... to expect a cleaner to clean, in 2 hours,

[emkana]

a kitchen
a shower room
a bathroom
the hall (just mop floor)
two bedrooms
a study
landing and stairs (vacuum)

And would you think this cleaning should include things like - cleaning the tiles in the shower, cleaning the front of the kitchen cupboards, cleaning the little shelf in the bathroom

or would that only be enough time to do surfaces and floors?

And what would you do if you really liked the cleaner personally? I dread saying anything, don't want her to leave really, but don't want to spend £10 an hour for cleaning I'm not happy with

HELP

Maybe I'm messier than you, but our cleaner cleans

kitchen
bathroom
shower room
hall
3 bedrooms
Sitting Room
Dining Room

and it takes her 4 hours, and I don't think that's twice the amount of work yours does.

I couldn't clean that in two hours - not to a high standard, anyway. It certainly wouldn't be enough time to clean the tiles in the shower or the kitchen cupboards.

Yes unreasonable. Too much for a thorough clean in 2 hrs imo.

have you timed yourself cleaning it how you would like it to be done that way you can have a better idea

Okay, accepted, but she could do what one of you said and do at least one room well every week couldn't she?

And also for example today the kitchen floor still had visible marks on it, so she can't have mopped it very well...

oh dear I don't know what to do.

yep - my cleaner has never cleaned the front of my cupboards/wiped tiles down etc ... i still tend to do all the wet cleaning etc - i use the cleaner to keep the housework managable in the week as me and DH both work full time.
She hoovers, cleans bathroom and kitchen, empties bins and polishes everywhere in 2 hours

I think your house sounds cleanable in 2 hours...I've known a lot of cleaners & in my experience they take their time!

Perhaps you should look for a cleaner who charges £8ph & have her in for more hours!

What gets me as well is that she's fond of doing pointless things (IMHO) like folding all the dishcloths
Or lining up the juice cartons in an orderly manner

I think it is too much for 2 hours, is she aware of your expectations or does she see her job as surface cleaning?

she needs more time

and I don't think she has enough time to do one really well without letting something slip which will mean the next week she needs longer to get everything up to the usual standard.

For such a thorough clean you are looking more at 3-4 hours I think.

As someone said, do it yourself one week and see how long it takes.

I'd mention to her that she doesn't need to fold dishcloths etc!

have you tried leaving a list of things you'd like done?

Our cleaner does:
Kitchen - dishes and surfaces plus mops floor
Dusts and hoovers living room and three bedrooms
Washes floors on ground floor
Cleans bathroom
If time does a wash and hangs it up or might do a bit of ironing if asked.
We pay ours for three hours (not as much as £10 an hour mind you) and sometimes she does less, sometimes she does more.
Why don't you ask her how she's finding the work to be done in the time she has? You could approach it in a non-confrontational way if you asked her to let you know if she has any problems? You could discuss whether it would be better to do a deep clean of one room each week and maybe leave some jobs to every fortnight?
It's difficult, I know... ours has been with us for years, and she's lovely, but sometimes she'd rather chat than work which can be difficult!

oh to have a cleaner

I clean for 3hrs at my nan's. She has a pretty big house, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, dining, conservatory etc. Granted, most of the bedrooms and 2 bathrooms are used rarely, however I do get it surface cleaned within 2 hours and then spend the next hour doing a thorough clean in one room or the windows throughout or polishing the brass, i.e. a big job for an hour.

I guess we all have different standards of cleanliness.

Our cleaner comes 3 1/2hr twice a week:

Hoovers: 4 bedrooms
Study
Living room
Dining room
Large hall, stair, landing
Kitchen
Laundry room

Cleans 2 Bathrooms,1 toilet, kitchen

Mops kitchen, living room, bathroom,
hall, laundry room floors

Changes bed
Does 3 loads of washing & ironing

Polishes all surfaces

Cleans oven, silver once a month.

Oh and she's never afraid to suggest jobs, like cleaning the leather suite thoroughly or cleaning out the oven and I never feel offended she has asked. She always says, "if you don't get upstairs done I don't mind, however, I'd really like it if you could clean so and so this week" if she wants me to do a particular job.

I don't expect my cleaner to work as fast as I do myself because that's all she does, all day every day, whereas if I clean I can sit down and do something less physically strenuous the rest of the day. I keep my house really tidy, with minimal surface clutter etc, so that my cleaner can focus on cleaning. My cleaner comes for 3.5 hours on a Monday and I work with her some of the time, tidying up, putting the ironing away etc, so it's hard to estimate exactly how long we really take to get the house clean and tidy. But you can't do much in a family home in under three hours.

My cleaner does a bit less than that (no study and no shower room) and it takes her 3 hrs. It is spotless when she is done though. She also cleans the mocrowave or the fridge out if I ask her to

I pay £8.00 an hour not £10.

We have

living room
dining room
kitchen
bathroom
2 bedrooms

and it takes me HOURS to do a really thorough clean that includes stuff like tiles in shower or front of kitchen cupboards.......2 hours not enough for what you're asking imo. I certainly couldn't do what you list in that time.

I think surface clean only in that time? Why dont' you ask her next week to concentrate on the living room for example (say you've got the in-laws coming or something!), then the following week praise how nice the living room looked and suggest that you were so impressed could she spend an hour each week concentrating on giving one room a really thorough seeing to?

I don't think I could do a good job in 2 hours - I spend about 2 hours most weekends cleaning and I only have

kitchen
bathroom
living room
2 bedrooms
tiny hall and landing
stairs

The 2 hours I spend doesn't include tiles/cupboard fronts or any detailed cleaning.

TBH it sounds too much for 2 hours. When I used to have a cleaner in three hours she was expected to clean:-

1 shower room
1 bedroom (she was supposed to do the kids rooms too but never seemed to have time)
1 livingroom
Kitchen & Diningroom hoovering and mopping only
Hoover throughout and mop
Dust/polish

Although we got rid of her in the end it wasn't anything to do with the quality of her cleaning.

If you can do it in that time, to your standards, then its not unreasonable to ask yourself why she can't. But if you can't do it, its asking too much.
Also depends on how much tidying up there is to do. Does doing the bedrooms include putting clothes away and changing the beds?