[Closed] Hiring a cleaner for your house?

The wife and I are always arguing about cleaning

It's probably not about the cleaning. Hire a cleaner and the same argument will most likely resurface somewhere else. Await wife buying gimp suits and riding crops...

Just don't do what MIL did, clean before cleaner came round. MIL didn't want cleaner to think they lived in a manky house 🙄

Best thing we ever did. Had the same arguments only the other way round. Was the only thing we ever argued about. Had a cleaner for the last 4 years and rarely disagree about anything now 🙂

...and where do you put yourself when they do it?

At work. That's kind of the point.

They clean the house while we are at work, so we don't have to spend our "not at work" time cleaning the house.

We're contemplating this for same reasons as op. How do you find a good, trustworthy one? I am a bit paranoid about having someone in my house.

Agree with Nealglover you go to work and they clean 🙂

Is it cringeworthy? Maybe. But you're providing someone with an income and shouldn't feel bad about that. I've always just gone with an agency and our cleaners move on every 6-12 months. So far no issues with having anything stolen etc. but if you're a bit paranoid about who's in your house you'll want to go on personal recommendations.

We have had a series of cleaners for the last 15 years or so, it was Mrs M's condition for going back to work full time after children.
Somehow or other, most have been Polish. Most have been great, some not so good, but they needed the work & we could afford it. We don't clean beforehand apart from making sure the loo is flushed, but we do tidy up - the weekly visit prompts us to clear up the accumulated rubbish from the floors & tables beforehand.
If you can afford a cleaner, do it. 3 hours per week is enough for us.

Just don't do what MIL did, clean before cleaner came round. MIL didn't want cleaner to think they lived in a manky house

You're not me are you?

Hiring a cleaner saved our marriage.

for those who have hired one, how much does it cost? for the 3hrs a week you mentioned moses & others.

min wage is £6.70, so is it about a tenner an hour perhaps?

I agree with everyone.
It does seem expensive but everything is these days.

Our cleaner is £20 for 2 hrs. I know it doesn't take her anything like that long but I don't grudge that. When you factor in cleaning products and driving time it seems very reasonable.

[i]min wage is £6.70, so is it about a tenner an hour perhaps? [/i]

Yep.

We've had Cleaners for years (and my folks did too), current lady comes once a week for 3 hours. We supply the cleaning products - aren't on mains sewage so have to be careful of what goes down the drains.

Best way to find one is on recommendation, so try FBing your friends and someone with either have one, or their folks will etc.

[i]It does seem expensive but everything is these days. [/i]

What, £10 an hour? 😕 How much/little do you earn?

We pay £11 an hour.
£33 a week.
10 years ago if I had that much money left at the end of the month let alone a week I was doing well.

We have a cleaner, she's great. We generally keep a clean-ish house, but she comes once a week and does the annoying stuff: hoovers the house top-to-bottom, cleans the bathrooms and kitchen, mops the floors, dusts. Cleans the dead flies from the window-sills, that sort of stuff.

She's an artist in real life, cleans to top up the income between commissions. Lives in a cool house, almost a magnificent shed, up in the hills outside town. Has a big covered deck with a sunken, fully plumbed-in bath. We give her fruit & veg from our garden, the odd bottle of home brew, she leaves us home-made chutney, kasundi and other interesting stuff.

We pay $20 an hour, which is about GBP10.

I've had a cleaner for years - I don't enjoy housework so I'm happy to give someone else some work and live in a much tidier house than I would have if the cleaning was left to me.

€35 for 3 hours every other week is a bargain when compared to working full time and then spending either evenings or time at the weekend cleaning.

Something I'm thinking of doing.

How do you go about finding someone you can trust with your house keys?

Where are you?
Someone on here must have a local recommendation.

I'm considering it because cleaning is shit, I have better things to do with my time off tbh as should everyone!

I had one when me and the mrs lived in different houses, otherwise i spent my life cleaning my house then going to hers and being expected to do some of that too!

Think of it as paying £30 for another 4 hours riding a week 🙂

zippykona - Member
Where are you?

North London, Enfield.

this is it tinas, sometimes I've been banned from going riding because I 'haven't done the floors' eff the floors, the sun is shining woman I'm gone. Only to be in the dog house for a day after. 😐

I'm considering it because cleaning is shit, I have better things to do with my time off tbh as should everyone!

Our cleaner is the sister of someone my wife works with, so we figure it'd be tricky for her to disappear off the face of the earth if it turns out she wanted to rob us blind. But she hasn't in the last couple of years, so we think we're safe. Other than that, a personal recommendation is about the best you can do, or an agency that would provide some some sort of insurance.

If you have the money it really is a winner as there are loads of better things to do with your time.

I used to do all the decorating and cleaning.
Being self employed if I took a day off to do the chores I'd have to pay someone to do my job.
So it makes sense to pay a professional to do the jobs properly than pay someone to do my job poorly.

We have one - comes on a Friday for 2 hours (2bed small cottage - no kids), £10 per hour. Local lass - came recommended.

Does a cracking job, if the house is cleanish from previous week then she sorts through the fridge, tidies the kitchens cupboards or only charges us an hour & half.

It makes us tidy up (not clean up) Thursday night so the house is nice for the weekend.

We have one.
Wife works, I work, we have 2 small children.
Our only time together is at the weekends, and we are pretty sure we aren't going to spend the time cleaning the house.

i pay about 6 pounds for 8 hours of cleäning, washing and gardening, for our cleaner.

I'm considering it because cleaning is shit, I have better things to do with my time off tbh as should everyone!

Yep, this and the arguing were the reasons we did it.

£12/hr for ours, recommended by a friend. Just Google *your hometown* cleaner, there'll be loads.

Just bear in mind your insurance may not cover theft.

Can you claim on your insurance if the person cleaning your home steals from your property? One Money Box listener found her cleaner had taken £10,000 worth of jewellery but her insurers, Churchill refused to pay out because the cleaner had been let into her home willingly. The Ombudsman agreed with Churchill's ruling. So what can you do to protect yourself?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05q4zmp

Why are we all feeling the need to justify having a cleaner?

If you hate cleaning and you've got the cash to spare it's a no brainer.

[i]It does seem expensive but everything is these days.[/i]

What, £10 an hour? How much/little do you earn?

Our cleaner earns more per hour than I do.

But I have to factor in the fact that I absolutely hate cleaning the house.

Plus the fact that I would do half as good a job, and it would take me three times as long.

Plus, for me at least, my job is far more enjoyable than cleaning, so I reckon I'm on to a winner.

We are between cleaners at the moment. We had the last one for 4 years and she was very average at cleaning, but trustworthy. The conflict in our house is whether we need to tidy before she comes 😐

I need to find a replacement.

Is it all a bit too middle class? it is a bit cringey in that you could do it yourself but are choosing not to purely because you cba and where do you put yourself when they do it?

Would our responses change whether you hired one or not?

Nothing wrong with it at all as long as you treat them like a fellow human being rather than a servant.

£10p/h in both Herts and Lancs for me BTW.

We've got one too, as most people have said cleaning was what we argued about. we found an agency that did all the vetting etc has insurance and back ground checks for the cleaners and costs us about £25 a week for two hours.

My mates took this piss for a while then two of them got cleaners as well.

We disagree about cleaning, terribly.

Before MrsMC moved in with me, my house at the time was uncluttered and took an hour a week for me to clean. She moved in, we had suddenly had loads of clutter that I couldn't be arsed to clean around and she can't be arsed to clean around properly.

Then we had kids. And a bigger house. The clutter mountain is intolerable.

I would LOVE to have a cleaner. MrsMC is deeply offended at the idea that our house isn't clean enough through our own efforts and refuses.

You know how sometimes it doesn't matter how right you are, you are still wrong?

Oh, and top tip for all of you with cleaners - if you have a mate staying at your place, who might be just coming out of the shower when they expect the house to be empty and so not bothering with clothes or towels, it is probably best to tell both the mate and the cleaner about the others existence.

Just saying like.....

Had one for years, best thing we ever did. While massively middle class I have no interest in cleaning so would prefer to invest the hours I save riding my bike. My wife agrees.

Both me and my wife work in the finance sector; well, I say work but I'm not quite sure what it is I actually do?!

I'm contracted to 40 hours per week, but I often do 70. I'd say I live to work; my job's my life. When I'm not at work, I struggle to think or talk about much else other than work. Infact, I'd go as far as to say it's the only thing I know or feel comfortable doing. Cleaning a house is an alien concept to me; I wouldn't know where to start. The last thing I want to do after a long week at work is try and figure out how to use a vacuum cleaner!

Thankfully, my job pays well. So well infact, that things like cleaning/cutting the lawn/shopping/looking after the kids/life I don't have to bother doing; I can pay someone to do them for me.

Our cleaner costs £12 per hour through an agency. Not alot I know, and I dread to think what her wage is. I've often thought about tipping her, but I think she'd just spend it on heroin, so I make sure she's got a warm cup of soup inside her before she goes home.

Before MrsMC moved in with me, my house at the time was uncluttered and took an hour a week for me to clean. She moved in, we had suddenly had loads of clutter that I couldn't be arsed to clean around and she can't be arsed to clean around properly.

Then we had kids. And a bigger house. The clutter mountain is intolerable.

I suspect we may have the same wife.

😆

Ours is absolutely brilliant. Lovely person and becoming a friend as well.

£10 per hour and we add the odd extra bit of cash here and there as she is so worth it and is always ready to do extra stuff herself - like helping us pack the van when we were moving house!

Came by recommendation - we're very fortunate. Time is too precious to be hoovering. I don't fix my car either - it's better to let an expert do it...

Jeez, there's some right lazy beggars on here!

And some dirty ones too.
You pay someone else to clean your bathroom every two weeks?

Eeeeew.
😀

JulianA - Member

Ours is absolutely brilliant. Lovely person and becoming a friend as well.

Our cleaner "Mary" is a good companion to my wife who due to her MS is unable to even stand up, she also does our ironing. she only charges £20 for about 3 hours cleaning or £10 for a silly amount of ironing.

She was recommended by a friend, the only thing shes not great at is high cobwebs (that is my job being tall)

CG don't be so judgmental I work/cook/shop/care I just don't have time for the remaining stuff

You know how sometimes it doesn't matter how right you are, you are still wrong?

Arrange a cleaner- at least you will be wrong in a clean house.

Mr O, you're a carer for 99% of the time you're not working.

You deserve a bloody cleaner.
And a rest.
😀

MrOvershoot - of course this would not apply to you, I can not imagine how challenging and exhausting your life must be. As Rusty states, you deserve a cleaner and a rest. No offence was intended with my post and I apologise to you.

Cha****ng - I wondered where she's been the last week!

Cranberry - I have a cunning plan when she goes full time next month...

Spent 4 hours the other day cleaning. First free day I've had since we started putting mini squirrel into nursery and, for now, it's a novelty.

I'm sure it'll wear off eventually but tbh I don't mind doing a couple of hours a couple of times a week if it means I get to live in a clean house. (ironing is still a foreign concept, screw that)

so I make sure she's got a warm cup of soup inside her before she goes home.

Is that a euphemism?

CG don't worry I wasn't offended, other peoples lives can seem odd to any of us!

Rusty I had a good bit of news last week the my wife can go for up to 8 weeks of respite care, so I can actually get a rest as I know its taking its toll on my health, both physical & mental.

Excellent news nige!

Mr O - excellent news.
Respite is a lifesaver.

You can't look after someone else when you're exhausted.

Any plans?

I've a few things planned, but will probably start a thread on "Ideas for days out"

Just been talking to the sister in law who is a district nurse and she said I must use the service as she can tell I'm starting to struggle.

Rich I knew you would be lurking on a thread about domestic help 😉

Good stuff.

Spare room over here if you fancy a few days in Burnley.
🙂

Drop us a line if it appeals.

cinnamon_girl - Member
Jeez, there's some right lazy beggars on here!

How do you work out they are lazy buggers? I don't have a cleaner but I don't see how it makes you lazy if you do. I fix my own car 90% of the time, do I get to call all people who have the knowledge to but don't fix their car lazy?

My wife works full time, she uses the weekend to cook, clean and massage my aching body after a tough week dragging my balls around. 8)

I don't know CG but I do believe her remark was said in good humour.

We had a couple of different ones for a while but ended up getting tired of trying to guess where they'd put stuff away. We did try to stress it's cleaning we're after and not tidying, but just gave up and carry on ourselves now.

We paid £25 and £30 for 2 hrs respectively.

Our house is kept tidy by us so we know where things are but gets cleaned weekly for us.

Same couple have cleaned for us for over 10 years now.

And yes I happily embrace my middleclassness.

Pete I may just call in on you & your good lady 🙂

Please don't pick on CG she's one of life's good people. We often say the wrong thing without realising it, I know I often do

Best bit of advice my friend gave me is yes have a cleaner, but never ever get them doing the ironing.

If you need ironing doing take it to a specialist!

If you want ideas for days out, you can always pop round here and tidy up a bit...

How idle are you that you cant clean up after yourself?

Not idle - just spend my waking hours on here!

Don't think of it as idleness. Think of it as paying a small amount to make your life much more fun.
It's made our life so much more enjoyable.

More free time, less hassle, less drudge.

Rich I'm not keen on your sticky socks

Oh and with 3 children I don't think you can call him idle Hora

Getting a cleaner was one of the best things we did. Wife and I both work weekends regularly as well as weeks and quite frankly spending your spare time cleaning the house isn't as much fun as spending time with the kids and the wife.

Had the same cleaner for a few years now and she does quite a few local houses, part time work suits her as she is a single mum and at about £10 an hour pays better than retail etc. She does a good job of the basics and means we can find the time to do enough on top to keep the place looking presentable.

We got ours through an agency and unless you can get a personal recommendation is probably the best place to start.

Even got my mum a cleaner as at nearly 80 she was struggling to manage. Think the cleaner spends more time talking to my mum than cleaning but hey that is also a good thing.

3x£10 a week isnt a massive amount but being cleaner, making an effort as a bloke is more important. Doing your bit. That is more important. Having a cleaner is a modern day cop out.

We have a cleaner for 2 hours a week and deem it well worth the money. We both work long hours so having someone in to help out means we get to enjoy what little down time we get.

We keep the place pretty damned clean (kitchen, living room etc) so the cleaner comes in and does the bathroom (something I hate doing), mops the kitchen floor, does the hovering as well as any non regular jobs like windows, back of the cooker, etc etc.

Yup we have one - just a couple of hours every two weeks to keep on top of things for us.

[i]Both me and my wife work in the finance sector; well, I say work but I'm not quite sure what it is I actually do?!

I'm contracted to 40 hours per week, but I often do 70. I'd say I live to work; my job's my life. When I'm not at work, I struggle to think or talk about much else other than work. Infact, I'd go as far as to say it's the only thing I know or feel comfortable doing. Cleaning a house is an alien concept to me; I wouldn't know where to start. The last thing I want to do after a long week at work is try and figure out how to use a vacuum cleaner!

Thankfully, my job pays well. So well infact, that things like cleaning/cutting the lawn/shopping/looking after the kids/life I don't have to bother doing; I can pay someone to do them for me.

Our cleaner costs £12 per hour through an agency. Not alot I know, and I dread to think what her wage is. I've often thought about tipping her, but I think she'd just spend it on heroin, so I make sure she's got a warm cup of soup inside her before she goes home.[/i]

This whole post is a joke right, some sort of John Cooper Clarkesque poem to a dire middle class existence?

looking after the kids

With so many illegal immigrants literally dying to get into the country, it seems daft not to exploit them. You can pay them in out of date food, or by letting them sleep in a ditch at the bottom of your garden. And I find they're additionally grateful if I don't beat them. And most of the time I don't, except when I'm in a particularly bad mood. And if they do get uppity about the beatings, just report them to the authorities, and they deport them for you

[i]Having a cleaner is a modern day cop out.[/i]

Or...

There is something that needs to be done, that both my wife and I are perfectly capable of doing, but we'd rather do other things. We are fortunate enough to be able to afford to pay someone else to do it. We get the thing done, they make a living*, everyone wins. See also, depending on your personal preference, painting and decorating, gardening, bike servicing, car servicing etc etc.

we recently got a cleaner in, we have twin daughters, toddling, and that's a tough enough job for the mrs never mind a cleaner. We decided that my wife would bring up the kids rather than farming them out to a nursery and do it for as long as we could, so a cleaner has taken some of the pressure off my wife.

She will happily iron shirts too but usually that's more time, so I just make sure I have lots of shirts and can last three weeks inbetween irons. job done.

We found her by recommendation from a friend, she's been her cleaner for four years. She speaks little English and is Portuguese. I rarely even see her as I'm at work.

its a no brainer for us. Gives us more time with our two girls.

Lol @ Binners.

Mrs K has agreed to a twice a month cleaner, as long as she's old, out of shape and not in the least good looking (I work from home, Mrs K doesn't 😀 ).

I'd sourced one already but she got upset at her CV photo:

[img] [/img]