What do you ask of your cleaner in 3 hours?

[AnnoyedAtWork]

Finally getting a cleaner. 1 day a week for 3 hours. Is this a reasonable amount to ask to be done? (This is what I could do in 3 hours):

Tidy kitchen ; load/unload dishwasher
Put laundry on / hang out laundry / put dry laundry away
Clean cooker top and work tops
Clean bathroom
Sweep & mop floors throughout house (2 bedrooms, hallway, kitchen, bathroom)
Hoover living room

Depends how much laundry there is, but my 2-bed house takes nearer two hours, including bed-change and windows as necessary (but everyone says how tidy I am). It would be easier to increase time and payment if suitable, but difficult to reduce - could you have first month as trial?

Also depends how tidy you are. If all those rooms are tidy before s/he starts, then yes, that should be doable, but if you're messy and s/he's going to have to pick up and put away lots of stuff then it might be a stretch.

I have a cleaner once a week for four hours. She hoovers/mops all floors, cleans two bathrooms, two bedrooms, changes sheets on our bed, dusts, cleans windows as necessary. That sounds like a lot, but I'm very neat, so she has no tidying to do and I don't have her doing laundry or the DW (she puts everything away in the wrong places and doesn't fold things as I like, so it's not worth the extra hassle of me having to re-do them!)

I agree with juneau, IMO the way to get the best out of the time is to leave everything tidy and just assign proper hardcore cleaning.

Well we wouldn't be able to tidy before hand so need to allow time for that. Thanks for your replies!

Mine does 3.5 hours.Do not expect her to do laundry or dishwasher but she does change bed linen on our bed only,also have 2 bathrooms & 2 bedrooms that need regularly cleaning and more living rooms.
I've had 3 cleaners over 6 years or so,I've found best thing to do is to go around with the new cleaner and ask if she can do what you want in the time you are allowing.
All mine said they would be able to do what I needed & have been able to do it in the time allowed and all have worked efficiently.So ,cleaners, in my experience ,are a good judge of what they can achieve in a set time.

yes I'd get changing sheets on the list and dusting. maybe even ironing. I'd lose the dishwasher unless she us going to learn where everything goes - its only a quick job for you. focus on the jobs you hate!

Good idea. Changing sheets (every other week?) and dusting (I have never dusted... Not admitting how long we have lived here!)

i would do the dishwasher and laundry myself,id get her to hoover and mop everywhere,clean bathrooms,put clean sheets on,do insides of windows and mirrors,dusting,clean kitchen surfaces and dining table.

mine does 3 days a week,monday is a longer day but the other 2 are 3 hours. she does the following
makes beds
cleans bathrooms
puts clothes away
hoovers all carpets
tidies playroom
dusts/polishes
mops all floors
empties bins
cleans all kitchen surfaces and cooker

jesus hi fi what hwww.facebook.com/appens in your house to need a cleaner 3 times a week!

lol whoops dont know how the link for fb got in there!

ocd husband

I agree with others that her time is better spent doing actual cleaning and not laundry or dishwasher.

I don't think it's fair to expect her to do too much tidying, in order for her to clean effectively, the house should be reasonably clear, plus she won't know where things go.

From experience, I would say to try and get a cleaner with a good grasp of English. My Bulgarian cleaner (who we've had for 2+ years!) can barely speak a word of English it becomes a real pain if you just want to say 'I'm just finishing some work and will be done in 10 minutes so would you mind starting with the bathroom or kitchen" cue her hoovering right next to me.

My situation is further complicated by having a dog she is terrified of (a 8 month old lab) and won't be in the same room as. Fine, some people are scared of dogs, but I never know what time she's showing up (easily discussed if not fr the language barrier) which makes it very difficult to time his lunch/walks. So yeah, good basic English would be a must for me.

A clean home especially with kids is :
Dust every Where high and low
Clean Walls with sticky fingers
Clean bath rooms
Change beds
Hoover and mop
And clean the hob and kitchen
And windows and mirrors.

NO ironing that is to be an extra .

To also give the cleaner a day at the start to see how much and how far she can get to clean in the hours that you set at a standard that you expect. If you give more and more jobs the other areas of cleaning will not be at a higher standard.

Just a thought

I haven't done cleaning jobs myself but have worked in childcare where the cleaner comes to the house and they never did the dishwasher.

One lady (as they went through several cleaners while I was there) did change the bedding and did all the ironing as well. The others just cleaned. Including Dusting, hoovering, mopping floors, cleaned generally kitchens and bathrooms.