Anyone who employs a cleaner???

[Bert&Maud]

Not really horsey but hope some of you can help! I allow myself one luxury (don't smoke, drink - much! - go out or buy clothes) and work very long hours for not much money. So, to save having to clean the house when finally getting home at 8pm after attending to pampered horse's every whim, I have a cleaner for 2 hours a week. She has just announced that she is going to be putting her rates up from £8.50 to £10 per hour - an increase of 17.5%!!! I think this is excessive but just wondered what other people pay? Having not had a pay increase for over two years and, when I do eventually get one, probably next year, I expect it will be 2 or 3%, I'm inclined to dispense with her services but they are few and far between in this area of wiltshire and I don't want to shoot myself in the foot! As husband said, she works out to £900 per year which would buy a weeks holiday for us both! Any experiences gratefully received!

 

[Firehorse]

£10 an hour! blimey, i think i might become a cleaner!!

 

[martlin]

I think £10 is actually a good deal, if you think you can get somebody to do it cheaper - try finding them

 

[ihatework]

If you can get a good reliable cleaner for £10ph then hang onto them!

I was paying that for an unreliable scrounger (that is before I sacked her!)

 

[Steeleydan]

I agree with Martlin,cleaners are worth their weight in gold.The thing is cos she only comes to you for 2 hrs, she has her petrol to take into consideration, if she was there 6 hours,say, it would be more worth while.
I do a bit of free lance grooming as well as house sitting and I would want £10 per hour to go some where for just 2 hours.
Some one cheaper may not be as good. My friend once employed a special cleaning company to come and do a major spring clean, 2 of them came it cost £150 for a small 3 bedroom bungalow and they were rubbish.
I would hold onto her.

 

[MrsMozart]

We were paying £7.50 an hour. Had to ask her to clean the toilets; she used the same water to clean the sitting room floors (wooden) as she had just used to clean the kitchen floor (we had five dogs then!). Gave her up and bought another horse . We are looking for another one though...

As to the £900 a year - how does a holiday compare to having to look after the house through the year?

 

[Mooch]

I am a cleaner and have my own little cleaning and ironing business. (not the field I am trained in, but I do it to pay the bills and support my kids)

I charge £10/hr for cleaning and ironing and have a waiting list for myself and the girls that work for me.

I live in rural Staffordshire. I know the rates in town can be cheaper but certainly not out here. I even know of several compaines charging far more than I do.

I personally wouldn't increase my rate by £2/hr, but she may just be bringing it into line with other cleaners in your area or may have been cleaning at that rate for long time.

Has she given you a reason for her increase?

 

[ironhorse]

My mum's just been quoted £14 per hour for someone to dust and hoover....

 

[Black_Horse_White]

Thats a fair price, i get £7.50 an hour working for local government. House cleaners have to pay for chemicals, travel expenses and insurance.

 

[rosie fronfelen]

Not really horsey but hope some of you can help! I allow myself one luxury (don't smoke, drink - much! - go out or buy clothes) and work very long hours for not much money. So, to save having to clean the house when finally getting home at 8pm after attending to pampered horse's every whim, I have a cleaner for 2 hours a week. She has just announced that she is going to be putting her rates up from £8.50 to £10 per hour - an increase of 17.5%!!! I think this is excessive but just wondered what other people pay? Having not had a pay increase for over two years and, when I do eventually get one, probably next year, I expect it will be 2 or 3%, I'm inclined to dispense with her services but they are few and far between in this area of wiltshire and I don't want to shoot myself in the foot! As husband said, she works out to £900 per year which would buy a weeks holiday for us both! Any experiences gratefully received!

Hi, i have a lovely lady for 2 hours a week, she is very reliable, thorough, discreet( doesnt yack all around the village!) andshe is a "friend"- she started with me last october and was asking £6 per hour!! sod that- i give her £15 for the 2 hours. my sis-in-law does our ironing as she just likes to "do"- i consider myself very licky to have 2 diamonds!!

 

[LauraWheeler]

Where are you? I'm £7 an hour and i do anything Cleaning, Gardening, poo picking fields ect whatever needs doing and however you want it done LOL

 

[lialls]

I work as a cleaner for some council offices and they pay me £6.00 an hour. My mum is disabled and im not at home much so we also have a cleaner at home, who charges £5 an hour. I believe this is about the going rate round here, we are in powys, Wales.

If i were you, i'd try and find a different cleaner tbh. £10 is rather high!

 

[bitlessbill]

My friend is a cleaner and she charges £10 per hour which I think is the going rate round here.

 

[Bert&Maud]

Thanks everybody! None the wiser as some seem to think it's a fair price and others don't! I think it's the fact that it's an increase of 17.5% when inflation is about 3% that has got me thinking, but I expect I'll relent and pay up! She went from £7 to £8.50 about 3 years ago, and by the way I provide all the cleaning materials etc.

 

[Vikki89]

I don't think that is a bad price especially if they go in when your not there and you can trust them and if you think about agency cleaners, as far as i know they charge more) but i do think she has put it up too quickly. I know a cleaner, she doesn't charge that much and puts her rate up gradually, people trust her to give her keys so she lets her self in and cleans when their not there.

 

[amc]

I have a fabby "Lady that does" who charges £10 an hour and is worth every penny, she is 100% trustworthy and I'd pay her more.....up to £15 an hour if she asked for it ! I think it's the "trustworthy" thing that makes her so valuable to me, not that I have anything worth stealing, but the fact that she doesn't tell the rest of the small minded place I live in what a complete housework numpty I am !

 

[Sleighfarer]

As husband said, she works out to £900 per year which would buy a weeks holiday for us both! Any experiences gratefully received!

So is your husband offering to do the cleaning, then? Go on, surprise me...

 

[FrecklesMum]

In London I paid £25 for 3 hours and she was brilliant - Just moved to New Forest and cleaner quotes (with me providing cleaning stuff) is consistently coming in at £10.

If she is good and MOST IMPORTANT - RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY then PAY! Personally, I would quite happily give up £900 per yesar to not have to do washing, cleaning, ironing!

 

[Capriole]

the going rate where i am is a tenner an hour

 

[tasel]

Ehm... £10 is too much. I used to pay £8.00 or less and that was in Central London, professional cleaning companies with insurance, etc.!!

 

[potty_4_piebalds]

My nan has a cleaner and she pays £25 and the woman is in and out in an hour and half! and does a cr*p job! she keeps saying she is going to sack her but never does i think she likes having someone in to chat with.

 

[FaldingwoodLivery]

We used to have two cleaners who we used to pay £8 an hour to come twice a week, they used to write down the hours they'd done (whatever it took to get the house clean ) we then found out they'd been lying about the hours they'd been here as they used to come when we were at work.

We now pay one lady £40 she comes once a week and does a thorough clean, I reckon she does about 3 hours. Not really bothered how long it takes her as ling as everything is clean.

 

[thinlizzy]

A girl i knew worked as a homecleaner for a director of a very well known bank , she paid bus fares of £1.40 to their house walked a mile to get to it, it was new three storey house she did all the heavy cleaning windows, bath,al the floors etc,they used to drop of a large laundry basket of ironing every week at her house she had to iron and put everythig on hangers. she worked five hours a week for £5 per hour and they would not put the heating on in winter she used to find it so cold she worked for them for nearly ten years, they even charged her for their old three piece suite ,she was a single parent and she was very loyal to them, used to let herself in and lock up after herself and she had enough ,woman had a major tantrum with her and wasnt very nice .My freind had lost a little one and i think it was awful the way she was treated in the end.I think if you have good cleaner and your happy, keep her,or think if you can do the work finish her and keep the money but once shes gone,its pretty hard to replace a good cleaner and a trustworthy one at that !

 

[Tinkerbee]

£10 is standard around here, can't believe they were doing it for £8.50

 

[becca27]

I have a cleaner who comes for 2 hours every fortnight and she is £10 an hour - think that's about standard where I live.

 

[flyingfeet]

I would bite someone's hand off for £10 an hour

I'm in the middle of nowhere, so most need to factor in fuel to make money. As fuel has gone up more than inflation, I guess increases are normal.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I can't see how anyone self employed can work for less than £10/hour tbh, particularly in the sticks. Travel time is time not spent earning, fuel costs are high, no sick pay etc etc I used to clean private houses when I was a student and was getting £7.50 an hour 12 years ago.

 

[daisycrazy]

I think £10 per hour is steep. Round here (and everything is pretty expensive round here!) the going rate seems to be £7.50 to £8 per hour. What is irritating is that the same rate is charged by uninsured, untrained cleaners. Current cleaner lives 1/4 mile away tops, I'm pretty sure she isn't insured, not totally reliable and, whilst the house is a lot better after she's been, I'm not wholly convinced about the thoroughness and hygiene of the cleaning. I provide all the cleaning fluids, cloths, vacuum cleaner, etc.. She charges £8 per hour and seems to be doing less and less in the same amount of time. Will be looking to replace her at some stage.

In Derbyshire my mum had a very hardworking and reliable cleaner who charged £5 per hour, although that was a couple of years ago.

I think if they're not registered self employed, not insured, not travelling far and not providing materials then charging much more than £5-6 per hour is totally unjustified. If they are worth their weight in gold for the job they do, then obviously they may be worth more than £5-6 per hour, but if they don't do a spot on job then I don't think they are!

 

[jendie]

I have a lovely lady who is very reliable and helpful and I'm more than happy to pay £10 per hour.

 

[itsme123]

up until earlier this year I cleaned for several clients. I now only have a couple, the ones that treat me right and don't moan about the hours it takes me or what i charge.

I charge up to £15 an hour, dependant on the house. Big family and it's heavy work, so £15 an hour. I do one lady's for free because I take my kids with me and she entertains them with card games and pop the whole time (plus I enjoy her company).

Seriously though, one family I used to clean for would have me scrubbing urine off carpets, dog mess off the patio (and they wanted it spotless), cleaning windows, making beds (including ironing all the sheets), and towards the end they had me washing... even their dirty underwear. Oh and they expected the house thoroughly clean in two hours once a fortnight. They then tried to haggle my price down from £10 ph to £7.50. Hello! I'm a cleaner not a slave! Hence why I now charge a higher rate for family homes (If I was doing more hours for them I'd charge less though).

Companies round here charge less than me, but their staff are on minimum wage and half look miserable as sin!

My standard rate is £10 ph for a normal household. I have been described as thorough, trustworthy and professional. I've always been trusted with keys to clients properties, looked after their homes and pets when they've gone away and IMO provide a personal service that is worth every penny.

If your cleaner's good cut her some slack and pay her the going rate for your area. To get an idea of how much that is, phone the local professional company and add £2 to the price. That's how much a private cleaner will charge.

ETA: 'normal household is classed as a 3 bed medium work. Little old ladies in bungalows get charged £7 an hour. anything above 3 bed or above medium work (ie if they've ten kids and six labradors) is £15.