About to get a cleaner- advice please!

[NannyPlumForPrimeMinister]

We are about to get a cleaner, I have found someone who comes recommended and they are coming to do a trial clean soon. We have a victorian 4 bed/3 storey house.

How many hours do you normally have a cleaner for- would 3 be too much/too little? How do I stop the urge to clean before she gets here? I will be working at home normally the days she is here so will be sitting at the dining room table, am I going to be in her way? I am not sure exactly what all to ask her to do.

Feeling very nervous for some reason!!

Don't be nervous! It will be fine, honest :)

I have a cleaning company so hope I can help. Normally I would say 4 bed = 4 hours. I would say 3 hours is tight, especially with 2 flights of stairs, but it's hard to say exactly without seeing the house. Just see how first clean goes and be prepared to tweak it.

Don't worry about sitting at dining room table. She will be used to working around people and will just get on with it! There may be some noise from Hoover etc thoigh so bare that in mind for work phone calls etc if you need to make any.

Don't clean up before she arrives, have a tidy up so no clutter if poss, but don't even really worry about this. Will you provide cleaning products or her? Make sure you have lots in - and lots of cloths too. These are often forgotten!

If cleaner is good she will do you a general clean then rotate other tasks like windows / inside of fridge etc when she has extra time. It might be tight in 3/4 hours thoigh so sometimes worth adding a few hours on for an extra clean every few months.

Hope that helps, enjoy!

twirly Dont suppose you cover Notts do you? My new cleaner struggled to do my box sized 2 bed house in 3 hours yesterday. And it was only the living room, kitchen, bathroom and hallway that she had to do and she didnt finish! Previous cleaner did it in 2 hours!

Ahh sadly not till we cover Newcastle (starts to out self but never mind!) was it her first clean at your place? what was the standard like?

I would have said 2 hours for a 2 bed is plenty if it didn't need a deep clean to get it up to standard. You could ask her how she felt it went as your old cleaner did the whole house in 2 hours and you were wondering how many hours she felt she needed to do the same. Somwtimes it is worth playing by the job rather than by the time taken too. So £25 for complete clean rather than £12 per hour. I hope you can get it sorted! A good cleaner is worth their weight in gold (I regularly thank my lucky stars for the brilliant people who work for me - it's taken time to get a good team but I look after them well so they don't ever leave me now! Haha!)

Same size house - I pat mine for 4 hours but she gets finished in 3 because she works hard and I am happy to pay that. She cleans the kitchen and bathrooms thoroughly and hoovers/dusts etc elsewhere and changes beds. If we are away, I ask her to do other stuff.

I don't want her to spend ages tidying so we try to leave it relatively tidy though i leave the teens rooms - need a bit of floor clearing!

If we are in, we try to keep out of her way but we are usually all out which is much better - will you want her to clean the dining room?

I think 3 hours sounds tight on time but I guess you could just see what he/she gets done in that time.
I always try to tidy before the cleaner comes as clutter slows them down a lot, and they (initially) won't know where to put things away, and of course can't throw anything away.
I always try to have laundry done as my man also does ironing, and have all manner of cleaning products in. Never let it be said that you ran out of furniture polish!
I make sure I have something nice for lunch for them.

It's useful to do a walk-round with the cleaner to point out the details of the clean you'd expect; for example, I didn't want ours to dust the bookshelves or the kitchen shelves as part of her normal routine because they just don't seem to get dusty, but I was particularly keen for her to always dust the frame of our living room door because you can see it as you walk downstairs. There will be quirks that only you will know about. If you can't be bothered though, just let her do one clean and then ask her to tweak her routine as you need.

Yes I agree - I did that too acazc

Sorry- We were away with no internet over the weekend. Thanks for all the advice. I will see how she gets on on this week and decide whether 3 hours will be enough or not.

She is going to bring her cleaning stuff but use our hoover the first time. She can bring her hoover though too if necessary.

We have a 5 bed house (one of those is an office) and my cleaner does it in 2.5 hours. But, the house is very tidy when she gets here, all beds made, washing up done, and we don't really have any clutter/ornaments. She hoovers throughout, cleans bathroom/downstairs loo, cleans kitchen and dusts all surfaces.

Twirlypoo can you pm me the name of your company? I'm looking for a cleaner! I've just recently gone with a new company and I'm they keep sending me a new cleaner every week! I'd like the same person so they can be consistent and get into a routine.