What do you use a cleaning lady for?

[whosthis]

If you want more spare time to take care of a young baby, which part of the work do you use the cleaning lady for? We don't need ironing though.

My mind mustn't be clear...

I meant if you use cleaning lady to save some time to spend with your baby, what sort of work you can ask a cleaning lady to do to help? I don't have much clue except knowing they do hoover the floor and iron clothes for you. What else?

Cleaning bathroom and kitchen and general hoovering and dusting if 'heavy traffic' areas of the house.

Wash the floors and clean the bathroom (no carpets here). Maybe once a month do another big job like clean windows or fridge.

Ours cleans the kitchen (does any dishes, cleans counters, seeps and mops floor), cleans bathrooms (loos, shower screens, mirrors, sinks), sweeps and mops all floors, hoovers carpets, dusts, changes bed linen, irons. We have 4 hours per week and thank goodness - cant having DS and having to do it all. House would be a mess or I would be!!

Ours comes once a week and cleans bathrooms and kitchen (ie wipes down worksurfaces and cupboard doors and handles, cleans the sink and taps etc), hoovers or mops all floors and dusts. She also does ironing. I don't need her to emplty the bins, but I would imagine that some cleaners will do that too.

Once in a while, I will ask her to stay for longer and clean the fridge or make the beds (if I have stripped them to wash the bedlinen), which she is happy to do. Also maybe to do more spring cleaning type work like dusting behind radiators, cleaning inside the windows, moving the heavier furniture to hoover behind or underneath etc. Sometimes she will peg out washing that has finished its cycle in the machine. She also accepts parcels and signs for them if I am not there.

Some cleaners are happy to do whatever jobs you ask them to do. This is what my cleaner is like, and this suits us both well, as she likes the variety and this is what I need. Others are not willing to do certain jobs as they prefer to spend their time doing other cleaning jobs. Speak to whoever you are thinking of employing (or an agency) and basically ask them what they could offer you to fit in with what you need and your circumstances.

Mine comes twice a week for 6 hours each time. She thoroughly cleans the kitchen once a week (cupboards, fridge), hoovers 2x, cleans the floors 2x, loos 2x, irons 1x, changes bedding 1x, tidies and dusts 2x, polishes silver 1x, sweeps front of house 1x, takes out rubbish.

Despite this, I still end up cleaning on the days she does not come!

I don't use my cleaner for anything!

She cleans the bathroom, hoovers 3 bedrooms, makes the dc beds and changes their sheets (I still do my bed), hoovers the landing, stairs, hallway and two reception rooms. Dusts as needed. Sweeps and mops kitchen floor, cleans sink and worksurfaces and cooker hob, cleans inside of patio doors. That takes her 2.5 hours, then she does half an hour ironing.

I'm a childminder and house gets dirty and messy very quickly. I have a cleaner who comes every Saturday morning for two hours. We work together - I tidy up and dust while she cleans the bathrooms (2), I hoover and she mops the floors, and she cleans the kitchen while I clean the windows and dust/polish wooden stuff. During the week I keep up with the washing and ironing (not that much, DS irons his own stuff)

Then we have the rest of the weekend in a nice clean house, before the mess starts again on Monday morning!

Goodness Mominatrix do you live in the Taj Mahal? That sounds like an awful lot of up-keep ...

Most of my clients want me to clean their kitchens, bathrooms, and then do a thorough dust and hoover. Some have special requests like cleaning out the inside of the fridge. I will usually do some things on a sort of as-needed rota, like cleaning inside the fridge or wiping out the oven (I don't clean really dirty ovens, but I will maintain a clean oven.)

I am never asked to iron, but I know it's something a lot of people want. I'm not sure why I'm never asked as it seems to be a very popular thing based on what I read here. Perhaps because nothing about my web site mentions ironing - I prefer to avoid it. Some cleaners are happy to iron and some aren't. You just have to ask.

Some cleaners won't make beds (or so I hear) but some will (I do.) Some cleaners are more about cleaning while others are more about doing basic domestic chores.

Some cleaners charge by the hour (the ones who will iron and do whatever you want will do this) and others charge by the job (they tend to be more focused on making dirty surfaces clean). It really just varies.

I will say that most cleaners want you to have tidied somewhat for them to be able to clean. Some people find the incentive to run around tidying helpful and some people seem to resent the very idea of it. There are cleaners who will happily put away all the clutter strewn about, though.

I'm not very helpful, am I?

Think of the things you hate doing, and give some thought to which things you'd like to have done once a week (or however often you want help.) I'm not sure if it's a matter of saving time or a matter of things getting done that people might put off/not get around to.

Far from the Taj Mahal - just a combination of 3 messy males with no sense of aim, a husband who works from home, me being extremely fussy, and a kitchen which sees quite a bit of action (make almost everything from scratch and do loads of baking).

I am a domestic cleaner. I clean kitchens, bathrooms, dust, hoover and mop floors. Clean out the fridge if required. Ironing if required. Just general housework. There's really nothing I wouldn't do . But I have recently been asked to clean and disgusting bathroom by a client. It took me 2 hours and it still wasn't as good as I would have liked to have left it., but I ran out of time! Pleased to say I don't clean there now.