What does your cleaner do?

[MrsRoxkwell]

We have decided to get a cleaner as 100% of our arguments are about the state of the house. We’re both really nervous about having a stranger in the house when we’re not there but it’s either cleaner or divorce at this point!

My husband thinks asking them to do all the jobs we hate doing is cheeky, and they probably follow a set routine?

I just want to come home to a tidy house so I can relax after work.

What sort of things does your cleaner do and what sort of price should I be looking at?

I am a cleaner and have worked for a company but a I am now self employed. I will do whatever the customer wants. I have customers who always have a set routine and others where I will do whatever needs doing that day.
I think you need to have a bit of a tidy up otherwise the cleaner will be moving stuff about and not get much cleaning done.

Just be straight with what you need and perhaps have a list of extra jobs that could be done if there's an extra ten minutes etc.
A good cleaner will do this without being told.

Right, first of all, you need to get out of your head that you will come back to a 'tidy home.'

A cleaner isn't there to tidy. A cleaner is there to clean; so you need to make sure she is able to do that.

Regarding costs, it entirely depends where you are and who you get. My last cleaner was paid £12 an hour and would do 3 hours every other week (sometimes weekly if I needed it). But that was a few years ago now.

My cleaner doesn't tidy. We run around in a frenzy tidying before she turns up to clean.

Do they do dishes and load the dishwasher etc?

I don’t really get your husband’s point - why would you get a cleaner and then not ask them to do the jobs you prefer not to do? How is that cheeky? Surely that’s the whole point?

No they clean

My cleaner cleans rather than tidies, on my instructions..if the DC have messy rooms, I ask our cleaner to leave those rooms. I love coming home to clean skirting boards,.kick boards and blinds, The little things that I never seem to be on top of. She will also do extra stuff if she has more time. I pay £15 and she does 3 hours a fortnight. She's worth her weight in gold.

I've had a few cleaners who have left due to their boss sadly but new one charged £13 an hour for 2 hours and only stayed just over an hour which was only discovered when DD2 was off school for the holidays. Need to find another one pronto x

You'll need to talk to them about you want. Many will be happy to do any household tasks.

Use a cleaning company leave them to it see what they decide to do, different people come different .
All hoover & mop floors and clean bathrooms.
I usually have dishwasher empty & loaded but if any dishes out they are washed.
Usually mirrors and glass on doors cleaned.
Dress beds if I leave out change sheets& covers they will do that.
Sometimes light shades dusted.
Widow sils & surfaces dusted.
Never do fridge or oven guess could ask if wanted.
If stuff left around toys, clothes ECT they put in pile in corner I then can work tidy that away.

Wouldn't you rather spend the money on her scrubbing shit off the toilet, rather than loading the dishwasher?

She cleans the whole house, changes beds and towels and does the ironing. She does tidy kids rooms if needed but I try not to let it get to that as a waste of her time and they should do it themselves. I’ve never asked her to wash up as I just load the dishwasher as I go along. I’ll put it on again to avoid washing up tbh. She unloads it if it finishes while she’s there. Sometimes I’ll ask her to do a one off job like clear out the fridge ( chuck out out of date stuff and deep clean it).

We don't have one, we tried it but I would run around cleaning and tidying before she arrived so I thought I might just as well finish it!

I have a cleaner for 2 hours a week at £15ph.

I tidy up before she comes, I load the dishwasher and get rid of any crap that's lying around.

She hoovers and mops, cleans the sides, hob, dusts and wipes windowsills and coffee tables etc down, cleans both bathrooms, hoovers the stairs and upstairs landing.

When she started she asked if there was specific things I wanted and I just I wanted to get it to a point where it's easier for me to maintain and work with her to make progress through it, other than that I leave her to it and it's working so far.

It's made a huge different to how I feel about the house, and I spend considerably less time internally berating myself for not accomplishing everything. I can't be everything to everyone all of the time!

I'm a cleaner. I load the dishwasher, wash dishes, tidy up, do laundry and ironing, change beds, walk dogs, clean windows and, of course, clean.

I’m thinking of paying for a one off deep clean and then having a few hours a week after that.

Our shifts are all wacky around each other which doesn’t leave a lot of time for cleaning and tidying and we have a tornado toddler who makes everything just 10x more difficult.

Cleaner, not tidier. DH has a cleaning business; you'd be surprised how much more cleaning could be done if they didn't have to tidy up first...

Cleaner here. All of my customers want me to clean not tidy up, they all tidy up the night before I go. If you want them to tidy up and clean you need to ask them if they do that. I've never loaded a dishwasher because they've tidied up there's no pots to be washed. I charge £15 an hour and take all of the cleaning products. I'd go for a recommendation from a friend or colleague.

I pretty much sterilise all the toilets before she arrives as would be so mortified for her to find them dirty. Kids are skanks. 🤣

I have a few cleaning jobs, I get paid £15 an hour and I do everything from cleaning bathrooms, dusting, hoovering and mopping, changing beds, ironing, hanging out washing, empty bins, getting rid of cobwebs and spiders, tidying up and plumping sofas and cushions. In the winter I fill log baskets and clean out the fire ashes ect. I tidy clutter away into neat piles for the homeowner to sort as needed. The only thing I have never been asked to do is wash dishes

Usually they will have a list that you tick all your priorities or talk through it. Personally I hoover most days as I have a dog and I want the cleaner to do things I wouldn't think about particularly plus bathrooms. My main things are mopping all hard floors, quick hoovering before this, including skirtings, bannisters and bits in between. Dusting along the way including window sills. Then the main reason for me is the downstairs loo, bathroom and ensuite. Both patio doors windows inside and out. Then any other bits she can fit in. I like the routine as I always make sure the house is tidy before she comes - it's never that bad anyway. I ask her to leave the kitchen as I'm always wiping and cleaning as I go - although she obviously does the floor. Funnily enough my cleaner for the last four years has just finished so I managed to find a new one who called today. I work FT and so does DH so like you, it was a matter of keeping the marriage happy 😂😂

My husband has ADHD so will start lots of tasks and not finish any of them which just adds to the mess of the house. I get home at 6 and I just want to be able to sort the kids out, have dinner and then relax but there’s always so much to do as I’m in my own in the evenings.

In my experience, I would advise to be around when the cleaner comes. I'm sorry but my experience is that 9 out of 10 need to be managed like any other employee after an initial few weeks as standards tend to slip, time cut short etc.

When my children were smaller we used to pay my SIL to clean/tidy once a week. She only used to do downstairs but It was so nice to come home from work and see toys tidied, dishes washed, all surfaces totally clear, floors hoovered/mopped.
She used to do 2 hours for us, I was always happy to do the deeper cleaning/bed changes etc myself but those 2 hours made a massive difference to my stress levels.

Ours does pretty much whatever we ask her to do. Including pegging out washing, bringing it in, she answers the door to deliveries, does any washing up that has been left (it is only ever a couple of mugs), as well as the normal cleaning - dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping etc. She also irons. And makes beds.

She first came to us via an agency. And then she set up on her own.

We pay £18/hour in the south east. We provide all the cleaning materials. I even bought her choice of vacuum cleaner after she’d come for three weeks and I realised she was the best cleaner I’ve ever had.

She is very thorough. When the agency first visited, they estimated that the house needed five hours a week for cleaning and ironing. They sent her. The first time she came, she spent the five hours doing three rooms. The second time she came, she spent the five hours doing the downstairs. The third time she came, she spent the five hours just cleaning, no ironing. She basically spent that time getting the house to a standard that she could maintain every week. This is despite us always having had a weekly cleaner! I really like that she is thorough.