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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

5 hours

35 replies

beepbeep · 20/04/2025 12:46

Not sure i’m iabu or not!

we pay nearly £400 a month for cleaners to come once a week for 5 hours. I know we are fortunate to have them but ….

we have a 4 bed, 3 shower room house. They don’t clean 3 of the bedrooms (kids are responsible), but may vac them.

we have a playroom, lounge, downstairs loo & kitchen.

(have office & utility room where dogs sleep - they don’t do these rooms)

all rooms are left v tidy / no clutter, so easy to crack on & clean.

I am still having to dust for cobwebs on ceiling (a lot!) I put a feather duster with cleaning stuff. They don’t wipe down the tiles in the showers, I’m doing that now as have got grimy. Dirt builds up at base of taps, I put a small brush with their cleaning stuff, but they don’t use it.

they do a basic clean which they do well but don’t move anything on shelves, or get into any crevices.

I just think in 5 hours I’d expect a bit more. I’m not home when they come, but when I have left message to ask them to dust the cobwebs I’m told they don’t have enough time.

I hate clutter, so each room in pretty minimalist (lounge has 2 sofas, coffee table, tv stand and piano), playroom - sofa and 2 closed sideboards

i just think every few weeks they could dust cobwebs or skirtings

AIBU?

(edited for spelling!!)

OP posts:
Original poster
beepbeep · 20/04/2025 21:29

Bonniethetiler · 20/04/2025 20:55

Well this is a matter of perspective. On the one hand £400 a month (so about £92 a week) is a lot of money to spend on anything that you don't get good value from.

On the other hand, based on five hours a week that's less than £18.50 per hour, which is an OK-ish amount for a private cleaner (I'd expect to pay more), but a ridiculously low amount to pay if you are using a company who sends staff.

I've done a bit of private cleaning in the past, not much of it, really just to help people out, and it was not on my list of favourite jobs. I certainly would not like to be doing it for a company where I'm sent all over the place to clean for people I don't even know, for minimum wage.

Based on what my clients used to tell me, they only went to cleaning companies as a last resort, and seemed to accept that standards would never be that high, no matter how much they paid. As one lady told me, she found that all the really good cleaners who loved this sort of work were already working for themselves privately, on far more money than a cleaning company could pay. On that basis she didn't believe anyone who worked for a company could be that great or interested in the job.

Cleaning agencies are even more slap-dash than this, it seems, using people who are going to all the bother of being self-employed and yet need an agency to get them their work. Based on some of the prices I've seen quoted, I can't see how any of them were scraping minimum wage.

OP, it really comes down to the fact that you don't think you're getting good value. Good cleaners only ever come by recommendation only and you'll be lucky to get onto their waiting list, so I suggest you make some very discrete inquiries with a view to changing in the future. Do bear in mind though that a lot of people struggle hugely with the reliability of their cleaners and may accept a lesser quality cleaning experience over one where you never know if anyone is going to turn up at all.

Thanks Bonnie, they are private cleaners so pay them direct. We provide all the cleaning products, so their only overhead would be insurance & travel I believe.

OP posts:
Hastentoadd · 20/04/2025 21:42

beepbeep · 20/04/2025 12:58

Thanks all. I am cleaning the main bathroom now as have touched up some paint & it’s minging! So giving it a deep clean.

will look at leaving a list, but things like cobwebs & shower tiles are basics aren’t they? (Even if things like cobwebs once a month)

5 hours a week, is that 5 hours on one day or is it split out over the week?

Bonniethetiler · 20/04/2025 21:46

beepbeep · 20/04/2025 21:29

Thanks Bonnie, they are private cleaners so pay them direct. We provide all the cleaning products, so their only overhead would be insurance & travel I believe.

Show quote history

That helps to gain a better insight, although £18.50 each is not a lot for them to be charging for what they do, not when you consider that the "true" cost of hiring someone on minimum wage is estimated to be minimum wage + 30% to cover NI, holidays, other employee benefits, of which sick pay can take it way over than 30% guide figure...on the current NMW of £12.2ph, another 30% takes that up to almost £15.90.

You're caught between a rock & a hard place, as you may change cleaners and find that what you previously got for £18.50 wasn't bad at all...but then conversely if none of what you get now meets your needs then it's money wasted.

Maybe do a sort-of flow chart and ask yourself if you could manage without them at all. Or is what you pay worth it knowing they will turn up and do some cleaning so as to help keep a lid on it. Or could you cut the hours from five to three and ask what they will do in that time, so that you're not spending money having rooms which are not that important to you cleaned to a mediocre standard, etc.

Bonniethetiler · 20/04/2025 21:53

Hastentoadd · 20/04/2025 21:42

5 hours a week, is that 5 hours on one day or is it split out over the week?

Show quote history

The OP states once per week, but doesn't state how many people come, only that they do five hours in total. The problem with having more than one person doing the cleaning at any one time is (and I am guilty of this) there can be a lot of chat going on which holds up the cleaning. You also have to allow time for each person to unpack on arrival (coats etc, toilet stops, and so on) as well as time to pack up. I could easily spend a good ten-fifteen minutes in total across the start and end of a job in just organizing myself, so if that's two people in attendance it becomes half an hour off the cleaning for two people, 45 minutes for three, and so on.

Added to which, no two people clean the same, to the same standard, at the same speed. I only ever used to charge a fixed price for each job, so it didn't matter how long or quickly I took to clean, I only ever said to clients if they weren't happy with my work then it was important to tell me specifically what was wrong in terms of the quality and not the time. Not that people ever did complain, it was the occasional "Oh I don't think you will have seen this Bonnie as you have to be in the armchair at the time, but could you just..." and that sort of thing.

Original poster
beepbeep · 20/04/2025 22:03

Hastentoadd · 20/04/2025 21:42

5 hours a week, is that 5 hours on one day or is it split out over the week?

Show quote history

It’s 5 hours on one day, each week

OP posts:
Original poster
beepbeep · 20/04/2025 22:04

2 people come, one does upstairs, one downstairs usually
2.5 hours each, so 5 hours paid for

OP posts:
SD1978 · 20/04/2025 22:05

5 hrs should have all the bathrooms clean, and then the rest of the house too. They are taking the piss saying they can’t. Time to trial someone new.

Bonniethetiler · 20/04/2025 22:05

beepbeep · 20/04/2025 22:04

2 people come, one does upstairs, one downstairs usually
2.5 hours each, so 5 hours paid for

Edited

How did you get to hear of them to start with?

Original poster
beepbeep · 20/04/2025 22:28

Bonniethetiler · 20/04/2025 22:05

How did you get to hear of them to start with?

Show quote history

They came to us via an agency originally. Bizarrely we paid a lot less via the agency, but I don’t begrudge paying a reasonable rate. They decided to go on their own & we stuck with them my DH is the one who is home when they come & he likes them

OP posts:
Bonniethetiler · 20/04/2025 22:37

beepbeep · 20/04/2025 22:28

They came to us via an agency originally. Bizarrely we paid a lot less via the agency, but I don’t begrudge paying a reasonable rate. They decided to go on their own & we stuck with them my DH is the one who is home when they come & he likes them

Show quote history

Ah well that makes perfect sense and ties in with all I said above about agency cleaners specifically. That is, paid a pittance, because even when agency fees are factored in the fee is still usually very low.

Add to that the fact they had to go to an agency to get their work in the first place...with people queuing up for good private cleaners, why would they need to?

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