Do you have a cleaner?

[Ravenfire]

I'm really struggling to keep up with all my work and housework at the moment and I am a bit of a tidy freak which means I can't relax in an untidy house!

Do you have a cleaner and if so how often, and what are the "going rates" normally? Also, do you find yourself cleaning before the cleaner comes around? :cheesy:

[darwins]

sorry, we're not that posh:cheesy:

[Ravenfire]

I'm not posh - just overworked!

[Chell]

Nope, haven't the spare cash. DH is good though, as I go out to work in the evenings he cleans the floors downstairs for me. I try to do it in the day but it is impossible with the children in and out.

[Dino]

Nadine has a cleaner I think. I would love one here too, one day I will when I've twisted dh's arm enough. I don't think I'd expect them to tidy up apart from the children's bedrooms though, just clean and maybe do some ironing.

We have 2 dogs here at the moment and the children so it's really hard to keep tidy and clean. I shut myself in the office and try not to look at it.

[Ravenfire]

Oh yes if they could do my ironing that would be brilliant, although with three girls I have so much of it it would cost me a fortune to send to one of those ironing companies! I wonder if they do reasonable rates per huge bin bag full!

We have just the one dog but it means I have to hoover every day and with three children - the youngest who loves to spread her toys throughout the house - it mean's it's rarely tidy!

[Chell]

We have 2 dogs here at the moment and the children so it's really hard to keep tidy and clean. I shut myself in the office and try not to look at it.

Dogs make it much harder work. My Mum has a cross labrador/german shepherd. He looses hair constantly so she is forever hoovering yet you can still see dog hairs.

[Laura@FYP]

Dogs make it much harder work. My Mum has a cross labrador/german shepherd. He looses hair constantly so she is forever hoovering yet you can still see dog hairs.

Oh tell me about it! We have 3 dogs, and I literally vacuum the downstairs about 5 times a day!

As much as I'd love to not have to do so much housework I don't think I'd like a cleaner coming in and 'faffing' with my house and stuff- would feel a bit invaded! How silly! :cheesy:

Can't afford one anyway, so don't suppose it really matters! :laugh:

[Emsickle]

A friend of mine does cleaning (not for me though, hubby won't allow it) and I know she charges £7 per hour.

I'm not sure if its a good rate or bad though tbh.

[antonia]

I've had cleaners at various stages - paid between £6 and £8/hour.

[TinkerTailor]

Yes, I do - only recently though, since DD was born.

I too am a tidy/clean freak and it was really getting me down. My DH does nothing round the house - which is fair enough as he works long long hours - but it meant that I was spending my whole time cleaning, tidying and looking after two littlies!!

She charges £9 a hour (we're classed as London though so costs prob depend on area) and she does 2 hours a week. She initially did 3 hrs a week - but said my house was clean/tidy enough that it only needed 2 hrs :laugh:

I really like it - I don't clean before she comes but I do tidy away which is nice as it means my house is always clutter free. It also means that if I've got time I can do those things that you never get round to because I know that she will be doing all the routine cleaning.

HTH
Lucyx

[Slug]

A friend of mine does it - the going rate seems to be between £8 - £10 an hour. I'd like my house to look nicer but not sure I'd like someone else in doing it especially while I was here working from.

[Katiequiggle]

I had one when I was working and kept her while I was pregnant until Abbie was about 4 months old when I'd got my act together. I'll have one again when I actually start work as Tim does nothing around the house at all because he goes out to work and I feel that if he wont help, he has to pay for help. Which I think is fair enough.

[funkydorydawn]

Ohhh I'd love a cleaner. I could really do with somebody to vacuum upstairs and downstairs, clean the kitchen and the bathrooms, and do my ironing and laundry - it would be bliss, because when I'm busy at work, these things just get done as and when.

My mum's been coming down every 2 or 3 weeks since I had my hernia op and helping out - I'm totally recovered now, but I think she likes it - the house is spotless and the ironing all done by the time she leaves, and the garden is stocked with veggies thanks to my Dad. DP calls them the "old retainers" :cheesy:

[Ravenfire]

Well my stepdad keeps offering my mums services..lol!! :cheesy:

[Mary Poppins]

I would absolutely hate to have a cleaner. My sister used to have one and sent her ironing out to someone else to do but I would hate the invasion of it all.

[BellaMiller]

I had a cleaner when I lived in London - but we did have to clean up before she arrived!

[diddlepops]

My mum has a cleaner once a week because of her mobility problems and she is someone she knows and she pays her £7 per hour. She is wonderful and comes in extra if my parents are expecting guests and she came in when my parents when in the Caribbean and cleaned and changed the beds. I think its because they knew her before she cleaned though as changing beds and washing sheets is above and beyond the call IYKWIM! My mum has always had a cleaner and has always employed them through private ads rather than thru an agency. However, I have used Molly Maid (a local service) on 2 occasions to clean the entire house for me which included skirting boards, coving and cleaning all the loos and sinks and drains etc. They cost me £100 for an entire house clean and they were here about 6 hours?

I have to admit when I go back to work in the future, it will be on my wish list. Occasionally, I have my ironing done if it all gets on top of me for any reason - I just take it and its costs me about £30 to get it all done but I can count on one hand the number of times I have had it done in the last eighteen months.

HTH

[naturalnursery]

No - but I want one.

Axx

[obscure]

I had one after DHs bike accident - but tbh I hated it. Whilst it was nice knowing that the house was clean and tidy I hated having someone cleaning whilst I was in the house. Dh also didnt like it.

At the time it was kinda necessary (I found out when we submitted the care & assistance log that I spent something like 400 hours doing additional tasks for DH like his hospital appointments, helping him wash and stuff like that whilst he was at his worst after the bike accident. No wonder the business stuff was so severely neglected at the time!

Back onto the topic of the post lol! Even with the time it takes to clean etc I still prefer to have it done ourselves than have someone in the house doing it !

:) Sadie

[Ravenfire]

Ironing prices are expensive as well! On average about £10-12.50 for 15-20 items!

[Chiggs]

I could certainly do with a cleaner, I struggle to keep up with keeping the house as clean and tidy as I'd like (says she, wasting time on MZ :cheesy:) but I can't justify it financially!

[Nics n Jeevan]

I call my dp the cleaner!!! Wellonly the weekends though:hysterica:clapping:

[Ravenfire]

I must admit my DP is very good, he does cook and clean, but most of his cleaning is restricted to the kitchen during the week.

[Miranda]

I don't have a cleaner.

I do have an untidier (DD aged nearly 9, leaves everything just where she is and walks off so I have to ask for it to be picked up or put away)
I do have a dog (who moults, and cleans the floor in the kitchen of crumbs, disposes of any cooked food etc)
I do have a clutter collecter (DH who won't let me throw anything way in case it comes in handy which invariably it does eventually, 12 years leter)

I do have an iron and a hoover somewhere. Not seen them lately.

[moomum]

I used to clean houses and I charged £8 an hour 2 years ago

[stour]

i've been tempted several times but they're blooming thin on the ground here. even the milkman's given up as it's not financially viable and he can't find staff.

[ann0024]

I'm not posh but I do have a friend that comes in to do some cleaning for me. It started a few years ago when i was working fulltime and also taught exercise to music classes. She only come now and again.

[funkyfish]

I have an ironing lady, she is from the Ukraine and she charges £8 per hour for min 2 hours.

She comes once a week.

Its a great arrangement and it makes our life so much easier.

She also does massage and has shown me her bras a few times to demonstate a good fit! Its a great party story!

Before we had the ironing lady I did have a cleaner but we had to let her go. She was a great girl but just not very good at cleaning. My husband got really fed up with it and said that I can't just pay people because they are nice. So when I got the shop I used that as an excuse as I was too cowardly to let her go.

[MerrilyMe]

I do. With 4 kids here all week it gets really untidy and i figure it is money well spent to give me more time with them. Plus i find it hard to be creative if there is mess and dirt around and end up doing nothing. I tidy for them, put stuff away etc, then they clean. They come every fortnight and it isn't quite enough but it is nearly.

I pay an agency; with the stock in the house (not now though) and the girls here and me needing to let them have a key, i wanted an agency so they would be police checked and insured.

I pay £70 a fortnight and for that they vacuum and clean everything except the girls rooms and the bathrooms, so living room, dining room, office, bedroom and kitchen and all the landing of a 3 storey house. They definitely earn their keep though, the kids make an awful mess! For my £70 i get 2 cleaners and they are here about 2 hours.

[funkyfish]

I do. With 4 kids here all week it gets really untidy and i figure it is money well spent to give me more time with them. Plus i find it hard to be creative if there is mess and dirt around and end up doing nothing. I tidy for them, put stuff away etc, then they clean. They come every fortnight and it isn't quite enough but it is nearly.

I pay an agency; with the stock in the house (not now though) and the girls here and me needing to let them have a key, i wanted an agency so they would be police checked and insured.

I pay £70 a fortnight and for that they vacuum and clean everything except the girls rooms and the bathrooms, so living room, dining room, office, bedroom and kitchen and all the landing of a 3 storey house. They definitely earn their keep though, the kids make an awful mess! For my £70 i get 2 cleaners and they are here about 2 hours.

That sounds quite expensive, I think I have quite a good deal now.

I am so out of touch with what things cost.

[lajlaj]

I do, I couldn't live without one. In fact when my husband asked me to marry him, it was the only condition that I put on him - so long as I can have a cleaner then yes I would marry him!

I am not at all domesticated.

I pay 25 pounds for 4 hours.

Hth.

[MerrilyMe]

That sounds quite expensive, I think I have quite a good deal now.

I am so out of touch with what things cost.

Like i say, i pay for the convenience of having an agency. If my ladies are off/sick/leave i get someone else arrives with my cleaning spec/key/needs all sorted out and i don't even know that a change happened. I've got someone to moan to if they don't do a good enough job and i never have to re-arrange around them.

I used to have a casual arrangement with a friend which was far cheaper but then i would always be second to her families needs etc which was fine, except it threw me out if i was relying on it getting done. Now i just know it will, but it certainly isn't the cheapest about.

Like i said, i choose to pay more for the reliability and knowing they are police checked and insured. If they do steal my stuff one day, the company will have to pay up, if they break something it gets replaced and i know, in so far as i can know, that my children and business records/stock are in safe hands.

[3girlz]

God i wish lol,with 2 teens and a 10 year old and 3 dogs i certainly could do with one,i tend to do my house work in the mornings after dropping the kids off to school shaz

[Olive_Oil]

no dont have one and cant justify the need for having one tbh. i dont even like the idea of having one.

actually, thats not quite true....i would have a secret one. so that everyone thought that i was a domestic goddess and did it all myself. :cheesy:

[choice]

I have a cleaner. It makes me giggle people think it is posh. For me it is a necessity. I work 5 days a week leaving the house at 8am and getting in well . . . when I'm in but never before 5. Then I work on my business on a Sunday all day. So I really don't have the time or energy to clean. It costs me £20 per week. She comes on a Friday and is a family friend. She cleans and does a basket of ironing too and I don't know how I'd manage without her. I just tidy before she comes
Vickix

[MerrilyMe]

God i wish lol,with 2 teens and a 10 year old and 3 dogs i certainly could do with one,i tend to do my house work in the mornings after dropping the kids off to school shaz

lol, yes, i think that is the bit that gets me, there is never a time when i am here but my 4 aren't. Being home educated, they are home 7 days a week and even if i tidy up one room, they've generally sprinkled themselves across 2 others while i do it.

We live in a new house, we are the first to live here but we didn't choose the carpet (beige) and the walls were magnolia until a few weeks ago. I was trying to decide why my house looks so much worse than my neighbours till it occurred to me that 5 people in a house most days means it gets about 5 times the wear of the houses where people work out and their kids go to school. In 2 years we've inflicted about 10 years damage on it!

[kazagain]

I used to have a cleaner but she sacked me because my family were too untidy! 'I'm no-ones maid' was her comment:blusingan We were spending so much time tidying up before she came that we gave up.
My next cleaner was brilliant but then started to bring her baby/toddler to work with her which wasn't very good because we have dogs and would never leave a baby of our own with the dogs nevermind someone elses.