Anyone use home cleaning services?

jimmy321

jimmy321

jimmy321

Associate
Joined
2 Jul 2009
Posts
969
Location
Bridge of Weir, UK
As the title says, I'm wanting to move to a bigger house but I work long hours and only just have enough time to keep up with the place I'm in and I really could so with less work and more rest time.

What should I expect from a house cleaner, with the exception of keeping the place de-cluttered should I be doing any house work at all?

What would I expect to pay to keep a 5 bedroom house clean I stay in West Scotland?
 
Most of our friends (who have cleaners) seem to follow the same format.

2-3 hours every other week (depending on size of house) bathroom and kitchen fully cleaned, general clean and Hoover for the rest of the house. A couple even get some ironing thrown in. Paying around £10-12 an hour. Closer to London though so no idea how Scotland would compare.

They then keep the place generally clean and tidy in between.
 
I've known people who clean before the cleaners turn up, and other people who let the house turn in to a complete pigsty in between the cleaners!
People are weird.
 
Our current cleaner does 2hrs a week for a 4 bed house, £11ph.
She's so nice and has ocd so r ally gets so really gets stuck in and goes above and beyond. She'll even tidy cupboards, draws, told and put away clothes. Wife even let he lunch at home and she took it to her work.
Of friends moved in for 7 weeks, she was there cleaner and they kept her on at ours whilst staying becaus is they did t want to loose her and she agreed to become ours.


Now our last cleaner was a friends daughter, she did less and less and it was very awkward not to say anything, thankfully she left before we got rid.

My wife laughs as I always run round tidying, I keep saying, it's her job to clean not tidy so we need to help her do her job the best we can....or pay more for longer.
 
We've had a cleaner fpr 3 years or so. At present we're in a large 4 bed detached house so have a cleaner for 2 hours a week. I think we're paying £23/week.

I don't clean up before she comes but I would hate to live in a pig sty so the house is generally very tidy. She's here to clean, not to tidy up mess. To me there's a difference.

We actually use a local cleaning company but usually have the same cleaner. She's very good but when she's off the quality of the clean can vary.
 
We use a company called a Bright and Beautiful. A crew of three come in every week and blitz it in an hour.

4 bed detached, reasonable size, cost is £160 per month. Some rooms they do every week (kitchen, bathroom, cloakroom, snug, bedrooms that are in use). Some rooms they do every other week (study, spare bedroom, living room).

It works out pretty well and saves us a huge amount of time, as to do the sort of job they do saps valuable family / leisure time and we both work, so are a pretty busy family.

Jobs they do include minor tidying / sorting, vacuuming, wiping floors and surfaces, dusting and cobwebbing, making the beds, cleaning internal windows, and arranging teddies in a cute fashion...!

I'd expect the sort of service you'd get in a hotel room basically. They essentially do as much as they can in the time you've paid for.
 
Thank's for the replies so a ballpark figure of £12.50 an hour per cleaner that's well worth it for me.

I was a bit apprehensive when I first thought of it but at the end of the day if someone is getting £12.00 an hour or less if they are working for a company then that's a job for someone and the more I think about it I could really do with the time to myself.
 
Make sure you clean skid marks from loo then leave everything to cleaner.

Knew a cleaner at old place and she cleaned for some teachers - Said they were worse than kids for messing up pan and it was like it from one visit to another.

There was a program on TV a few years ago and it was about cleaners - One lad said you do not really have time to do all you were supposed to do so they rushed around and used same cloth for "everything" :(
 
DXP55 said:
Make sure you clean skid marks from loo then leave everything to cleaner.

Knew a cleaner at old place and she cleaned for some teachers - Said they were worse than kids for messing up pan and it was like it from one visit to another.

There was a program on TV a few years ago and it was about cleaners - One lad said you do not really have time to do all you were supposed to do so they rushed around and used same cloth for "everything" :(
Click to expand...

ewwww
 
We used to have a cleaner. The wife ran around the day before and shoved everything in cupboards to give her a free reign just to clean. 3 hours a week cost £25

The only things she wouldn't clean were tvs and ceramic or induction hobs.
 
4 bed detached house and we have a cleaner 2-3 hours a week. However thats 4 of us(2 adults, 2 kids). We dont clean as such before she comes but we do try and tidy up a bit, we pay her to clean not to tidy.

As we both work full time its a no brainer to get a cleaner, dont want to be cleaning much in the evenings or spend 3 hours on a saturday cleaning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fez
The other thing is what they can do in three hours might take you double that. We've just moved and are looking at a few different options. Anyone had any experience of Molly Maid? I guess because it's franchised the experience could be different depending on the owner... but the whole idea with a franchise is that it's supposed to be consistent and you'd hope there'd be a bit more accountability? :)
 
I'm looking to get a cleaner myself - my only concern is giving them the keys so they can clean whilst my partner and I are at work. What are peoples experience with trusting them to clean properly when left alone and to not nick anything? (I'm South African so that's not uncommon to me)
 
Oxide™ said:
I'm looking to get a cleaner myself - my only concern is giving them the keys so they can clean whilst my partner and I are at work. What are peoples experience with trusting them to clean properly when left alone and to not nick anything? (I'm South African so that's not uncommon to me)
Click to expand...

If you can find someone from a personal recommendation that gives a level of comfort.

Our cleaner retired at the end of the year but used to work for my wife's former employer so we knew they must be trustworthy. References wouldn't hurt if you don't know them though.

We paid £9/hour (same rate for 10 years!) and that was a 4 bed house, hoovered, dusted, downstairs floors mopped, kitchen and bathroom done as well. 2 hours per week.

The company we are looking to use now charge £13.50/hour but from having had them doing a spring clean before, we think we can get away with 2 hours (2 girls) every other week and just keep on top of hoovering in between.

I'd start off by asking a potential cleaner to do a one off spring clean - use that as a test to see how well they do.
 
Do they use their own cleaning materials or do you supply them? If they are yours, do you follow correct risk assessments and COSHH etc, what if they are allergic to something and try and sue you?
 
LeeUK said:
Do they use their own cleaning materials or do you supply them? If they are yours, do you follow correct risk assessments and COSHH etc, what if they are allergic to something and try and sue you?
Click to expand...

The one we had for years used ours but the new ones we will use have all their own equipment (even bring their own hoover).
 
Yes, we have a cleaner in Mondays and Fridays, 2 hrs at a time. Polish lady recommended by a family friend.

And to reiterate the point made by several other posters, she is employed to clean, not tidy.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom