AIBU to wonder why everyone has cleaners these days!

[Storm4star]

Ok, please don’t take offence, I say this somewhat in jest. But my goodness how many of you have cleaners?? I have been utterly ripping the pee out of a male colleague at work because he and his wife have a cleaner but I hadn’t realised how common it’s become until I joined MN!

I personally struggle to justify spending my hard earned cash on things I could do myself (also do most of my own decorating and DIY). But have I missed something? Is a cleaner now the new must have?

If I could afford it, I probably would. I'd be a bit paranoid about aspects of it though!

I would love to have a cleaner but know we could never afford that, and the only people I know personally that have one, are very wealthy or very old, and really need the assitance.

I can’t afford a cleaner. By the time I’ve paid the butler’s wages and my lady’s maid there’s barely enough left for the footman let alone a cleaner!

I’m really curious as I have never had a cleaner as I always thought of them being expensive and having no children I have always felt that I should be cleaning as I have no reason not to.

Do they come round when you aren’t home and let themselves in? I wouldn’t want to be home watching them tidy but at the same time I don’t know how I would feel being at work knowing someone is at my home!

It does sound like a small price to pay though if they do everything!

When I can afford one I will have one. I am clean and neat and I have no issues doing my own daily cleaning a few min a day and doing some light ironing. Someone to stay on top of the deep cleaning/fiddly bits I hate would make me much happier, free up some time for me and make me feel less guilty about struggling with deep cleaning.

No point atm due to lack of funds/priorities and flatmate being an utter slattern so not worth it.

Sorry, I can't be arsed to read 22 pages of posts so I apologise if I'm repeating others, but from a purely economic point of view, unless you earn minimum wage yourself, you are likely to earn more per hour after tax than you need to pay a cleaner. So, unless you do not value your time, particularly enjoy cleaning, do not believe a paid cleaner would clean to your standards, or have issues about 'strangers' in your house (I have put that in quotes as obviously you tend to get to know cleaners over time) then to me it's a no-brainer.

But obviously due to the massive number of posts on this thread, it's not about the economics of it but some underlying moral issue. Cleaning is no different really to outsourcing anything else (do people have a go at people that use car washes rather than doing it themselves?) - it's just it was associated traditionally with women and seems now perhaps to be associated with virtue.

I actually don't mind cleaning and few of my paid cleaners have really cleaned to my standards, but the day DH gladly takes on half of the cleaning will be the only day I get rid of them!

We have a cleaning service, and have done so for years. We go with a reputable bonded licensed company, and gave them a house key. They come once every two weeks during the day when we are out at work/school. For us it’s a matter of what our time is worth. DH and I looked at our hourly wages and what it would “cost” for us to spend the hours to clean our house it’s just not worth it for us to spend our time to clean. I work FT out of the house with a very demanding job as does DH, both with occasional travel. And we have two very active teenagers that have sporting and other events every weekend. So we literally don’t have the time to spend scrubbing floors and bathrooms, dusting, etc. we get a thorough cleaning every two weeks. And in between times we do tidying up, wiping counters, sweeping the floors, keeping bathroom sinks and toilets clean. But we let them do the deep clean. We keep the place looking decent and tidy, but they do that extra level that makes everything sparkle and shine. Works for us...

When My OH and I worked full time with two children we had a cleaner who also ironed. Retired and redundant respectively I do it and also the decorating, maintenance and the garden. It’s pretty exhausting but I use it as my fitness regime. Better that than a grubby house.

Single parent of two children. We have a cleaner. I work part time but am fortunately relatively well paid. I wouldn't be without our cleaner now.
I don't enjoy cleaning, but I do like to have a clean house!
Our lovely cleaner really saves me time. I'd say about 50% of people I know have a cleaner.

DanglyEarOrnaments, where abouts in the country are you, and what is '... top end of pricing ...'?

Anyone know what the going hourly rate for a cleaner in an affluent borough of South West London is?

I'm a cleaner and charge around £11ph. Most clients have given me a key but if not they tend to be doing work on another room and one lady said it spurs her on to get paperwork etc done whilst I'm cleaning the other areas. I'm alot more thorough in other people's houses than I am in my own as there's too many distractions at home and I rarely get a 2 hour child free, uninterrupted block like I do at work.
One thing I have noticed as a cleaner though, IME is it makes alot of people become lazy ... they leave the bins over flowing as they know I will empty them when I get there a couple of days later or loads of recycling by the door or spilt drinks down the cupboard fronts etc. I'm there to clean so don't mind doing it but what's the point in paying to have a clean house for half a week and the rest of the week it's messier than before they had a cleaner because they are waiting for me to come and do it!

I think a lot comes down to motivation and for me, after a full week at work, I don't have the motivation to focus on cleaning, so what would take my cleaner two hours would take me 7 as I faff about; I think also it is easier to clean someone else's house as there is less scope for faffing. I keep on top pf daily stuff, like the kitchen and bathroom, but my cleaner adds the sparkle. And helpfully does some of the ironing.I would really love a laundry fairy, particularly someone who folds and puts away clean laundry, as I really struggle with that.

Hi totolouise we are North West (UK) but a lot of my industry friends all across the UK trade at similar rates.

Top end pricing is to us £18 per person per hour inc VAT however some of my business friends charge a little more. We are only concerned with the price WE need to make OUR business work for growth and that is your rate really, once all is costed in!

You still will need to invest a lot yourself in the first few years, it is not a 'get rich quick' industry. You DO need to price correctly to not sink.

I've heard through industry friends that conversely to the usual market trends, for the domestic cleaning market, London prices are driven downwards by the sheer number of illegals working within the area. However i do have a friend trading near there who has made it work against these odds and is currently trading at £19 per hour inc VAT. I am so proud of her this proves it can be priced for growth in any area in the UK.

We are fully booked a lot of the time - hiring new staff is always the challenge! Good luck with your venture, if you need extra support pm me!

I had a cleaner and blooming loved it - I ve moved and don’t have one at the min- because I have the time to do it myself ( but I don’t want too) my mother had pnd and had a bit of a break down when I was 8, so her ocd cleaning went into over driving - taking me with it - she wanted the house bleached and cleaned daily - we joked if you stood still long enough she d bleach you! So a good 8 years of cleaning with my mother put me off for a lifetime!! And when I was working 24/7 as a taxi driver , I wanted to marry my cleaner - she saved my life lol So I d like a cleaner back - I d have a personal trainer, a hair dresser ( daily ) and a chef ( if I had the money ) it’s keeping people in work .. :D x

I don't want a cleaner and don't see the point for us, but great for others who are clean and tidy already and just need a deep clean.
I couldn't see the point in having to put everything away so they could clean everything.
We like our mess and untidiness, or the lived in approach.

I know many people who pay someone to do household cleaning for them. Majority are either older generation ( health condition/s mean they are unable to deal with all household cleaning). Some are disabled individuals, or couples ( who cannot manage some of the household cleaning).

Have also come across friends, colleagues, etc that pay for household cleaner. Some had someone to do ironing ( a task which they were not keen on. Also a task they found time consuming). I think if they felt it improved quality of life, then was value for money.

They all only made use of a couple of hours per week. Possibly anyone who had a daily cleaner whom they paid, would likely need to be on a high income.

I don’t see the need or point of s cleaner. We are clean, tidy people. We do 10 mins here and there, consequently the house isn’t that dirty or untidy.

Same with the garden,

We also service/maintain/fix our own cars, lawn mowers, chainsaws, generators and other machinery.

Pretty much all of my working Mum friends have a cleaner.

DH and I could do it all ourselves, but we don't want to.

And someone else wants the work, so it's win-win.

I wouldn't try to convince someone else to get one - if you don't want, or see the need for one, then crack on.

But having one really isn't all that weird, either.

...and if someone gave me continual 'ribbing' for having one, I'd think they'd led an incredibly sheltered life, and would feel a bit awkward for them, no matter how good natured the constant ribbing was.

I think you have to be a little bit slow of understanding to not understand why people have a cleaner. There are loads of things I could potentially do that I pay others to do, because I'd rather be doing something else. Cleaning is just one of them!

Me too Dowager. I would think exactly as you have said. And slightly cringe for them tbh.

Kerala1, I agree.

Our mainly first and second generation immigrant friends didn't have cleaners growing up.

Now it's not uncommon. People have just as busy lives but they can afford it now so why not. I only have a tiny apartment but when I move into a house I'll be getting a cleaner. I work from home and can earn more in the time a cleaner would take to clean my home. I hate cooking too and I would love to be able to afford to pay someone to cook all my meals.

Choc, you were unlucky. I work at home and my cleaner and I normally exchange polite greetings and have a bit of small talk/a laugh. She doesn't feel the need to move stuff to show that she's cleaned. She's never broken anything and doesn't use too much cleaning product.

Fancied, when my cleaner first started we were all out at the time she came in. I used to leave her a key under a plant pot and she'd put it back when she left. After a while I came home one day and she was standing outside the house because she'd seen a bloke hanging around looking suspicious and didn't want him to see her putting the key under the pot.

God knows how long she'd waited after finishing her work! I was pretty impressed and grateful and from then on she's just had her own key. I'm normally in when she comes as I work at home now, but none of us has any qualms about her being alone in the house as she's clearly proved how responsible she is.

I have a cleaner. Everyone I know has a cleaner. I choose to spend my "hard earned cash" as someone up thread put it, paying someone to clean my toilets. There are very few other things I wouldn't sacrifice in order to have a cleaner.

I've just got a cleaner who comes in once a week and its well worth it. She cleans, does the laundry and the ironing (which I am rubbish at). Time verses money.