How much do you pay your cleaner??

cavework

Domestic cleaning is the toughest of cleaning jobs. Someone who comes once a fortnight for £10 an hour and has 3 hours to complete the tasks will never be able to give a good service.
It is a repetitive , no thanks , job
Clean house .. come back .. house in same situation... clean house..on and on
Good domestic cleaners have to be organised,reliable,trustworthy and DISCREET.
They will discover things about you that no one else would ever know just by doing their job
Bad cleaners are literally ten a penny,cheap but don't last long. As for agencys? They take a cut before the poor cleaner even starts the job.
Look for someone local and employ them direct, pay them a decent hourly wage and respect them, if you don't and they are good, there is always someone else ready to use them.

cef66

I have a 4 bed detached house, new build so not big, and have a cleaner for 4 hours every 2 weeks and pay her £35. She also cleans a neighbours house and came recommended. Occasionally she does 2 hours on the weeks in-between if we've got visitors. If she does 2 hours she does the bathroom, en-suite, downstairs loo and kitchen, 4 hours and she does the whole house. I always spend a couple of hours tidying up before she comes ( and make the kids clear the toys off their bedroom floors) so that she can spend her time cleaning rather than tidying up. There's always little things she misses but I feel that she does a good job for what I pay - and very importantly I trust her in my house.

jansus

Tough question! I'm a cleaner and the house you describe sounds like a three hour job to me, although i have to say no two houses are the same, some people expect you to tidy up a bombsite before you can even make a start, others are tidy and are are so much easier, therefore you can do a much better clean. Depending on where you live £10.00 an hour is about the norm.

zcrat41

I'm intrigued by comments like this.

How long does it take you to clean a bathroom? I can do ours in 10 minutes, working at a quick pace. I don't clean every single tile on a weekly basis, but can make the mirror, sink, bath, shower, toilet, washstand and floor sparkle enough, within that time. Ideally it shouldn't be left a whole week though, my mum does hers daily but within about 2 minutes since it's almost a dust when tackled that often.

Washing up dishes takes forever, but cleaning a kitchen would also take about the same amount of time, excluding appliances. Again, I wipe the oven clean weekly (2 minutes) and give it a more thorough clean when it needs it.

As much as there is little debate as to whether a toilet/sink/mirror etc is clean or not, I'm wondering if some people are doing more of a deep, spring clean (nooks & crannies) on a weekly basis.[/QUOTE]


It depends on what the bathroom gets like in a week doesn't it! We're both farmer and we can get really really dirty, and therefore our main shower gets pretty dirty too even with a wipe every couple of days from me.

My mum always said that farmers (or anyone with a dirty manual job) wears a house more than most people.

Emmzi

suejb2 wrote: »

Remind me -is this a Money Saving forum?

Yes, Ms Judgey.

I have a cleaner because I'm disabled and everything that lets me take less time at home (I also have a dishwasher and no longer use a mangle) enables me to keep holding down a taxing job with lots of travel.

Also, it's about quality of life, not hand ravelling your clothes from lint and eating the bits of things under the sofa to save a few bob.

(You hit a nerve with me there. I have a friend who does not believe in breadmakers and still calls me on it despite a long discussion on how hand kneading would be the only thing that morning as then I'd be needing a wee lie down.)

indebtinsussex

we pay £20 for our cleaner and we have a 3 bed bungelow, everywhere is tidy for her and she takes about 2ish hours, the bits we asked her to concentrate on is the bathroom and kitchen

meritaten

I think you need to work out what it is you want the cleaner to do. light dusting, tidying up etc or the heavy stuff? cleaning ovens, thorough cleaning of bathrooms and kitchen etc?
I dont think two hours is unreasonable if the cleaner is doing kitchen and bathroom thoroughly and a quick going through with Vacuum. I also think thats worth 16 to 20 pounds.
If you expect the cleaner to tidy up, and dust every room as well as doing the kitchen/bathroom to a high standard - then you are asking too much!

lostinrates

zcrat41 wrote: »

I'm intrigued by comments like this.

How long does it take you to clean a bathroom? I can do ours in 10 minutes, working at a quick pace. I don't clean every single tile on a weekly basis, but can make the mirror, sink, bath, shower, toilet, washstand and floor sparkle enough, within that time. Ideally it shouldn't be left a whole week though, my mum does hers daily but within about 2 minutes since it's almost a dust when tackled that often.

Washing up dishes takes forever, but cleaning a kitchen would also take about the same amount of time, excluding appliances. Again, I wipe the oven clean weekly (2 minutes) and give it a more thorough clean when it needs it.

As much as there is little debate as to whether a toilet/sink/mirror etc is clean or not, I'm wondering if some people are doing more of a deep, spring clean (nooks & crannies) on a weekly basis.

It depends on what the bathroom gets like in a week doesn't it! We're both farmer and we can get really really dirty, and therefore our main shower gets pretty dirty too even with a wipe every couple of days from me.

My mum always said that farmers (or anyone with a dirty manual job) wears a house more than most people.[/QUOTE]


re bathrooms, I wipe mine (sink/bath/loo/swipe splash back etc) daily while I'm in there...fiveish mins....but ''proper'' clean weekly...so loo pedestal and behind it in the dust trapy corners, cupboard doors, switches and floor, skirtings/toothbruch mugs ...the corners and shelves, removing any spider webs etc, weekly (ish). That takes me more than ten mintes, more like double that tbh, smetimes a little more. Same principal in the kitchen ....it gets a daily swipe and a weekly eeper clean...really I could spend a LOT longer than I do...e.g. I am ashamed to admit I haven't done my kitchen skirtings since before summer and sadly, they look like it too.

Honestly, I feel I COULD spend four-six hours a day cleaning..and not because I'm weird..but like you, our house gets mucky for a reason. Life is too short, and I sort of fly lady, so race around and cycle the jobs I'd love to do more often and accept that they get done less often than ideal. If I could have a cleaner at this stage in my life I'd jump at the chance!

We are not naturally tidy people, it really takes an effort to keep tidy, we get the house mucky (similar reason as you) and o our best to contin muck at the back door but t never quite works, our house has lots of nooks and cranies...and bits that don't quite fit, so dust and dirt finds refuge in such places hich take a while to reach into to clean. Our house has fewer than 4 bedrooms (well, its three and a cot roo I never go in) and I KNOW it could absorb more than two hours a day to keep it as I'd really like it.

truly1

Mmmm, an earlier poster suggested that to get a good cleaner you would have to pay £18ph. At those rates you can call me + I will clean your house.

I think that 2 hours would be fine for a quick once over of a 4 bed house - vacuum, dust, quick wipe of baths, etc, and a swish and swipe of the kitchen. Not enough, though, for a thorough clean.

chucknorris

We pay our cleaner £10/hour for 3 hours to clean our 3 bed detatched house, it's not a new build so it's possibly comparible to the OP's 4 bed house as it has a seperate dining room, concervatory and a utility room.