Anyone here hired a cleaner?
The wife and I are always arguing about cleaning, you probably have the same argument. Apparently I don't do enough and her standards are too high... the bathroom does not need cleaning twice a flipping week ffs, life's for living not scrubbing cupboards. So I suggested we hire a cleaner to come round and sort the place out, maybe do some ironong too.
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? how much does it cost roughly?
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. 😐
This was our main motivation.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.
😀
