How much would you pay for a cleaner?

[helsi]

I am struggling at the moment as DH works long and strange hours and I also work three days a week. I am finding it hard to fit in my housework as well as look after DD (22 months) as I feel guilty that I am cleaning etc when I should be spending time with her.
I was thiniing of getting a cleaner for onew morning a week just to do the stuff like hoovering, cleaning worktops, polishing, doing loos and bathrooms etc but not sure how much to pay. I didn't want anythig professional just someone for cash in hand once a week. Any ideas?

£5.00 per hr............whats the new miniumum wage think its £5.25 but not sure !!!!

I get paid in kind

I pay £7.50 per hour! Heck, am I being done?

I actually pay £8p.h. But that's in London...

Oh yes forgot about minimum wage but if it is off the books and cash in hand?....!!

I still can't get my head around paying cleaners more than childminders ! Friend pays 4.25 for her childminder... another pays 7 pound for cleaner???

Why is there such a difference?

We pay £8 an hour but only because we couldn't find a private cleaner and ended up going to an agency who were rubbish but charged £8 an hour so when we eventually got hold of a cleaner we were so pleased to have her that we offered here £8 the same as the agency. The going rate round about here is £6.

Unicorn is it because the childminder looks after a few children so your friend is only paying a proportion of her hourly rate?

I pay £7 ph in Hampstead but I know someone local who pays £10ph (and gets ripped off!). I pay £8 for p/t nanny/mother's help who does all the ironing as well as looking after DD twice a week.

Minimum wage only applies if you are her employer. But, since a cleaner works for lots of other people too, you are not his/her employer.

I've never understood that "people pay their cleaners more than their childminders" argument. Cleaners only stay for a few hours. At the end of the week, the childminder makes loads more than the cleaner. And, as someone else pointed out, cleaners can only clean one house at a time. Whereas a childminder can look after multiple children. If you are looking after 4 kids at £4.50 an hour each, that's £18/hour. Not a bid living really.

Okay, sorry. I'm off my soapbox now...

I pay £5.50 an hr for mine. Getting a cleaner was the best thing I ever did. It has saved my life and my relationship - no joke! Worth every penny.

Wow - cleaners are cheap in England!

Ours don't get paid by the hour. They are paid "per clean". Mine gets paid $80 (about 44 pounds) every other week to clean the house (4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, kitchen and 5 other rooms). It takes them (either 2 or 3 people come) about 2 hours.

Actually come to think about it, I guess per person the hourly rate's not that much different.

Before these cleaners, I had "Merry Maids" who are a franchise who advertise on tv, they're all insured and everything. They used to charge $120 to clean just downstairs (they didn't do one bathroom or the playroom).

Pay £20 for three hours and it's well worth it!

How do you find a cleaner you can trust? I would love someone to come in and clean my house while I'm at work, but feel a bit nervous of giving a total stranger the key to my front door and letting them loose. Round here the going rate seems to be about £8 an hour, with agencies charging £10 plus.

£7 per hour in London

£6 an hour for four hours. Including ironing.

worth of mouth 80smum. You need to just ask everybody, your friends, the mums at the toddler group/school, you neighbours etc. Eventually someone will give you a recommendation (she says hopefully). I had to wait for my cleaning lady until someone else that she cleaned for moved away, and i'm still waiting to get more hours. I guess that's a sign that she's either very good at cleaning or very good at lying to me!

Three hours each week - £15 and I give her £20 about once a month as I feel like it's probably not enough as she works like a dervish....

Where are you 80smum? I did a thread on mumsnet asking if anyone knew a cleaner in west london and got a recommendation and have been using her ever since. She is awesome. (and may possibly have a free day)

I'm in north east hampshire.