New cleaner - what should I reasonably expect?

[chasingtail]

Hi there

We live in a relatively large barn conversion with tons of exposed beams hence permanent dust lots of period charm! it's got 5 bedrooms (3 of which are occupied), plus 2 messy children & husband!

My sanity is finally at an end with this housekeeping malarky!! I could be at it 24/7 and still not scratch the surface, hence have bitten the bullet and employed a cleaner via a local company.

When the manager looked at the house she managed to get me to agree to a cleaner coming twice a week for 3 hours at a time To warrant the cost I need to obviously get the best from the cleaner and would welcome any tips or advice or how to go about this.

Am thinking of this sort of schedule:

on 1st day: clean kitchen / dust lounge / dust hallway & stair case / (big open plan with photos on dresser etc) / dust dining room (nothing in there except table & chairs) / clean utility / clean cloakroom / hoover right through downstairs.

on 2nd day: clean main bedroom & ensuite (incl bath & shower) / clean main bathroom / clean DS bedroom (brave woman!) / clean DD room / hoover right through upstairs / a bit of ironing if any time left .

Is this reasonable??

Also as the place is currently revolting after the 6 week holiday, would I be better off initially getting her to do some sort of deep clean for the first few weeks??

Many thanks!!

Probably good to do a deep clean first.
Your breakup seems reasonable for 3 hours.
I have one who comes every week for 2 hours. She takes 1 hour to vacuum and mop downstairs. And 1 hour to hoover upstairs and clean the bath or toilet or one similar timed job. (3 bed semi)
Mostly we stick to this - but if things are particularly bad, then she does whatever is required. Has been coming for around 10 months so knows pretty much what goes where and is reasonable at tidying throwing crap in the right shelves too.

Works best when I work alongside her - so it's 2 people doing the job - rather than she does and I put up feet. I usually run round putting things in the right places and checking over bits of paper etc and she does the hoovering etc... That way the house is pristine and everything is in the right place. I put my feet up once she's gone and admire for about 10 mnts or so... (Not even that during school holidays!!)

that sounds good to me at least everything gets done , i do cleaning and that would work fine for me to work like that , ladies if any of your cleaning dont work out then email me on [email protected] and sweetgrapes thats a really good way of getting the whole house cleaned working together