking

That sounds such a nice job as above

I dream of one, but imagine the good ones are very hard to find. Most people I know split the tasks:

• A local cleaner for 2 hours, several mornings a week - keeps the kitchen in order each visit and tackles other rooms including changing sheets on rotation. If you’re lucky they might do a bit of tidying too;
• Quarterly deep clean service from an agency for things like oven, fridge, inside drawers, windows etc.
• Laundry outsourced - looks hideously expensive but in reality no more so than paying a housekeeper to do it (which, if they’re not full-time, means laundry left around drying until they next visit);
• Easy meals. Freezer meals, meal kits and healthier takeaway. Allplants, COOK, Hello Fresh etc.;
• Dog walker, if applicable.

My main fear re a house keeper is key person dependency. If they’re sick, or quit, things can fall apart very quickly.

Can you make any improvements re having less stuff/better storage/tougher rules re everyone tidying up after themselves? It’s hard to get away from the dust and laundry, but there’s probably scope to spend less time tidying and less time cooking.

Will look into home cook meal service and outsourcing laundry!

The thing about outsourcing laundry is they don't put it away? It's quick and easy to put a wash on, takes a few minutes to hang it up to dry, but seems to take ages to put away in everyone's rooms for four of us. I am also about to go back to work after second mat leave so read this with interest but don't think outsourcing laundry would help much. What am I missing?

We have a nanny housekeeper who does 4 hours per day of housekeeping while DC are at school/nursery

It’s life changing, I couldn’t be without her!

It made sense for us on a number of levels because we needed someone who could do morning drop offs and then lunchtime pick up, so this is a useful way to fill the middle bit before she needs to do nannying

I actually find the sorting, washing, sorting into tumble dryer or clothes airer/line takes a long time. Pegging it out can be a 10 minute job then if it rains you’ve got to take it down and put on airer. If you just gave it to me to put away not a big deal at all. Especially if it was sorted into men’s/womens and kids ages!

We had a housekeeper and nanny growing up, my parents worked a lot and were rarely home. She took care of every thing house related.

If you "advertise" what you are looking for on your local Facebook page you will get white a few people who would do the job. However if you ask for a cleaner they would just do cleaning, if you ask for a nanny they will just do nannying. But if you say you need a mother's help or an extra pair of hands and spell out exactly what you need eg. Someone to change bed sheets, prep dinner as well as sort laundry and clean for example - you will get responses from people willing to do this

DH family had a housekeeper, his Mother didn’t work but had what you could describe as an incredibly cushy life. She did partake in voluntary work and they apparently do a lot of entertaining at home. All his family are badly organised, I did wonder if it was because they were so well looked after for so many years.

@Tenbob

We have a nanny housekeeper who does 4 hours per day of housekeeping while DC are at school/nursery

It’s life changing, I couldn’t be without her!

It made sense for us on a number of levels because we needed someone who could do morning drop offs and then lunchtime pick up, so this is a useful way to fill the middle bit before she needs to do nannying

Can I ask what housekeeping tasks does she do? Need some advice on this - feel free to PM if easier.

Yes, we have a live in housekeeper who works 8 hours a day but we live overseas. She's lovely. She does all the laundry, cleaning and some cooking. She doesn't drive but does everything else. She's been with us for over 5 years. Before that we had a housekeeper for 10 years. Our kids are older though, 17, 16 and 14 so no babysitting or childcare.

My friend has one who works four mornings a week for 4 or 5 hours. The housekeeper cleans, changes the bedding and towels, does laundry but not the ironing as my friend has someone else who does the ironing. The housekeeper prepares meals when my friend asks her to, go food shopping and she also does some school drop offs, my friends DC is age 10.
My friend’s previous housekeeper was actually her nanny and then the role evolved into nanny/housekeeper when her DC started school.

@FightingtheFoo

Daily routine is
8am - arrive, 15 min handover, I start work, nanny takes over
9am - school/nursery run
9:15am-1pm - dishwasher on, laundry on, walk the dogs
1pm - nursery pick up
3:30pm - school pick up
5pm - finish

For the 9-1pm slot, we have a list of jobs to be done once a week (change beds, clean bathrooms, change towels),
Jobs to be done twice a week (hoover upstairs, sort toys back into savings and stuff to

Sorry, accidentally posted too soon..!

Plus a list of jobs to do every day - clean the kitchen, Hoover all of downstairs, do laundry

She hates ironing so we send that out, but otherwise, our nanny will just be an extra pair of hands - pick up dry cleaning, put away shopping or pick up anything we’ve run out of from the shops

She is generally very time efficient so generally gets everything done within a couple of hours, and has a couple of hours to herself

She also has time between 1-3 while DS naps, and usually makes some food for DC for me to serve at 5pm, or will make something that we can all eat if I ask her to

She isn’t a chef but can make a decent spag Bol, chicken casserole etc

We have a "housekeeper" who does 6-8 hours per week spread over 3 or 4 days.

She keeps on top of the chaos, cleans, puts washing away, changes beds. It's absolutely bloody marvellous.

We have two full time jobs and three children, two of whom have special needs. We use the money from one child's disability living allowance to pay for it.

I advertised locally and had a good response as I think it is the sort of job that suits someone who needs a little extra income to fit around kids etc.

I am super flexible as to when she does her hours, which suits her as she has caring responsibilities herself. So it can be a bit random when she turns up, which took a bit of getting used to. But she's so so efficient when she's here, and is easy to be around, that I just let her get on with it.

It doesn't really cost much more than the cleaner we used to have who came once a week as she keeps on top of the hoovering, kitchen, bathrooms etc so never has to do a really big clean.

We used to have a live in housekeeper when we lived abroad, she was brilliant and a second mum figure to me and my siblings. I would love to have one now.

We do have a housekeeper , as well as doing the usual things like laundry , cleaning, washing up, light snacks for Dcs, and general upkeep , she takes care of arranging for maintenance and house related emergencies when needed.
Very professional in her work , will be utterly lost if she ever decides to leave

I do. It’s amazing. And I appreciate every day what a privilege it is.

I’lol have to have a think! Not sure if we can really afford it. I was going to buy some Cook meals for in the week which isn’t too expensive but they still have crap in like emulsifiers. Couldn’t really find a family home cooked meal service in London it was all individual meals for diets? (And a vegetarian one with variety is what we’d need)!
Laundry service takes only tumble dry clothes so that’s no help, can do that easily! Pfff!

There is definitely a grey area between cleaner and housekeeper

I think the main difference where I live is that people advertising housekeeping jobs are looking for someone to come every or most days. Good housekeepers will only want to work for one or two families

Cleaners will do most of the jobs that a housekeeper does but will work for multiple families and be happy doing a few hours for each one

In terms of hourly pay, they are about the same
If anything, cleaners seem to charge £1 an hour more, to cover their time travelling between jobs and buying cleaning materials, gloves etc

If you have a clear job description of what you want done, it’s worth advertising the role and seeing who applies

A good local cleaner will probably be willing to do some extra duties, especially if it means a longer shift at your house
In my experience, the good ones don’t like jobs where they are only needed for 2 or 3 hours a week or fortnightly, and are more accommodating if you want 4+hrs twice a week or more