Disorganised Chaos!

[Jodee]

Help! I am starting to sink under the mess and muddle that I call my house. It's not that my house is dirty (not by my standards anyway) - I am managing to keep on top of the housework, (apart from dusting)in fact I probably spend too much time cleaning and hoovering, when my son is asleep - I think it's important to spend quality time with him when he is awake, not cleaning the house. I don't want to get into a debate about how much help we get from our partners with the housework (my husband does all his own ironing, so he is a complete saint in my eyes).
To get to the point - I can't get to grips with the other stuff, particularly paperwork. I'm one of those 'just in case' people - for example, some rubbishy circular will come through the letterbox and I will put it to one side, just in case. The same goes for bank statements, till receipts, those mini statements you get from the hole-in-the-wall... the list goes on. My bedside cabinet is piled high with stuff, mainly because the drawers are already stuffed full! My husband is getting irritated with me now as my stuff is starting to encroach onto his side of the bedroom and he is threatening to get a black sack and chuck every piece of paper lying around into it.
Things started to go from bad to worse when ds was born 16 months ago; I would really like to get on top of this thing before no 2 comes along, which is nearly in the pipeline.
There was another thread about mess and untidiness and someone mentioned a site called LifeCoachingAcademy.com which sounded like it would be helpful, but it is under construction.
Please tell me I am not the only one like this, and any help would be very gratefully received, before I completely turn into my mother, who is 100 times worse (in fact my husband won't even let me take my ds round to her house, she has to come to us!)

I found my cleaner via a B&B. When my parents or in-laws come to visit us, they stay at a B&B and I once asked if they had a cleaner... well, they did and I have also hired her... She is very good, she even "kept" my house while I was away for a month. She came 1 day before our return to dust it off (she had thouroughly cleaned it while we were away), she turned the heat on, collected the post,... very good.

I would love to have a cleaner. And I have been thinking about it but a couple of things puzzle me and I would be grateful if one of you ladies could fill me in.
firstly, Do you have to home when cleaner visits. If not do you give them a key?
Secondly What is the going rate and how often do they visit and for how long.
And also. This sounds silly but what exactly do you ask them to do. For instance do they iron or clean the windows?

Sorry to sound silly but I'd love some advice.

callie

yes, as pamina says, it is perfectly normal to give your cleaner a key. we also found ours through an agency. the upsides are as mentioned, holiday cover, quick replacement if unsatisfactory, referencing, insurance etc. for me the downside has been that - to me - an unacceptable level of the amount paid to the agency goes to the staff. we used to "top it up". not an issue now as she works directly for us, having left the agency. in the ideal world, i would get someone by personal recommendation, but none of our friends living near us could help.

what is useful is to have a list of tasks that you expect to be done each week. this was my husband's suggestion initially, as i was unhappy with the job being done. i was resistant to the idea as it seemed so patronising - however, it has gone down well and both sides are clear on the priorities/possibilities now!

not all cleaners are prepared to do ironing, window cleaning etc. i imagine you would need to negotiate this up front.

we pay a little over £8/hour (london).

hth.

Although it is normal to give a key to a cleaner, My dh is a bit neurotic so I make sure our cleaner comes on one of the two days a week when I work from home.

At the moment we pay £6 per hour for three hours a week (in London). Like others, We too found that the agency cleaners tended to do a fairly superficial clean only. The woman who we now use came through a personal recommendation and is very flexible and will cook if asked, clean the fridge, clean out the kitchen cupboards etc.. whenever asked. I hope she never leaves us!

I pay 6GBP per hour (Kent), hse does anything I aske her though she has her routine. SHe doesn't seem keen or vey godd at ironing so I avoid it but she "oiled" my kitchen tops (wood), she has been found on ladders cleaining lamps. She takes initiatives and I like that.
She has our keys when we are not home and she watches the house (pick up mail, maintain heat,...) when we are away.
I have used an agency : too expensive, they don't use any elbow grease and use their own product which smell very strongly (probably to hide their not so good cleaning!)

Thank you all!!! I've found your replies really helpful!
I was surpised at the low cost especially for London. Ithink a 4hr slot once a week would do me perfectly. Ithink I would make myself scarce though as I don't know why but i would feel a bit embarrased sitting there while someone else is doing my housework!
I love the idea of my ironing being done and put away and kitchen cupboards cleaned.
Although Iam quite quiet in real life and I think I'll find it hard to be telling someone what to do.
I'll have a ring around some agencies today. I would ideally like to find my own but as i live up north it might be hard.
Thanks again!

Going a back a bit on this one my theory on Croppy is that its a man having a laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tee hee!. I am not a man although my boss thinks otherwise!

Only joking - so full of admiration for anyone like you - I am unfortunately one of those mothers who constantly looks like she has been dragged through a bush backwards - although I did sort out a drawer last night so think I am on the right track chaos wise!!!!!!! not!!!!!!!!!

Callie, I think someone on this thread mentioned Mollymaid - funnily enough I had a flyer thru my door this morning about them and they have a website you could check out: www.mollymaid.co.uk. They do seem to cover most of the UK. HTH

If anyone can recommend a cleaner in Wimbledon, please tell me!

I pay £5 per hour (Herts). She has a key. We normally work together if I'm home. She does 4 hours a week and I'll sometimes leave a list of things that need doing. Tend to do the ironing myself now to give her more time on the house. R

Get up to the common and see if any of the Wombles are interested! R

I've finally bitten the bullet and asked the agency to find me a new cleaner, 2 things did it. Putting the dirty plates into the dishwasher full of clean stuff, and putting the bleach under the sink and not back in the locked cupoard. Oh did I mention she seemed to manage to wash the floor without scrapping the deris off first. Hopefully nos4 & 5 (they are going to send a team of 2 ladies....I know my house is bad, but not that horrendous!!!)

Since the council took away my home help (apparently my disabilities aren't on their list of conditions they can provide home helps for), I've had a male cleaner! Honestly, he's quite good (has an aversion to cleaning skirting boards and windowsills and has to be reminded)! He's a friend of my partner who wants to work as a home help so as well as doing social care at college etc he's working for me to get a reference. I pay him £5 per hour, we're in Islington.

I used to work as a cleaner many moons ago, and wasn't given a key. Only on one occasion when I agreed to fix up the flat of the son of the lady I 'did' for. He'd been abroad for a couple of months and had turned off the electricity in the flat, leaving a chicken in the freezer - yeeeurrrgh!! Should have got danger money for that one.

Another story from those days (with the same lady) was she asked me to thoroughly clean the guest room one day. As I pulled out the bed I noticed the carpet wasn't lying flat in the corner of the room. Lifted it and there was a wad of money, about £1,000. Had a definite 'moment' there!! After wrestling with my conscience for some time I left it where it was and didn't say anything. A trap or what?? And I got bitten by a mouse at the same premises!!

Thought I would revive this thread, as the owner of the cleaning agency we use is closing the agency, and opening a Molly Maid franchise. Reading earlier comments, it seems that this may lead to a drop in the service we get (although I'm not that enamoured with our current cleaner). Can anyone give me more information on the Molly Maid service - I've read their pamphlet and their website, but obviously they only give the hard sell view. Anyone got any good or bad things to say about them. Or does it depend on the particular franchise?

We had fantastic service from Molly Maid, then the chap had hip replacement and went and fell and broke the other hip and we had a letter expalingin they couldn't carry on with the franchise. The 2 cleaners carried on but their cleaning got worst and then they wanted an extra £5 a week, at which point we said bye bye. Yes they seem expensive but it was brilliant.

I've started to do my own at last and pay myself that £80 a month I was paying!

A new series of Life Laundry starts on Wed BBC2 8pm all about de-cluttering your life.

helenmc, can I be nosy and ask what you mean by "expensive". We currently pay £16 per week to the cleaner and £10 per week to the agency. This is for 4 hours cleaning. I believe that Molly Maid don't quote by the hour, but by the jom which makes my heart sink, as we live in a large 4 bed house, with lots of floors, skirting boards, etc.
Rhiannon, what I pay my cleaners is worth every penny, as I can use the time to spend with my children (work 4 full days). Having said that, if it goes up too much in price with Molly Maid, I will have to think again.

Which Wednesday? This Wednesday? I loved life laundry!

Yes Hilary, this wednesday - I can't wait either!

It was 4 years ago. We have 3 bed bungalow. They did a special spring clean to get the place up to scratch and then it was £30 for 2 ladies for about a morning. They always do a job rather than hours, but you decided how much or how little you want doing. We used to leave the bedrooms and just do kitchen bathroom and lounge. We use Maid For You at the moment and after a few cleaners have got wonderwoman, who is absoultely marvellous, and we pay £26 a month to the agency and £5 an hour to the lady-that-does. the benefit of agencies is that the cleaners are goood (and we have asked for replacements) and they are insured and have been vetted. The money is worth every penny - i know the house is clean (not necessarily tidy thou) so I'm never embrassed when we have unexpected visitors. And it gives me the weekend to spend with the kids.