To ask about having a cleaner?

[TammyswansonTwo]

DH works full time, we have 13 month old twins, one with a complex illness, and I have chronic health issues myself. I can't afford regular childcare but considering getting some help with cleaning.

I'd just want the kitchen, bathroom and downstairs floors (painted floorboards) doing maybe once a week. It's a small 2 bed terrace.

Just wondering, for those who have this sort of arrangement, how many hours a week do you need and what gets done in that time? How much does it cost you and did you go through an agency or just find someone privately?

Thanks!

I pay £10ph direct to a self employed cleaner. I asked on a local Facebook page for a recommendation. Agencies take a big cut so although you pay more the cleaner often gets less.

The amount you want doing sounds like around 2 hours work I think.

I was just about to create my own post about this! I contacted a couple of cleaners today for quotes (I’m in the same boat - chronic health problems with a young child so need to offload some of the day to day), and one told me it would be a minimum of 2 hours at a time. I said that’s fine and what’s the hourly rate? And she replied that she needs to see the house first! Surely a cleaner should have a standard rate and it’s the time that could fluctuate depending on the size of the house, not the actual rate?

Thanks, that's sort of the amount of time I was thinking so good to know :)

I feel massively strange about paying someone to do this but need to be practical or I'm going to be utterly useless.

Mine does 3 bed semi top to bottom in 2 hours for £20. Shes a private cleaner that I already knew through friends. Agency would have been £25 for the 2 hours. I prefer having someone I know and trust rather than an agency as she comes when Im at work.

Yeah, you'd think an hourly rate wouldbe fixed but maybe they charge more if you're clearly wealthy ;)

Salem the difference in price could be for a house that needs a lot of cleaning and a house that is already pretty clean. Say £10 ph for a basic clean and £12.50 ph for a deep clean.

Salemslot they always ask to see the house first as they vary so much. Some are absolute shit tips that would take them forever to get to a decent standard of cleanliness

I pay my cleaner £10 per hour and she is my fairy godmother lol we found her privately not through an agency.

But if it was a shit tip and took longer than usual to clean, wouldn’t they just get paid for the extra hours it takes to clean rather than the increase in hourly rate also? So say I paid for 4 hours something that usually took 2 hours, then why would I pay a higher hourly rate for a job that’ll take them longer anyway?

Lol they come and look at your house to see how well off you are and make up the rate from there.

I can't even remember how I got my cleaner - it would have been a recommendation from a friend/school contact. Don't go through an agency you pay over the odds. I pay £10 per hour for 4 hours once a week - but I have a 4 bed house with large rooms which gets quite messy. You can look on the Nextdoor website for local recommendations.

It's so worth it - just takes the stress out of your life.

We have a one bed flat. She does 2 hours a week but that includes ironing. It isn't one of her jobs to do exactly, but she knows where the ironing pile is and she just irons until her time is up.

She keeps me sane and my life isn't anywhere near as stressful as yours sounds.

That would take about two hours, possibly 1 1/2

We have a three bed but quite a small one and it takes her about 3 hours. But it is spotless when she leaves- floors, sides, pictures, kitchen cabinets. The lot.

They will want to see the house first to see if what you are asking is realistic. If you have a hundred nick nacks that have to be moved to dust then it will take longer. My house is pretty clear but she makes an excellent job of the kitchen and bathroom.

Hi I feel your pain I have twins, a husband who works away a lot and I work part time. We have had a cleaner since I was pregnant with the girls (I had major complications and we knew that they would have a hospital stay when they are arrived? We have a large 2 bed and I have her for 2hrs every 2 weeks. She does kitchen, bathroom, mops hard flooring dusts and hoovers and I keep on top of the rest inbetween. She is an absolute Godsend. I pay £10 p/h too to our current cleaner I did pay £8.50 an hour previously but we live in a cheap area of the country so I think £10p/h is probably a good guide!

I have tried to gauge how long our 3 bed would take for a general clean of the three main areas (kitchen, lounge, bathroom) and a quick go over surfaces or floors of the other rooms. I reckon once they're into the swing of it 2hrs is enough for surfaces and floor in kitchen, mop hallway and lounge, clean bathroom and vacuum everywhere else, swapping for odd deep cleans occasionally. Our house is nice and easy to clean though, and easy to tidy too (we'd tidy before).

I pay my s/e cleaner £10 ph. She mostly focuses on the downstairs (bathroom is downstairs) and also does laundry and sorts the recycling out for me as she knows I struggle with it (single mum, also chronic health issues and currently post-surgery).

She also deep cleans all the litter trays so all I have to do between visits is scoop and sift and top up litter if needed. She's a fucking angel from heaven is what she is.

Currently does 2 hours a week but thinking of upping her to 3 so she can do more in the children's shit pit bedrooms.

I pay £12.50 ph, it's a minimum 2hr clean. I have 3bed 2bathroom house, kitchen & bathroom are fully cleaned with light dusting & hoovering of all other floors.
It needs to be spotlessly tidy before she comes as the cleaning takes 2hrs exactly, so no time for her to be doing any tidying beforehand.

Ours costs £12 per hour and she mops floors, cleans bathrooms, cleans kitchen, wash up, hoovers throughout, changes beds if needed & will put washing on/peg out if needed. She’s here about 2.5 hours a week & is a god send!

Thanks everyone - seems like a couple of hours a week would be reasonable then. Might need a bit more for the first time I guess (housework has been bottom of the list for the last couple of weeks) but then shouldn't be too bad. Our downstairs is pretty small so shouldn't be too much of an issue.

I've been saying we should do this for a year now so I really am going to do it!

I'm disabled and have a cleaner. Her rate is £13 an hour in Buckinghamshire and she does an hour a week - dusting, hoovering throughout, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom and mops both floors, cleans inside of fridge, or oven or cleans out a kitchen cupboard etc as needed. I always ensure everything is tidied away before she arrives, it's not a cleaner's job to tidy. She also doesn't do laundry or ironing.

Two kids, DH works long hours, I work full time from home. The cleaner is a life saver. He does a pretty thorough job of our larger 3-bedroom house in 2 hours, though I think this is pushing it time wise and I might ask him to start doing 2.5h. £12ph.

I don't have a cleaner but from what you've all said they are great! It makes me feel kinda sad that they are paid so low to do literally shit jobs like cleaning toilets & yet are clearly so valuable in your lives

Sunisshining I would highly recommend having a cleaner. Ours is amazing and has taken so much weight off of my shoulders.

She has become part of the family and does extra jobs like cleaning out our fridge , sorting our washing , taking our dog out etc

I would literally get rid of DH before our cleaner

Just do it. I got one once a week to do bathrooms, floors etc when I was very pregnant and then after while I recovered from my section. I still have her 4 months later. Cleaning the toilet isn't what I want to do with my precious maternity leave.