New cleaner interview

[WanderLustingLane]

I am currently off work with HG & ante natal depression which has caused massive anxiety.
My DP has hired a cleaner to come for two hours each week to help take some of the load off of us, he works very long hours but helps as much as he can and I am at home pregnant with two other children.
I just can't cope with the housework and on bad days I can barely stand up.
Anyway, it was booked online from a well known cleaning company, they phoned today and said the lady would come tomorrow for an interview (not really an interview but to go through what needs doing) then do her two hours clean.

Trouble is this has set me off massively and I'm feeling really anxious, I'm really worried about asking her to do stuff that she doesn't do or asking for too much stuff for her two hours, I have no idea how long thing are allocated to professional cleaners?

I know I'm over thinking but I am just not myself right now.

How does this sound?

One small shower/toilet to clean
One medium bathroom to clean
One bed linen to change
Hoovering: one bedroom, two small hallway/landings, two staircases, and the downstairs open plan kitchen/living room.
The floor mopped downstairs only
(Rest of house is the carpet that needs hoovering)

For context, the bathrooms are not too bad, definitely not deep clean needed, toilets are always OK.
More like wipe down sinks bath etc and use glass cleaner on mirrors and wipe the small floors with floor wipes?

So my thinking was half hour each bathroom/shower
Then an hour to change the bed, and hoover top to bottom with floor mopped downstairs?

The bedroom is not very dusty or anything so not much polishing or anything

Nothing in kitchen or the three kids bedrooms needs doing.

It's basically the things I can't keep on top of we want to allocate.

Sorry for waffling.

I think that sounds okay. My old boss (home working environment) had sonething similar for 2 hours. Think he had the kitchen done too! However, when I thought of getting it done our friends suggested our 3 bed house would need alternate weeks to keep clean as that is what they do. However, I am very messy and they probably know that!

To help your anxiety I woukd probably call the company and ask what they seem reasonable after getting some more feedback.

Sorry to hear you're suffering. Was off for 2 weeks with antenatal anxiety myself recently and hope you get through this.

That sounds fine OP.

I have a lovely lady who cleans for me for 3h per week. We used to have 2h but decided that an extra hour for OH's ironing was worth it. The tenner he spends getting her to do a dozen shirts and some laundry folding gives us about 2 hours together - well worth it.

Just run through what you need doing and she will tell you if it's reasonable. And it's a two way street. She's helping but you're employing. No need to feel bad. You're just prioritising your time/money!! The time it would take me to do what she achieves in two hours is well saved!

Would it take an hour to clean two bathrooms? I would do that in much quicker time and cleaners are usually quite quick. I'm not wanting to add to your anxiety here nut maybe ask her how long she would need to do each one. Tell her you'd rather a good job than a rushed job. We had a cleaner come here from a company and she told us exactly how much time she would need for each job.

I have no idea how long they take but I broke down the two hours and it seems like enough...
If there's time left over then there's definitely more to do but I'm scared to overload...I really have a hard time asking or telling people what to do.
But I need to bare in mine as you said it is a paid job so it's kind of the point

I'm in a 2.5hr clean I do, kitchen...sides, washing up, cupboard doors, hob and floors.
Dust and Hoover downstairs
Bathroom, dust upstairs
Hoover all floors
Mop floor

Yours would be done within an hour! Just tell the cleaner what you want done as a priority and that if she has time left over to do...blah blah

Well I would like my sofa cushions taken off and it hoovers as its velvet and the bane of my life.

Good to hear you think an hour would be enough that makes me reassured that I'm definitely not asking too much for the two hours

I'm going to write my priority list tonight and see how long it takes, if time left over there's plenty more

I have no idea how long they take but I broke down the two hours and it seems like enough...
If there's time left over then there's definitely more to do but I'm scared to overload

In that case why not tell her that when she comes? The interview will be for them to have a look around, assess the job, and find out your expectaitions so when they come, show them round and then sit down and say "So, I was thinking that you could do X/Y/Z, do you think that's doable in the 2hrs or would it take more/less time?"

If they say that's doable then great, if they say that sounds like they will have time left over, then you can give them the list of "extra" jobs and discuss which of those you'd want doing regularly or as a one off. So maybe they would do your "standard" clean in 85mins, so you add an extra 5 mins of dusting the living room to the standard and then the other half hour would be a different specific job (skirting boards/deep clean oven/clean mirrors etc) every week. Or you just give them the list and when they're done with the standard clean, they just work through the list and do whatever they have time for.