Cost of cleaner…

[PeonyPatch]

I live in the SE of England in a home county. I had a cleaner who used to come once per month and would clean kitchen/living room, hallway downstairs & upstairs plus downstairs loo and upstairs bathroom. She would charge £120 a month (only come once a month) she claimed to do a deep clean (as in would move all appliances out of the way in kitchen and clean underneath). Besides this, I’m unclear as to what differentiated this from your standard clean. I also found that skirting boards still had dust on so I would clean these myself.

I’ve made the decision to cancel her service, and I’m now wondering what the going rate is. She would be here for 3 hours.

She charged you £40 per hour?? That is mental.

I pay my cleaner £16 per hour, she does a similar list to yours but with a small shower room as well. She gets it done in 3 hours. Our previous cleaner charged exactly the same. We're near Brighton.

In London I pay £20 per hour for a weekly clean but if I was only paying once a month I would expect to pay a premium as dirt builds up over a month, plus it's majorly inconvenient for her to do 3 hours a month for one person. Much better to do 3 hours per week / fortnight.

She doesn't sound great though.

I pay £18 an hour direct to her. She does two hours a week. And one week of the month she’ll add in an extra 2 hours to do stuff like ‘the kitchen cupboards’ ‘the oven’ ‘the fridge’.

£40 an hour once a month for three hours isn’t enough to clean a Polly pocket house !

£40 an hour is a lot, it’s £18 an hour here on average, south east area.

I hear ya, and I would expect to pay a bit more than a weekly or fortnightly clean. But I was keeping on top of it in between and when she came to quote me she did comment on how neat and tidy I was and said she knocked the price down 😳 I live in a new house and I’m quite a clean freak, hence the cleaner… but I work many hours so just wanted a bit of a hand with it really.

I am now shopping around for a cleaner who is able to come once a fortnight, and trying to get a feel for what is an appropriate fee x

I gave up with cleaners in the end, the only one who would show up consistently and on time put prices up from £18 per hour to £21 per hour shortly after starting and with our size of house we needed 3 hours per week. I could not justify £60 a week on a cleaner, especially when I found myself going over bits after they left!

Another thing I just remembered as well is our cleaner never emptied our bins, or rearranged the cushions on the sofa/folded the throw on it. I would come home and have to empty the bins. I know it’s very small in the grand scheme of things but when you’re paying £120 a month… 😳

Forget about the "120 a month", you are paying 120 for a 3h clean which is mental!

It doesn't matter that she calls it a deep clean, she cleans your house for 3h and do the jobs that needs doing. My cleaner comes for 2.5h and also does the jobs that needs doing. Your house will end up cleaner at the end of it because you keep it clean throughout the week, whilst mine is a tip every Sunday (I blame the kids 100%).

We pay £15/h. Even agencies around here don't charge as much as your cleaner!

I think you have been ripped off.

From what I see in SE it’s reasonable to pay £15 minimum to £20 per hour - remembering the cleaner has to travel to you too which usually isn’t taken into account but of course take the cleaner time/ might involve rising costs like bus fare or petrol.

We have a 4 bed house and pay £50 per week, cleaner does 2.5 hours per week . I don’t expect everything to be perfect as some jobs will get done on a rotating basis. So I might spot a dusty lightshade or skirting board, but I know she will get to it the next week. I adore my cleaner - she is one of life’s kind and gentle souls - and she works very hard.

My cleaner says she does some jobs at minimum wage and I can see it eats away at her because after travel she earns very little.

I’ve just had a quote for £85 a clean for the same things but on a fortnightly basis so I’d end up paying more 😖 the owner said he wouldn’t go lower as he wants to pay his cleaners a decent wage.

I also had a quote from another company for £18 per hour but it would be a team of 2 so I’m paying £36 per hour.

I feel like giving up. Honestly, I don’t want to pay cleaners a pittance, and I agree they should be paid a bit more than minimum wage as it’s not an easy job, they have to travel etc… but I’m in a professional industry and their hourly rate is almost half of mine 😳 AIBU to think this?!

£50 for 3 hours fortnightly in similar location.

The difficult thing round here is finding someone who will commit to LESS than 3 hours per week. That seems to be the very minimum. I have a share situation with the neighbour, ours is cleaned one week and theirs the next.

I’m in the North-West. Our cleaner does two hours every week, £14 per hour.

thats a good idea… I know my neighbours opposite me have a cleaner so maybe I should enquire about theirs…

How big is your home? How many rooms?

“I feel like giving up. Honestly, I don’t want to pay cleaners a pittance, and I agree they should be paid a bit more than minimum wage as it’s not an easy job, they have to travel etc… but I’m in a professional industry and their hourly rate is almost half of mine 😳 AIBU to think this?!”

YABU. It might just be that you can’t afford a cleaner? Although it come down to priorities and choices. How much value does a once a month cleaner add?

FWIW we have 4 hours/week @ £15 per hour in North West. It’s worth every penny for the time back it gives us at the weekend to spend time as a family/couple/just chill out.

It’s just an attractive job - we pay £18ph for 3 hours per week. My cleaner stacks up the jobs on the same road to minimise travel. No one wants a fortnightly or monthly job as then they have to plug the gaps - the swap with the neighbour above is genius. You only need a cleaner if it’s worth more to you to have the time to earn money yourself, or for leisure because you earn/work so much in the week. It doesn’t sound like you earn enough to make it worth it/you love cleaning loads throughout the week so I’m not sure how it’s helpful for you.

Based off of what other people have said, it looks like I can afford a cleaner I just can’t find a reasonably priced one. You’ve said it yourself you are paying £15 per hour whereas I was paying £40 an hour!!

I'm in the South East. I pay £17/hour for three hours a week. She irons and changes the bed linen too, and is super reliable!

Personally wouldn’t see the point in paying for a cleaning once a month. What do you do for the rest of the month?

3 bedroom semi. She concentrates mainly on the bathroom and kitchen and gives the rest of the downstairs a hoover / mop. She’s very efficient. Doesn’t do the bedrooms.

Can you share the details with me? 🤣 £17 per hour is what I’m looking for… I’d even go up to £20-£25 per hour but not £40 an hour…

that is a very good price, almost too cheap… I’d feel bad paying so low to be fair!

Like I said, I lightly cleaned in between her coming once a month but she’d do a more thorough job than what I was doing and I would need to clean less… but yeh I’m now reassessing and wanting someone more regular. Just feel I was being ripped off.

South west - £20 per hour is standard. Just changing cleaner after a disastrous one (one before was amazing - I miss her). We’re doing 3 hours a week for first 2 weeks then plan is to move to 2 hours every week with one 3 hour clean a month. I use a cleaner to keep on top of things then do occasional deeper cleans under sofas etc and because the cleaning has been regular, the deep clean is less horrific.

To be fair, I’d happy pay a bit more if she asked, she never does! I might broach the subject as she hasn’t put it up for a couple of years.