How many hours cleaning for a big house

[MessyHouseMe]

My home is admittedly a cluttered state at times and I don't have a lot of time. I called out a deep cleaning company for a quote and they said 1000 for a full deep clean which I declined.

A cleaner has said 4hrs a week would do it. This is 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a large kitchen/lounge. She seems to be thorough, polite and needs the work. Is this roughly how many hours you'd expect a job like this to take? I'm used to scrimping with cleaners but now I think id rather get it done properly.

If your house is a mess I would expect maybe 6 hours for the first few weeks to get it in to a manageable state and then 4 hours going onwards. Especially if things like windows, ovens etc...... all need doing at first.

How many people live in your house and how messy are they? We have four (used) bedrooms, three bathrooms and cats and dogs and I have 14 hours a week. That includes ironing, cleaning the fridge, washing the floors twice a week etc

Four hours sounds not much imo for the number of bedrooms/bathrooms you have. Are you expecting her to do a thorough deep clean in the bathrooms each time or just wipe of surfaces/toilets/floors each week and then a full descale every couple of weeks? If I was doing your house and you wanted a good bathroom clean for all the bathrooms each week I’d need more than 4 hrs! Xx

Mine is same but four beds and not cluttered as a rule.

We tidy for the cleaner. Three hours a fortnight does it.

4 hours cleaning, 2 hours ironing. 3500 sq feet. But it is usually immaculately tidy and doesn't include the kitchen as I do it as I go along. My cleaner does a full day of dusting, paintwork, vacuuming lampshades, behind furniture, tops of curtains, etc, twice a year - with my help.

I would expect a cleaning company to quote 1000 for a thorough job, including carpets.

1 used bedroom so linen needs changing, 2 other bedrooms need hoovering, 3 bathrooms need cleaning but only 1 used a lot/isn't bad, a very well used living area and kitchen.

Lots of clutter if im honest...toys etc. But it's upsetting me so much because I can't keep on top of it all with my day job

We have four hours a fortnight for a big 4 bedroom house but we do keep it uncluttered. DD is only home during university holidays and DS is pretty tidy so that helps massively. We have hard floors downstairs to I run the dustbuster over it whenever there's bits on the floor.

Maybe your cleaner needs to get through the clutter first so the first few weeks would be what you would have paid for a deep clean?

@WhatHaveIFound she won't really come for less than 4hrs I think, ideally 5. She's been here 3hrs now and is still hoovering so 4hrs seems about right.

When i had a cleaner i had 4 hours twice a week. The house was pretty clean. I follow the tomm method now as well as having a robot vac and don't have a cleaner anymore. The house is just as clean but i do get
people in to clean the windows in and out for example. I work full time in a demanding role, as does dh and have 5 children (2-14). I have made cleaning out the fridge somethjng i do whenever i get something out of it and the robo vac goes round and round all day long. I'm considering getting someone in for a couple of hours just to deep clean the bathrooms once a week.

There was no point in getting a cleaner for eg 3 hours once a week as the house declined again so fast. I prefer little and often and payjng to do jobs i don't want to.

I literally can't fathom paying a cleaner at £15 an hour to hoover a bedroom anymore. Surely you want that done more than once a week anyhow. Also, if you don't declutter you are not gojng to see longlastjng results from your cleaner.

@cantba yes i know, she has done a decent job and it looks a ton better. Im going to see how it goes for a few weeks to see whether it helps my life!

I'd say it depends on how through a job you want done and clutter won't help with trying to clean. For a 5 bed, 3 bath, large kitchen diner and 4 reception rooms it's around 7 hours - so a full day.

Why did you not get her to do a all day clean the first t8me to get the house in order , then do four hours each week going forward.

@Nanalisa60 so what I was asking was whether 4hrs seemed a lot each week for a house. In the past I've had people do 4hrs every 2 weeks. She's done a good job though.

my lovely cleaner works between 3 and 4 hours a fortnight on a 4 bed , 3 bathroom house and that’s ideal , she priced the job rather than have an hourly rate as that’s how she works

I have a four bed two bathroom detached house with large kitchen/diner/family space, and 3 other rooms.

Our cleaner does 2.5 hours every week, including bedding. A deep clean would be 6 hours.

There isn’t any clutter though, it may be worth using the money on someone to help declutter the place as a start.

Our cleaner does 4 hours a week.
5 beds, 4 baths, large kitchen diner & 3 reception rooms.

No clutter though and it’s tidy. The bathrooms and kitchen are still wiped down by us too after use so not really dirty each week.

I have a large six bed with four full bathrooms and a downstairs loo. Very large kitchen, boot room, laundry room, pantry and four reception rooms.

I have four hours twice a week. Two adults and two older teens plus we have cats.

you need a skip op. Skip!

then the cleaner.

I hire a skip once a year and it always gets filled!

I used to have a cleaner come for 3 hrs a week. In that time she cleaned 3 bathrooms, hoovered through, mopped bathrooms and downstairs hard floors, dusted, cleaned kitchen cupboard fronts and often the inside of the oven and still had time for the ironing. Admittedly we tidied before she came so it was just cleaning but I cannot replicate that kind of speed of cleaning. Although I suspect I scrub the bathrooms a bit harder than she did.

I'd say its the minimum really for a house that size.

You shoild also try and get on top of the clutter. Its hard but do a small area - pick one bathroom or a chest of drawers and go through it and get rid of everything you dont use / isnt needed.
I also spent about £100 on baskets and storage for shelves and cupboards. It was soooo worth the money.

now i automatically scan rooms for things that "dont live" there. Its annoying but i value a clean and tidyish house.

Also less clutter gets you a lot more bang for your buck with the cleaner as they can do more cleaning.

@Totalwasteofpaper I was actually wondering why I'm spending loads on those really useful boxes but I genuinely need them!

4 hours is what I used to have for my two bedroom flat and it just about covered it.

4 bed here and four hours

I tidy whole place on the day so she might need a bit more time

4 bed, 3 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms. Cleaner used to alternate upstairs/downstairs 3 hours at a time. That was family or two adults, two toddler tornadoes and enough toys to open a store.

When dh lived alone in the same house and was barely ever home 2 hours a week saw the house spotless, beds changed, and his shirts ironed.