Cleaner - who dictates number of hours?

[Snorefest]

Hello, was wondering...those of you who have a cleaner. ..for the initial clean did you book them in for a fixed number of hours (set by yourself) or did you ask the cleaner how many hours it would take to clean your home depending on size etc?

I ask because I've trialled 2 cleaners recently who have been appalling! So wondering if I've just not directed them properly. One of them I hired for 3 hours and asked her to clean just the bathrooms and kitchen (she said herself that's all she could do in 3 hours) and it looked like she hadn't even touched the place once she'd finished! The other said she would need to do an initial clean first before determining number of hours needed to regularly clean my 5 bed house and she also said the first 2 cleans take longer which is fair enough...so initial clean took 6 hours and they cleaned the whole house but there were bits missed, so for the second clean I asked for 4 hours to just focus on the kitchen and 4 bathrooms (1 of these is just a WC)...well after 4 hours she ran out of time and couldn't do the kitchen at all so just completed the bathrooms...these were clean but again there were bits that were missed ...e.g. really obvious smear marks on the mirrors etc. Tbh the bathrooms had been let go a little bit because I'm a new mum and hadn't cleaned much but I'm still thinking 4 hours for 4 bathrooms to not be done properly is a bit crap. She wasn't interested in my feedback so I won't be booking any further cleans with her.

So now that I'm looking for a new cleaner I want to avoid a similar situation. Any tips on how I can approach the next one?

We have a three bedroomed house with one bathroom and a cloakroom. Not an easy house to clean and cleaner changed bedlinen (one or two each week). Three hours once a week was enough.

Mine came for a look round to tell me if she could do what I wanted in the time estimated by the agency for the number of bedrooms I have. She asked to do half an hour less to fit with another job nearby, but she still does an incredible job, she’s so fast.

My cleaner cleans 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and changes bedding in 2 hours a week. She's amazing, having said that though she can't do everything in that time so will obviously miss some things but as long the main things like bathrooms, kitchen, hoovering, mopping get done that's the important things for me. We can't afford more than 2 hours a week.

To answer your question - the employer decides how long they want to pay someone for and the cleaner decides if they want to take on the job. In terms of how much they can do - you've been really unlucky there as both of them seem to be taking the mick.

Absolutely, I would expect the first couple of cleans to take longer as they get used to things - my cleaner told me that in the first place - but you've been unfortunate with the people you have had.

Can you ask around colleagues / neighbours / friends / people you know through anything else locally, and get a personal recommendation?

It has to be an agreement between the two of you. You have a lot of bathrooms so you need a cleaner that is going to be able to manage her time between All of them. She has to carry all the stuff around to each one. Up stairs I assume? She is probably cleaning stuff you aren’t thinking of like the walls.

I live in a flat. I started with 2 hours. After a while my cleaner said if she does 3 hours she can dust more as well.

4 hours isn’t enough for what you need. Sorry!

Thanks everyone...I will ask around and get a personal recommendation if I can and I will suggest the number of hours and then see what the cleaner does in that time. I know 4 hours isn't enough to clean the entire house given the size but I just felt that 4 hours for 3 bathrooms plus 1 WC/cloakroom was a lot, especially given they weren't even clean at the end of it.