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?

Because DH and I have have a toddler, and very full-on jobs. Keeping on top of the house was just too much for me. I also want to spend as much time as possible with DS.

I work 6 days a week, Saturdays are my days off and I sure won't be cleaning then or in the evenings! Dh also works long hours.
On my Sunday job I make, in 1 hour, the amount of money my cleaner charges to clean my house for 3 hours. I think it's worth it and time efficient, that's all. I still clean the kitchen daily, hoover occasionally and make sure the house is tidy.

I'm actually getting pretty jealous reading some of these replies. An how cheap some of them are really! Like a pp said, buying family time. Never looked at it that way!
I get too ashamed of DP's untidiness.. How do you all get past that? I'd love one now after reading some of these replies.

Ok let me just clarify, my colleague has no children and finishes work at 4:30pm each day! None of our other colleagues have cleaners so yeah to us its unusual! It's good natured ribbing, he takes the pee out of me on other stuff.

Because honestly I cant be arsed doing it myself!

I work full time and don't want to spend my evenings of weekends cleaning therefore it's amazing to be able to pay someone else to do this for me. A cleaner and online shopping mean that i don't have to waste any of my time doing those things and can enjoy my weekends with my family and can relax in the evenings after work. It's something I feel very lucky to afford and love coming home to a clean house! and knowing its been done from top to bottom!

Why do you find this so surprising, OP? It’s pretty usual, and an excellent and inexpensive sanity-saver for busy people.

Same as most people here. Both DH and I work full time and have a three year old. Worth every penny as it means it's one less thing for us to do on evenings and weekends.
It's not that common amongst our friends but most of them have one partner working part time.

We have a cleaner and most of my friends who work in professional or other full time roles also do. It's basically my luxury to pay someone to do all the jobs I hate, I don't spend a lot of money on myself and it makes a huge difference to our lives

We've just started having a cleaner she does two hours a week £10 an hour directly to her, we don't have kids, but I work all over the country in a high pressure public sector inspectorate role and DH works in a very draining public sector MH type job until after nine pm most nights Monday to Thursday. We both have the weekends off at home together, and for the sake of £20 a week i would rather spend quality time together rather than lose half a day cleaning. We're both from working class backgrounds and my mum worked as a cleaner when I was young for extra money for Christmas/holidays etc on top of her normal job. There's no shame in being a cleaner, and that work wouldn't be there if there was no demand.

There is absolutely nothing better than coming in from a long day at work, having picked your kids up from nursery, to the cleaner having been in and your house spotless.

All you have to do is bath and bed for the kids, then you can sit in your clean and tidy house and know there is nothing you should be doing.

I used to live for tuesday evenings and those few hours.

Do you actually like cleaning? Scrubbing, dusting, hoovering? I don't. I do like a clean house though. Therefore I have found a way to have a clean house without spending time on activities I don't particularly enjoy. I don't get why this is so hilarious?

But why do something dull and time-consuming, if you can pay someone else to do it? Who gets home from work and thinks ‘You know, I really feel like scrubbing the bathroom’?

I’m a foster carer and single parent. I have loads of time to clean and could easily do it myself but I detest it and am rubbish at it.
So I go the gym every week when my cleaner comes.
It means I keep the house much tidier and don’t panic when people pop in.
I don’t go out, get takeaways and probably lots of other things that people choose to spend their money on.

I have previously had a cleaner, just fortnightly (if budget allowed I would like weekly) but I work 10 hour days, have a 1 & 4 year old. I got the Cleaner when I went back to university for the year, with working, kids, study. I had minimal time & preferred to spend it with the kids. £20 a fortnight was reasonable as we would spend that on a takeaway. I’d much prefer my house to be cleaned for me.

I wish I could afford a cleaner.

Why on earth would you tease someone for having a cleaner? I had one before I had children because I could afford it and valued my time. I didn't want to spend a couple of hours of my free time cleaning. Now I have children I feel that even more strongly.
Do you grow all your own food or do you outsource that? Do you make all your own clothes or do you outsource that? Do you educate your own children or do you outsource that?

Well you'd really take the piss out of me OP, I'm a SAHM and still have a cleaner! I hate cleaning and we can afford it. It's a luxury and if we had to cut back it's one of the first things that would go. I still have to clean on an everyday basis as it's a busy house with 3 kids, but it's very nice to know someone else is helping with the deep cleaning of bathrooms and floors once a week.

Because I have the rest of my life to clean and my quality time with my young children / husband / being active / fit / healthy / relaxed etc is short lived in comparison.

Good on your colleague for not caring what you think. Say his cleaner comes for 4h a week, that’s a very meaningful amount of time if it’s spent well, no matter how he chooses to spend it.

Okay, lighthearted...

I have no kids and work less hours. I'm a teacher, home by 3.15.

Still CBA to clean 😂

No reason why not, as long as you can afford their rates and would like the service they offer, we want to provide the service so all's fair and everyone benefits from the arrangement!

No one has to justify it. Don't get the weird attitude people like op have about cleaners. Is it because we are women op we ought to be doing it ourselves and not doing so is somehow "wrong"

Woah there! The only judgements I see are coming from some of the replies! No need to get so defensive ladies! I was just genuinely curious! I have a busy job etc but cleaning de-stresses me and gives me a bit of a workout (hate the gym). I said at the top, no offence meant and it genuinely wasn’t. And as I said, me and my colleague are fine, we take the pee out of each other all the time but have also helped each other through some rough times. He takes my comments as their meant, light hearted ribbing.

It’s fine to have a cleaner

But why does everyone have to insist their role is ‘high pressure ‘ and ‘long hours’

Nurses have stressful jobs , as do social workers . As do bus drivers and many many others. They maybe can’t afford cleaners

Great to buy time but don’t assume your office job is more stressful than others

I don't understand how you are ripping the piss out of him for having a cleaner? What do you say that is considered funny?

People choose to spend their money in different ways. Paying for a cleaner because you don't want to do it yourself/know a professional will do a much better job than you is no different to paying a decorator or gardener, or paying for a salon colour rather than a home dye.