in thinking that if we have monthly income of £3700 net we could spare £120 to spend on a cleaner?

[effedorf]

3+ years posting here, namechange for obvious reasons.

But, seriously, what do you think?

The income all comes from dh and I am sahm. We have two primary school age children. I truly hate cleaning and I do 95% of the food shopping and cooking and 100% of the laundry and 95% of all the other things that makes a family tick over.

Or am I being unreasonable?

Hando - "Earning precisely £3700 may not be that huge an income, it wouldn't leave you with loads of spare cash if you have £2000 a month to spend on rent (large 4 bed house in London where I live would be about this much) plus bills, food, cars etc"

Oh please. We all know about the cost of living in London. The vast majority of Londoners live on a fraction of this sum. They just don't have the big house in the nice area, the cars etc. This is what being rich means. Do you see? It's not about how much money you have at the end of the month after you have paid for your Fulham terrace and your garage bills.

Do the bloody cleaning and spend the £120 a month on massage/facial/manicure treats.
Still think this is trollish.

Personally I would rather do my own nails than scrub the floor but each to her own.

Wow. I have two hours and feel spoilt

@ Zephirine

I would also much rather come home to a clean house than have a massage/facial. Always find them kind of awkward.

lol at hiring cleaners for 12 hours a week minimum. Parisians must be utterly filthy to need so many hours of people cleaning up after them

What do you do in 12 hours of cleaning? Does it rise exponentially with extra people in the house?

I must have very low standards then. Is this anymore than dust, hoover, clean bathrooms, change bed?

Ah, Heathen, not awkward with a lovely male masseur with strong hands........
(purely professional, natch)

I'm just going to assume that the second child adds an extraordinarily large amount of extra cleaning.

I believe length of time cleaning is directly proprotional to the number of loos in a house. If the OP has £3700 disposable income, then there must be at least 3 loos, I would imagine....

Sofa- sorry you are incandescent!
That statement was made tongue in cheek, which is why there is a little smiley after it.
It has also been taken out of context. Nobody has said that being a SAHM to a preschooler or two plus school children is not v hard work. It is definitely v hard work and can be relentless depending on the child/ children. It can also be much more tiring than being a WOHM, depending on her job. However, the OP is not in this situation. She has two children, both in full time school. That is not the same. I know quite a few SAHM with school aged children. Some of them are really conscientious- help out at school, fundraise, cook fresh food, do the housework, DIY, etc and have some time to play tennis/ meet friends for coffee, etc while children are at school. Other seem to spend a most of their time at the gym, horseriding, having their hair done/ nails done/ botox, etc. I like all of these mums. However, I would tend to term this latter group more ladies of leisure. How these people spend their time and money is none of my business at all but the OP has posted on AIBU and has asked for opinions.

I'm intrigued too - particularly by the idea that one needs more when people are at home. What are these cleaners contracted to do? Are they wiping their employers bottoms?

It is all about standards and disposable uncome obviously.
As a child we had a cleaner for 4 hours every day. So do most of my friends to this day. (I do not, hence pig-sty house). There's a lot of dirt that is hidden away I am fraid and lots of cleaning in areas that are not seen. I do not mind it but if I had the cash I would rather live in a cleaner place.
For example, not that I personally ever did, carpet should be hoovered daily, hard floors mopped and hoovered daily, bathroom def daily etc. If you then add ironing, windows, fridge, wash curtains, change bedding, clean oven etc you can easily make those hours Bosoir mentioned.
I personally would not go this extend as not clean freak at all but it is easily done.,

Hando, if you live in a nice area of London, you don't need a car .

income

Pippi - I DO just have low standard then. .

And now I really have to leave you for as much as I'd like to keep chatting about cleaning I must get up and do some as we have reached the point of no return. And I am not talking about dirt hidden away but dirt cleary visible to a blind!

12 hours???? Depends what you ask your cleaner to do, I guess. Mine does just cleaning, no washing up, laundry, ironing, tidying up (we are a fairly tidy family, and DD is expected to tidy up with us at the end of the day, not always successfully, I admit!), and manages a fairly large house in 6 hours a week, including washing down skirting boards and the insides of windows (my two pet bugbears). I would imagine if I added stuff to the list such as ironing I'd need her for a couple more hours, but I struggle to see what she'd do for 12 hours. Unless I had her twice a week....which seems a tad overkill, even by my super-anal standards. If you do small cleans at the end of every day, then once a week is surely enough....

ooojimaflip so do I so do I trust me !

Twelve hours sounds more like a housekeeper to me. Do people really hoover carpets, wash hard floors and clean bathrooms every day? I don't really understand why the house gets that dirty.

Maybe it's to do with if you take shoes off when you come in or not.

Hoover carpets in hall, playroom and sitting room every day and mop floor in kitchen every other day - yes, but that is only because they are the high-traffic areas in our house that get pretty dirty, and it only takes half an hour. Every day no, and why a bathroom would need cleaning every day is totally beyond me...

Kitchen surfaces get cleaned every day though - again, 10 min job and most necessary when you cook like the Swedish chef from the Muppets, which is both mine and DH preferred style...

12 hours would normally be 3 x 4 hours ie Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You'd get your apartment hoovered and dusted right through, plus loos, bathrooms and kitchens cleaned, every time. You'd have your bedding changed once a week, your ironing done a couple of times, and things like walls washing (which is sadly inevitable here) occasionally.