Does your cleaner do your laundry?

[givemesteel]

I'm debating whether getting my cleaner to also do laundry is more hassle than it's worth.

I've never bothered before because it would be too difficult to explain my system for what to tumble dry versus what to hang out and think they would find it too hard to remember where to put things back meaning it would either take them ages or stuff would be lost as its in the wrong person's drawer etc.

Has anyone made this work and how many hours do you allow if so? I don't really want them to just do sheets / towels. Only really worth it if I they can do everything.

I'm just wondering if you have to be more in the bracket of having a 'house keeper' rather than cleaner for this to work...

My mums a cleaner, lots of experience been doing it for years and she wouldn't do someone else's laundry.

I don’t ask our cleaners to do laundry. Several reasons:

• I would prefer they spend paid time doing things I don’t like doing
• I don’t mind ironing and use it as an excuse to justify watching tv at the same time
• I’m quite particular about how I like to hang or fold certain items, and it would pain me to have paid for things to be done not as I want. I’ve tried explaining before and have shown how...but it gets forgotten
• If we have a large no of guests staying over, I’d rather use a dedicated laundry service

No I would have to pay her more to get that done.

Nope.

Our cleaner used to do DP’s but when I moved in I said not to bother just so I knew what I had clean and dirty. She is an absolute gem though. I’ve never had a cleaner before so all the Mumsnet threads about what they do and don’t do always surprise me and make me think I should probably marry mine.

My cleaner cleans. That's her job. Her only job.

I’m a cleaner and I do laundry for people but it’s always only their bedsheets and/or towels. Reason being I change the beds.

If you want them to do all your laundry are you planning on having them come every day/every other day for a few hours each day? Or spend one whole day a week (like 8 hours) doing laundry? Because they’ll have to hang around waiting for a load to finish before they can hang it, put in tumble drier, wait around again for it to be dry then fold and put away.

No. I reckon we spend about an hour a day on laundry in various ways so couldn't afford it. I also wouldn't want anyone handling my dirty smalls. And I wouldn't trust anyone else to do pre-wash treatments properly, and do the right sorting and the right cycles. Just a big fat NO from me.

I usually leave a load running in the morning which she hangs up, and another basketful for her to pop on and then hang. She also folds anything left on the clothes horse/drying rack, whatever you call it.

I wouldn't want to ask someone to do all the laundry, I think you'd be into housekeeper territory by then- plus I'm particular about laundry. But two loads plus folding one takes a significant burden off me (household of 3 here).

Mine does. But when I was looking for a new cleaner/housekeeper I was very clear on what we wanted doing. Plenty won’t want to do laundry and that is fine hence my being clear. Some won’t do laundry but are willing to iron. They do 8 hours on cleaning, ironing and adult laundry.

The main thing I don’t ask them to do is sports/gym kits and we do that before they come but they will put away for us.

My cleaner does all our ironing and changes the bedding. If I ask her to, she’ll put a couple of loads through while she’s doing the rest of the house. Depending on what’s in the load I may or may not ask her to fold (I obsessively Marie Kondo fold certain clothes, so don’t want to enforce that personal foible to her, but I’m not particular about bedding and towels).

She came around to ours the day before we got back from holiday last year - changed, washed, folded and put away all the bedding and towels we’d used just before we left plus the day or two of clothes that were in the dirty wash baskets (she left those in an obvious place for me to put away). The only laundry I had to do when we got home was the stuff in our suitcases. I thought about phoning her husband, demanding he divorce her, then proposing marriage to her myself.

I love my cleaner. She comes once a week for six hours, if you’re wondering.

Mine doesn't as I wouldn't really see the benefit.
The washing machine does all the work really - I don't find it to be much of a chore.
IF you are out, I can see the point in asking them to hang it out on a sunny day, if it finishes whilst they are there and you aren't going to be home for several hours, but I think if you have your own particular systems it won't work well having someone else to sort it out for you.

No, mine doesn't, I prefer her to clean and I will do my own washing.

Yes. She does everything including picking up children from school.

No I don’t mind doing it, quite like sorting it out properly and would prefer she does stuff I really don’t like doing.

You've got to be willing to pay more or for extra time especially because your system sounds like it could be complicated.

How could they 'do everything' if:

A. They're already cleaning
B. They're only there for 2-3 hours?

A laundry cycle takes, what, about an hour? A dryer cycle takes another hour?

They could probably get one load though - clean, dried (not the non-dryerable items, of course), folded and put away in amongst the actual cleaning.

I suppose if they come for longer it might be possible to do more.

Not worth it for me.

My cleaner also does two hours of ironing. It is all folded ready for her with hangers and she folds linens, pants, hankies and puts everything in the spare room wardrobe.

I wash, dry and deal with anythimg that doesn't need ironing. I still spend about two hours on laundry every week but My cleaner is a god send. What she does in two hours would take me 3.5.

We have 6 hours a week which includes all our ironing, making the bed and washing and hanging up to dry the sheets. If I put a load of washing on while she’s there she’ll usually hang it up or might bring in washing from outside and fold it into a pile. She doesn’t put it away.

We do send some out though which comes back pressed

Ours changes the beds and puts the old bedding through a wash and then into the tumble dryer. I take it out of the dryer when I get home. If there is dry stuff already in the dryer she will fold it but not put it away. She comes for 3 hrs once a week.

Yes. She does everything including picking up children from school.

That’s not a cleaner though.

No. Maybe a house keeper, the cleaner would need to be there all day to load and unload, I'm sure if you are willing to pay for 6 hours someone would be happy doing this.

She does everything but she’s more of a housekeeper than a cleaner. I’ve become a bit of a Princess since I hired her. I barely lift a finger now!

Thanks all, food for thought. I think most people think the same as me re whether it's worth it.

I was thinking of getting her to come a second day in the week. So the main clean she could put washing on after doing sheets and put some other washing in the dryer, hang stuff out. Then second time in the week put it all away, in addion to a top up clean + ironing.

So obviously would be paying for maybe another 3/4 hours a week for laundry / ironing and a few extra cleaning tasks....just not sure it's worth it or would work.