housekeeper cost

[cosypenguins]

I need a house keeper who will clean, tidy, put away laundry (no ironing), cook a simple meal for 2 people 4 days per week. How long do you think this would take each day and approximately how much per hour?
House is 4 bedroomed size.

Cleaning, tidying, ironing wouldn't need to be done every day for just two people surely? A meal for two would take 30 mins max to cook, so not worth anyone's while to come and cook for you daily.

Have you thought about getting someone in just once a week and asking them to prepare 4 days' worth of meals that you can cook or just heat through as and when you need them? Could also get other chores done same day.

I'd say around 2 hrs per day, at £10 per hour (self employed person) or £14/hour (agency)

I think you'd do better to have a weekly cleaner and order in meals from Cook! or Waitrose. Bit much to ask from most housekeepers.

Have you thought about the planning for the meals ? Who does the shopping / decides what to make / puts ingredients on the list / etc.?

Will they need to put the washing in - as some cycles will take a while to work through, so would need to be there over some time.

Then, depends on what cleaning you want doing. The amount of cleaning I would do wouldn't take that long, but I've recently employed a cleaner who is a manic whirlwind and personally affronted by any dust or dirt, and has cleaned all sorts of places I never have . Also, how tidy it is to start with (you mentioned tidying).

I'd have thought namelessposter's £10 ph is about right, and you could perhaps offer a total (8? or 10 ?) number of hours a week, and they could be negotiated as to when they did them - so someone might want a longer session on one day and shorter time on others?

MrsLH - there are a lot of people, who if they live locally would love to pick up a little bit of work each day once their dc are in school - I don't think it would be an issue unless you live somewhere particularly isolated, OP.

I'm a housekeeper and earn £10 an hour, only thing I don't do is cook but I would
if required to.

dibdobs would you go for 30mins for £5 just to cook a meal each day?

I really can't see that 2 people would make enough of a mess to bed a cleaner for an hour each day.

But MrsLH I don't think anyone is suggesting going in for 30mins, surely - as most of us do in our own homes - you could prep something, and, while you were waiting you'd unload the dishwasher and reload, or get the washing out the machine and into the tumble drier or over the airers.
We don't know - as the OP hasn't come back yet - but I think someone coming into the house for a short while every day would be wonderful.
I'd love to get up, eat my breakfast and perhaps put a wash on then go out, knowing that when I got home someone had loaded the dishwasher, wiped down the surfaces, prepared a meal, then (over a week, different jobs on different days) done the vacuuming, changed the sheets, cleaned the bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen floor, given the kitchen a bigger clean, cleaned the glass in the patio doors and the mirrors in the house, etc.etc - easily enough (with cooking a meal) to fill a good hour a day. Add in more if you are one of these off people who likes their clothes ironed or their surfaces dusted or their skirting boards wiped.

I also know that there would be lots of people interested in an hour or two's work (as long as it were local) that could be done while their dc were at school, or even a 6th former after school, or a student

MrsLH I wouldn't personally as I would be taking petrol costs into cobsideration so it would.t be worth it, the least time I have worked somewhere was for a two hour cleaning job. If you offered someone two hours a day or a few times a week they could cook batches and freeze or get on with other jobs such as ironing,cleaning,changing beds or whatever else you would like to be done.

Consideration sorry!