Come and talk to me about cleaners - do you have one, would you like one, what do they/would they do?

[hunkermunker]

I'm an utter novice about such matters.

I have no idea whether I will actually employ a cleaner (DH seems averse) - concerns are do they wear your knickers on their head and run up your phone bill instead of making things sparkly?

It seems very grown up to have a cleaner. And I'm really not grown up. Although my birth certificate suggests I ought to be...

How much should I be looking to pay, should I decide it's a good idea? And are there any things I shouldn't ask a cleaner to do or should expect as standard?

I want to get one too, him or her, jesus I love your political correctness with him desi btw! but come on how many hairy ass trucker Dave types will be feather dusting your nooks and cranny's Hi hunker btw
Anyhoo, I would love a domestic engineer but, the place is so upside down, that I'd have to oversee but can't due to working class etc etc. Ok I thin I need to go to bed now, brains on overload and that's not good for anyone. I just know I'm going to be dreaming of Mumsnetting tonight because I've overdone it tonight.

Goodnight now, and in the words of Dave Allen, may your God go with you.

1. No they don't.
2. mine don't tidy. They will put washing in, put washing away, empty dishwashers, clean floors, hoover, do mirrors, bathrooms, dust, give the kitchen a once over.(ironing is seperate they take it away and bring it back)
3. I tidy frantically the night before go out before they arrive take kids out for lunch and come home mid afternoon to a gleaming house from top to bottom.

It is fabulous.

Arriving home to a premade (by me ) dinner that just requires heating up (no mess lol) minimum toys out and a dvd on for dd1.

Sit back and relax in the magnificence. Because it is the last time for a week lol!

And I'm sure you're in bed by now, but something else to chew on.

One of the ladies I clean for (her business) is one of the 2% of the population currently called UPPER CLASS. And she doesn't really like it, either. She cleaned her own business/home premises for fifteen months before getting me in by word of mouth.

So, the way she deals with it (because, to be fair, I'm an intelligent, well-presented lass), is to offer me champagne and pate whilst I'm working. It offends her that I'm cleaning for her .... so don't think it's necessarily a class issue. It's just a touchy one, sometimes. I don't think there's a decent woman alive who really wants to see another woman do her cleaning for her. But it's supply and demand at the end of the day.

So, honestly, hunker. Don't go through the agencies. That's a can of worms you're far too nice to even want to open.

Fuck that, feck it, I'll work for nowt, champers and pate? Bring it on!!!!!!!

I know! It's fucking hilarious, ain't it

Disclaimer
That's not really me posting, I went to bed ages ago!

I'm not in bed. I'm (would you believe) making wedding invitations. I'm currently wondering whether I have a palette knife, in between browsing the www for articles about breastfeeding and posting on here.

Other people have simpler lives, right?!

Good advice re pate and champers - I think you're right, it doesn't sit well to have somebody else do your cleaning. Tell me horror stories of agencies, Des

And do you really think I could have a secret cleaner? I think DH would go mad. And he never goes mad!

Feck feck feck! I had a witty post but Mn went down or something crashed, erm that could be me! Off and away to dream of peace love and well that'll do for starters, nite desi, you lovely lovely woman.

Disclaimer

I did not repeat not say I love you.......................yet!

Nite hunker.

I had an agency come in for a while when we were in the USA. There, the standard is for them to come every two weeks and then send in a whole team for about an hour.

My strategy of tidying one room for them to work on, while I did the rest of the house didn't work. This meant the night before I had to crack the whip and make everyone totally miserable about picking up everything as I had learnt that the crew would work around anything that was out of place.

So basically we would have a clean house for the rest of that day, and maybe make an effort to keep it tidy for a few days afterwords. However, the closer we got to their next visit, no one did anything because the cleaners where coming.

Basically, with our 'service', we had a clean house for about 3 days out of 14, and spent half a day frantically tidying. It wasn't a good deal. Little an often is much better - twice a week is fab.

Hunker - I'm a novice at this too. New cleaner has been twice. She charges £9 an hour, and sometimes brings a friend/colleague and stays for half the time and they share the money.

Have to spend a huge amount of time tidying up beforehand, but I suppose I needed the push to do that! I find if there's a pile of clutter she just cleans round it, rather than move everything, so it's better to clear up first.

I don't think some of her cleaning is as good as what I could do myself, but it's nice to know it's being done regularly and I can 'top up' where necessary.

Im in the house the same time as my cleaner but I hide in my offfice. I work from home (when I 'm not on MN).

I have had a few cleaners and if you find a good one, treat them well and pay the right rate for the work they do. I always pay extra if they go over the time or if I ask for them to do more. Xmas gifts too.

They do my all the normal housework, clean, dust, tidy etc.
They don't use bleach incase of accidents (their choice).
They don't change beds, iron or clean ovens (my choice).

I pay £10 they bring all their own products, mop and hoover etc.

Hunker - decide on what you would like them to do. Find out what they prefer to do, or not do and it should work out.

We have a cleaner who comes in once a week and cleans the house from top to bottom for £7 an hour (we live in East Midlands) - all usual housework jobs but like WotzOut she doesn't change beds, iron or clean the oven (we are quite tidy people though so she reckons its an easy job!). We pay somebody else to do the ironing.

we hired our cleaner through a local agency who confirmed all checks etc - you also have some comeback in the event that anything goes wrong - she is great though.

Both dh and I work fulltime and ds is at full time nursery (he has just turned 2). It means that the only household chores we have to do are laundry, loading/unloading dishwasher, putting rubbish out and cooking. Evenings and weekends therefore are purely family time - I simply couldn't work full time without this kind of support.

If you can afford it - go for it!

Thank you more, ladies. Lots to think about. Will have a chat to DH about it too - realised how much I'd hate it if he organised a cleaner to come in without telling me (and can't keep up the nagging-to-tidy-for no-reason that I'd have to do...!).