I’ve been persuaded by all your replies. Thank you. I’m in London, so it’s £17 per hour, which honestly doesn’t seem that bad considering the price of things around here.
Booked for a 5 hour starting clean for Monday. If all good, will make it regular. My partner rolled his eyes when I told him, but who cares haha
They set their price. 
was about 2 hours I think. They mostly came to clean there bathrooms & run a hoover over/mop the kitchen
Been thinking about getting a cleaner in to do a big deep clean, and then maybe get them in twice a month to keep on top of things, beyond the usual hoovering etc. Also could do with getting window cleaners and bin cleaners too I think.
Gardening I’m quite happy to do myself in the summer, doesn’t take too long and is good exercise.
If it helps for future we’ve had good experiences in London using WeCasa platform.
If you use an ‘agency’ or get cleaners via ‘someone who sorts cleaners’ make sure to check with the person that they are getting paid at least minimum wage, if they refuse to confirm they are getting at least that at the end it’s a big red flag for modern slavery.
It’s quite sad bringing it up to people and them saying it’s not their issue they just get an invoice from a company for services at suspiciously close to minimum wage rates or it’s ok because they are probably asylum seekers who can’t work so are happy with just £5-6 ph from the invoicing company.
Agreed, although also if they are good generally I just offer to pay them the same amount in cash after the first clean and cut the agency out altogether. I much prefer the same regular cleaner anyway.
Personally I’d never hire a cleaner to clean my home. I feel like I am of the servant class myself (I earn around the hourly rate of a cleaner), so how can I justify hiring a servant to do something as simple as cleaning up after myself?
Yeah I know every service you pay for is hiring a servant to do something that you have decided you’d rather pay for that do yourself, but usually there is some kind of skill or expertise that makes it worth it to pay someone else to do it rather than risk doing it badly yourself, not just that you can’t be bothered to do it.
Cleaning the house isn’t a valuable skill, it is just something nearly everyone does for themselves as a basic form of personal care.
If you earn so much money that cleaning up after yourself is a waste of your valuable time that could be spent earning loads more money then I get it, hire away, but personally as someone who is not a huge earner it would be a reckless extravagance for me to hire a cleaner and id feel totally uncomfortable having servants even if I did have loads of excess cash to blow.
Ps. I also wouldn’t trust having a cleaner going through my stuff, even if they were clearly a good and trustworthy person. I would want to check every single valuable after every time they clean to make sure it’s still there.
I think that’s a bit degrading, wouldn’t you say so?
I would say cleaning well and efficiently is indeed a skill. I can spend half an hour cleaning the shower screen, but it won’t ever be as sparkly as a cleaner can get it in 5 minutes.
This is the main barrier for me.
I just find a reputable local who is already doing it freelance/self-employed. No middleman, no overheads as a result, and they get to decide what they’re worth rather than being paid minimum wage, seeing only a percentage of the price you pay for their service.
I think there’s a perception problem there, and it seems like you have a really dim view of those folks, which is a shame. I don’t view them that way. They’re not servants (despite the literal dictionary definition the connotation is very negative and devaluing). They’re professionals.
For a lot of people, time is the most precious thing in life. Ultimately, freeing up time means you can spend more time with loved ones, hobbies, more time outdoors etc. A couple of hours a week cleaning is probably similar in cost to what some people spend on Sky TV/Takeaways etc. Everyone has different priorities.
Will report back tomorrow on how the first clean went haha. Now wondering whether I should have arranged to meet the cleaner on a non-workday first rather than just let them know where my key is hidden… hmm
Why? Someone has hired you!
If you can’t afford it, that’s one thing. But it absolutely is a valuable skill, hence lots of people will pay for it, plus it’s also pretty hard manual work.
I actually felt the same way at the OPs SO before. Not that I enjoyed cleaning, but I felt a bit like having a cleaner meant that I was being lazy.
I haven’t emptied my cats litter in years now, but the best feeling is when you come home from work to a perfectly cleaned house. Highly recommend.
You just need to find one without sticky fingers.
My wife only works 4 days so she does the cleaning on her day off, she’s also someone who watches cleaning videos on social media etc and likes cleaning products (I don’t get the appeal), it’s not a chore for her and I massively appreciate it.
If she worked 5 days or didn’t like cleaning (I still don’t get it) I’d absolutely have no problems hiring a professional to do it for us.
Not lazy at all, I have one and she even brings her dog along for the visit. Which is nice because I get to play with the dog 
Do you charge her for doggy daycare? 
I don’t, I pay her to clean, the dog is just a bonus. I am sure I put him on the ‘call for pet pictures’ thread (with owner permission)
I think growing up, I was taught to do everything myself as it’s your responsibility etc. So I was initially against the idea of getting a cleaner but then as I grew older and I heard my colleagues talking about getting a cleaner etc, I thought I’d try it out. We have a lovely lady coming in to clean our flat every 2 weeks and honestly if you can afford it, then i’d highly suggest it
Is this because of the cats litter tray?
This is the main one for me I think, no matter how much general cleaning/tidying I do, I never really do a deep deep clean so getting a professional in makes a lot sense.
The wife and I both work full time in very demanding jobs, have a 9 year old, dog, regular gym, weekends always busy with jobs, family, walks, so packing all this in and then trying to find when to do the cleaning is almost impossible - so the weekly hoover and clean, being our least favourite jobs is low on the priority list. So having cleaners come for us just allows us to do the things we want.