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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to get a CLEANER when...

39 replies

noonar · 06/11/2009 14:34

... i work 3 days a week and my 5 and 7yo dds are at school?

i work monday to weds as a teacher in a primary school. i leave at 7.45am and am back at 6.30 every day. by the time thurs and fri comes i am totally and utterly shattered and cannot motivate myself to do the house work.

would it be terribly lazy of me to get help for two hours on a friday am? i'm thinking that if i got someone to work WITH me it would force me to motivate myself to do the household chores at a given time. this would mean that the house would get a bit of a blitz in time for the weekend.

AIBU and lazy, or would this a justifiable and worthwhile expense?

OP posts:
alicet · 06/11/2009 14:39

YANBU - if you can afford it and there are things you wuold rather do with your time then why not?

Tbh I think you are mad to get a cleaner when you are there. if you are going to the expense then why not get them to come while you are at work so you can enjoy the break? There will still be things outstanding (washing / basic tidying and cleaning etc) that you can do on a day off without being oppressed by it if your cleaner does a more thorough clean once a week.

We ahve a cleaner - best use of money ever. I too work 3 days but my 2 are younger so at home in the day. Does mean I can play on MN rather than clean when they nap though which is all good!

Seededbiatch · 06/11/2009 14:39

If you can afford it then do it. If I could afford a cleaner then I would have one no questions asked, even if I didn't go out to work at all.

seaglass · 06/11/2009 14:41

Get a cleaner, but don't try and help - have some time to yourself!

MorrisZapp · 06/11/2009 14:42

Makes no difference if you want a cleaner or a rhinestone studded pantygirdle. If you want it and can afford it then get it.

Mcdreamy · 06/11/2009 14:43

Def get a cleaner but as alicet suggests get them to come when you are not there. Coming home to a lovely clean and tidy house is wonderful.

Original poster
noonar · 06/11/2009 14:45

hmm.. i cant really afford it, tbh. our finances are pretty dire, atm, but i figured that at £8 per hour, it's not going to make a massive difference to our weekly budget.

thing is, as the house is quite big, it needs a good 4 hours to give it the once over,imo. i couldnt afford more than 2 hours' help , hence the idea of working together.

OP posts:
emsyj · 06/11/2009 14:45

If you want a cleaner and can afford a cleaner, just get a bloody cleaner. We used to have one when we were working in London (seems everyone in London has one, possibly because they're so much cheaper there than in the regions) but gave it up when we moved up north and I am thinking about getting one again. Cleaning is a thankless and soul-destroying task. Why do it if you can gainfully employ someone else to do it? They get a bit of extra cash and you get your life back. Everyone's a winner.

emsyj · 06/11/2009 14:45

Why not get the cleaner in fortnightly to do 4 hours?

Hullygully · 06/11/2009 14:46

Couldn't you just get up an hour earlier on the three work days? That would give you three hours to do the cleaning which should be enough and will save you money. Then you could have a whole two days to loll about and paint your nails.

BoysAreLikeDogs · 06/11/2009 14:47

god get a cleaner

it will TRANSFORM your life

Can you outsource your ironing too?

Original poster
noonar · 06/11/2009 14:49

ems, not a bad idea...

i guess i just feel that i should be working hard every week day,not just when i'm at work and feel guilty that i lack motivation at the end of the week. i just get sort of paralysed by a lack of motivation, lol!

OP posts:
teameric · 06/11/2009 14:49

I want a cleaner!!! (I live in London so that means I should have one)

Original poster
noonar · 06/11/2009 14:51

hully, that's a joke, right? get up at 5.45 and clean for an hour before teaching a class of 32 very needy childrfen for a full day? i'd be dead by xmas

OP posts:
emsyj · 06/11/2009 14:53

Well I don't really clean - I WANT a clean house, I just don't feel motivated to clean it. I therefore do the bare minimum, and even that makes me miserable. It was so lovely to have the cleaner come on a Friday and know when I got home from work that it would all be clean & tidy.

teameric, try ExtraHand if you're looking. A few of my friends use them for cleaning in London and they can do wonders even with very short time slots. We used a lady who also cleaned our landlord's house, just because it was convenient, but I believe that agency are very good.

lizardqueenie · 06/11/2009 14:54

Get a cleaner and if you only want them to come for 2 hours then as has been suggested dont do the cleaning with them. have a break yourself.

Maybe divide up the tasks (i dont think anyone is going to be surprised if the cleaner gets those jobs that you hate/ find hard to motivate yourself for so allocate those to the cleaner leaving yourself with the stuff you hate less - hoovering or whatever) That way you get them to do half of it so that you know what you have left to do on another day and they know exactly what they have to do when they turn up.

Original poster
noonar · 06/11/2009 14:54

ok, those of you who have a cleaner, how much do you pay?

OP posts:
Morloth · 06/11/2009 14:56

I pay 10quid an hour but am in Central London so that is the going rate.

Just get one, it is so much nicer.

emsyj · 06/11/2009 14:56

In London we paid £7 an hour but through an agency it would have been £9 or £10 (according to friends who used agencies). We are now in the north west and I think we would struggle to find anyone for less than £10 an hour, although in the current economic climate you might find someone who has a bit of spare time and could do with the extra cash who would take less (rather than an agency) if you pop an ad in your local shop.

alicet · 06/11/2009 15:02

If you can only afford to pay for 2 hours get the cleaner to do the bathroom(s), kitchen and areas that get trashed the most every week. Then split the rest of the space for them to do on alternate weeks. So you will have to do a bit but at least you know rooms will be cleaned properly at least once a fortnight. Or get them to come alternate weeks as suggested.

I pay £30 as a flat fee. She is here for about 3 hours but des a great job and house is spotless. Tbh I don't care how long she is here for - I would be cleaning for 5 plus hours to get the end result she does so all good

teameric · 06/11/2009 15:05

emsyj I wish we could afford it I'm a SAHM at the mo btw, I'm just a lazy bitch

mumblechum · 06/11/2009 15:08

When I was home at the same time as my cleaner we'd end up nattering over a cup of tea about her problems and she'd never get anything done.

mumblechum · 06/11/2009 15:09

It hasn't gone up then, I was paying £9 an hour (home counties) 10 yrs ago.

BoysAreLikeDogs · 06/11/2009 15:10

I pay £10 per hour, worth every blimmin penny

£10 per basket of ironing

HTH

porcamiseria · 06/11/2009 15:11

we did pay £8ph but that was London suburbs, listen dont feel guilt about having a cleaner, if you can afford get. and DONT even think about cleaning alongside her FFS!!!! we only dont have as redundancy hit out little world and cant afford any more

Carikube · 06/11/2009 15:11

We pay £8 an hour and she does 5 hours a week (but that includes all the ironing, ie DH's shirts mostly). I insisted we had one when we were both working FT. I thought we might stop using her when I went on ML but I think DH realised that he wouldn't have anything to wear to work as I was too shattered when dd was born to do anything so she's still coming. I feel a bit guilty about it but at the same time it is lovely knowing things are cleaned regularly...

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