Am I the only one who doesn't have a cleaner??

[Hotmad]

At my mum & baby group the other day consisting of new mums only, I found out they all had hired cleaners!! I don't have one as I can't afford to have one. I just said, I live in a pig sty at present :)
I looked up cleaners costs and locally (london) they charge about £12-£15 per hour, Is this a lot do you think? I might pay myself £10 per hour and do it myself!

Yes Yonineedaminute. Is a dishwasher lazy?

I don't really care if it is lazy.

I am lazy, shoot me now!

'There is no inherent virtue in cleaning'

If I did twee posters/fridge magnets with sayings on, that would be up in my house.

I have a cleaner and i dont work, but have a 16 month dd.

I ve had a cleaner for around 2 years.

I spend £130 every 4 weeks on a cleaner.

BUT...

I hardly buy clothes or shoes unless i need them rather than want them

I dont drink

I dont smoke

Dont eat out very often

Dont have my hair dyed

So its not money to burn, its choosing to spend your money on different things.

I could say people who smoke or drink have money to burn. It just means they choose to spend their money on different things to me

I don't have a cleaner now but have had one in the past when I worked. I think it's well worth the money if you get a good one. But some people will always say why pay somebody if you can do it yourself. Why not have a one off deep clean. I've done that a couple of times and it works well.

Lunchlady I don't do that but I still can't afford a cleaner!

For me £80 a month is something at the moment that just isn't doable, we are finding it hard enough to make ends meet anyway (having cut every single thing we can think of and imposed Lidl shopping, no meals out, no clubs for kids).

So- to me, a cleaner is an extra. I work 5 days a week and quite a bit at weekends, it is hard to keep on top of the housework and it does stress me out, but less than plunging further in debt to pay a cleaner to do something ultimately I can do myself. I hate it though and my plan is to earn more money very shortly and the first thing I will do is get a cleaner.

I did, for a while. But I used to tidy before she came, on the grounds that if I was paying someone to clean I wanted them to actually clean; not just move things around.

Then I started to resent the fact that after around two hours of putting everything in it's place; all that was left for her to do was run around with the Hoover and shake a duster round
Disclaimer: I clean the bathroom every night after ds1 floods it after his bath; and since we had mice around five years ago the kitchen is kept clinically clean at all times

Never had a cleaner and probably never will.

My mum, OTOH, has had cleaner after cleaner and has given up. She has found (and I agree) that as their standards are so much lower than hers, it's not worth the money. They tend to clean the surface of things but not thoroughly.

mama my standards of clean are so low that any cleaner would have to be pretty shit for me not to be happy with what they have done!

I won't have one, DP wants us to get one so I get more rest, after a spell of bad PND this is his solution

I don't like the idea of another human cleaning up after us, we're all capable of doing it ourselves.

Plus I'd feel uncomfortable leaving someone in the house alone but equally I couldn't sit there while someone was cleaning for me.

I'm also not sure what they'd actually do? My house is more cluttered, it's not dirty or anything.

A cleaner what?

Sorry, that came across badly.

I don't judge anyone else for having a cleaner at all, I don't think it's lazy or anything like that.

I think I'd be uncomfortable having one though.

Our cleaner is amazing. I'm either out the house working or working from home whilst looking after the children. If they are napping/ playing nicely, bugger am I going to clean when I can actually work and earn.

I've had a cleaner when working full time and also when ds was small. I certainly don't have money to burn, I'd just rather spend it on a cleaner than regular clothes shopping, getting hair/nails done etc. I have friends who would never 'waste' money on a cleaner yet the amount they spend on shoes/handbags/makeup each month is far more than i spend on having a cleaner.

I'll be completely honest, I paid a cleaner because it made DW pull finger out and run a duster around the house out of shame before they arrived.

Before anyone bites my head off, before that I was sole breadwinner and almost sole housework doer when I got home, and was just bloody tired. :)

Cleaner-once-a-week doesn't deal with clutter, do washing up, laundry and bedtimes, daily wiping of kitchen counters - all things that suck up evenings most. I want a maid for those things!

My DH cleans toilet, I spray on bath and hoover, steam mop - all doesn't take up that much time overall (we live in 96sqm house), so I don't really feel the need for the cleaner for this kind of thing.

So those of you with cleaners, what do they do?

I have a Roomba, so wouldn't need hoovering done.
I have a dishwasher so wouldn't need dishes done.
I do 1-2 load of laundry a day as standard and I do it when waiting for the kettle to boil etc so it doesn't take a huge amount of time.

The kids make their best when they get out of them and either me or DP does ours.

I can imagine if I had a cleaner they'd spend all the time being chased by DS3 as he un tidied behind them.

Berkshire and £10 ph here. Once a month because we're not dirty. Good cleaner. Leaves some bits out but they don't matter.

I have a cleaner and I love not having to spend time cleaning as it's a job I hate. If people think it is lazy I really don't care

She costs £60 a month and for me that is well worth it, she cleans 100 times better than I do anyway.

If I worked I'd have one without a doubt, but I'd feel lazy having one. I'd also have to clean before they came so they didn't think I was scummy!!
I would quite like one to come and show me how to clean though, always feel like I'm back peddling and everyone else's is cleaner!

I have one and I'm a SAHM. I have more interesting things to than clean and can't be arsed with it.

Judge away. I couldn't care less what other people think of me.

Why would anyone think it was lazy? Someone has to earn that money, right?

Far better off spending a little on things that improve quality of life than most crap people spend it on, imo.

"At my mum & baby group the other day consisting of new mums only, I found out they all had hired cleaners!!"

I was speculating on another thread recently that baby groups are primarily for middle class mums- whereas toddler groups pull in a more mixed crowd. This statement makes me feel vindicated in my theory!

Of course, you are not the only person, not to have a cleaner OP! Most people don't have cleaners- otherwise we'd all be cleaning each others houses and no other economic activity would be happening at all.

I personally don't know anyone who has a cleaner although I can afford it and have considered it. In the end I decided that I would be a bit embarrassed to have someone else see (and deal with) my mess. And in a weird subconscious sort of way I sort of feel like it would diminish me as a woman. All ridiculous, I know!

My house is not generally clean and tidy- but isn't a health hazard either. It probably in the bottom third of acceptable housekeeping!

"If I worked I'd have one without a doubt, but I'd feel lazy having one. I'd also have to clean before they came so they didn't think I was scummy!!"

Damnautocorrect That's exactly how I feel! Also, in my house, clutter is a bigger problem than actual dirt and I don't think a cleaner could organise me stuff (or could they?)

I have one, but it's because I'm disabled and I pay her with my DLA care.

Even if I wasn't disabled I'd probably have one. I'm a huge slattern and without someone the house would be a health hazard mess!