To ask if you have a cleaner, what do you love or hate about them?

[Shitonthebloodything]

I have accidentally stumbled upon a couple of house cleaning jobs that have come my way because I sometimes clean for my friend when she's too busy to do it herself and she's recommended me.

I need the work and I'm already self employed so it would all be declared etc but aside from my own house I've only ever done the odd few hours helping out friends and a restaurant (the agency I worked through never allowed enough time or materials so that wasn't great).

It would really help to know what people expect of their cleaners, if there's anything in particular they do that makes it worthwhile, anything to never do and what I can do to get more recommendations.

Also what you pay them per hour would be helpful to know too.

I'm going to try that again...(pressed post accidentally!)

My cleaner is the kindest woman and she makes such an effort with our children too- super friendly and chatty. We really like having her in the house.

However she does miss the small details like cleaning around the back of the sink, and dusting the skirting boards.

I've also asked her to use my cleaning products because they smell nicer than hers but she doesn't do this and she also uses disposable wipes 😭 (I've asked her not to but i think a language barrier may be to blame there though). So I think it's important to check your clients are happy with what you are using. I also think being as eco as possible is a really good selling point.

I pay £14 ph which is cheap in my area.

Love my cleaner, we pay her £10 p/h plus Xmas bonus (north west).

Really dislike that she unplugs my hairdryer to plug the Hoover in, then doesn’t plug it back. I sit down to dry my hair then realise I can’t, and it’s a pain to get down where the plug is because I have a bad back. But she’s amazing.

I like walking in to the smell of polish and bleach and not having to lug my hoover and cleaning material around myself.

I dislike that every cleaner I have starts well but over time does less of a job. I want the shower screens Viakaled, that’s why I buy it.

Having explained that the stainless steel in my kitchen needs to be dried of with a dry cloth or it streaks, that’s going to piss me off when it’s not done.

Lastly, look UP. That’s where to cobwebs are.

Ours is £12 an hour and I’m giving her 2 weeks notice this week because I’ve caught her out lying about about the amount of hours she’s done too many times now.

She started out ok, but now everything gets a quick flick with a microfibre cloth and she only cleans the centre of each room.

My next cleaner will be getting a written list of exactly what I want done weekly, monthly, etc, exactly what products to use and I’ll be making it clear that I can see from our cctv exactly what time they arrives and leave.

I think what would be really helpful would be if you proactively arrange a monthly chat where your clients can tell you if there’s anything they’re not happy with and likewise you can do the same.

I like knowing exact timings of when she will arrive and leave.
She does the standard clean every week and then if any time left over she will choose something random to do like inside the cutlery drawer. It's always a nice surprise.

I pay £10 per hour (north west)
What works best for me is I pay 2 hours for regular clean then an extra hour to clean whatever she thinks is needed most!
I’ve found in many areas of my life (not always) if you place trust in people they usually live up to it
One week she might decide windows need doing
Last week she washed outside of my front door, porch area, swept round flower pots, polished brassware etc as the extra job

£15/hr plus holiday bonus twice per year.

Great stuff: She always gets all the laundry and ironing done, which is a relief. I love the fresh bathrooms and clean floors as well. She rotates around the rooms for deep cleaning, so I don't have to "manage" her unless I spot something specific. She'll also do extra hours as needed to get the job done (paid, obviously). She's lovely and chatty, we all get on well with her.

Less good: Some small things always go back in the wrong place and we joke about K's hiding places (my shorts and socks in DH drawers, DS's cup and some other kitchen bits in a new cupboard every week). She won't use the dishwasher, she'll do anything she finds by hand and I'd rather she didn't. The only thing I find annoying is that she gets weirdly competitive with PIL about toddler DS when they're here, going over the top with silly games and trying to get him to hug her and talk to her; it'd be a wild set of performance parenting if she was his parent and I'd rather she let him just focus on his grandparents.

Fab lady does the basics well but she doesn’t clean under the rugs or into the corners. £30 a week (meant to be for three hours but I know it’s more like 2.5).

£12 p/h. My cleaner is friendly and pleasant but cracks on with the cleaning. She's punctual and lets me know if she's late, she's never let me down at short notice and gives me a couple of weeks notice if she can't come.
My previous cleaner was flaky and unreliable so this is a nice change.

£12 h.

It's not really a love/hate situation. However, my cleaner shows up reliably and does a reasonable job. She is honest and communicates if she needs to, I try to do the same. I can hardly believe I don't have to clean, it feels like a miracle. I don't think she's the best ever cleaner but I don't need the best ever cleaner, just someone who's better than me and willing to do the work.

My cleaner makes things look much cleaner than I would. She makes the draining board, sink and taps sparkle so it’s always really noticeable when she’s been. She also does things like watering the plants, cleaning inside the microwave and descaling the kettle which are nice touches.

She also makes sure that everything gets put back in the correct place.

Oh, and I pay £30 for 2.5 hours.

I've changed cleaners a few times because they seem to start off really well and then do less and less plus time at house reduces...

I'd agree with each person what their priorities for you to cover are. I'd also ask if there is anything they would like you to do if get time.
If finish early take a look about... What needs doing? Leave a note stating what extra you did... 'Finished early so managed to fit in x... Hope that's ok'

We had one lady for years, she was great...reliable, did a good clean & would occasionally do extra bits if time allowed.

Seems to be about £12hour min of 2 hours near me...

I love my cleaner. She is really jolly and chatty, but particularly I like the fact that she's really tolerant. When she started, we had a conversation about what I needed and she said she was happy with it - when I've left the house tidy, she cleans it properly, but if I leave it messy, she tidies up and does a cursory wipe round within her time. I pay £12 ph, 2 hours per week.

£12 an hour. When I get home and she's been it always looks great on the surface. She doesn't get the finer details and there's always a bit I'd change but to be fair I'm paying her because I'm too lazy to do it myself!!
We only do 2 hours a fortnight so it really is just bathrooms / kitchen maintenance clean

I no longer have a cleaner because it got to be more trouble than it was worth.

If your client provides a list of what needs to be cleaned (rooms and items in that room and frequency), stick to it. I’ve had many cleaners over the years and only a couple of them have actually followed my clear, written instructions and have instead done other jobs, either ignoring the jobs I wanted doing or only doing half a job of them so that they could fit in jobs they thought needed doing. Despite me having numerous conversations pre-start about just sticking to the list and spending time on those jobs, and reiterating that when things go awry, it seems to be that the message just doesn’t get through.

I love mine because she spots jobs that need doing and does them without being asked. She has a basic routine so all the rooms she does look fab. But then each week she might do the skirtings in one room, the window frames in another etc.

She sometimes moves the washing on for me or makes my bed when I haven't asked.

She is a magician at finding my children's lost shoes or the tv dial!

She doesn't chat too much.

There is nothing about her I don't like.

I pay £15 per hour, one hour per week ...... 3-bedsemi with just me at the moment so it doesn't get massively unclean week to week.

When she started, she asked what I wanted done. My priorities were kitchen & bathrooms cleaned, and stairs hoovered. Beyond that, use her discretion. I said I didn't want anything put away .... e.g. I'll often have paperwork on the dining table or desk, so I'm not fussed that means she can't dust properly there.
If I've stripped my bed, and a new set of bedding is drying, she'll change it ....but wouldn't routinely change the bedding as a task. (Discovered by accident!)

Minor annoyances .... she wraps the electrical cords on hairdryer and straightness around themselves. We don't get kerbside recycling of glass bottles, so I'll often have empties sitting on worktop to drop off at recycling centre ..... but she just puts them in rubbish bin outside. Not irate enough to speak to her about it though.

Biggest annoyance about mine is that she doesn't put things back when she moves them, so after she has been, particularly in the kitchen and utility things are in the wrong place (including the dog's bed!). She doesn't move furniture, and isn't great at seeing cobwebs.
On the other hand she has been reliable and has stuck it longer than the previous two cleaners. I pay £40 for 3 hours, in a 4 bed 2 bath house.

I have quite a few niggles with my cleaner, but I'm not sure if I'd get anyone better so haven't tried to replace -

• pay for 3 hours but I know she does about 2.5
• she has a written list but unless I specifically remind her won't do task she obviously doesn't like, like cat litter trays
• she puts bin bags / food caddy bags in really loosely so if anyone uses before I get round to putting them in properly then the bag just ends ip at the bottom of the bin with the rubbish outside it, mega annoying.
• we don't go away on holiday much (like once a year) but get guilt tripped into giving her extra hours to cover that time,which I resent because I know she short changes us on hours. And yes she does get a pretty generous xmas bonus.

On the plus side, she does a decent job and is reliable.

Wow - I doubt we are that fussy then!
I just love that my house is cleaner after she has gone than before she got there - and that I don’t have to do it. I love that we get time together as a family on the weekend without worry about chores to do!
The only thing I asked was that she use microfibre cloths to dry things (she was using kitchen roll and using half a roll every time she cleaned!)
The agency she works for tells us to pay her £8.50 per hour... which I think is incredibly stingy. I pay her £20 a week but it takes her about 90 minutes. I also don’t mind her bringing her daughter in the school holidays if she can’t get childcare sorted.

I absolutely adore mine.

I love that she makes the extra effort to do little things like yesterday I had meant to refill the butter dish but hadn't got round to it and I got home to the dish having been cleaned and the new butter put in it. Folds the toilet roll into a point etc.

Only thing I might change is that she does sometimes put things back in the wrong cupboards then I can't find them for ages. I know she's just trying to make the place super tidy though.

£12 an hour she's brill

My cleaner is so warm and friendly, I actually feel happy to see her and so do the children. You’d think it’s irrelevant to the job, but having someone in your home touching all of your things, it makes you feel very much more at ease knowing they are kind.

My cleaner uses my products and writes a little note to order extra of things if needed. I have a tonne of cloths that she uses all of, and then puts in the machine as she leaves. So there’s no reusing of bathroom cloths or even cloths across different bedrooms. I like knowing each area has been done with a clean one. As with pp she does the whole house but then with any extra time she’ll do something like clean the fridge out. She defrosted my freezer once while we were away.

You need to ask what’s important to your clients and agree on a time where this is actually possible. I have friends with cleaners who don’t actually give them enough time to do it all and the cleaner effectively complains to them that they need more time if they want XYZ completed. I always think to myself that it’s more trouble than it’s worth for the cleaner and that they should only take on jobs with enough hours agreed, rather than being mined at for not doing enough! Eg we know people with large 3-4 bed houses that want it all done in 2 hours, and won’t pay more for more time, then complain that it’s not done properly. Make clear who needs to provide products etc. And do a paid trial run of hours for the whole house before determining a time needed per week. That’s how we settled on 5 hours. She gave it 6 for the trial but then said we don’t need it.

I love walking back in the house and it is all clean and tidy and smells like it has been cleaned
I love that she is honest, friendly, hardworking, reliable, always comes on time, etc
I love that she is happy to do any household task I ask her, with in her time (so she will iron, and even tackle a bit of tidying in dd2's health hazard of a room)
I love that she brings whatever she wants to use (in terms of products / sprays whatever) so I'm not having to get the things she uses
I love the fact she is happy with a term time only contract
I just love her so much.

Can't think of anything I 'hate'.
Occasionally I think "I wonder why she hasn't done X or Y" (which I might do as I was going along), but it is a very minor thing, and she most certainly would if it bothered me enough to mention it the following week.