Do you have a cleaner?

I should have included the upstairs bathroom in the above

'JackyB' Your post made me smile. We have recently started having a cleaner in. Very early days. Once a fornight for 3 hours. Easy peasy for her I think. We have a 4 bedroom house but honestly, we only have her do the kitchen, downstairs loo, communal areas, ie hall, stairs and landing. As and when the other rooms are tidy enough and organised enough, her job will expand!!
I only did housework on a basic level with thorough jobs done sporadically. The worse it got, the more overwhelming and paralysing it felt. I'm not proud of that and we couldn't afford a cleaner when it was at it's worst. Poor hubby who worked hard and I was a SAHM. Anyway... here we are.
I did have an agency do a deep clean. Exorbitantly expensive in hindsight, better to individuals direct. They were ok to do jobs up to two steps up on a stepladder. They also supplied their own equipment and products.

I'm slowly adjusting to having someone in. It does mean I did some drastic clearing up and reorganisation before our lady started. It also means some of the effects of the clear up are permanent. As well as maintaining between visits, I'm now motivated to do some other clearing up and reorganisation around the house. Somehow, it's less daunting and home feels better.

I don't pay her direct, it's by bank transfer to her boss. As I'm aware she must earn very little I tip her direct, my choice. It's my little luxury, I don't drink, smoke, spend much on coffees out, etc and appreciate being able to employ her.

It’s not really a luxury if you are unwell, disabled, or simply very elderly, and unable to do the housework yourself

undines I agree it's a little 'entitled' to refer so casually to the fact one has expensive cleaners, at a time when so many people cannot afford to heat their homes, let alone dust them! Yes, it's good to provide work for others, of course, but that doesn't alter the fact it is quite a luxury.

The OP was in reference to cleaners.

Everyone decides how to spend their own money. We're prudent.

We don't eat meat (unless our AC,GC, GGC are round), we don't eat in restaurants (unless forced), we don't pub, we don't buy coffees, new Iphones, we live in the home we have since marriage 62 years ago.

We pay a cleaner & gardener, go on holidays, give generously to charity (Victorian, I know ). Others choose differently.

The world would be boring if people were identical. Would it be better if people only posted about illness, being a widow, or financial upset?

LovelyLady

What part of the world is paying their cleaners £40 per hour for a regular weekly house clean?

It’s £40 an hour for TWO cleaners

Cleaners are quite hard to come by in some areas.

Places with couples that both work, in a neighbouhood of similarly placed people, for example.

What part of the world is paying their cleaners £40 per hour for a regular weekly house clean?

Yes, but it’s got plus and minuses. I have a cleaner for two hours a week. I work from home. She has decided to be my friend. So spends too much time talking to me or on the phone or in the loo. So my suggestion is to decide clearly what you want, what is reasonable in the time you employ her for and set boundaries. I’ve had an ongoing issue with my expectations that she will clean the bathroom basin plug/trap. Apparently I am the only person who asks her to do this. My standard response to her complaints is :”that’s what I pay you for”. Be clear in your expectations.

£40 per hour for 2 people is pretty standard where I live.

I've never had a cleaner, despite having a demanding job and a child. I'm not keen on having someone in the house when I might not be there. I just do a few things at a time, and leave the rest for another day. I clean the insides of my windows now and again, but don't usually clean the outsides unless I can't see out! Who cares? Not me, I've go more interesting things to do.

I used to employ a cleaner when I worked but felt I couldn’t justify it once I retired and am still relatively able bodied. I can see a time when my arthritis might get so bad that I would need help changing beds though. When my father was alive we employed a cleaner for his 2 bedroomed bungalow as I was still working, when he died and we had to empty his bungalow I was horrified at how dirty it was. I put me off cleaners. I’d rather do it myself, while I can, and know it is clean. It’s also valuable exercise.

The only time I had a cleaner was when I was living in Portugal and was a singer in the Gulbenkian. that meant being at rehearsals 3 days a week solfege another day and it was 2 hours in and out to Lisbon . It was a flat with communal marble stairs and 6 flats so each flat cleaned them once a week, so enacia came to mostly do the stairs, the big windows - we were near the sea so they used to get very salty and do the ironing. when it was hot was changing 2 or 3 times a day. She was very good at ironing and putting buttons back on etc as she went. I very much appreciated her and paid her a good rate and we got on well . But other than that have done my own stuff. Now living alone and mobility not good but I still have so many things to sort out since I moved. Do my own stuff at the moment but it is getting more difficult and so I intend to try and get more sorted out and then rather have one off cleaning where someone can come and give things a good sorting out and move things that I find difficult to deal with. I can keep things clean at the moment but tops of cupboards and being able to bend down and sort out shelves and stuff like that will be what I would like to get sorted. Whether I will who knows , just have to wait and see!

I agree it's a little 'entitled' to refer so casually to the fact one has expensive cleaners, at a time when so many people cannot afford to heat their homes, let alone dust them! Yes, it's good to provide work for others, of course, but that doesn't alter the fact it is quite a luxury.

I used to have cleaners when I lived in a six/seven bedroom house, but now I only have four bedrooms, three loos, two staircases - still a lot but I just get on with it as it is all good exercise and anyway I probably do it better.

And before anyone observes that I'm 'entitled' because I have 4 beds/3 baths, I share this house with my husband, my autistic youngest son, and, for three days a week, with my eldest son and two grandchildren (because he left his wife earlier in the year and I've had to accommodate them). I'm very, very grateful to have this lovely warm house when so many are struggling.

I wouldn't pry into someones business arrangements.

If I was able to do all that, I'd probably run a cleaning company myself.

I don't know that a shop assistant isn't pocketing my money, but I still need shopping.

MissAdventure

That would be the cleaners responsibility, as a self employed person, wouldn't it?

You must know it does not work this way.

No holiday pay, no sick or accident pay, and liable to lose benefits and get into big trouble if they work 'on the black'. 1000s of cleaners do, and end up with only basic State pension long term.

I've been one, at different times.
I would have one.

I have one coming next week for the first time.

I have never had a cleaner but I’m now at the point in life where I think I would benefit from having one.

Paperbackwriter

argymargy

Norah

We have weekly cleaning.

Pair of women, their own business. Their supplies.

Two hrs @ £40/hour.

Forty pounds an hour??!!

Well it's not really, is it? Two cleaners, so it's £20 each. (Very much top price but not £40 per hour!)

Indeed.

Quite reasonable. I've no idea why they'd come out, bring supplies and equipment for any less.

Why not consider employing a teenager, whether family or known to you, to provide some help? They’ll need direction first of all, perhaps working alongside you, but it’ll start someone off with an understanding that pay = toil.
My daughter ‘did’ for her grandfather once he became frailer. Once a week for two hours, for £10, ten years ago.

argymargy

Norah

We have weekly cleaning.

Pair of women, their own business. Their supplies.

Two hrs @ £40/hour.

Forty pounds an hour??!!

Well it's not really, is it? Two cleaners, so it's £20 each. (Very much top price but not £40 per hour!)

Never had one, but have been one three times in my working life.

I could write a book.

I hope the day never comes when I need a cleaner, as I prefer to do the housework myself.

However, it is worth while considering how to make things easier for yourself.

I only have two cupboards that are so tall that I need the steps to clean the tops of them. I can well evisulize the day where I am no longer able to stand on a step-ladder to clean the tops, or to take down the kitchen curtains.

When that day comes I will look for someone who will come twice yearly and spring clean. Until then, I have laid newspaper on the top of the tallest cupboard. It is so much easier just to change the paper than to scrub the greasy dust that accumelates in the kitchen off a surface. I have also made certain that the steps are steady and that there is something to hold onto on the way up and down them.

Our windows are the type that swivel round so you can swivel the outside pane of glass inside the house to polish them. I highly recommend others who are thinking of replacing windows to get this type.
I am seriously considering buying a robot vacuum cleaner, and that is as far as I am willing to go right now as I enjoy housework.

I shall however look for a gardener as soon as DH's pension comes through as neither of us enjoy gardening.

Fleurpepper

Yammy

Fleurpepper

For those who employ cleaners directly, how do you ensure this is done by the book, and not 'on the black' - so that they are covered for insurance, pension, etc.

I could never have a gardener (well, not as long as I am fit enough)- unless it was a real professional who knew about plants, pruning, etc. Most jobbing gardeners have NOT got a clue, and it would drive me mad.

What does it matter as long as they do a good job,clean as you want and your house is as you want it. If you go through an agency, you check they are covered by their insurance.
Do you ask the window cleaner if he is insured? Or realise that if the postman/deliveryman or anyone else slips on your drive you are liable.

because it leaves them so vulnerable in so many ways, and without any rights or protection.

My gardener has a degree and trained at Kew for her gardening so she certainly knows what she is doing.
As for the covering of insurance you have to do your homework and word of mouth and find a legitimate agency. I can understand where you are coming from, people could be exploited but isn't it the same with anyone who does the jobs we don't want? I always feel sorry for our dustbin men who collect early on bank holiday mornings. My DD who worked for a council said they fight to get the Bank holiday jobs and the extra money they so desperately need.
One year our gutters froze and when the man from the Insurance came and told us what and who we were liable for, we did not feel like letting anyone up our drive again.

LOUISA1523

Humbertbear

We have a cleaner once a week. We are in a five bedroom house and she comes for four hours. It sounds as if you would need 2 hours a week or 3 hours fortnightly depending on whether or not you want her to change the bed. Our cleaner comes in when we are on holiday and does extras k=like cleaning cupboards, the fridge or the oven. I couldn’t manage without her. I didn’t retire to do housework.

Very entitled post 🙄

You clearly have a bee in your bonnet looking at this and your similar comment on another post 🙄 I don’t have a cleaner myself, but there is nothing wrong with Humbertbear’s comment. People prioritise different things in life. Some buy a flash car on retirement, some spend their money on other things.

That would be the cleaners responsibility, as a self employed person, wouldn't it?