Do you have a cleaner?

[Gobbledigook]

I'm thinking of getting one (shhh, don't tell Jools!! )

Already have a gardener as that is something I just could not keep tidy, but have always wanted to do my own cleaning - I quite like it and I'm not sure about someone else in the house (hunky, tanned young maaaayan in the garden is fine though ). HOwever, something has to give as I've got the kids all day and my freelance work in the evenings/weekends and this house is just unmanageable - it's things like the toilets and the wooden floors - I'm afraid to say they get to quite a state before I get round to it

So I guess what I want to know is...

• how much do you pay (if you don't mind telling)?
• how often do they come?
• does the place not get a tip again 5 mins after they've gone?

TIA

I used to have one once a week when i was earning loadsa money. Couldn't afford or justify one now though!

They will do wahtever you ask then to. I often gave mine specific things like wiping down all the white woodwork one week and she didn't mind at all. I paid mine £5 p.h. but that was about 3 years ago now.

I want mine to spring clean a room at a time, working round (doing skirting and doors and architrave) then starting again at the beginning when she (or he) has got to the end

Now I just need to find her

Dogs do everything you ask them too.

but Rhubarb... you don't have to pay them lmao

Yes. She's very good, goes by the name of paolosgirl, and best of all, dh gets her for free . Oooooh, don't start me!

Oh right, sorry! So as long as you pay them a fiver an hour you can ask them to do anything you want! Ok, that's fair!

Rhurb... it's me on the wine tonight lmao

Once a week for 2 hours to hoover, mop, dust, do bathrooms/kitchen. Pay £8 per hour, so £16 per week. Would love to extend her hours to include doing laundry and ironing, but the budget doesn't stretch to that at the moment.

Once a week for three hours at £6 per hour on a Friday. It's fantastic to have the house clean for the weekend - means we don't have to have a frantic clean anymore before weekend guests!

One question I have though. My cleaner doesn't seem to clean the oven. I never specifically asked her to, I just assumed she would as part of the kitchen clean as my old cleaner did. It is unreasonable to ask her to clean my oven?

She's started doing the work in two-and-a-half hours insteaad of three, and I've noticed that she doesn't do any skirting boards, so I need to speak to her about this anyway. Otherwise she's good.

Sorry... to be in the clique you must do your own garden GDG.

The agency I'm going through will cost £9.50 per hour. No idea how much of that goes to the cleaner! She will be coming initially for 3hrs on a Thursday. In that time I would like:

Whole house hoovered/dusted (only a 2 bed semi)
Bathroom/Toilet Cleaned
Kitchen Cleaned

And apparently there may be time left over for her to do half an hour of ironing! Can't wait.... soooooooooooooo excited (in case you hadn't noticed).

How do you find one that you know isn't going to rifle through your drawers?!

I am going to wait until my mom retires in about 4 years and then pay her to do it

No I don't
but if I did could I call him / her a "daily" as I love that word.

dillydally's daily!!!

That could work for me

At the mo we don't need one, I'm a SAHM and DD is at nursery for at least 3 hours a day, 5 days a week so the housework is manageable at the mo. I will get one once I'm working though.

I have a gardener but he looks like captain birdseye . He comes once a fortnight and does the lawn and a little light weeding at £10 per hour.

I used to have a cleaner but she didn't get anything clean and used the same cloth on the loo as she did on the bathroom sink which is disgusting. I employed the cunning trick of making a mental note of a really large bluebottle that was dead in the middle of the carpet. It was still there after she claimed to have hoovered the room. She also hoovered around ds toys as it was not part of the job to move them. She was rubbish it was easier to do it myself.

You want to sort out that gardener triceratops!!

NDP - same here really - when I've not got work on I can manage it fine, but I've not had a break in work for months now. Sods law says I'll start paying a cleaner and not only will I have the time to do it myself but I won't be earning either

My mum used to have a cleaner. She just dusted and polished, she didnt 'tidy'. She was a friend of hers and payed her £20 for a few hours.

Oh, she hoovered as well!

3 hours, once a week for £20.

She's like a dervish - mops all hard floors, hoovers the rest, upsatirs and down cleans 2 bathrooms, makes all bed, tidies all rooms and cleans kitchen.

I love her.

Mine is £ 6 per hour - somes 5 1/2 hours a week and does my ironing too. She is good at basic cleaning - hoovering, dusting cleaning bathrooms. Hates spiders so doesn't get rid of cobwebs. I've got to tidy before she comes though and make sure kids toys are put away as she warned me once the place was so untidy that she would stop coming. She also will not come if we have a day off work which kind of bugs me. If I take a day off work it's to do something specific - and not to do housework.

I have a great cleaner but because we're in London she's £8ph. She works really hard - 5 hours 2xweek; it's quite a big house so it needs it. She does ironing too - less if the house is a real tip, more if not ! Unlikesome cleaners she really fills her time cleaning, and even washes her bundle of cleaning cloths at the end of the session. If she decides to go I've had it!

Treceratops - Where do you live? It sounds just like my dad. He's a cross between birds eye captain/Father Christmas!

My goodness it seems I'm going to be paying WAY over the odds for my Cleaner!!! £9.50 and hour in Scotland! Hmmm.