Am I paying too much/the right amount for my cleaner?

[HappyAsEyeAm]

I live outside London, within the M25. I have had the same weekly cleaner for 4+ years now. She's reliable and trustworthy.

But I have started thinking that maybe I am not getting as good a service as I should for what I pay. Or maybe I am expecting too much. Please tell me what you think.

She does 6 hours a week for us. We pay £10/hour. Her hourly rate is £9/hour, but I am happy to pay more (on account of her being trustworthy and reliable). Some weeks she does a little bit more than 6 hours, other weeks less. Always within half an hour or so. She does all of this time on the same day. She does cleaning and ironing. I provide the products.

She cleans 2 reception rooms (playroom and grown up living room), dining room, kitchen, hallway and downstairs loo, stairs and landling, main bathroom (bath and separate shower), 3 bedrooms and a study. We have carpet throughout, save for dining room and grown up living room (wooden floors), and bathroom and downstairs too (amtico). Maybe one every month I will ask her to clean two more bedrooms (only used by guests) and guest shower room and make up a bed. On those days, I will leave an extra £10.

Every week she irons 5 mens shirts, 2 mens t-shirts, 2 pairs of jeans, a dress, a skirt, king sized bedding (which is 4 pillowcases and duvet cover) and 2 long sleeve t-shirt tops. Sometimes an extra couple of tops or an extra shirt or two.

She doesn't move furniture or move toys on the open part of the playroom shelves to dust. She doesn't hoover under the sofa cushions.

What do you think?

It's hard to compare. My cleaner gets £7.50 an hour (we're up north) and does 2 hours a week. She cleans the sitting room, kitchen, hall, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, plus does the occasional bit of ironing. She does pull out furniture and hoover under sofa cushions.

I would say though that unless you live in a mansion, 6 hours a week seems like a really long time.

I think your complaint is she is missing some bits. Just nicely say would you mind pulling out XYZ.

I live in Gloucestershire and cleaners seem to get paid £10-12 an hour in our area. I haven't seen your house, but if you were to clean/iron what you have for six hours would you be doing the same or more? You could say to her (nicely of course) if she still has spare time one day could she dust the shelves or hoover the sofa.

Ours are £10 / hour and they get the house done in 3 hours. It's kitchen, dining, lounge, playroom, utility, downstairs loo, 4 beds, 2 bathrooms. They are very efficient. Ironing done separately and us usually about £15 a fortnight.

That seems about right to me. I pay my cleaner £10 ph for 5 hours per week. We have a 5 bed/3bath house, a couple of reception rooms (although cottage rather than mansion!). I have paid her this amount for several years and sometimes think I should pay her more, but as DH is suggesting we cut her hours down due to trying to cut costs, I won't be increasing it any time soon.
She is generally brilliant, although not perfect.

I think she's doing about right and the money's right for the area.

This seems quite expensive to me. My cleaner cleans exactly the same number of rooms as yours and she does it all in 3 hours - £10 per hour. She doesn't do any ironing. She does move sofa cushions. We do live further north though so maybe you get more for your money up here.

I am in Hampshire and pay my cleaner £10 an hour too. She does almost exactly what yours does, but in 4 hours instead of 6.

Cleaners between ten to fifteen pounds an hour here. I think what she is doing sounds right, also the fact that she is trustworthy along side her doing a good job, is worth the money that you pay her.

If you are niggled by the dusting of the shelves and hoovering under the cushions, mention it to her, she's not a mind reader.

Some of our cleaners certainly would refused to do the ironing too. I think she sounds good.

We pay £10/hour too, for our 3 bed 3 bathroom house, it takes around 4 hours, then she will also do a couple of hours ironing so sounds about the same to me (SW London)

Our cleaner does almost the same accommodation as yours (one less reception room but one extra bathroom) in 2 hours every week for £25.80. Ours is with an agency, although we usually get the same lady, they always come unless we ask them not to and they provide the products including Eco products as part of the fee and it's fully insured.
We then pay £7 a fortnight for an ironing agency to collect,iron and drop off a load (mostly DHs shirts/trousers)
We are in the NE and we could get cheaper but ours is efficient, good and trustworthy so we figure it's worth it.

And it all depends how well the cleaner cleans too. We can all make a room look presentable in ten minutes.

Thanks for the replies - it seems that there are some people who think she is doing what would be expected in the timeframe, and others who think she could do the same in a shorter time. Food for thought!

We pay £15 an hour for ours.... and she's amazing. She'll always stay a do a little extra. Most important thing is that we trust her. I'd rather pay a little extra and know that we can trust her. xxx

I think she sounds reasonable for your area. If she is trustworthy and dependable, then she is worth keeping. Talk to her about what you need.

You could maybe find cheaper, but it's unlikely much better. Cleaners are either good in that they give a shit and try, or they are rubbish. It's rarely down to price, although a good cleaner can be in high enough demand to put their prices up, if such a thing occurs to them.

Fwiw, I would quote £60 for your home, wouldn't do any ironing, and try to clean to a high standard in four hours. I am coy about what I want to make per hour, so I quote for the job, promise satisfaction, and then hustle my ass off to achieve £15 an hour on average.

Katy Sounds like you would do a much better job than my cleaner for much more money. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose. Thank you for your input.

Difficult to say but if yyu want to save money I would get an ironing company to do your ironing. I pay c £30 for about 6 kilos of ironing (1 massive full ikea bag)

That's one reason why I don't iron. I'm not really good at it and I figure there are ironing companies that will do it much better and cheaper than I will. Certainly better than I will.

Yes mama I agree that it woudl eb cheaper to get an outside ironing agency. But then I would have to take it to them and collect it when it was done, and alow for the time it takes for them to actually iron it. It is so much more convenienet for the cleaning and ironing to be done, all in one day, at my own home.

I think this thread has made me realise that I am paying for convenience, trustworthiness and reliability, even if I am paying, in pounds and pence, more than others.

Most companies collect and deliver, and many though not all have a 24 hour turnaround.