Has anyone hired a Cleaner?

SieIso

Hi,

My partner is keen on hiring a cleaner as we are quite time poor, I am not convinced it is a good idea but I was wondering what other people's experiences were? What types of costs are normal etc?

Thanks

DullGreyGuy

Most simply charge you an hourly rate, probably circa £15/hr if you find one directly or another £2-3 if you go via an agency. 

It's one of those things, if you find a good one they are exceptional and people closely guard them. There are a lot that are picky about what they will or won't do (eg laundry, ironing, work whilst owner is in the house etc). A lot of agencies target returning mothers etc selling the job on the flexibility but we found a reliability issue with most of them, kids often sick so cannot come etc. Sure the agency will send a replacement but then you don't know them, they don't know what you want doing, where things are etc. 

When outside central London we did get a good one that was happy to work on a fixed price so could bust a gut and do it really quickly or take their time doing the ironing in front of the TV and didn't impact our cost and so reduced the worry. We relocated and so had to say goodbye. 

Misslayed

I've had the same Angel sorting my house out for 25 years. We pay her £16/hour, she comes for 2 hours every other week (soon to be upped to 3 hours). Kitchen and bathroom left immaculate, all floors washed and carpets hooved. Any remaining time is dusting, whatever else she spots needs doing. 

CliveOfIndia

I would say something like £15 per hour is a reasonable ball-park figure.  It may vary depending on whereabouts in the country you are, and whether you're going via an agency, whether it's a local person who does it full-time as a business, or whether it's "someone in the town who does a bit of cleaning on a part-time basis to earn some pocket money".

Up until a year or so ago we had the latter, and she was superb, sadly she moved away from the area.

Think about whether they will use their own cleaning materials or whether you'll be expected to provide them.  Very often either approach will be acceptable, and the price they charge will differ depending on which option you go for (they'll charge a bit more if they have to supply the materials).

Albermarle

We have had 3 or 4 agencies over the years, but have stuck with the current one. The agency manager is a bit useless but the cleaner is very good. They have whacked the price up a couple of times since Covid and we pay nearly £30 an hour in the South East.
We can not employ a cleaner direct for cash etc as we need a a proper invoice.

Emily_Joy

Misslayed said:

I've had the same Angel sorting my house out for 25 years. We pay her £16/hour, she comes for 2 hours every other week (soon to be upped to 3 hours). Kitchen and bathroom left immaculate, all floors washed and carpets hooved. Any remaining time is dusting, whatever else she spots needs doing. 

Do you really mean that you haven't changed the salary for 25 years?... 

Here near Birmingham you would be lucky to get one for £25/hour, and everyone I know would top up the salary of the cleaner with inflation fearing they will leave otherwise.

We also had not so good experience with cleaners in Nottingham - one day early afternoon we happen to be home and our cleaner appeared out of blue saying that she came to pick up some cleaning products that she needs to clean another house because she run out of them. We were caught by surprise as all cleaning products were supplied by us.

DullGreyGuy

Albermarle said:

We can not employ a cleaner direct for cash etc as we need a a proper invoice.

A cleaner paid in cash can give you a proper invoice, you can even write the contract such that its self billing (ie you raise the invoice for them)... many contractors are on self billing terms. 

twopenny

Be aware that you will feel the need to tidy at least before they come    seriously
Put anything you need in exactly the right place in that place like paperwork.
They are not miracle workers that can guess where things go.
 They will clean what they can in the time they are paid for. 

So it really depends on what exactly your oh expects. And who's going to tidy up before they come 

Belenus

I have a little tale to tell.

Many years ago we had a cleaner for a few years. She was local and did a very good job.

After a while I wondered why the settings on my rowing machine kept changing. She confessed that during school holidays she had to bring her young son with her and he was using it.

We asked her not to let him use the rowing machine, mainly for the insurance risk, but that she could put him in front of the TV.

She eventually ran off with her postman and left the area. We never found a suitable replacement.

EssexExile

£15/hour here in Staffordshire, she does 2 hours a week. She only started earlier this year when my wife got ill but it all seems to be going fine so far. The house was never this clean when we did the cleaning.

Albermarle

DullGreyGuy said:

Albermarle said:

We can not employ a cleaner direct for cash etc as we need a a proper invoice.

A cleaner paid in cash can give you a proper invoice, you can even write the contract such that its self billing (ie you raise the invoice for them)... many contractors are on self billing terms. 

Thanks for the clarification. I doubt though that the cleaner we have would leave the agency, but useful to know in case things change in future,