To get a cleaner and ask how much you pay for yours?

[DreamsOfDownUnder]

I'm a single mum of one, working part time whilst family have her. I also like to do things with my baby and by the end of it I'm shattered. I know it needs to be done, but I detest housework and have zero motivation.

How much do you pay and how often do you have them?

Seriously thinking about getting one, I binned Sky so I have a bit of extra money each month now (£120).

£12 and you are not unreasonable at all.

@donajimena I’ve had three cleaners over the last 10 years and they have all charged £10 per hour - can’t be a coincidence and they don’t know each other. So it’s pretty obvious to me that’s the going rate! like others have said she is welcome to charge and increase her prices as she sees fit.

Mine is £12.50 per hour, we have two hours a week which is ample (in fact generous) to clean our home.

We’ve had some fantastic ones but a few that don’t really clean. So they’ll clean what looks dirty and just skim over the rest which i always find annoying as I can always clean the house in that time so not sure how they can’t.

I’m beginning to think it’s a waste of money!

Kittecats. Its NOT above the living wage. I pay for insurance, petrol, bookkeeper, holiday pay out of my gross. Stop being so tight.

donajimena If you look further up the thread you’ll see that I actually pay £12.50 which is the rate my self employed cleaner asked for.

That said, I stick to £10ph being a reasonable rate if that is what the person has asked for. It IS above living wage, granted there are some costs but if your costs work out at nearly £2 for every hour you work you either don’t work enough hours or need to trim your costs.

I wish I could find a good cleaner. I would happily pay the top end just don’t know how to find.

I love my cleaner but she’s better than the others I’ve had, so I round up / extra at Xmas etc I don’t want her to leave

Northwest, £10 per hour 2 hours per week, I am home and do cleaning at the same time - house is 5 bed detached with 1 bathroom and 3 ensuites so between the 2 of us we do the whole house to a good standard in 2 hours.

I just had a quote for our house (not the bedrooms but 7 rooms including 3 small bathrooms) for £30. Does this sound reasonable? I quite like that they are charging for the work rather than hours as I don't care (nor will know) how long it takes- I just want these rooms cleaned to a decent standard every week.

I live in an area where cleaners charge around £13ph. However good ones seem to be in very short supply. The last one I tried was terrible, barely cleaned 'easy' areas thoroughly, let alone slightly harder ones, ie behind the bathroom sink/loo.
If cleaners are charging £10ph I would assume they are happy with this. I charge £10 per hour as a self-employed carer, so have similar costs with insurances and petrol etc, although I do my own sums as it really isn't complicated enough to pay someone else. I know for a fact my main client pays another one of her carers £12 per hour for the same service, so I would hope that workers charge a suitable rate for them and clients feel able to say no if they feel it is too high!

£10/hour for four hours. I have a big house several pets and messy teens! She doesn’t tidy but she’s very thorough (moves furniture to get underneath, takes all the cushions off sofa etc). But she really only does one floor a week. My last one could do it all in that time but was trained as a hotel cleaner so maybe was extra fast.
For a two bedroom your cleaner would need two hours if you want her to do it properly, but if you are generally tidy maybe every other week would suit you.
Anecdote: a friend was unexpectedly working from home (family of five in three bed semi) and his cleaner came in and he overheard her tell her daughter ‘if it looks ok just spray some air freshener around don’t bother cleaning’!!!!!!!

Oh and if I stay home I really feel like Lady of the Manor with staff so I vacate...

Another one here who would happily pay the top end for a great cleaner. I just don’t know how to find one.

Lots of smart ways to save on a cleaner too. I recently bought an air purifier with permanent filters. Cuts down on dusting the downstairs considerably. Wasn't overly expensive to buy and no yearly maintenance like regular air purifiers. You can research them here to find the best one for your budget:
www.freshairguide.com/air-purifier-washable-filters/

Best cleaner ever, she charges £11 per hour we pay £12 as we love her.
She has a key

I have been using TidyChoice. It is so easy, because you can book your cleaner online. You can go through their profiles and check their reviews.

If you are a regular customer, meaning booking a cleaner for more than one-off, you can get 1 hour free with this link:
www.tidychoice.com/TCFB