How much for a cleaner per month for a bigger house?

[flatmum]

Just a quick straw poll as trying to decide which way to go. Both work full time and can't keep up with the cleaning. How much do you/would you expect to spend a month on weekly cleaning - 6 beds, 2 baths, split over 3 levels - wood floors so quite a job. We are in Surrey. I am thinking around the £200 pcm mark but have no idea if that's realistic.

Thanks

Depends on how many hours you want / need doing.

£15 to £20 an hour would be reasonable imo.

so I've had an estimate of 6 hours for a full clean - just trying to decide whether I can afford to do it weekly or fortnightly or try and break it down a bit

I pay £80 a week (£10 an hour) for a 4-bed, 3-bath house.

I'm in West Sussex and pay £10ph. I've got a biggish 5 bed house. Most weeks I just get them to do the main rooms eg large kitchen/breakfast room, utility, sitting room, porch, hallway, stairs, landing, downstairs loo and upstairs bathroom. This takes 2hours and leaves me to do the bedrooms, ensuites, office and playroom. Maybe once a month/6 weeks I'll ask them to do the whole house which takes 6 hours (they'll send three people and work flat out for two hours each). It's a lifesaver and keeps me sane working 4 days and having 4DC. Can thoroughly recommend it.

£10 - £15 per hour around here, depending if it is just cleaning or housekeeping. I need a good 6-7 hours to get my house done and I have more bathrooms than you OP. It also depends on what you want done every week. Do you need every bathroom and every bedroom done or are some guest rooms that just need a spruce up before they are used?. If you want laundry, bed making, ironing etc then allow more. What are you able to do yourself?

Ruby that's so much money!!

Ruby that's what it would be - £70 for whole house. ideally want weekly but not sure I can afford 4 times a month, just wanted to know if this was ballpark figure right. It takes me all bloody weekend to do the whole house and I rarely get it all donw so it is prob right.

I pay roughly £80 a week, same as ruby, for a a large 5 bed, 3 bath house. It's about 5-6 ish hours a week. Varies a bit depending on what exactly needs doing and she irons 5 shirts in that time too.

I have 2 cleaners twice a week for 6 hours so 12 hours a week as there are 2 of them for 7 beds 4 baths and a loo, mixture of wood and stone downstairs and carpet upstairs. They focus on upstairs one morning/week and downstairs the other (but empty all bins/do kitchen and bathrooms both days).
I pay £20 ph for the team so £120 pw. Oxfordshire.
(4 kids 2 dogs work outside the home)

In London - cleaners generally £10ph if not via an agency. We have 4 beds, 2 bathrooms and downstairs loo, spread over 3 floors with wooden / stone floors. The cleaner does 4hrs per week and generally has time to do a bit of ironing. Most time is spent on bathrooms and kitchen. We don't have 1 bed cleaned at the moment though. Timing generally depends how cluttered or not your house is. Our cleaner gets noticeably more done when I tidy first. Could you have bathrooms and communal areas done every week and bedrooms every other week (eg 3 per week) and ask for 4 hours?

sorry it's 3 baths including the downstairs loo. They did an excellent job at the trial clean and I really want to keep them every week :) (both work ft, kids, cats etc etc - DP and I currently spend all weekend cleaning and tidying up when we should be spending time with the kids) - not sure the kids bedrooms need doing weekly though but don't want to offend them by suggesting a shorter clean on alternate weeks.

that's an idea northern - bedrooms every other week

Money well spent as far as I'm concerned. DH and I work full-time and don't want to spend evenings and weekends cleaning. All we have to do is tidy up.

Once a fortnight works for us, and helps keep on top of it. I pay for two hours at £10 an hour, but she only does a quick blast through the kitchen/family room, bathrooms and two of the bedrooms. The rest we do ourselves as and when / in advance of visitors. It's by no means a deep clean, but covers the basics and takes the pressure off so we don't spend weekends cleaning! A good compromise as I couldn't quite justify paying more.

We have a 5bed 4bath house. Large kitchen and several rooms to entertain in. One cleaner 7£ ph, 4 hours per week. She does things on rotation. So kitchen and bathrooms will get done but if someone isn't home then there bathroom will be skipped. General cleaning and upkeep by me during the week. Shel the. Rotate between oven/cooker, windows etc. I'm in the north though so do think it's cheaper here. I've noticed that she dosent get through as much if I'm not here

As a cleaner I am charging £10 per hour but like anyone else you do have days when you have more energy than others. We are not robots and it is very hard on the joints, so bear that in mind.

That said, I must be doing ok as have been with some of my clients around 18 years now!

I would much prefer to concentrate on a few rooms initially, do a deep clean and then as time moves on you can just keep on top of things and you get more and more done each week.

I hate vacuuming huge areas which already look ok when I can see all the paintwork is grubby. I love getting down and dirty with a toothbrush and cleaning skirting boards and grimy corners but it does take time to do that sort of cleaning and you have to give up other things.

I think some people are totally unrealistic in what they expect a cleaner to achieve in a certain time. Some people are bloody messy and don't seem to appreciate you cannot organise clutter as Flylady says. Even worse, you definitely cannot organise other peoples' clutter.

I hope you find a very nice cleaner OP. I am really fond of my customers and would go out of my way to help them if I can.

Thanks flumble that's good to hear. Fortunately I am extremely tidy (OCD when younger) so I think the cleaners will be able to get in and do a good job. One of the reasons I've always resisted getting a cleaner in is that I know I will be up til the early hours the night before tidying all the kids toys away etc. but then it is the dusting, skirting etc that I need help with as I don't get time to do a full clean anymore so I guess if the ultimate outcome is that the house is both tidy and clean, and I have some free time at the weekends to play with the kids and go to the gym, then it's worth it!

You will love it! Nothing like coming home to a clean and sparkling home.

I had a very interesting job this morning. An elderly couple whose ceiling had collapsed in their downstairs cloakroom. It had been fixed but there was debris everywhere. It involved taking down pictures, wiping down the walls, everything was covered in rubble and dust. It was my kind of job!!

Took a fair bit of time but the whole room was squeaky clean. When the lady came back she was delighted and kept thanking me. Very rewarding.

It will be nice to have to place gone through once a week and provided you keep on top of the gruesome stuff during the week, you should find it very pleasing.

I once worked for a family who did nothing in between cleans. It was a mountainous task every week. The husband would leave his trousers, pants and socks on the floor just where he took them off. The whole family was like it. Think they thought they were a cut above and I was a servant. Not good.

£10 ph, 2 hours a week for a 4 bed, 1 bath + 2 toilets. Some of my friends have cleaners 2 hours one week, 3 hours the next week - might be worth considering something like that to keep the price manageable.

I love coming home from work after our cleaner's been :-)

My house sounds about the same size as yours. We have a cleaner twice a week and she does 2 hours one day (upstairs) and 3 hours on the other day (downstairs). We could really do with her doing another couple of hours to get the house really clean.

We pay £10 per hour.

How do people's cleaners manage with dogs? I've had two cleaners but neither will clean the kitchen if I'm out and the dog is in. She's not vicious, just young and boisterous. It's a pain.