Cleaners, anyone who has one come and advise me please.

[hyperhops]

OK, so I am making an effort to catch up on millions of long overdue jobs around the house such as painting walls and woodwork etc....(see my other de-scruffy thread!)It is gradually getting better...BUT I am really considering getting a cleaner to help me keep on top of it all once done and it to keep it looking..well..clean!
Financially it will be struggle but I am begining to think my sanity may be worth it. I have 6dc aged 16-6, 2 dogs and a cat and I work 4 days a week. DH also works full time.
SO, I have had an estimate from one company who seem more pricey - but thhey only come once a fortnight and do a very thorough clean . They send 2 cleaners and set aside a whole day.
Other options would be once a week but not for as long so maybe not so thorough.
so which would be better? In my head I am thinking weekly because with so many dc and dogs it does get filthy very quickly...but maybe that would be different if it had a really deep clean? Also maybe more productive having the one long daya fortnight/versus 4 hours weekly.

so anyone tried either approach? any views on which is likely to be better?

Think about what really gets you down- and make a list. Would it include ironing? Could always start upstairs one week then downstairs the other? Get some other quotes too- prices vary widely!

thats a good idea twentyten I Know roughly what I need doing. Not laundry or ironng but lots of cleaning the basics like bathrooms and kitchen then things like washing down doors etc which just get so filthy all the time!
Not sure though whether one day every fortnight would be better than half a day every week?

How big is the house? 2 cleaners for a whole day each is a LOT of cleaning, even if only every other week. You will also need to do some bathrooms / floors / hoovering between those visits. Might you get away with not cleaning if they came every week?

I have 2 hrs every week. It keeps ontop of the essentials (tho less people and less pets here, I'm also assuming a smaller house, don't think you'd all fit in ours!). Extras I do occasionally at weekends, or sometimes I pull furniture out in the morning, and get different bits of the carpet hoovered! No beds / washing / ironing tho.

Definitely get some other quotes. I had kittens when the first company quoted. The other 2 were much more reasonable to my mind.

addict it's a modernish 4 bed detached. lounge. dining room, kitchen,tiny useless utility and toilet downstairs. 4 bedrooms upstairs - en-suite in master bedroom and main bathroom.
I also think though that a whole day sounds a lot - the man is coming round on Monday to look and give definite quote but he gave me a quote approx based on what I told him and said that usually they would "set the whole day aside" so I need to clarify how many hours exactly they would be in house cleaning for. They seem to have a "system" they work to and do the same thorough cleaning through each room.
Im waiting a call back from couple of others who would be cheaper - although overall probably not that much cheaper if you take into account fortnightly V weekly IYSWIM

and yes I am thinking that weekly would mean less for me to do in between. I just can't imagine this house staying anywhere near clean for a fortnight!!

Hi, I run my own cleaning business and there's a lot of rogues out there. I would be dubious a house your size needing 2x cleaners all day every other week. Even a 4 hour clean weekly sounds excessive...but it does depend on what you want done. A house like yours I would quote at 3 hours (it would be a push in 2). For that I would expect all bathrooms done, a thorough clean on your kitchen (units wiped down, sink bleached, work tops wiped), whole house dusted, all glass cleaned, Hoover and mop. For 4 hours I would expect all of the above, plus all windows cleaned on the inside skirting boards wiped and maybe some doors wiped down.

Some houses we change the bed sheets, dust the perfume bottles etc....it ranges massively so be specific about what you want, but don't get ripped off. £10 an hour is the going rate (except for London) and personally avoid the large companies... You pay top whack, but get a mediocre clean.

You need a good cleaning lady like me! Lol

I think you would do quite well with just a cleaner, not a company, coming once a week for a couple of hours. The day-to-day-things won't disappear, but if you get some one to clean the oven, clean the windows and all those non-urgent jobs, then the daily cleaning will be more manageable.

I was a cleaner when I was a student, both privately and in a care home, and I could get lots done in 3 hours - depending in the conditions. I have cleaned houses that were already in a reasonable state and I have also tried to tackle places that had years of dirt. I have worked for people who had really high standards and for people who didn't tidy so I couldn't really get to the cleaning. I obviously got more done if it was possible to clean! if I had to tidy first, then there was just less time to clean. If you are reasonably tidy, then you will get great results for just a few hours.

Ok. I've had a think and have cancelled the bloke coming to firm up estimate for very expensive fortnightly quote.
Have had another couple of quotes for 4 hours weekly for single person which were much more reasonable and one company in particular that seemed good.hopefully I can set something up with them.
Dotted you sound just what I need....!
I have tried just fining individuals in the past but have had some bad experiences do though going through a company might be better.
We shall see!

I work for a cleaning agency. We charge fourteen pounds an hour plus vat. We're great :)
Fully insured, thorough, reliable and good at what we do. We've been going for fifteen years and have a good reputation. But we're expensive.
I (we've got a waiting list too :) )
Id say you would be much better having a weekly clean. Much better to keep on top of everything and I'd also suggest a four hour clean. I can get lots done in four hours. It'll also give you time to include bigger jobs on rotation, things like oven cleaning, pulling big furniture and beds out, windows etc.

I think that sounds sensible.

We have a modern 3 bed (only 2 adults, no pets so a bit different to your set up). We pay for 4 hours weekly for someone to do a basket of ironing and give the house the once over. She doesn't clean quite as thoroughly as I would like, but it keeps on top of the worst of it. In that time she hooovers/mops floors, cleans kitchens and bathrooms and does a bit of dusting.

Hi I am London based and pay my cleaner £10 per hour for 3hrs a week which is plenty to keep the house sparkling, but we have less people/pets and she does some ironing as part of that. And I have a thorough tidy before she comes so she can focus on cleaning - but she has said for some of her other clients she does a lot more tidying and less cleaning.

Go for once a week to keep on top of the dirt and might be worth having a big session at the beginning to get on top of it.

I found her through personal recommendation rather than using a company.

I have a bargain cleaner at the moment, house very similar to yours. She does 3 hours weekly which includes laundry / ironing.

You can chop and change what you want doing but with the kids and pets, I'd definitely say weekly.

My cleaner is my angel - £20 a week well spent, and sounds cliche but she's improved our quality of life as a family. I nag less sometimes and have more time with dd.

Def do weekly not fortnightly. I pay £9 per hour to my cash in hand cleaner who does my large kitchen and eating space, hall, and all bathrooms (3). I can manage the rest.

It has changed my life. :-) Worth every single penny.

So, to those of you who have just said how great you are at cleaning- what area are you in? I'm looking for someone but cannot find someone through word of mouth and don't want to go to a large company

Could you ask on a local page on Facebook, that's how I found my cleaning job, a local friend asked if anyone could recommend someone and I volunteered. She knows and trusts me so no worries about insurance etc. All income is declared as I'm self-employed in other areas too, but it means no admin fees for agencies etc.

I second the point about tidying first, people think it's barmy tidying before the cleaner comes, like they're doing your job for you, but actually if you're a cleaner, your job isn't to tidy, it's to clean - I don't know where everything lives! It's much easier if the family tidy up their own stuff and then the cleaner can get to the surfaces for dusting and the floors for hoovering, saving time on picking stuff up first.

I do 2.5 hours @ £10 an hour for a 4 bed house, including all dusting, hoovering, mopping, kitchen cleaning and 3 bathrooms (WC, en suite and family one). I also do little extras if I have time (wipe kitchen cupboards/doors/clean windows/cobwebbing/little bits of washing up/hang out washing or bring in). I was doing 2 hours, but constantly ran over by 15-20 mins so upped it to 2.5 recently which gives me time to do a little bit extra each week, then occasionally they pay me for 4 hours to do it all.

THANKYOU, that's really helpful

Definitely weekly cleaning, but I've found it's better split between two people working alternate weeks, even though I do pay a bit more than usual. Some people simply hate doing some jobs, others love them, and it's easy to tell the difference. Flu epidemics are no longer a problem, plus both helpers can be flexible about changing their days now and again, which suits us all.