Desperately need a cleaner but am I expecting too much?

[Gertrudethechicken]

I am struggling to recruit a cleaner/ housekeeper for my house. I’ve had afew replies to my adverts online but they end up ghosting me once I explain what’s involved, which got me thinking I might be scaring people off.

i am looking for someone to come in for three houses twice a week to hoover and mop the home (twice weekly), clean bathrooms (once weekly), change beds, iron, put clothes and toys away. My home is 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms plus a w/c, utility, living room, play room, dining room, kitchen, ect. I know it’s a large house so happy to negotiate. I can put my headphones on and blitz through my home in afew hours but I recognise this may not be the case for someone coming into a brand new house.

When I was a cleaner, I tidied, ironed and changed beds. It’s only on MN that cleaners must only be expected to clean already clean houses and waft a duster around empty spaces.

You are expecting an awful lot. When I lived in a house marginally bigger than what you describe, I had a housekeeper working full time hours.

I appreciate that is too much and unnecessary for most, but you really are expecting miracles based on what you have said.

This is the reason you aren't getting further than a phone call.

I think you are better off dividing the tasks between the visits:

Visit 1: cleaning, but a five-bed house is too much for 3 hours. Make it 4 at least!

Visit 2: bed changing, ironing and tidying

In my experience cleaners don’t seem to like doing a partial clean or rotating areas from one visit to the next. They prefer to do the whole lot if possible.

I stopped asking cleaners to iron - they love. Put the tv and stand there and it takes up all their time. Keep your house tidy so the cleaner can clean and send the ironing to someone else.

If you mean three hours, twice a week, then there’s no way that’s enough time to do all of this in each clean. My cleaner does two hours a week but no bedrooms, no tidying, no ironing - just basic clean of two bathrooms, hall, stairs, landing, living room, kitchen-diner and family room. You’d need a lot more time allocated to fit all your needs in!

Get a cleaner once a week and tidy beforehand. Iron less stuff.
We used to have a cleaner for 2 hours, its used to take me over 2 hours to tidy tbe night before she came.

Toys should be put away by children not cleaners.

Why aren’t your children putting their own toys and clothes away? It’s essential life skills and they need to learn!

It just sounds like a lot (and probably is a lot due to ironing), and it puts people off. Keep looking, the right person will come along. Btw the hourly rate normally increases once ironing is involved. Tidying is not an unusual request, many cleaners will do it. I suggest to keep looking plus increasing the hourly rate (say from £20 to £25/£30).

You could get married and your wife could do it for free?

You expect someone to tidy twice, vacuum twice, mop twice, change sheets once, clean 4 bathrooms and 5 bedrooms and w/c and utility and living room and play room and dining room and kitchen once, dust everywhere once, do a week’s ironing…in six hours??? Come on OP. Be reasonable. I can see three people in for 6 hours doing a really good job, 2 people coming in for 6 hours doing a good job. But one person?

They all think you expect too much for the hours you want to pay for. I have a large 4 bed. I book one off cleans from time to time. Last time I booked 8 hours and the did 9 (and didn’t charge me the extra hour). They did all the windows inside but didn’t do the conservatory as they ran out of time (which was fine). The also didn’t do the garage conversion (which was not on the list). They worked really hard and I made the beds and tided up before they came. Plus no ironing. You are asking too much.

I think that you are expecting a lot it you are wanting cleaning, tidying plus ironing and putting away.
I think you should tell them what jobs you want doing and ask them how many hours they would need to do that. Then you can work out compromises.
I think ironing and laundry is a separate job altogether. When I have had a cleaner, I have always asked for them to tidy as well as clean if needed, but the more tidying the less cleaning that gets done, but never known one to do laundry

Why does ironing cause an increase in price?

This. When I have had cleaners, I have listened to them about how long they will need to do what I wanted and what it will cost and made my decision based on total price. My part was telling them what I wanted done and how often. At one point I needed the work done in a shorter time so we agreed that they would send in more than one staff.

because of the time it takes?

Think about it from their point of view. They have to come back to your house twice. They are being expected to make a very large house look decent twice in 3 hours, including ironing and changing beds. You might find someone more easily if you offered 6 hours in one go, and outsourced your ironing to someone else.

My cleaner works for 4 hours - she only irons when she’s finished cleaning, there’s no time pressure and no target number of items to be ironed.

My cleaner does 4 hours a week and that's for only the downstairs. Plus I'm tidy PLUS I also do a mid week spruce.
Its 2 receptions, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room and utility.
She does a splendid job and once a month she does an extra 2 hours to help me clean cupboards out, rearrange stuff, etc if she and I feel like it.
I'd never ask for her to do laundry, change my beds, tidy or iron.
If I wanted that I'd get a housekeeper.

I think you either need to decide if you want 6 hours OR you want your list of jobs done.
I would either employ a housekeeper 2 days a week and they get through whatever they can in the time.
Or I would get some self employed cleaners to come round, tell them what you want done and get them to quote you for the hours/money.

I'd look for someone who takes ironing in rather than trying to find a cleaner who irons.

Tidying and sorting laundry/ beds aren't typical cleaner jobs so you may need to compromise there.

Hoover, mop, clean bathrooms itself is 3 hours.

Ironing itself takes 3 bloody hours.

You're asking way to much in far too little time.

I have similar size house and my housekeeper comes for 4-5 hours twice a week, similar tasks, just probably less toys and more clothes and make-up as I have teenagers.

As others said six hours if not enough for the size of your house to clean it let alone for all the extras that you want done

In the nicest possible way, Cleanersclean. They shouldn’t have to tidy up to clean round the house

if you want tidying up as well as hoovering et cetera then you either need to add extra hours or advertise for a housekeeper

A good few years ago I worked as a cleaner and it entailed tidying and ironing - it took us both a few weeks to work out what was achievable in the hours they wanted and then we worked from there. So there are people out there willing to do that.