To expect a 5 bed to be cleaned in 3 hours?

[hibbledibble]

Genuinely not sure if this is reasonable or not.

The last cleaner managed this as a fortnightly clean, but I let her go as she was damaging a lot of things.

It's a small 5 bed (130-140m2), with 2 bathrooms. One bedroom is a guest room and tiny (and doesn't need cleaning regularly)

A new cleaner came and only managed the lounge, kitchen, one bathroom and 2 bedrooms in 4 hours. I understand the first clean can take longer, but she said she would want 5 hours a week for our house.

That's out of our budget price wise so wondering on opinions. I'm not expecting a deep clean, mainly just floors and kitchen/bathrooms.

Hard to say without knowing how messy / dirty it is and what jobs you expect the cleaner to do but I would say yabu (but might change my mind with more information). Perhaps the other cleaner damaged things because she was too quick?

I have 5 beds, 2 bath, one loo. My cleaner does everything bar 2 bedrooms in 3 hours. Doesn’t move much furniture but good dusting and floors.

Three bed house, one bedroom not used and we have three hours a week. Three hours a fortnight seems very low hours.

The last cleaner damaged stuff because she was probably rushing around like crazy! I think YABU to expect a thorough job in that time.

I think it would be a bit rushed but still could be possible if the house is tidy.

yabu
I would expect a cleaner to need 4 hours at least to do a thorough job.

I'm fast (and so's our cleaner) and we can both clean our 4 bed house in 3 hours but it would be a superficial clean - no time to move things to dust underneath. 4 hours would be better for a fortnightly clean, or I'd say that 4.5-5 would give time for a really thorough clean including some extras, like the fridge, changing sheets etc.

No don't think you can clean whole house in 3 hours. Think you are expecting too much.

We have a 5 bed, 3 bath (200sq m) but cleaner only does 3 beds and 2 baths. She hoovers throughout, cleans bathrooms and kitchen. She decided that 3 hours was too much and so went down to 2.5hrs.

To be fair it is mainly just the hoovering/ floors done in rooms other than bathrooms and kitchen. There is ad hoc dusting etc but certainly not every room each week.

I don’t think YABU if you’re happy with a surface clean as am I but if you want a deeper clean then the cleaner will need more time.

I do spend a good hour tidying first though so she has easy access to where she needs to clean.

5 bed, two en suites, one bathroom, one loo, kitchen/family room, lounge, hallway, stairs (tall house): 3 hours for my cleaner. Does a proper job too.

But she is absolutely amazing. It’s been a four hour job previously. The house is always tidied before she comes and she doesn’t have to put stuff away, wash up etc.

Bloody love her.

I have 5 beds, 3 baths plus loo, 3 reception rooms and my cleaner does 4 hours, which is not enough. She does bathrooms and kitchen and hallway floor every week and alternates the other rooms. We are 6 people and 3 cats and I think are scruffier than average.

We have a 3 bedroom ( 2 double, 1 single), 1 bathroom, 1 downstairs cloakroom, front room, family room/ kitchen extension and we have 3 hours cleaning to a reasonable weekly standard. Not a super deep clean of everything weekly but she usually does one deep clean task of something in the kitchen/ family room every other week (maybe the oven, windows, or a tidy up of cupboards/ inside fridge). Floors are vacuumed throughout and kitchen/ family room/ hallway mopped afterwards.

The cleaner works at a steady pace for the 3 hours so perhaps you’d need an extra minimum 30 mins/ hour for a 5 bedroom home for a general weekly cleanup?

4 bed 2 baths 1 downstairs loo
Large kitchen/diner/family room
Utility room
1 snug
1 large lounge
3 storey so 2 staircases

Cleaner for 3 hours but has ro alternate some bedrooms or tasks

5 bed fortnightly - definitely too few

4 bed here, 3 reception rooms, entrance hall, 2 bathrooms & WC. 4hrs fortnightly. Couldn’t get it done in 3.

I have a 4 bed 2 bath house and my cleaner takes 4.5 hours which feels right to me based on when I clean myself.

3 hours doesn't sound enough do Hoover and dust every week.

We have 4 beds, 2 bathrooms plus cloakroom, three receptions (although I don't expect cleaner to take on the play room!), kitchen and utility. Cleaner does 2 hours a week. Dh wanted fortnightly but I've said that's not enough.

I find cleaners vary hugely. Our last one broke stuff and never finished. Dh caught her on a few occasions sitting and texting in our living room and finishing early.

The one before was amazing but she moved away. New lady starts in September and thinks 2 hours is fine. 🤞

3 hours every week would probably be ok. We have 3hrs a week for 150sqm and that keeps on top of it.

3 hours a fortnight I would say is too little, unless you are doing quite a bit yourself in between. I do nothing

If you only want a cleaner every fortnight, then I think 4 hours would be a minimum.I've noticed that when our cleaner is away for a week on holiday, that the house just needs a bit more time ( build up of more dust overall as well as heavier grease on hob or limescale in bathroom).

Sack her.

She sounds sloppy.

Our cleaner manages our 5 bed house in 3 hours.
The house is always left really tidy for her to get in there and clean.
We make all beds, washing up is done and put away, nothing left on any floors that she would have to pick up, all the shoes properly left on the shoe rack and not kicked off all over the house etc, rubbish is all emptied.
Basically, it’s ready for her to go in and blitz.
However, some of the house needs nothing doing because it’s still a building site,
Middle landing is bare floor boards with no skirting, one of the bedrooms is a play room and other than a quick hoover I ask her to leave the rest. No carpet at the moment on the upper landings or stairs which will all change and I’ve let her know that she just needs to be honest about how much longer it’s going to take her because it will be more work.

OP. how long would it take you to do it?

Gosh I'd make a terrible professional cleaner. It takes me 2 hours to clean/tidy/change bedding etc in my 2 bed flat, lots of dust and cat hair to attend to, or perhaps I'm just not very efficient .

I have a large 4 bed house with 3 reception, dining kitchen, utility large conservatory and 2 bathrooms. I had cleaners for many years until I retired and they varied a lot in what they got done and how thoroughly.
Three hours a week was enough unless I wanted spring cleaning done.

Thinking of getting another cleaner now, I would be interested in what it costs now. I'm in NE.

My cleaner used to do a 3 bed one bathroom in 2 hours.

That was vacuum and dust, clean bathroom, clean kitchen sink, wash hard floors. She had enough time to sort out more long term cleaning jobs from time to time, like washing down the fireplace.

We had less furniture then too.

I would have thought 3 hours for a 5 bed only fortnightly would require 2 cleaners.