to get a cleaner?

[PavlovtheCat]

I am working 25 hours a week after a maternity break, mornings, DH has been working afternoons, doing very physical work, he has the children in the morning, we swap. This is not likely to last as his work is not permanent but for now, he is working.

DD is going to school in sept.

DS is not sleeping well. I am shattered, even though DH does not help at night, he is still awake a lot, so he is tired.

The house is chaos, we are stuggling to keep on top of it all. DH does most of the cooking, we just have not got ourselves organised.

I want to be able to do it ourselves. I want us to be able to manage, and I feel a bit like a failure for not being able to organise ourselves.

We don't have much money, but I think I am prepared to sacrifice some other luxuries/non essentials in order to get a cleaner. I was thinking 2 hours a week, just to do some of the most essential things.

AIBU, should I just my own house in order so to speak?

No you are not mad. I would consider selling crack if I thought I wasn't gping to be able to afford my cleaner any more. OK, not quite, but seriously - I would live on rice and beans rather than NOT have my cleaner come once a week and give the place a good going over. It is so worth it. So worth it.

I can work up to 60 odd hours a week and the £25 I pay for my cleaner is THE best money I spend all week.

She does the hoovering, dusting, bathroom, bedrooms, kitchen etc and puts fresh bedlinen on (I strip the beds). I would pay her for that alone as I detest changing the beds.

She also does my ironing. I am in love with her. I always wanted a 'wife'!

4 hours. £25 quid. No regrets.

belledechocolatefluffybunny she calls herself a housekeeper - mainly becuase her role is far more than simply cleaning for us - she does bits of gardening as well, goes to the supermarket, laundry, sometimes ironing but usually send this out, pop to the post office etc. Haven't needed her to pay any bills for me though - but I pay all bills by DD?

Pavlov you provide all the cleaning stuff - keep it simple not too many different products and buy some sort of caddy so he/she can carry it all over the house.

No two weeks are the same here, but the basic clean is always the same - pretty much what you have described although I usually empty the dishwasher when DS is having b/fast... and you will find it will take her a while to learn where everything goes.

Re oven - how dirty is this oven? Might it be worth getting it professionally cleaned (comes up like new but quite expensive) and then it will only take her 2 mins to keep it clean every week.

I get inside windows cleaned every week as little toddler finger prints seem to get everywhere and are v noticable!

How big is your kitchen and how many bathrooms do you have? This is what takes the time IME.

HTH

I have a kitchen/diner not that big, but tbh that makes cleaning it worse! 1 average sized bathroom, 3 bedrooms, 2 lots of stairs, average/reasonable sized bay fronted front room with huge window drops. It is a large flat with a loft conversion upstairs to a huge bedroom (is that a maisonette these days?) so its not big at all.

The oven does need a good proper clean, we should sort that, then she could give it a quick clean once a week/fortnightly or something. its not too bad as we have only had it 6 months or so. But it is used a lot.

I am sure we don't need a housekeeper, as i don't need post office, do that from work, but getting milk could be useful sometimes! no really, shop is only up the road, gardening, our garden is small and manageable and DH likes pottering out there. Ironing. I might 'start' if the cleaner offers!

Maybe I need a PA
I can sort the bills out, I do the shopping online. Ironing/cleaning are too time consuming.

Ooo a PA that would be nice :) Someone to file all the blasted crap post away.

Pavlov I think you need www.nuovencleaning.co.uk/ or some such company to come and make the oven sparkle! Then it will literally take the cleaner minutes to keep on top of! Well worth the money IME.

Most cleaners I have used will do ironing as well but if not you can always send the ironing out to someone - they usually collect/deliver for free and are often cheaper as they can be much quicker if they have pressing machines etc (for bedding).

For your house I would say 3 hours a week would be realistic and if she finishes early be sure to have a pile of ironing ready! It will take her some time to get used to things so account for this.

Tips - don't use someone you know and if they are not doing something how you like it, say it early on! Likewise if its not working out, find out how much notice they need and get rid of them. Not everyone is cut out to be a cleaner and some people just do it to make a quick £ (£9/hr is very good money).

(Sorry this is a very long post!)

PDR iron bedclothes no waaaay! I I had never considered that, I always wondered how people had perfectly ironed bedclothes, and whether they ironed them, i know now that they get someone to do it for them! otherwise it would take all day! Blimey. I best not go down that route, or else we will be eating beans on toast every night so I can have all the ironing done, including bedclothes, and the washing done, dried, put away, beds changed...it could become addictive couldn't it?

Definitely do it, best money I spend each week. I come home on a Thursday to a very clean house, apart from the 'usual' I put all the washing out/in the machine and while she's there she also hangs it out or puts it through the dryer and folds it aferwards and re-makes all the beds. Worth absolutely every penny. It also makes us tidier as the house has to be tidy on a Thursday morning and the boys are under the threat of death to untidy everything until at least Friday morning!!!

Pavlov - I know AN AMAZING cleaner in north Devon if you are interested?

get a cleaner,if it makes your life easier do it

geordie oh what a pain. I am in South Hams.

Pavlov, I'm in North Devon, I'll come and clean your house if you like. I even iron sheets and sometimes tea towels so I feel well qualified

Actually, I would too if I had a car. As a newly single parent I feel obliged to set up one of those businesses (freezer filling, ironing service etc) in the manner of an Aga Saga.

I do know of a couple of people who clean if you're local to me?

I have no idea where that is but take it that its no where near north devon.

Plymouth area I am afraid.

Geordie I command you to get out your Map of Devon and getting learning .

tippy that is such a shame, dh would love the t-towels ironed

Sadly the people I know are more North than me (am near Okehampton) so no use to you.

Of course YANBU, it's up to you how you spend your money and how you spend your time. I too am thinking about getting a cleaner as, even though I've always thought I don't want someone else cleaning up my mess, I am fed up with spending my free time cleaning when I should be spending quality time with the children. What actually happens is that I do spend quality time with the children at weekends but the house is never clean and that stresses me out.

Of course, getting a cleaner also means providing a job for someone else which in this climate is a great thing.