How many hours for a cleaner !?

Howabout you get someone in to do a complete house clean to start off with (you may need to contact an agency for this- ask for local recommendations) then get someone to come in for 2 hours once a week to start off with and see how it goes?
You might well find that once a week is not enough as you are struggling to do it for yourself so wouldn't be a bad idea to have someone in for 2 hours twice a week if you can afford to - or at least close off the rooms that you don't need to use once they have been cleaned the first time, even to the point of using dust sheets!

Mine is a gem. She does one hour a week and cleans on a rota.
Bedrooms one week, lounge and conservatory the next,
Dining room and kitchen the third. Do the bathroom, shower room and loo myself. I live on my own and an reasonably tidy.
She comes in to do extra as needed. We have a coffee occasionally but she is usually in a hurry to get to the next house.

I always tidied before hand as the cleaner wouldn't know where things went. Any clutter she found as she wnet along she'd put on the bed, usually kids stuff often found under said bed!!

I used to do cleaning and what I will say is a cleaner cleans, if it’s expected to put stuff away and tidy before she can get to things to clean then that eats into the time she’s employed for. I’d say 2.5 hours per week rotating bedrooms not used for a dust and hoover on alternative weeks.In the 2.5 hrs I got kitchen bathroom lounge and main bedroom done. Most of houses I did was 4 bedroom 2 bathroom. Going rate at the moment in my area is £12.00 per hour using your products.

I used to be a cleaner, and much preferred it when I was given a key and could just go and get on with the work. Definitely wouldn't want coffee or chat - was there to clean, and the client expects it.

We have a 4 bed Edwardian House which always seems to attract dust and cobwebs. I recently got a cleaner who is very good as no longer have the energy or inclination for too much cleaning! 3 hours a week is sufficient, if you don’t want beds changing or any extra tasks. Maybe start with 2 and see how it goes-you can always increase the time, or ask for an extra hour or two if you have a larger one off job, but it’s harder to decrease the time if you don’t need it.

I think we could do with a thread on what cleaning products a cleaner likes to have provided.
I use my own cloths and towels for buffing as I use a lot and like to know they have been washed properly.
I love Method antibac spray it does bathrooms a treat - best product I have used.
Some clients are specific with products and some leave none.

5 hours per month for a deep clean. We only have a small but quirky house that takes a lot of cleaning, vaulted ceilings etc.
We go out to give our brilliant cleaner more space. When we got back last week 45 mins after her finishing time she was still there cleaning. She is wonderful. £60.00 per session and worth every penny.

I would first think about everything you can and don' t mind doing yourself. Then if there are parts of your house that are used v little. Then things that you absolutely do not want to do because they tire you out ( hoovering stairs, cleaning windows, changing beds...). Once you know exactly what you need doing, you can then ask a cleaner how long you think that would take .. probably 2- 3 hours.

I used to have 4 bedroom house and used to employ a cleaner for 2 hours a month just to do the things I couldn’t do anymore like clean skirting boards and lights etc

Why are a lot of folk living alone, or just 2 of you in a 4 bedroom house??makes no sense to me.

It depends where you live. In my area £10 to £12 is average. When an agency is involved it’s £18 -£20.
When I was young, cleaners did a thorough clean at every visit and I hadn’t heard of deep cleaning. They moved things to clean under.
Now they say, oh that needs deep cleaning, one even said she doesn’t clean cookers. She lasted one visit. She thought we should clean before she came! What’s the point in having a cleaner if you clean before the cleaner arrives.
If we have a regular cleaner, then our homes shouldn’t necessitates a deep clean. I’m pleased to pay the going rate but I do want a good clean and I don’t like 2 cleaners in my home. One at a time and they take pride in their work.
I have. 4 bed house. 2 rooms are only occasionally used so once a month for those. My cleaner can clean my untidy home in 2 1/2 hrs this includes her having a coffee. She’d spend all day talking but I make myself scarce.
Cleaners are important to the smooth running of my home, and should be treated well. But they are there to work and are not our friends.

Make sure what youre getting for your money- my cleaner said her accountant advised her to raise her prices- due to not working in first lockdown, but also as prices on cleaning materials gone up etc, only problem is, she uses all MY OWN cleaning stuff, for me, as my son has asthma.(so i stick to what he's ok with) But she's very liberal with mine i noticed lately...?

Haha Lovelylady- sounds like we have same cleaner! Mine too would spend all her time chatting if i didn't scoot off to a different room,&always seems to expect a coffee! (I dont mind if i offer, perhaps when she's done? But she even asked if she could make one other week!) Cheek!??

I have two hours a week and prioritise certain Areas so it gets done on rotation. This works fine for us

That made me chuckle Nannan2 a whiff of CF I sniff!

I have a big house and my cleaner comes for two hours one week and three the next. I usually clean along with her and that is it for the week! I did just start off on two hours every week but as I go away for long periods, thought it fairer to add an extra hour every other week.
This means toilets, showers, hoovering and dusting get done each week and when she is here for three hours, we do one room extra throughly.

2 of us, 4 bedroom house, we tidy cleaner cleans. 4 hours every 2 weeks. Get a walk round first, write down what you’ve agreed if you prefer having a record. We had an agency so there’s someone to cover holidays but it’s not an issue anyway. We have adult children and GC coming and going Nannan2 - doesn’t make much sense to me sometimes!

I cleaned for several households a few years back. One, always had 'the best' vac and plenty of cloths and chemicals- another had a 'no hoper' of a vac and only already filthy cloths etc. I think that's another thing to talk over with your prospective cleaners - their preferred vac, cloths and solutions. One asked me which vac I'd like and bought it... (provided Marigolds too - gold star!).

Clearlybut depends on what you want. For example do you need all 4 bedrooms cleaned if there are just two of you?

And also consider that if you are messy the cleaner is going to have to spend time tidying things away before they can clean.

I've cleaned houses, professionally and as a carer.
Look at each room.
Does furniture need moving around, to clean underneath?
Wiping down.
Polishing ~ is there much wood, bric-a-brac, precious breakables (they'll need cleaning/polishing too, obviously). Doors, window-frames to wash down, windows to clean (not all cleaners do windows btw).
Carpets to hoover, floors to mop/polish. Pets to contend with.
Bathrooms, toilets, showers doors (big jobs).

Each room has its own time-frame, work it out from there. Perhaps, a deep clean once a month or so ~ with shorter cover cleans inbetween?
You need to set which jobs, and which are the one you'd like prioritised.
*Make sure your cleaner is insured, and vetted.
Good luck.

Nannan2 - completely agree with your comment about 2 people in a large house. No wonder there is a housing shortage for families!! My mum stayed in her 4 bedroomed house and even though we looked round some lovely 2 bedroomed properties after dad died she always found something wrong with them. Eventually at 87 she realised that she lived in too big a property and we started to declutter with a view to moving. Sadly she took ill and passed away. We sold the house to a lovely young family with 3 children.

The best advice I can give you is to sit down and work out what you want done.

Two hours may well be enough if you only want the sitting-room hoovered and dusted, bathroom and kitchen cleaned.

If you also want your bedroom cleaned and the bed changed and the other bedrooms hoovered now and then, you might need longer.

Once you know what you want, either contact an agency and ask their terms and how long they advise for the work you want done, or contact a person who advertises locally that the go out as a cleaner.

In my student days, I worked as a cleaner and I was happiest with the clients who knew exactly what they wanted done.

Dusting, hoovering, cleaning bathroom and toilet and washing kitchen floor could usually be done in the course of 2 hours and my clients paid for an extra hour once a month to have the fridge cleaned. De-frosting and cleaning a freezer takes much longer and how much time was needed depended on whether the client was able and wiling to empty it herself and turn it off, or not.

You might need or want to pay for more hours to start with so that all the mess you refer to can be dealt with.

It depends though what you are referring to when you say the place is messy. I refused to tidy up private papers - they are not and should not be anything a cleaner sees or has access to, but was quite happy to deal with a cat's litter box and surrounding area.

To my mind you cannot expect a cleaner to go round putting things away for you, unless you have expressly asked her to, (there is a fine line between opening drawers and cupboards to tidy up and opening them to be nosy, which can worry your cleaner) but you can expect her to put dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket or even sort them and put them in the washing machine on the appropriate cycle if you are paying for the time it takes.

We live in a big house with an annex, just the two of us and the dog. My cleaner comes for 3 hours weekly to clean the downstairs areas we use on a regular basis and the bedrooms and other rooms get done on a regular basis, usually once a fortnight. I'm happy to clean loos and sinks as they are used and OH does the windows on a bit of a rota. To those who think it's wrong for us to continue living in our lovely house, we love having people to stay and friends and relatives like to visit us so although we shut off some of the rooms when we are on our own at other times it's full of laughter. We'll downsize when we no longer feel like living here.

If you look at some of the bigger, well known agencies, you could look at their check-lists, occasionally with a time frame for how long a job should take. I employ my cleaner through one of them, I have a checklist but just use it to remind myself of what needs doing. My cleaner is an absolute star, she goes over and above, I was so lucky to get her!