Inconvenient Annoyances

Not that I need a cleaner now, but for later, when the Daughter is working and I'm older and more creaky. What is the going rate for a cleaner, approximately?

That's exciting! I'm glad they are gone, and the garage is clean.

I'm at the point I'm debating hiring a cleaner. My husband likes things tidy (no clutter) but when it comes to actually cleaning surfaces he falls flat. I don't have the physical strength to do it all and he knows that but unless I say "you need to do this right now" it doesn't get done, and I don't like bossing my husband around like that. It makes me really angry that if I don't I have a dirty dusty house and we both have allergies. So I think I may be asking for suggestions on WGG of someone who is OK cleaning without heavy duty chemicals and won't wear perfume/cologne in our house. It's mostly just the vacuuming and shower/bathroom floors. They were too expensive for me in the US but seem quite a bit more reasonably priced here!

My husband and I have talked about this, and we have agreed that after we've got the major works done around the house, I will be hiring a cleaner to come in once or twice a month to do the stuff that's hard for me to do with my small size and general feebleness... things like clean the bath/shower, vacuum (I struggle with calling it "hoovering"!), etc.  I just want someone to come on a regular basis to do the real cleaning that is a challenge for me.  In between, I'd keep up with the day-to-day tidying and cleaning up spills and stuff, of course.

I'm so looking forward to this future life of convenience when I'll have machines like an oven, a dishwasher (!!), and a stand mixer, and we'll hire a cleaner to come in to do the heavy lifting for me.

Not that I need a cleaner now, but for later, when the Daughter is working and I'm older and more creaky. What is the going rate for a cleaner, approximately?

I'd like to know, too, please.  I haven't even begun to research this, but I know what my housemate paid in Los Angeles, and I'm hoping it'll be comparable...?

My husband and I have talked about this, and we have agreed that after we've got the major works done around the house, I will be hiring a cleaner to come in once or twice a month to do the stuff that's hard for me to do with my small size and general feebleness... things like clean the bath/shower, vacuum (I struggle with calling it "hoovering"!), etc.  I just want someone to come on a regular basis to do the real cleaning that is a challenge for me.  In between, I'd keep up with the day-to-day tidying and cleaning up spills and stuff, of course.

I'm so looking forward to this future life of convenience when I'll have machines like an oven, a dishwasher (!!), and a stand mixer, and we'll hire a cleaner to come in to do the heavy lifting for me.

I'd like to know, too, please.  I haven't even begun to research this, but I know what my housemate paid in Los Angeles, and I'm hoping it'll be comparable...?

When I was glancing it seemed to be £75ish for twice a month for an average size place. I think there is probably cheaper and more expensive. I'd want someone who has a steamer to get surfaces bacteria free without bleach (we don't have one) so it may be slightly more. But that's way more reasonable than the $100 a room I was quoted in the US for a single clean!

We are also still stuck in the de-fuming new  oven phase so we can't use it yet. 7 hours of burn time so far, 30 minutes is what they suggest and I don't want to know what food would taste like after it! My skin is permanently a lovely flushed shade of pink atm, all because oven manufacturers can't do this as part of the process in the factory saving mere humans like me from the semi toxic VOC exposure. Glad it'll be warm enough to open the windows a bit wider soon.

But I hung laundry on the line outside today! Kitties bedding and blankets needed washing and I figured that was the perfect use.

Not that I need a cleaner now, but for later, when the Daughter is working and I'm older and more creaky. What is the going rate for a cleaner, approximately?

£10/an hour for someone independent using your products is a good estimate

£15/an hour for an agency using their products is another estimate

Usually a 2 hour minimum.  Some (most) will iron if needed!

When I was glancing it seemed to be £75ish for twice a month for an average size place. I think there is probably cheaper and more expensive. I'd want someone who has a steamer to get surfaces bacteria free without bleach (we don't have one) so it may be slightly more. But that's way more reasonable than the $100 a room I was quoted in the US for a single clean!

I think it was around $40 per visit for my friend's LA condo.  Three bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, two living areas, kitchen.  They'd vacuum carpeted areas and rugs, dust, clean the bathrooms, change and wash the bed linens, clean the kitchen, empty all the wastebins and take the rubbish out to the collection area in the complex.

I could probably accept this level of cleaning once a month and I would do maintenance cleaning/tidying in between.

Our house here is MUCH smaller... two small bedrooms, one bathroom, one living area/dining room combined, and some day we'll have a tiny kitchen.  It's around 45 square meters of floor space, I think.  (That's a number I entered into our spreadsheet when calculating flooring costs.)

Husband hates clutter and dust and dirt. So he points it out to me.    And usually if he's pointing it out,  he gets grumpy at me, like it's my fault (not always).  And usually he sits and points it out to me at the most inopportune times for me to actually do anything about it, like leaving for work or making dinner or when I'm heading out to band practise.  So he gets into a huff and cleans it himself and then gets grumpy at me for not ever helping.
So I say, "let's get a cleaner". And he says "No, we can do it ourselves".   

So I say, "let's get a cleaner". And he says "No, we can do it ourselves".   

When I moved in with my husband, it was "part of the deal."  At the time, he still had a friend renting a room so it needed to be a deal breaker.  Plus I had one when I lived by myself.   

I do have to say.  When I was on my two maternity leaves, my husband never ONCE suggested dropping the cleaner.  He has gained much wisdom through the years.     And realises how nice it is to have a (relatively) clean house. 

Ugh.  A couple of weeks ago (on Easter) I fell down the stairs at my mother-in-law's house, just slipped while wearing tights and no shoes, and I bruised my tailbone.  The doctor said it would be very painful and take a while to heal (like up to a couple of months) but there wasn't much I could do to speed it along.  Which I accept, but it's really annoying, because it's been like 2 and a half weeks since I could sit on my own sofa comfortably, I have to either be perched leaning really far forward (with horrible posture) or laying down.  Like those are my options ALL the time.  I am so tired of it and ready to just feel like a normal person again.  At one of my jobs I have to go up and down stairs all the time, too, and that hurts so bad. 

I can feel myself getting a bit better (when it first happened I legit couldn't stand up from a seated position by myself) but it's not as fast as I would have hoped. 

I feel your pain.
I fell on the stairs in 2015 and went the entire flight down on my one buttcheek. I had a bruise the size of my hand for weeks and honestly it still hurts sometimes. (Injured the same side I hurt when I crowdsurfed and they dropped me on tarmac).

Since it's your actual tailbone, have you tried on of those donut pillows? They basically look like mini life preservers. They're designed for this kind of injury.

https://www.vivehealth.com/blogs/resources/donut-pillow-for-tailbone

Ugh.  A couple of weeks ago (on Easter) I fell down the stairs at my mother-in-law's house, just slipped while wearing tights and no shoes, and I bruised my tailbone.  The doctor said it would be very painful and take a while to heal (like up to a couple of months) but there wasn't much I could do to speed it along.  Which I accept, but it's really annoying, because it's been like 2 and a half weeks since I could sit on my own sofa comfortably, I have to either be perched leaning really far forward (with horrible posture) or laying down.  Like those are my options ALL the time.  I am so tired of it and ready to just feel like a normal person again.  At one of my jobs I have to go up and down stairs all the time, too, and that hurts so bad. 

I can feel myself getting a bit better (when it first happened I legit couldn't stand up from a seated position by myself) but it's not as fast as I would have hoped.

My brother broke his tailbone once and it took - literally - about a year to heal.  He carried and sat on a donut everywhere which was the only way he could sit.  Do what you've got to do!  I hope it heals really quickly.

I think it was around $40 per visit for my friend's LA condo.  Three bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, two living areas, kitchen.  They'd vacuum carpeted areas and rugs, dust, clean the bathrooms, change and wash the bed linens, clean the kitchen, empty all the wastebins and take the rubbish out to the collection area in the complex.

I could probably accept this level of cleaning once a month and I would do maintenance cleaning/tidying in between.

Our house here is MUCH smaller... two small bedrooms, one bathroom, one living area/dining room combined, and some day we'll have a tiny kitchen.  It's around 45 square meters of floor space, I think.  (That's a number I entered into our spreadsheet when calculating flooring costs.)

Wow, that was cheap! 

I ran it past the Daughter, and got the "exploiting women who have no better source of income" low-pay speech back. I then asked if she was going to take over all the household duties, including scrubbing the bathroom and washing the floors. She agreed that we could always hire someone and then make sure they had a living wage.

I ran it past the Daughter, and got the "exploiting women who have no better source of income" low-pay speech back.

I couldn't disagree with this more.  My friend owns the cleaning company that I use.  She started it about a year ago.  She is a former engineer but with three kids, she has decided she would rather be her own boss and work where she wants and when she wants.  It's actually very empowering!

My actual girl is a (young) grandmother who just enjoys getting a bit of pocket money.  She only cleans my house each week.

Yeah, I disagree with it, too.  I asked her if a woman cleaning house for the living wage was worse than working at a factory for the living wage (here) and got the "that wage is not a real living" argument, but only until we got to the part about her doing the housework. 

You know, if I was able to work part time once I start pulling US social security, I would happily set myself up as an occasional cleaner. I would have to be careful, though, as there's some stuff I cannot do, physically (although a lot I still can!), and I cannot work more than 4 hours a week (16 hours a month) as an employee or own my own business here or I lose ~all~ social security benefits for that month. (No SS benefits paid at any time if I own a business here, even if it's not making a profit or not active.) 

I wish I would have investigated further with SSA before moving. In the States, if you work while receiving SS income prior to your full retirement age, you are allowed up to a certain work income before they start dropping your SS payment. After full age I believe you can work as much as you want. (Memory isn't working well again.)

Not that I wouldn't have moved here, but I would have restructured a few things. I had been hoping to set up as an independent genealogy researcher, eventually, once I got my local "qualifications" and possibly arrange private ancestral tours for Americans looking to come to Scotland to find their "roots." (Hell of a market for that, actually.) But I'm not willing to gamble on not having that SS income, as even if I was successful in getting a business going, the income would be unreliable, and minimal at the start.

I wonder if the Daughter started the business and I only worked for her a few hours a week if that would apply? Probably would be tremendously  complex, paperwork-wise, here and lose money as she'd have to get an accountant to sort out self-employment taxes and employee taxes, etc. - not worth it for  a few hundred quid a month.

I feel your pain.
I fell on the stairs in 2015 and went the entire flight down on my one buttcheek. I had a bruise the size of my hand for weeks and honestly it still hurts sometimes. (Injured the same side I hurt when I crowdsurfed and they dropped me on tarmac).

Since it's your actual tailbone, have you tried on of those donut pillows? They basically look like mini life preservers. They're designed for this kind of injury.

https://www.vivehealth.com/blogs/resources/donut-pillow-for-tailbone

I've been to like 10 different stores in Canterbury looking for this and no one has them.  Ugh.  Amazon does but I haaate Amazon