how to find a reliable domestic cleaner?

jemw

Hi Guys

I'm currently on Maternity Leave but due to go back to work end of March. Unfortunately, after being made redundant on Mat Leave, I have only been able to find a full time job and will have quadruple commute time.

As I will only have weekends to spend with my DD, I've been thinking about getting a cleaner. Where can I find someone reliable? And roughly how many hours per week / fortnight is enough? (My house is not dirrrrtttyyyy, but obviously, I'd like it to be kept on top of...)

Thanks in advance!

Tropez

Search for cleaning agencies in your area, then search for reviews and opinions of those agencies. A good agency will have a reputation as being a good agency and carry out a lot of checks on their staff. Good cleaners are very quick and efficient.

jemw

Thanks Tropez

Nicki

I started off using an agency but they had a high turnover of cleaners and we had 3 different ones in the course of a year, of varying standards. Even though they are supposedly vetted by the agency I wasn't all that happy about not knowing who had access to the house keys and would be coming in to clean on any given week. We then asked for recommendations on our local nct website, and have been using a cleaner recommeded there for the last 6 months who we are happy with.

Before we moved house we had the same cleaner for 10 years who we found through an agency.

bubbs

jemw wrote: »

Hi Guys

I'm currently on Maternity Leave but due to go back to work end of March. Unfortunately, after being made redundant on Mat Leave, I have only been able to find a full time job and will have quadruple commute time.

As I will only have weekends to spend with my DD, I've been thinking about getting a cleaner. Where can I find someone reliable? And roughly how many hours per week / fortnight is enough? (My house is not dirrrrtttyyyy, but obviously, I'd like it to be kept on top of...)

Thanks in advance!

Do you have any friends that have cleaners? I am a cleaner and so is my sister and we both work almost full time and are looking on taking people on and all my work has come from recomendation (sp),

mwa

Hi there

I do some private cleaning for someone in my village, I do 2 hours per week and this covers a thorough cleaning of their bathroom, kitchen, hoovering through house and dusting through house. They live in a 3 bed semi with no kids and pay me 8 pounds per hour

HTH

onlyroz

Isn't this the sort of thing that you'd find advertised on a card in a post-office?

jemw

thanks everyone - food for thought!

Onlyroz, my concern with that would be whether they would be trusted or not!?

Lottie_Clements

Ask your friends, see if any of them have recommendations, people at work, the cleaners AT work. Our cleaner is the cleaner for my workplace too, she's been cleaning our house for almost three years now, once a week, takes her as long as it takes - depending on how messy my friend's two boys are! Roughly 3 hours, that's every room (5 bed, 2 bath, 3 recp) tidied, polished (surfaces and mirrors), hoovered, de-rubbished, beds made, hard floors mopped and washing up etc. Add about 1.5 extra hours if it's a 'deep clean' with skirting boards, radiators etc. Will also put fresh bedding on the beds if you leave it out/in the tumble dryer. Have given her a little extra for doing laundry if needed which doesn't usually take her any longer.

Has worked out quite well as her son ends up giving the garden a good tidy a couple of times a year (hardcore branch lopping off etc lol) which helps him out and us.

So go start asking people! Someone will know someone, and you can't beat a personal recommendation.

grey_lady

You could try talking to a couple of local agencies, hopefully they will already have someone in your area already working for other clients, so you can get some feedback. Also, you could start them a couple of weeks before you go back to get to know them a bit.

clw1

As the others have said ask friends as they will be best placed to reccomend a local cleaner or local agency, I found my cleaner via another mum who I knew from a playgroup.

I pay £9 per hour and the cleaner does 2.5hrs per week to do a 4 bed-semi. I find that this is enough to keep on top of the mess as I'm happy with the bathroom / hoovering being done only once a week. Day to day I just have to clean the kitchen after cooking and tidy up toys as needed so for me it's great as I am less stressed and have weekends free for LO. I also try to get other chores like washing, food shopping etc done on weekday evenings which also helps with freeing up weekends.