Cleaner

[MrsMontyD]

I'm about to get a pay rise and I'm planning to use some of it for a cleaner, just to take some pressure off (I have health issues and work full time). Id like me and DP (also works full time) to have more free time evenings and weekends.

I have a three bedroom bungalow, one large lounge, kitchen, hallway, shower room and toilet.

I'm thinking two hours a fortnight to do all the basics, proper clean of the kitchen, shower room and toilet, dust (including light fittings, skirting boards etc, and vacuum (including behind beds) in the other rooms.

Does this sound enough on a regular basis?

The house is tidy (would do a tidy through before they started anyway) we haven't lived here long and decluttered as part of the moving process.

I think you will be disappointed. I used to have 2 hours once a week, which was good for the social rooms, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. The less frequent they come, the longer a big clean will take.

I don't think they'll do all that in two hours, especially if they're only coming every two weeks.
We have a slightly larger house and our cleaner comes weekly for three hours. She still doesn't have time for light fixtures, skirting boards etc. I'll tell you what she does in three hours:
Cleans bathroom, shower, bath, shelves etc, cleans kitchen including hob, sink, wiping down cupboard doors, cleans surfaces, dusts shelves, TV, mantlepiece etc, hoovers everywhere and mops floors.
She does a good job and I'm happy with her however it's very much a superficial clean. She just doesn't have time to do the skirting boards, to hoover under the sofas, to clean inside the oven etc. She makes the house look shiny and clean but if you look under the sofa it's filthy! Haha!
Don't get me wrong, it's still definitely worthwhile getting a cleaner for 2 hours a fortnight (if that's what your budget allows). It will make a big difference to your life, for sure. But she's not going to be able to do everything you want in two hours.

I suppose I was thinking that not everything needs doing every week, I do things in rotation.

In that case, it will be fine.

Cleaner here. 2/12 -3 hours for that.

We have a 2 bed terraced house and have a cleaner 2 hours a week. We aren't tidy in between but I'm not sure 2 hours a fortnight would be enough

No. It’s not enough time.

As you say, you want it free up your time in the evenings AND weekends. So, these jobs would take up your evenings and weekends but a cleaner is expected to achieve it in the equivalent of 1hr a week.

I am a cleaner and avoid any client who wants to dictate the time. I know how long things take and quote the client accordingly.
Does anyone tell the mechanic/window cleaner/plumber/hairdresser/any other trade how long they expect them to take to do a job?

Sorry I mean we have a cleaner 3 hours a week

My cleaner does 2hrs every 2 weeks and the place is left spotless. Small 3 bed. I do clean the week in-between her coming though.

Fair enough but the client also knows how much they can afford. If OP can't afford more than 2 hours a fortnight she can still get a cleaner. She just won't find one who can do everything on her list. OP mentioned that the cleaner would do different areas each time.

I love our cleaner and she really helps make my life so much easier. I am so grateful for her. When I asked her about cleaning our house. She said weekly £70 and she will do however many hours it takes. Sometimes she's here for a couple of hours, and this week she left after 5 hours. I'm really happy with that set up, the house always looks great and she is worth every penny. I think this set up takes the pressure off the amount of 'hours'.

I know we are lucky to be able to afford £70 a week, she also does the ironing.

That’s correct. Lower budget means less tasks can be achieved and it’s better to reduce the number of rooms included rather than try to include the entire house where the cleaner will be spread thinly. Cleaner will be frazzled and client will be unhappy.
What is often the case with a limited budget, is that clients expect all the work to be done but in a reduce timeframe to suit their budget.
Different areas each time is ok if you’re alternating lesser used rooms. With a fortnightly clean, it might be 4-6weeks before some areas are cleaned and that tasks alone becomes overly time consuming because of how much build up there is.
It might be better to have a longer clean once a month and focus on main areas rather than a short clean where the cleaners can barely get started.

But everything you've listed is a weekly job? I think I'd go for 3 hours a fortnight minimum if you want them done well enough to last two weeks

Thanks for all the comments, I'm now looking at two hours per week as my maximum because having given it more thought I really do want a cleaner to take the vast majority of the cleaning off my hands.

Given it's a bungalow, so no staircase or landing and the shower room and toilet are newly done and relatively easy to clean, that should be enough. But I'll get a few people around and listen to their opinions.

I'm a cleaner. 2 hours isn't enough to do a proper job. People who say they can do their whole house in that time really aren't doing a thorough job. Bathrooms take 20-30 minutes alone. There's the loo, the sink/s, bath, shower, shower screen, mirrors, cabinets, window, surfaces, floor, radiator/towel rail, taps etc. I don't care who you are or what you say, that is not a 5 or 10 minute job.

Any thoughts on having a deep clean first and then two hours a week and repeating the deep clean, maybe at the beginning of autumn and again next spring?

Sounds like a really good idea to me! My cleaners do very superficial cleans and I tend to do a deep clean myself a couple of times a year. I might adopt the approach of getting them to do a deep clean occasionally!
I do think a deep clean will take a lot longer than two hours but you probably realise that.

@SallyWD Yes, definitely much longer than two hours but it would provide a reset which would then make two hours per week more manageable.

Update.

I've found a cleaner with availability, she came this morning to look at the bungalow.

I offered an initial deep clean, then two hours a week and six monthly deep cleans, but, she doesn't think we need a deep clean and two hours a week will be more than enough.

So we'll see.

this is the exactly sort of thing that you need to be crystal clear about when commissioning someone else to do , well, anything. Asking them to do a list of things without mentioning that you only expect some things to be done on rotation will be confusing between you both.

Most problems with cleaning services are due to issues in communication

Working full time, i had a cleaner as soon as ever I could afford to pay. Instead of me deciding how much cleaning i would pay for, I treated it exactly as I would at work, where I would ask one or two potential suppliers how they would go about the, how often they could come and for how long each time.

The very first person i tried was not a success, they paid no attention to what we had agreed and decided to stop coming after the second visit. I struck lucky with the next person, they were with us for years and then handed over to one of their own friends they recommended when they retired and moved to Wales.

hope you find someone who is right for you

I will definitely be treating it as a professional relationship, she's clear she can get everything done in two hours a week (we discussed what everything includes) but I've said if it needs more time occasionally that either of us should raise it for discussion.

I'm experienced in managing people so I'm not concerned about broaching any issues and if it doesn't work I'll look for someone else.

I have two hours a fortnight for a 2 bedroom house. They change the beds, clean kitchen and loos, Hoover through and dust.

If it's just the two of you and you're relatively tidy people, once a fortnight will do the job and you won't need to do much cleaning in-between but for a 3 bed, I think you'd need 3 hours.

Bear in mind that a lot of cleaning companies also send two people so you get 2 x people doing 1.5 hours each.

Yes 2 hours a week is much more realistic especially if there aren’t lots of you making a mess

This cleaner is self employed and works solo.

I do think it makes a difference that it's a bungalow so no staircase (which always took me ages) and no landing. We have one toilet and one shower room, no en-suites. We're also not cluttered.

No OP it isn’t that, my cleaner can only manage lounge kitchen bathroom hallway and very small conservatory in 2 hours. She doesn’t get to the skirtings switches or walls.