What does a cleaner do? What a regular clean covers

Every visit: the core

A regular clean is built around the rooms that get dirty fastest. The exact list is whatever you agree, but on most arrangements every visit covers:

• Kitchen: worktops, the hob surface, the sink and taps, the outsides of appliances, cupboard doors and handles, the splashback, the bins emptied, and the floor.
• Bathrooms: the toilet inside and out, the basin, the bath, the shower and its screen, taps, mirrors and the floor.
• Living rooms and bedrooms: dusting the surfaces that can be reached, vacuuming carpets and rugs, mopping hard floors, and plumping cushions.
• Throughout: door handles and light switches wiped, and rubbish taken out.

Rotating extras

On top of the core, most cleaners rotate a few jobs so each gets done every few weeks without any single visit running over:

• changing the bed linen
• inside the microwave and wiping out the fridge
• skirting boards, door frames and window sills
• the inside of windows that can be reached from the floor
• dusting blinds, picture frames and high shelves
• washing out the kitchen bin

Saying which week is for which is what keeps the arrangement fair. A three-hour visit has room for the core plus a share of the extras, rather than all of them at once.

What two, three or four hours covers

These assume the house has been picked up before the cleaner arrives. Two hours is the usual minimum booking, because travel time makes anything shorter uneconomic for the cleaner.

Not usually part of a regular clean

• Inside the oven, which is an hour or more on its own and is often done by a specialist.
• Defrosting a freezer or a full fridge clear-out.
• Outside windows, which need a window cleaner's equipment.
• Carpet and upholstery shampooing, which needs an extraction machine.
• Moving heavy furniture, and work at height beyond a small step.
• Clearing clutter, sorting belongings or doing a pile of laundry.
• Anything hazardous, such as mould over a large area, or sharps.

Most of these belong to a one-off deep clean, which is the usual way to start a new regular arrangement so the cleaner is maintaining a standard rather than chasing one.

Tidying is not cleaning

The most common reason a regular clean feels thin is that much of the time went on picking things up. Every minute spent clearing worktops, washing up, gathering toys or folding clothes is a minute not spent cleaning.

A quick tidy before the cleaner arrives, with surfaces clear, the sink empty and floors free, makes a three-hour visit go noticeably further. If you would rather pay for the tidying too, say so and allow the time for it.

Agreeing the job

Write down what is included, room by room, and which extras rotate. Walk the house together on the first visit and point out what matters most to you and anything delicate: a stone worktop that must not see acid, a wooden floor that should be mopped nearly dry, a room to leave alone.

Agree whose products and equipment are used, including the vacuum. Agree how the cleaner gets in, what happens with pets, and how to raise something that was missed. A short message after a visit fixes most problems before they become a reason to change cleaner.

Revisit the list after a month. By then both sides know how long each room really takes, and it is easier to add an hour or drop an extra than to let the scope quietly grow while the hours stay the same.

What it costs

A self-employed cleaner charges about £15 to £22 an hour outside London and £20 to £30 in it, and an agency or company £20 to £35. A weekly clean of a three-bedroom house typically runs £50 to £90 a visit. Fortnightly cleaning is popular, but it usually needs slightly longer visits, because there is more to do each time.

The hourly rate buys the person's time, not a fixed result, so the useful comparison between two cleaners is what each would cover in the same number of hours. Ask both to walk the house and say how they would spend the time.