To ask what's expected of cleaners?

[princesshasnocrown]

So for example, someone pays you for a 1 hour clean...

And they want the whole house done.

Is it just surface stuff, what else is expected. Is washing up included? Laundry? Loading a dishwasher maybe?

For example I can get a house clean in one hour but a deeper clean wouldn't really work that way, it isn't long enough

Any advice would be appreciated

There is no way anyone can do a full house clean in an hour!

All the cleaners I know of are a minimum 2 hour booking and they’ll tidy or clean, not both.

i get help from
a cleaner when she has odd cancellations and she’s coming for 3 hours on Monday and will tidy and clean a bathroom, a toilet and really see clean the kitchen and lounge. I’ll leave the bedrooms tidy and beds made and if she has spare time she will dust and hoover.

she charges £12 an hour, we’re in West Yorkshire.

(it’s not a fancy house by any stretch but we do have a big kitchen and lounge thanks to it being ex local authority so she gets a lot done!)

Sorry that’s really deep clean

@ZeroFuchsGiven if someone has a weekly cleaner, for example for a 3 bed house, how many hours do they usually need?

I ask because I quickly had a look on Facebook local page, someone in my village wants a cleaner for 1 hour on a Monday 'top to bottom clean but no washing clothes'

They definitely put 1 hour

Nobody does a 1 hour clean, it's normally a minimum of two. Generally you'd expect the decks to be clear as it were (so not loads of stuff left out or if there is instructions on what to do with it; all kids toys chucked in toybox for example. Normally focus on kitchens and bathrooms, hoover/ dust throughout. Some jobs can be rotated skirting boards/ cleaning inside of windows. Best to ask client what they'd like you to focus on and be realistic about what is acheviable in that time frame.

I expect of my cleaners to do a better clean of my already spotlessly tidy, no mess or stuff to move out of the way house than I can around working full-time.
No loading dishes, making beds, laundry, etc. I'll have everything cleared out of the way.
But vacuum and mop all floors (incl. corners and under sofa etc, i.e. not just a surface kind of clean), bathrooms incl. around side of toilet/mirrors/tiles, kitchen incl. hob. Also if e.g. spiderweb starts creeping up in a corner that is gotten rid of. And then as and when occasional stuff like wipe a door or a outside of a kitchen cupboard. Basically by hiring a cleaner for two hours fortnightly (for a three bed house) I am want to be able to then do a top of clean every other week but be able to make it a quick one.
My cleaner mostly does do this though I wish she was a bit more detail oriented. But it's 'good enough'.

No-one can clean a house in an hour.

We have a 3 bed house and it's 3 hours a week!

In my experience they do bathrooms, kitchens and hoover. Anything else, like dusting or putting on washing, you have to specifically say on the first day before they've got it into their head that they do baths, kitchens and floors and it takes x minutes.

An hour isn’t enough to do a whole house - certainly not a deep clean
Isn’t it best to have a chat about this? I would expect hoovering and mopping, inside of windows, surfaces, bathroom, kitchen and bedrooms - all cleaned with beds made.

Washing up should be done surely so the cleaner can clean?

I have a 4 bed, 2 bathrooms, 2 reception rooms, porch, kitchen and office, My cleaner is here 6 hours a week.

I have had issues with cleaners coming in and getting it done in 2.5 hours, I never have them back they are what I call wipearounders.

I have a cleaning business. My minimum slot is 2 hours.
There is no way a whole house can be cleaned in an hour.
My smaller and tidier properties are 2 /2.5 hours. It is not necessary a question of whether it's a 3 or 4 bed house, but more it's overall size, the amount of clutter, how tidy it is, whether they clean up after themselves at all between cleans etc.
A large property that is already tidy takes me 4 hours.

Two bedroom flat here, cleaner comes for two hours a week, we try to have everything tidy so she dusts and hoovers, cleans the kitchen sides, hob, sink etc, washes up or clears drying rack, cleans bathroom, some weeks washes kitchen/bathroom floor. Done bedroom shrines needs a little tidying too, she's happy to do this, although we do tell her she can just pile his things up if he hasn't bothered to keep tidy. She's like a whirlwind whizzing through the flat! I couldn't do what she does in the same time.

In an hour I wouldn't expect more than a hoover round (not moving furniture), kitchen and bathroom surfaces wiped down, sink and bath/shower given a quick once over and floors mopped.

Most cleaners have a two-hour minimum or maybe 1.5 hours for a small place.

I think you'll need to clarify whether they want a) a quick once-over in a shorter period of time or b) a deeper clean which will take longer. They'll need to accept that they can't have both, and it would be as well to clarify exactly what they want you to do with whatever time you agree on.

I'd suspect that they're going to be a PITA to work for because they'll be the sort to want the moon on a stick for £10 an hour.

A cleaner can do all kinds of things, agreed in advance with the client.

But agree with all the others - a one hour clean is barely going to do anything. In a small flat or house, one hour might get you a thorough vacuum, bathroom clean and possibly a mop of kitchen floors. Not much more than that.

Anyone who is asking for a whole house clean in one hour is not a client you want.

Four bedroom house here and our cleaner does 3.5 hours a week on average. This means wiping surfaces, hoovering throughout, changing bedding on two of the beds, cleaning bathrooms and kitchen and mopping the hard floors.

She doesn't do washing, washing up, loading/unloading the dishwasher or windows as she doesn't have time for that.

I live in an 'average' sized house, 3 bedrooms, end of terrace. There is no way anyone could clean it in an hour - the bathroom alone takes half an hour! I'd say it takes 2-3 hours for a full on weekly clean.

However now that we have a newborn we pay for this to be done monthly and then week to week it's just about survival / the minimum! Once a month 2 cleaners come for an hour. One upstairs and one downstairs.

We have a 4 bed, 2.5 bathroom and it's 5 hours of thorough deep cleaning and my lovely cleaner then does 1 hour additional of all the extras that doesn't need to be done frequently(machine filter cleaning, fridge clean, oven clean, windows etc). This is weekly. Then dh and I just do surface cleaning until she's back the next week. There is no way 1 hour is going to be any proper cleaning.

We once had a cleaner who did the whole house in an hour. To be fair, she did more than I would have ever expected anybody to be able to do in an hour - she was like a whirlwind - but she did miss lots (mainly dusting) and went round things so wasn’t thorough. We gave this feedback nicely then let her go when she didn’t improve

I would get some kind of specification or ticklist. I walked round with a new cleaner yesterday (she's not too experience) and listed exactly what to be mopped, wiped, vacuumed, etc. I go on two hours for a 3 bedroom house weekly top up clean, ie. kitchen, bathroom, floors, a bit of dusting and polishing if really focussed.