To ask if money gets tight will you cancel your cleaner??

[Tootsey11]

I am a cleaner, and with prices of everything rising, I'm wondering if or when the cancellations will start coming.

Will you prioritise a clean house and cut back on other things?

At the moment I am not short of work, but may need to increase the hourly rate for my furtherest away clients. I'm holding back as I'm worried about pricing myself out. I charge between £10 and £11/hour. There are people in my area advertising cleaning for £8/£9 an hour.

If you have a cleaner, will you keep them on or needs must and get rid

Would probably reduce from 4 hours to 3 and do the last hour (ironing) myself.

Absolutely not , if it comes to it I will use my PIP

I'd give up a lot before my cleaner but we have a high income and we have lots of other ways to cut back before I'd consider getting rid of the cleaner. We're going through the things we can do to make the house more fuel efficient at the moment.

This thread has prompted me to deep clean my kitchen 😆

We would cut back on other things first, then (with notice) probably change to a bi-weekly rather than weekly schedule.

My cleaner is good for my mental health so I would give up other things first!! Doesn’t matter how much I clean she does it a lot better!!

I would live on lentils and rice rather than give up my cleaner.
I pay ours £15 an hour, in the Midlands.
She is as busy as ever.
I am expecting her to put her prices up, not down, when things get tough.

My cleaner would be first thing to go - although they don't always do do the best job

Back from another clean so haven't read all replies yet.

I definitely wont be reducing the hourly rate. I feel for the area I'm in the rate is correct. £12 would be the maximum I could go to.

I am glad to read of those who value their cleaners. I'm not one to slope of early, often running a few minutes over if anything. What I've read has given me things to think about.

I appreciate all your replies.

£15 an hr is the going rate near me, NW. Your prices are low. Are you able to shuffle clients so you're not driving as much. Ours doesn't have a car but lives locally so all her clients are nearby - I imagine that helps.

No! We are in an affluent area where people probably have more disposable income to start with so even with increasing costs there's still money to spare on non-essentials.

We pay £13 ph

@Tootsey11

So far I think its a 60/40 split in favour of cleaners.

I think the best thing for me is to cram in as much work as possible while it's there.

@Tootsey11: there will always be some people (eg elderly) who NEED a cleaner, for others it’s a decision

I’ve had cleaners unilaterally up their prices, and if I’ve not been satisfied anyway that’s made me cancel. I think you have to consider what other employees are getting pay wise (eg 2-3% increase).

Cost of living is going up, but I’m getting squeezed too so a huge increase would seem ‘tone deaf’ to me

Tactically, in your shoes I’d put up your price for the customers you think will swallow it, & proceed with caution for the ones you think might not

In our position now we would, but a year ago when I was working more hours we would have cut back on a lot before the cleaner went.

Honestly it depends how tough it gets and how rich your clients are. Some people have a huge financial buffer and can easily afford their cleaner even if prices go up. Others barely afford their cleaner so if prices go up they’ll cancel the service.

We are having to decide between the cleaner or gardener. I’m voting cleaner to stay, Dh is voting gardener.
Our compromise is keep both but less often. I love the lady who cleans for us because she makes everything so nice.

Don’t have one because I can’t justify the expense, and would be the first thing to go if I did. Sorry.

But I don’t have kids or dogs, which makes a difference to the decision making/speed at which house gets dirty. It’s easy to whip round ourselves once a week and only takes an hour with two of us.

I’m just amazed at how many people have good enough incomes to even afford a cleaner in the first place, I feel so poor!

I am a cleaner. I hope my customers don't drop me.

I must say op, you are v cheap. I was £12 and am now £14 per hr and know others that are more than me.

Sorry, just read you are in NI and you charge the going rate.

There is a lot of evidence that in times of recession people don't spend on big ticket items like expensive cars and holidays, but actually spend more on smaller luxuries. It's called the lipstick effect.

So I wouldn't panic just yet!

@EmpressSuiko

I’m just amazed at how many people have good enough incomes to even afford a cleaner in the first place, I feel so poor!

MN is not real life (well, not my real life anyway). I don't know anyone with a cleaner!

@soootiredddd
I have only done cleaning fir a couple of years so others with more experience may disagree but to answer youur query about £15 an hour equating to £30k if you work "full time hours"..
Well you have to travel between jobs, most jobs are 2 or 3 hours. It's really hard to do more than 3 jobs a day. It's physically incredibly demanding. I would say it was completely unsustainable to work a 40 hour week as a cleaner. I am physically very fit and can run 8 miles but I certainly could not do 40 hours of cleaning a week. Maybe I worked too hard. I terested to hear other viewpoints.

I don't think we'd consider that unless we absolutely had to - our cleaner has been doing our house for nearly seven years and we like and respect her very much. Also we would struggle to do everything ourselves now.

I'm a cleaner, in South East. I put my prices up to £16 @ hour in January. I am aware that some clients may cancel due to finances. But to be honest I've recently taken on 2 new clients so I'm not overly worried. I do feel appreciated by my clients, which is lovely