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.

Herts- £15ph 5 hrs twice a week

If someone is knowingly underpaying their cleaner, then they shouldn't be surprised if she moves to a different job.

I recently tried to get a new cleaner and was genuinely amazed at how much they charge these days and the "normal" list of included services for a weekly clean. It seems that they don't clean as you would clean your own house...they do the bare minimum. Going rate seems to be a minimum of £20 per hour. I really think it's amazing that cleaners expect to be paid more than you would pay for a nanny for your children.

Ended up going back to my old cleaner who charges £13 and hour. She's nice and she's cheap but she doesn't do a lot...for £13 and hour she hoovers and mops. She cleans the loos and wipes round the sinks (doesn't do the bath or shower). She also wipes the surfaces but doesn't move things. She does empty the bins.

I pay my cleaner £17/hour and she does 2 hours per week. She works for a local agency in the south east.

I don't have a cleaner but I've mum friends that are and charge £14-17 ph ...Midlands area. They great cleaners too. Fully booked up though.

I'm £17 an hour in Scotland. 2 hours fortnightly is the minimum time for a regular slot.

You could just.. clean your own house. Most cleaners are self employed so have extra costs.
I am astounded you are happy to pay your old cleaner 80p an hour for her extra costs.

Nannies are employees though so they get holiday, sick pay, employment rights - cleaners are self-employed. It's not like for like. Cleaning is hard physical labour with no downtime during naps (not dissing nannies, I loved mine but it's not the same physical labour or intensity of workload or job satisfaction).

And yes, population density does drive down cost which is why I pay the same cleaning rate in central London as my sister in rural Wales.

And YABU and frankly snobbish to compare your 'professional' hourly rate with your cleaner's. As a PP said, if you don't like it, clean your own house.

It isn’t snobbish if you’re paying off a student loan and the cleaner left school to earn at 16.

I haven't read all the posts, but is the problem perhaps that you are using an agency, OP?
The people who are paying around $17 an hour will be paying the cleaner direct. I think agencies keep half the money at least for themselves.
You need to find a cleaner directly eg through small ads.
if you insist on using an agency, you will have to pay a much higher price.

You could have done the same as the cleaner.

£17 per hour, Yorkshire

Yes I could have @XenoBitch but I wanted a better standard of living.

I charge between £165 & £250 for a monthly clean, but it's never 3 hours! More like 6-7

You get what you pay for!!!! You moan they aren't cleaning everything but in the same breath saying you give them £13 per hour!! Purleeeease!
A professional cleaner will do everything, including moving furniture and cleaning behind. They also pay tax and travelling costs and laundry costs, and bring their own equipment.

Jesus £40 an hour! My cleaner comes weekly and charges £20 an hour, she does an ok job, not to my standards as I have horrendous OCD but helps me keep on top of it. I'd never pay more than £20 an hour. £120 a month for a one of clean is extortionate!

@NewDayNewColouri didn't moan...i literally just described the stuff she does. It's fine...which is why we use her 🙄. The more deep clean stuff I just do myself. She helps me stay on top of the basics.

As I said I think it's ridiculous how much a lot of cleaners charge these days. It's not easy work and it's physically tiring I'm sure but it's very low skilled...which is why I compared it to a nanny (or carer perhaps) who does a much more skilled job for less pay per hour. Its not like for like perhaps but it's like for like for the person buying the service.

We pay £60 pw and that’s for about 3 hours.

There’s usually a discussion that takes place between those two events and the market dictates the rate.

Why should cleaners not charge a decent amount? Are they not allowed to have a decent standard of living in a "low skilled job"? It is nothing to do with skill when it comes to private house cleans. It is about you not being arsed to clean your own house yourself...
If you don't like it, clean your own house.

14/15 is normal rate and I get a thorough job done. There are loads that will come and do the bare minimum but they will just not get asked to come back.

I agree. It must be the dreariest of jobs. They should be paid a half decent wage.

They are but they shouldn’t be expected to be paid the same rate as a junior dr for example which is where it’s getting to with some of the demands. You keep saying ‘clean your own house’ some of us choose to outsource for a better quality of life and are happy to pay for it as long as it’s reasonable. If it’s not reasonable you move on to the next person willing to do the job.

£18ph for 2 cleaners is not £36ph. It's getting 2 hours worth of cleaning done for £36. Yes the elapsed time is only 1 hour but you are getting 2 hours worth of graft with less inconvenience.

Why not just take this option? Book them for 2 or 3 hours (combined) per fortnight, paying them £36 - £54 per clean.

I use an app and pay £40 for 2 hours.

I think you're getting ripped off and also over thinking it.