To get a cleaner to give the house a good clean once a week or once a fortnight?

[BunnytheFriendlyDragon]

I've never had a cleaner but struggle to get everything done so I am wondering whether it would be worthwhile to get a cleaner in once a week or once a fortnight to give everything a good clean,

May I ask how often you have your cleaner in?
What do they do?
What does it cost?

Yes it can take at least half an hour to clean the bathroom properly

4-6 hours is realistic, but 2 hours for a deep clean (or even cleaning a 4-5 bedroom house)? no way

I guess it depends how much you're in the house too. With older kids, no pets and everyone at work and school most of the time I don't find the house gets particularly dirty. Having a fortnightly clean on a mostly empty house means it doesn't really require a "deep" clean.

£40, 3 hours every week. I love the deadline I get for tidying! I'm much more on top of laundry etc than I used to be.

No one is deep cleaning an entire house in 2 hours!

Weekly 2 hours, best money we spend, missed it so much in lockdown

Wipes down kitchen, hoovers whole house, cleans bathrooms and any time left over does ironing. £13/ hr in South West

Our cleaner comes once a week, we did have her fortnightly but found it wasn't enough. She dusts, hoovers, mops, does bathrooms, kitchen doesn't tend to need much as we clean it every day after cooking anyway. We pay £30 for her to do the above. Oh, she will put fresh bedding on too if we leave it out for her but don't always.
I find it keeps on top of it all, then I do a good deep clean myself every few months or so.

I once had an amazing cleaner who did two and a half hours a week, two hours for a standard clean round and then half an hour spent in each room in rotation. She was awesome in her cleaning methods.

2.25 hours once a week for £32. A godsend! All the big stuff done and looking fab and then i keep on top. As a full time working mum its a godsend!

Mine has recently gone up from £13ph to £15ph but I could never live without her! 3 hours once a fortnight. She does the dusting, hoovering, mopping, kitchen and bathroom. And I usually ask her to do a one-off task such a windows/ceiling cobwebs.

It’s an extravagance but worth every penny in what it reduces in stress.

I'm sold

I have once a month for 3.5 hours. I’d love it more than that but can’t justify the cost. It’s an absolute godsend!! I pay £35

I have cleaners for 3 hrs a week at £13 per hour.

Every week they clean kitchen 3 bathrooms and downstairs loo.

They alternate a quick hoover and dust doing upstairs one week and downstairs the next.

Every week they "bottom" 1 room on a rotating basis so that includes cleaning skirting boards/windows/moving furniture etc.

They do a good job leaving me free to do stuff I enjoy. We do keep thinks tidy most of the time and have a quick run through the house to tidy up before they come so they can maximise cleaning time and do as much as possible.

Fortnightly, £45 for 2 of them and they are here around 90 minutes

Ours takes roughly 2.5 hours for £25 (she charges per clean) to clean 2 beds, kitchen, living room, conservatory, bathroom and a large hallway. She also hoovers the office when no one’s in there.

She’s self-employed. Uses our products but asks us to get specific ones. Empties the bins. Doesn’t do windows or change beds.

We’ve had a cleaner ever since I got fed up pre-DC of reminding DH to do his share of the housework. It would be the late luxury to go if we needed to cut corners.

*last

@HaveANiceFuckingDay

I had my own cleaning company . Essex £10 an hour using their products £12 an hour using mine I didnt fo out to anyone with a Shark Vacuum.. I'd take my Henry charging the £12 With dogs I found it took 1.5 hours. Without dogs 1 hour This would include .. all floors , swept / hoovered/mopped . All surfaces dusted . Bathroom spotless and toilet cleaned, any washing up I'd do it, any washing to be hung out I'd do that . Beds made , blinds dusted. skirting a quick dust over ( not much build up over a week ) this was about 3 years ago I'd now charge £15 an hour and wouldn't go outside a 3 mile radius I know another cleaner who can't see sick that was up the bowl of a toilet and the wall .I could smell it a mile off .. I went over the work and when I pulled the cleaner up on it their response I didnt see it .. there is seeing it and seeing it .. you need a person that cleans properly and takes pride.. which I do

I’m shocked that someone would leave vomit for the cleaner to deal with rather than cleaning it up themselves! Dirty slobs…

I agree with AquaPandora. I was reading through this thread thinking there's something very wrong with me, having spent about six hours cleaning my small 3 bed semi yesterday (including a bit of ironing, laundry and bed changing admittedly).
Just discussed this with DH and he agrees that even vacuuming the whole house, if you do it properly, would take 20 minutes to half an hour! Obviously only takes five minutes to go over high traffic areas.
Poor cleaners to have such unrealistic expectations put on them.

Fortnightly. 4 hours. £44. It's big house but she doesn't do all of it. Kitchen/Utility/halls/stairs/main living room/master bedroom and 2 bathrooms every visit and then 2 or 3 other rooms on rotation.

@HaveANiceFuckingDay where in Essex are you? We had a cleaner before Covid, which then stopped and now she's decided she's retiring ☹️

Poor cleaners to have such unrealistic expectations put on them

I don't think you understand how it works, when you hire a cleaner you state what you'd like to have done within the time frame, they will manage the expectations of it isn't possible. The thread just has varying expectations of what people want from cleaners. For me, I just like the kitchens and bathrooms to be done, floors, and dusting for as long as they have time in the slot. This is easily done within 3 hours (actually 1.5 hours between 2 cleaners which probably makes them even more efficient. If there wasn't enough time they would tell me, and I'd re-prioritise what needs to be done.

People getting weekly 3-4 hourly cleans either have larger houses or are expecting more in-depth cleaning, additional duties. It's not that people with less hours are demanding the same amount in less time.

With dogs I found it took 1.5 hours. Without dogs 1 hour

Well, obviously houses with dogs will have additional cleaning but you seem to be saying that’s the dependent factor on time-not how big the house is .

I doubt you could clean a 5-bed, 3 bathroom house in an hour, even without the dog!

Unless you clean dolls houses.

I clean one house where it takes 1.5 hours just to Hoover and mop the floors.

Oh. My cleaner has been. Btw. The best investment ever. She’s sorts my whole house out.

We’ve got 6 bedrooms. Though 1 is a playroom. 1 is an office. We’ve got 4 bathrooms and it’s over 3 floors. The rest are bedrooms. We’ve also got en suites.

We’re also sorting to move! Downsize. House is too big for me.

She generally can get two floors done.