To ask what to potentially expect from cleaner?

[NomsQualityStreets]

Thinking about hiring a cleaner.

House is a 2 bedroomed terraced with a kitchen and lounge downstairs and a tiny bathroom and 2 bedrooms upstairs.
It's a cottage and we live in the countryside so general dirt seems to just accumulate all the time.
I'm ok with keeping up with the day to day bits but I never seem to make time for the deeper cleans such as cleaning cupboard doors in the kitchen, wiping skirting boards, deep cleaning bathroom inc tiles (usually give it a wipe everyday but hardly ever do a deep clean), clean the slate floor which is my nightmare to do.

So if I was to let's say hire a cleaner once a week and wanted her to do one of the things mentioned above such as deep cleaning bathroom one week plus general cleaning of rest of house so hoovering, dusting, cleaning kitchen inc hob what should I expect in terms of the hours it would take to do considering the size of the house?

Also would I expect them to be able to put stuff away such as a few toys if DCs have left them out -just to clarify I would always try to do this myself but sometimes we have to rush out of the door and I won't get a chance. There's a storage box provided where everything just gets chucked in.

Watching with interest! I'm planning to win the Euromillions next week 😊😊😊

If not it can be a pipe dream for the future

Do you know how long it takes you to do each of these jobs? That should give you a starting point.

Write down a list of jobs in order of priority for each week.

If you have a 'stuff' box for any stray items left lying around on cleaner days, that should be okay. Check with her/him that it's alright though during the interview stage.

Discuss what will happen during holidays when you first talk about money etc.

2-4 hours should have a tidy house looking spotless.

There are so many factors though like how clean it is at the moment, how many nooks and crannies there are, how much dust there is.

Ask them to come and evaluate and give you an idea of what they can do.

Unless you post a lot of photos of your house, it's nigh on impossible to give a good answer.

Do you know how long it takes you to do each of these jobs? That should give you a starting point.

Really? I had a cleaner very briefly for about a year and she managed in two hours what it would have taken me all week to do!
i.e.
clean kitchen (all surfaces and wash floor)
clean bathroom (ditto)
hoover all carpets and upholstery (sitting room, dining room, hallway, landing, two sets of stairs, 3 bedrooms)
dust living room

• 1 'special job' per week (cleaning the oven, washing the windows etc.)

The key for me was tidying up before she arrived (we had an agreement that she would not do tidying or 'day to day' things such as washing-up).

@Bettiedraper I definitely won't compare how quickly I do things vs them. But I don't want someone to have me on and say 4 hours if it actually takes them 2.

I'm a bit wary as I've had a bad experience with a cleaner in the past and also my elderly MIL had a not so great one but it would really help if we could find someone good this time around.

I wouldn't expect them to do stuff like the dishes but just wiping surfaces including wardrobes as can get dusty, a good thorough Hoover and actually move things out of the way, give the kitchen a good clean, bathroom etc Just things I usually don't really get stuck into.

They've not started yet but I've just booked in with a company to have two hours every other week. It's a 30s style terrace with living room, dining room, kitchen/ conservatory and three bed rooms, 1 small bathroom. He said in two hours they can do the full house but to start with it may take longer while they get it to standard (I'm trying not to be offended) so they will probably focus more on downstairs and then upstairs till they get into it. He's doing the first clean for free so can see how well it's done.

I wouldn’t expect that to take more than 1.5-2 hours max unless they were also tidying. My cleaner does my 3 bed 3 floor house (1 main bathroom, 1 shower room and 1 downstairs loo) in 2.5 hours, a real deep clean less frequently would take 3.5-4 hours.

It depends some times when you start a job it needs deep cleaning to begin with it can take a few weeks and extra hours to see results, once all skirting tiles surfaces etc are all given a deep clean over the first 3 to 4 visits. You can expect it to be kept up for 2 to 2.5 hours cleaning a week.

If they scrubbed the wall tiles one week, they would only need a quick clean for the next 3few visits. I wouldn't have any issues lifting toys up, and doing a quick tidy before cleaning as long as the floors not covered. I wouldn't really wash and dry dishes unless asked.

I’m a cleaner and with 2 hours a week, I’d have it spotless. Bathroom tiles, skirting boards and cupboard doors are standard jobs and should be done every clean in my opinion.

The jobs I tend to do less often are windows (except the kitchen window, which I usually do every week as they get splashed a lot if above the sink), tops of kitchen cupboards, specific polishing (wipe on and leave ten minutes before buffing type polish) and cleaning leather furniture - that kind of thing.

If it’s a bit grubby now then give the cleaner 2 or 3 cleans to get up to speed with it.

If you aren’t looking for spotless then you could give less time and ask them to rotate tasks. An hour and a half would be enough time to give it a good clean but you’d need to make sure they kept on top of the deeper cleaning.