Getting a cleaner. Should I?

[Germgirl]

DH & I hate cleaning. We keep the kitchen & bathroom fairly hygienic & tidy up clothes, paperwork, general crap. But actual proper cleaning gets left (we both work long hours & I work shifts) until the house is a swirling dust bowl & we have to clean it, which makes us both very grumpy.
So I'd like to get a cleaner. Is that horribly lazy?
Where do I find someone? No one I know has a cleaner so I can't get a personal recommendation.
What would I expect the cleaner to do? Obviously dusting & hoovering but what else? Bathroom & kitchen cleaning? Oven cleaning?
How often & for how long would he/she need to be here? Do cleaners provide their own tools & cleaning stuff etc or would we?
I'm completely clueless!

It's not lazy, if it would make your lives easier & you can afford it then go for it!

I don't have a cleaner, but if I did I'd want someone to come in for about two hours a week just to do the stuff I struggle to find time to do. Top of my list would be the bathrooms, the kitchen, hoovering & dusting.

You would need to discuss with the cleaner what needs doing. I think some will do the more heavy duty cleaning, others don't. My mum had a very flexible cleaner and used to leave a list of the different jobs she wanted doing each week. Some cleaners bring their own stuff, others will use yours.

If you don't know anyone you could try using an agency, although they would cost more. When I had DC3 my mum's present to me was money to pay for a cleaning company to visit once a week for six weeks. I actually only used them for a couple of weeks, then I cancelled them & used the money for an ironing service which is the task I really struggled with.

I'm a SAHM and we have a cleaner. I hate cleaning and life is too short to be doing things you hate unless you really must.

My cleaner dusts and hoovers, pulls out the furniture and hoovers behind it. Wipes skirting boards, mops the floors, cleans the kitchen and bathroom, cleans the insides of the windows, gets the cobwebs down. Everything.

The best thing to do is look online, or at any flyers you get through the door in junk mail etc and ring a few people. Arrange for them to come over, and tell them what you would like done. Then they can tell you how much they will charge. Some ppl charge by the hour, some by the job - ie. they will charge you £25 to clean your house, doing xyz each time.

My cleaner uses our hoover and mop at my request, but brings everything else with her. Some cleaners will use their own stuff, others will use what you have.
Anyone who is half decent will offer you a trial clean, which you pay for, so that you can decide if you are happy before you decide to use them on a long term basis.

I'm worried about leaving a stranger in my house alone. Obviously cleaners need their own key & will be in the house when it's empty. I suppose an agency is the way to go really. I'll have a look around.
Thanks ladies.

Germgirl absolutely get one if you can afford it. Life is too short to clean if you don't enjoy it and don't need to.

Where are you based? I have a friend who owns an agency in SE London if you're anywhere near there?

I have a small 3 bed house. My cleaner comes for 6 hours a week over 2 days. She also does laundry and ironing for me. I pay £9 per hour

Sunshine, I'm SE London, on the Lewisham / Bromley border. Is that anywhere near your friend's agency? If so, I'd love her details, thank you.
I don't need ironing / laundry (my MIL does my ironing ). I reckon a couple of hours a week will do it.

Yes. It's called Jane Jefferson cleaning. Will post number shortly. She costs a bit more than I pay but I don't go through an agency and her people are highly trained and inspected as she wants to ensure quality.

Thank you.

Number is here 07775 625 026

If you google it it comes up near top and you can fill in an online form as well

That's great. Thank you. I'll speak to DH & contact her x

Germgirl, I have a cleaner that comes once a week and as I'm a SAHM/work from home whilst looking after 3 children, my cleaner doesn't have her own key and is rarely here when I'm not.

I have a secure key box I leave the key in when I go out and she knows the code for it. I buy all cleaning materials apart from rubber gloves and she does the ironing, hovering, mopping, dusting, cleans the mirrors and bathrooms and on weeks when there isn't much ironing to do she does the microwave, hob and windows. She does 3 hours per week and I'm in a 3 bed with 2 bathrooms and downstairs toilet.

I used Jane Jefferson for a few months but I would definitely not recommend them. They claim that their cleaners are highly trained and hence charge more, but the cleaners I used were no better than others that are cheaper. They were frequently disorganised forgetting to tell me when my cleaner was on holiday, and forgetting to give me refunds when my cleaner did not turn up. They charge a lot and definitely not worth it!
I now use a local cleaner I found through an ad on the other big forum. She is great and £3.5 less an hour.