Finding Reliable/Good Cleaning Person

Oh my god I would pay someone like £100 an hour to do my ironing!!!

and will you pay for my flights as well? 

Oh my god I would pay someone like £100 an hour to do my ironing!!!

I have my ironing done for 50p a piece and she picks it up in the evening and drops it off the next day. Definitely money well spent.

I've begun looking into this as well...it seems as if the going rate in London is around £10/hour, most with a minimum of 3 hours per service.  Most will do ironing as part of that.  You have to supply the cleaning equipment/materials.  And it will be worth having someone come in every 2 weeks to do a good deep clean.  I don't mind doing the little things inbetween.

that's a good idea... i can run the vacumn and wipe the counters... but it's the dusting corners/baseboards that i'm horrid at.

every other week... 3 hours... £60/month.  upstairs one week, downstairs the other... or perhaps you could get the whole house done in 3 hours (if you weren't distracted like me).

my partner & i discussed this last night... he think's it's a waste of money.. i'll change that idea once he hasn't got to iron his own shirts.

and will you pay for my flights as well? 

Hmmm I think transport is the responsibility of the ironer? 

Okay well I am having an appointment with Stacey's company this Friday so will report back with an update then!  It sounds good thus far though - just under £9 an hour.

If they are good, let me know!!

When your cleaners start, can you please consider talking to her, especially if non-UK/eastern European, to see how much she gets paid, whether her agency keep several weeks pay behind, and whether she has a visa.

Lots of Romanian girls are put out as cleaners by agencies in London, and are working well below minimum wage, and it really bothers me.

Vicky

Casa Bella, Stacey's company has you pay the cleaner directly.  You pay the agency portion directly to the agency.  I really liked that about them.  I think it ends up being just under £2 per hour to the agency and  over £6 to the cleaner.

Oooh, marvellous!

I shall stop worrying/preaching now, thanks!


Vicky

We have an appointment with them next week for the assessment but might have to postpone if we are out of town - will let you know how it goes.

how did it go geeta?

It's tomorrow - will let you all know!  I can't wait actually...and I've got another option as well from my colleague who is very happy with her person so if this doesn't go well I'll look into that.  I have to admit I am happy with the insurance aspect as Stacey mentioned, as well as the fact that they said if our regular person isn't available (sick or on holiday) then they will give you a replacement.   

Okay had the meeting with one of the owners of the business.  I think both DH and I were happy with them and will likely sign up and see how it goes.  The price is reasonable for where we are and I'm just hoping we can work out the access with our concierge and get someone that gets along with us and that we like too!

Just thought I'd add a bit more detail now that I've got a minute.

The owner recommended 2 hours for our place, although he said we could probably up it to 3 if we thought it was useful.  I think we'll start with 2 and see how it goes.

We pay the agency their cut of the money directly and we pay the cleaner her part (the vast majority) to her weekly when she comes by. 

We can pick a day and time and they will find a regular person that can do it.  If we don't get on with the cleaner then we can always change it.  If we need to switch the day a bit or decide that we want to change it to another day we can do that too. 

Most of our contact will be through the cleaner themselves.  The agency is really just there for problems, emergencies, changes, etc.

They will do ironing if we want!  Just need to add it into the time allotted.  They will do most regular cleaning things and can do extra things like windows if we want as well, just need to let the cleaner know.  They naturally won't clean inside of things like cupboards and the fridge on a regular basis but would if we asked.  They can't clean ovens because of insurance issues with the chemicals involved.

I think that's about it.  The agency has liability insurance for the cleaners so if something happens to them it is covered. 

We are likely to go with it, will probably decide over the weekend.