Hiring a house cleaner - advice needed please

Charliezoo

Hi,

For our mother's birthday, my siblings and I thought we'd get togeher and pay for a cleaner to come in and clean her small house once every couple of weeks.

We know she'd love this but none of us have any idea how to go about hiring one, how much we can expect to pay and what we should look out for.

I presume it's best to go to a big agency like Molly Maid but does anyone have any tips or recommendtions for us that will help us get this right?

Thankyou:)

suisidevw

Why not pay the cash direct to a small firm or one man band in your local village/town rather than paying for the fat cats in the big businesses? My parents have had a local lady for last 10 years and she's EXCELLENT.

ormus

molly maid and others like it are very expensive. youre paying for the huge franchise fees. the cleaners are prob just paid the min wages.
far better to recruit locally. try and get recommendations first though.
or check out their refs thoroughly.

6 quid an hour is the usual going rate round here. for cash in hand esp.
up to 10 quid for a really good one.

some/most a have a minimum time. ie 2 or 4 hours.

chris_n_tj

My mother used Molly maids, they did a first time spring clean cost £125 then came every 2 weeks cost £85. I would have been pleased to pay that amount if they had they done basic jobs, ie wiping the cooker/ fridge. My mum is 82 and we wanted to spare her from having to do cleaning. The 2 ladies came amd were only at mums 30 mins, and believe me I am being generous saying 30 mins. need less to say we stopped using them.
What we did was to ask around, we now have a great lady who cleans for mum.
You could also ring age concern they provide a cleaning service.
Good luck
Chris n TJ

Edited to add mum pays £10 per hour now

ormus

ps
try agencies such as age concern for poss recommendations.
weve found them very helpful in our various problems with the mad auntie.