Getting a cleaner

[LilllyLovesLife]

Can't afford it really but to save my sanity I have decided to go for getting a cleaner and I will just have to save money somewhere else.

How do you decide what to ask them to do? She will be doing 2.5 hours a week and charging £8 an hour, so it will cost me £20 per week. She is going to clean while I take the kids out somewhere fun.

I know I definatly want her to:
Sweep and mop all of downstairs
Clean Bathroom
Hoover stairs
Hoover upstairs if it's not too untidy (kids often have toys everywhere!
General dust around

I was also thinking of asking her to change bedding but not sure?

I have no idea how much to expect in 2.5hours really as I always have kids under my feet so I have no idea what it's like to have 2.5 hours of solid cleaning!

Any ideas or tips?

We live in a "normal" sized 3 bed 1930's semi. Cleaner does 2 hours and in that time she:-

Surface wipes upstairs & downstairs
Cleans bathroom and downstairs loo
Vacs (where she can) upstairs, stairs and downstairs
Mops kitchen/bathroom and hall floor

Every so often, I'll ask her to ignore upstairs for one week (except bathroom) and just concentrate on downstairs, so she'll do a more thorough clean (inside of windows, vac sofa, polish table, high level dust etc.) and then, even more rarely, she'll have a week where she'll do the same with the upstairs. I reckon we have thorough downstairs clean about once per month and thorough upstairs about once every two months.

in 2 hours my cleaner does

• wipe down all kitchen & utility surfaces, kitchen table, & conservatory windowsills, clean kitchen & utility sink, brush & mop kitchen, conservatory & utility tiled floors.
• vacuum lounge & playroom, wet-dust surfaces
• brush and mop hall and downstairs loo, clean toilet & sink
• vacuum 3 bedrooms & bathroom, stairs & landing, clean 2 x toilets & sinks upstairs, wet-dust 3 bedroom surfaces

I ensure everywhere is tidy before she comes - I am not paying for tidying as I don't mind doing that.