To cancel the cleaner?

[flamungo]

Have a very ordinary 4 bedroom house, three young DC (youngest is three and a half). Both work long hours but mostly from home, which makes things easier.

Have had same cleaners for 4 years, who do 5 hours a week. Just cleaning, no laundry or bed changes, house always tidy before they come.

They are lovely, but not brilliant and can be a bit random, we are very flexible when they come and understanding of frequent cancellations/ late notice. But they've also kept the same pay £12 an hour for the last two years (used to be £11). Just had a message that it's now going up to £16. I think that's top end of the market here but not crazy.

I don't think we can justify this, we're already stretched with everything else and I'm not sure I can justify spending that much on something my husband and I could do ? That said I feel bad - they're obviously feeling the pinch too.

I would cancel, and see how you manage,

My cleaning charges are soon going up from 17.00 to 18.50. per hour. I’m not surprised as everything is going up but it’s all relative to what you can afford, so I have reduced the number of hours. Everyone is trying to balance their books at the moment

Do you want a cleaner or slave

they've given us 2 days notice of the rise

so giving them a month is pretty generous - they have upped their charges by 33% - not unreasonable for you not to accept it.

either say they can have a month's notice at the current rate - or say you;ll give them two weeks at the new rate and they can work four hours rather than five (and you do expect four hours, not three and a half) cheeky gits

5 hours is nuts! We have a 5 bedroom/ 4 bathroom house and our cleaner does 3 hours a week. Your cleaners are clearly very inefficient!!

Mine has increased by 50p per hour with 3 weeks notice. I’ve said I’ll round it up too £40 per week and I plan to start this week. She’s amazing though!

@mumof2exhausted

5 hours is nuts! We have a 5 bedroom/ 4 bathroom house and our cleaner does 3 hours a week. Your cleaners are clearly very inefficient!!

That is so fast. What’s their hourly rate?

So that would be £80 for 5 hours and they don’t change the beds. Get a different cleaner they can’t justify a 33% increase.

We have our cleaner fortnightly and it works well.

I was paying £15 an hour 3 years ago SE, with the rises in fuel and utilities £16 per hour doesn’t seem unreasonable. Only you know if it’s worth it to you.

How many cleaners do you have, if it’s two and you pay each each £12 an hour for five hours that’s £120 a week. I think that’s a huge amount of money. I clean houses, work on my own, get paid £13 an hour usually take 3 hours but may extend to 4. This is for three and four bedroomed houses. I think your cleaners are taking the mickey unless they do things like clean the oven, and all the windows as well as skirting boards and inside fridges. You must have an enormous house if it takes two people five hours to clean it!

@Sswhinesthebest

I have a 4 bed home. I don’t spend anywhere near 5 hours a week.

My ds has a large 5 bed house. The cleaner does 2 hours and it’s always immaculate. Get better cleaners and reduce the hours,

As a cleaner who used to do a large five bed with two bathrooms and three en-suites I used to nigh on kill myself trying to do it in four hours. And they were very tidy. Four bed in two hours???

Can I be your cleaner?? I'm a qualified theatre nurse of 33 yrs experience with als training on £15.80 an hour and that's it post pay rise!!

@Sswhinesthebest

5 hours is a lot for a 4 bed home - even if it’s big. Especially if you tidy first.

Cut it down to two hours and get them to do the basics?

This.

I think lots of cleaners will find themselves struggling for clients if they put their prices up that much. For the majority of people they are a luxury and one that many will no longer be able to afford.

OP if it’s about the standard of their work rather than the outlay I would use this as the excuse to get rid of them and find yourself a decent cleaner.

I’m a complete mug with ours. She used to be ok, always slightly bonkers but ok, but the older she gets the worse she gets at cleaning. She basically pushes dirt around now, to the extent that my bathroom floors look worse after she “cleaned” them. But she’s been with us a long time so I can’t get rid of her, I feel a sense of duty! Instead I’m resorting to paying for a quarterly deep clean from a company that does end of tenancy cleaning.

Maybe cut it to two or three hours? If you keep your house pretty tidy, you really don't need to spend loads of time cleaning anyway.

@Davros I completely agree. That’s a huge hike regardless of rate. If they’re not the best I’d be waving goodbye. They should be aware this is a likely eventuality - the very reason they’re likely to be increasing their rate is the same reason people, including their customers are cutting extra expenses including cleaners

It’s probably to cover thier petrol costs
And don’t forget they pay tax
Etc
Out of the measly £12

£16 an hour for a cleaner? Sorry I would never pay that. I really think some cleaners need to re think what they are charging. The maximum I have ever paid is £13 per hour but eventually had to get rid as she started missing large areas and wanted more time . Also found tonnes of odd things running out/missing within days of buying, especially cleaning fluids, sprays, bin bags etc. Never again.

I’m obviously in the wrong job!! NHS Administrator - £10.04 an hour 😱

You really are. I'm in two minds about my cleaner. She only does the ground floor but isn't able to manage all of it in 3 hours at £15ph cash in hand. I've texted her tonight to say I'd like her to do more. She doesn't agree...

@LoobyLoo515

I’m obviously in the wrong job!! NHS Administrator - £10.04 an hour 😱

You can't compare a cleaner who works a few hours at a time, no holiday pay, no sick pay, no pension, no employer NI contributions with someone who gets paid for 7 hours a day 52 weeks a year.

My cleaner is doing 4 beds £15 per hour for 2 hrs. She does hoovering, wet mop, dusting and bathrooms kitchen. I don't think £16 is too much. It cant stay same
as few years ago. Everything is going up in price anyway. You keep the house clean and tidy before they come. If it was untidy you might notice more they do the cleaning for you.

I think your main issue is the number of hours and quality of service. Our cleaner does our 4 bed house in 2 hours. We have just added a playroom so we asked for another half an hour to take it to 2.5 hours. I do do a lot of prep before she comes, so it is normally very tidy and a case of dusting, hoovering and mopping but she is great at her job and I wouldn’t really want to give her up despite being slightly less reliable at actually coming of late. I also wouldn’t vacate the house whilst a cleaner is there - we just move around the house to be out of her hair.

We pay £16 in London.

We have ours 4 hours every other other week and that's more affordable and manageable in between to do about 1-2 hours ourselves in between to keep on top of things. I then get a spring clean done every 6-8 months. Still cheaper than weekly. They change the beds