Questions about getting a cleaner

[BroccoliSpears]

How much (approx) per hour can I expect to pay? (Leeds area)

What's the best way of finding someone? Agency? Answering an ad? Placing an ad?

Anything else I should consider / need to know?

our cleaner is from an agency - if I ever have a problem I just phone them up and sort it out - cleaner speaks little to no English , so that helps as well (that I can phone someone up)

best way is from a friend's recommendation I think, that's how I found our cleaner

Thank you Hana.

Anyone else?

Ask around, ask at places where people who clean might want extra hours (I found one cleaner by asking at a nearby retirement home if anyone wanted extra cleaning work).

Personally I wouldn't place an ad as it strikes me as asking for trouble - references can be made up and it just might catch a dubious person's eye. Maybe I'm paranoid though.

Not a big fan of agencies - the ones I used always sent different cleaners all the time and drove me mad and I found it cheaper to find my own.

You will need to invest a little time in 'training them up' the first couple of visits if you want to ensure you set things up properly i.e. show her what you want to be cleaned. That said if she is an experienced cleaner you can probably pretty much leave her to it other than anything unusual about your house/ stuff.