What to ask of cleaner?

[Bobbybobbins]

We are having a cleaner for the first time ever (very excited!)

She has been recommended to us and we are starting with 1 hour a week.

She would like us to do a list that she can work through so my question is - what and how much do you put on this list?? We have a 3 bed semi with a living room, kitchen/diner and conservatory. Bathroom and small downstairs loo.

I don't want to put too little or too much on!

How much cleaning can you do in one hour ?

It'll depend on what you want her to do....are bathrooms more important to keep clean ?

One hour is not a long time for a cleaner, most people do two hours cleaning.

Thanks - I guess focusing on a couple of areas is a good idea.

We can't really afford more than an hour at the moment so just hoping to get a few bits covered to save us spending a lot of weekend time cleaning.

I find cleaners take longer than you do so keep list realistic. Or get them to do jobs you never get round too.

I've worked as a cleaner in the past and 1 hour does seem a short slot. I assume you'll increase their hours and this is just a starter?
It would be best to arrange a meeting first at your house if possible. You can meet the cleaner and show her round the house, where everything is located; cleaning materials, equipment etc and thrash out what you expect done. Basic cleaning? Ironing? Tidying etc and what takes priority.

If she is prepared to do a short clean each week then I'd suggest rotating. So one week would be a thorough clean of bathroom, toilet and dusting downstairs, next week would be a kitchen and diner clean, mopping floors inc conservatory, next week would be dusting upstairs, hovering house and cleaning the shower..that sort of thing.

To be honest, I wouldn't be that keen to do just a one hour slot per week. Simply because if you factor in travelling to and from your house it wouldn't be a very good earner.

If your cleaner is happy then you definitely need to outline which areas you want done each time, maybe an extra "if time" task on the list until you get into some sort of rhythm and suss out how long everything takes.

If only an hour I would suggest kitchen, bathroom and the rest on rotation.

I'm a self employed cleaner and to be honest one hour is simply not enough. With a first time clean it can be three hours plus.
You simply won't know how good she/he is, if you only allow one hour.
That wouldn't even be enough for a good clean of the bathroom.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the first time (or first few times) the cleaner does any particular job, it will tend to take longer than you take to do it, and longer than the cleaner normally takes.

I agree with previous posters that an hour is really short. Is it an option to get 2 hours fortnightly instead? Or 3 hours every 3 weeks, which should be plenty for the whole house?

Otherwise you could rotate jobs (as previously suggested), or pick your personal least favourite tasks: all the floors, or kitchen and bathroom, or whatever.

Sorry OP but 1 hour is ridiculous. Unless you just want them to hoover and do literally nothing else.

Or the kitchen and nothing else. But don't be expecting a deep clean. Or for them to tidy.. you'll need to do that beforehand.

Seriously 1 or 2 hours is just not enough to make any real impact

I’m a cleaner and wouldn’t take a 1 hour job.

However as you have already agreed it would use her to do a deep clean of one room a week. A 3 bed semi would take 6-8 sessions to do fully and would give you a good chance to see if she’s worth keeping on for maintenance cleaning afterwards but for that I would expect to increase her time to two hours. You could always have her in once a fortnight for two hours instead of once a week for one hour.

I disagree that 2 hours wouldn't be enough but 1 hour isn't going to make much of a difference. Kitchen and bathroom basically and an all round hoover.

My cleaner does 2 hours and does a large house in that time but she does it twice a week and so its never really dirty.

You'll find she can do much more if you've tidied beforehand.

She says most of her clients have 1 hour a week and that's all we can afford so whether it is ridiculous or not, that's the reality of the situation. We are not forcing her into doing the job and all her houses are very very local so very little travel time.

With 2 disabled pre school children, 2 jobs and a lot to do in the evening, every little will help.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions.

Well it sounds as though she's happy with 1 hour a week. I'd definitely advise drawing up a rota in that case with specific tasks varying over say a 4 week period. It'll be more work for you to micro manage but I think if you just leave her to clean you'll get a rushed dust, hoover and wipe down of surfaces which won't really be of much help.

Once you have a set list of tasks for her to do (which will probably need adjusting depending on how fast she works) then you will hopefully fall into a pattern where she knows the area to be cleaned per rota and won't need guidance.

Just have a think about what would help you most and prioritise. You could just use her for bathroom and kitchen cleaning, mopping, emptying bins for example and tackle the rest yourself at the weekend.

Thanks - this sounds good! We can do the hoovering ourselves so I think that things like mopping, dusting, windows and wiping woodwork (all which I hate) would be good to put on the list at some point.

Maybe switch to 2 hrs every 2 weeks?

You need to tidy before a cleaner visit, so every week can get a bit hectic

Ours comes for 2 hours twice a week.

I strip the beds (four of them sometimes five) and she makes them. Hoover's bedrooms and stairs and cleans bathrooms, mops and then ironing. Id say its a 50/50 split

2 hours once a fortnight would be much better. I'd write a priority list and make it clear that she's to do it in the order of the list but that I'm not expecting it all to get done. I'd love a cleaner. I'm excited for you!

Do you feel you keep on top of the basics already, and are looking for an add-on? Or do you feel that you need someone to make sure that the basics are done? By basics, I mean kitchen and bathroom.

if the former, I would suggest making a list of jobs that you (understandably) don't get round to. Like cleaning inside of windows, dusting the corners of the ceiling, wiping down doors (including handles) and skirting boards etc, cleaning the fridge, cleaning the oven and microwave etc. And ask the cleaner to make her way through these jobs and tick them off as she goes along, recognising that this may take a few weeks.

If the latter, I would say just ask her to do kitchen and bathroom and make both rooms as clutter free and clear as you can so that she spends all the time cleaning and none tidying, moving things from one place to another to clean underneath etc.

Just a tip if you are going to get her to mop and not hoover. Hoover the floors she will mop as close to her visit as possible. Otherwise she will just be mopping crumbs and dust around the floors. Very frustrating.

I think we keep on top of the basics, like hoovering, kitchen, bathroom etc but really bad at mopping, windows, woodwork, dusting so I think asking her to focus on these is the way forwards.

Thanks everyone for your help!