To be nosy and ask about your cleaner?

[cleanasaweewhistle]

I'm thinking of hiring a cleaner when I move to my new flat. It's only two bedrooms, but quite big rooms. Will just be me and one teen DC.

But by God, do I hate cleaning. So I was thinking of having someone come every fortnight. I'd keep on top of it in the weeks in between, but it would be lovely to know it was "done" for every other weekend.

So, if you have a cleaner, can you tell me how often they come, how long for, and what they manage to do in that time. And cost per hour.

I was thinking maybe 2/3 hours per fortnight? And I'm in Scotland, if that makes a difference to hourly rates.

Thanks.

I live in a three bed semi, with three toilets. I have a cleaner every week for 2 hours and pay £15/h. In that time, she sweeps and mops downstairs, hoovers all the carpets, cleans all bathrooms, dusts and cleans the kitchen (wipes surfaces, cleans hob and sink). If she has time left at the end, she might pick a random extra job, eg hoovering under sofa cushions, cleaning interior windows.

I’ll be honest, as long as there’s no major disasters I don’t really do much cleaning in between. But I do make sure it’s tidy for when she comes so she doesn’t waste time moving stuff about. The fact that I don’t have to clean for the small sum of £120 a month is worth every penny to me

We pay £30 a week for a cleaner for two hours. It's worth it. Some weeks she's amazing other weeks she could do better. I find that it frees me up to make sure washing gets put away and it's like the house gets a reset once a week.

I don't mind cleaning but I don't have the time and weekends are for making memorises - IMO you can always make more money :)

Every week - I don’t think fortnightly is enough personally.

She comes for 3 hours and I pay her £40 for the session. I have a big 3 bed with one bathroom and a downstairs loo.

And to actually answer your question (sorry)

£30 two hours
Whole house hoovered
Kitchen and bathroom cleaned (but not always floor mopped)
House polished
Gas hob cleaned and polished
She will do bedsheets if I ask her to or leave them out
A general tidy too which is helpful

I have a cleaner in every fortnight for an hour or however long it takes her to do our small downstairs, which is living room m kitchen and bathroom. We pay £25.

I have a 4 bed 3 bath house (2 adults, 3 kids). Cleaner comes every week for 2.5 hours and does floors (vacuum and mop), bathrooms, kitchen counters, all surfaces, and remakes my bed because apparently my effort isn't good enough

She charges £11 per hour (North East England), however she's pretty cheap, I was expecting to pay £15 per hour.

5/6 bed house twice a week 7 hrs, pay £14 ph. Changes all beds, irons and cleans well but slowly

Used to have a two bed flat, with two bathrooms, large sitting/dining room and small kitchen. We had 3 hours cleaning per week and that was more than enough to get it to a really high standard and some ironing done too (not all cleaners will do ironing btw). That was about 15 years ago and was around £10/hour, expensive southern city but not London.

Now have a larger house in same city, and still get 3 hours per week, but doesn't include any ironing or bed changes. We get 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, halls, lots of stairs, kitchen, dining room, sitting room done in that time. We then add one of spare bedrooms, office, utility interchangeably, depending on how busy they are. That's £15/hour. We previously had an agency that only managed half of my main list in 3 hours though, and charged even more, which was a bit shocking!

We always tidy well before they come to clean, but don't do much cleaning in between - just hoovering up the crumbs in the kitchen and around the table, really, and wipe the counter a few times in the week. If it was every fortnight I think we'd have to do more cleaning in between.

Whether you have children makes a big difference! Small children are just so mucky. Not sure about teenagers.

(Midlands) £10 ph.
She usually does a load of washing up. Cleans kitchen (surfaces, table, cupboard fronts, hob, vacs then mops floor).
Cleans 2 x bathrooms + downstairs toilet. Incl vac then mopping floors
Vacs 2 living rooms, a hall, 2 landings and 2 staircases.
Then usually something else - so might be one or two bedrooms or might iron a few bits or might do anything else that needs doing that week.
She does 2 hours x once a week.

2.5 hours per week, costs £35

3 bed, 2 bathroom

Our cleaner does all cleaning, bins, recycling, ironing, puts clean clothes away, changes bedding

She does a lot, and we're very appreciative. Our house is always tidy, and quite sparsely furnished. Otherwise I don't think she would manage so much in a short time

Thanks everyone!

To be fair to DS16, he's pretty tidy and often cleans his room with no prompting, so he might not even want someone else doing his room.

I think I'll give it a try.

I wouldn't expect someone to do my ironing or put away washing, but if they were happy changing the beds, that would be like having my very own angel in the house

£39 for three hours a week (Edinburgh) - 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Hoover everywhere, mop hard floors (of which there are a fair few), clean bathrooms, dust. We leave everything really tidy. I will sometimes leave a note to say don't do x do y instead kind of thing, or if we're on holiday ask if she can do skirting boards and windows etc. instead of some routine things which she's happy to do.

Four bed house. Two cleaners come for an hour. £30 total.

They clean the main bathroom and en-suite. They vacuum the landing and three of the bedrooms (one isn't used). Dust in bedrooms and make my sons bed if it hasn't been done. They mop the hallway, downstairs toilet, kitchen and dining room floors. They clean the kitchen sides. They also vacuum and dust my living room if they've got time.

We have a 5-bed (but only 2 adults plus 1 DC) and pay for 3 hours @ £15 p/h every week.

2 bed small terraced house. We have a cleaner for 3 hours a week, £10 an hour south west London. She cleans and tidies, we let her have free reign as she just gets on with it. I do the washing and usually change the sheets but I will sometimes ask her to. We do very little cleaning outside her, just emptying the bins and loading the dishwasher etc. She's amazing!

We've had the same cleaner for years. She comes for 2.5hrs per week and we pay her £10 per hour. I tip generously at Christmas and her birthday.

She cleans our ensuite and the family bathroom. 3 of our 5 bedrooms. The living room, hall, kitchen utility and downstairs loo. She also changes the bedding on 3 beds. It's quite a lot but the house is already very tidy which makes it easier to blitz through.

Four bed, just two of us living here, two and a half hours a week, she’s fairly good but older lady and a bit grumpy and scary. She changes the beds, (we have guests a lot) cleans throughout, dusts, does windows, floors, etc, we pay 30 quid a week.

Some of these cleaners do loads in their time!

Maybe I could get someone in for 1.5 hours every week instead...

I aim to majorly declutter as part of the move!

A lot of them have a two hour min op. A good cleaner is like gold dust.

I had cleaners in a one bed flat. I fucking hate cleaning. They came as a team of two, so an hour each, £10 each. Best thing ever. Now I have a bigger house they come for two hours so four total p/W.

I've just let my cleaners go and by reading this I've totally done the right thing.
Two of them for an hour £25. They were asked to dust livingroom, hoover and mop the kitchen, livingroom, hall and wc. Clean kitchen surfaces. Clean bathroom and WC and if they have time hoover the first set of stairs.
Not to touch any the bedrooms or ensuite.
My house is quite small and I tidied everything before they came and they said 1 hour wasn't enough.