Time taken to clean a house?

[Laura Corin]

Since I started work full time, we have employed a cleaner - initially a service, but we are trying out an individual now.  She's not getting much done, I think because she is extremely meticulous.  I'm going to try to write a simplified list to help her to move on:

 

Clean two shower rooms, and clean the bathroom but not bathtub (we rarely use it)

Clean counters/cooker and sweep/mop floor in kitchen

Vacuum and dust the house (three bedrooms, two reception rooms, front hall, small entry porch and corridor).

Clean the glass of the wood stove

Change the sheets in one room, and dump dirty sheets in laundry room

 

Remembering that UK homes are not usually enormous (it's an extended cottage, a bit bigger than this one.), is four hours okay for this?  The house is reasonably tidy but there's a bit of clutter.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Excelsior! Academy]

Our previous housekeeper was taking 3-4 hours to clean our 3000 sq. ft. house.  Granted, we let her go because we didn't feel she was cleaning how and where she should have.  But 4 hours is more than plenty for a house that size.  I'd even argue that one could do a sufficient job in half that time.

[Amira]

I live in a temporary 2-bedroom apartment with weekly maid service.  The cleaner does two bathrooms (sink, toilet, shower in each), the kitchen (counters, sink, stove top, sweeping and mopping), changes the sheets on four beds and changes the towels, dusts, and vacuums (two bedrooms and the living room) in about 90 minutes or a little less.  Four hours seems like plenty of time to me to get your list done. People living in larger apartments here (similar to or a little smaller than the size of your house) say it takes about 2 hours.

[EKS]

Four hours sounds doable for what you're describing, but the most definitive way to find out might be to time yourself cleaning what you want her to clean.

[TammyS]

 

 

Remembering that UK homes are not usually enormous (it's an extended cottage, a bit bigger than this one.), is four hours okay for this?  The house is reasonably tidy but there's a bit of clutter.

 

Thanks

 

The only way for you to know is to do the work yourself once and time it (also making note of the standards you are keeping....such as when you vacuum, does that mean just the middles, the middles and edges with an edging tool, or pulling the furniture aside and vacuuming under it).  How long these things take is highly variable, because of local conditions (for ex., we have very high mineral water, so cleaning my shower takes FOREVER...like seriously, at least an hour of hard work).

[Faithr]

I just want to say I love those house plans.  Here the norm is a huge open space living area with no privacy and then one huge master bedroom with two very small kids bedrooms.  

[Laura Corin]

The only way for you to know is to do the work yourself once and time it (also making note of the standards you are keeping....such as when you vacuum, does that mean just the middles, the middles and edges with an edging tool, or pulling the furniture aside and vacuuming under it).  How long these things take is highly variable, because of local conditions (for ex., we have very high mineral water, so cleaning my shower takes FOREVER...like seriously, at least an hour of hard work).

 

Thanks - that helps me with my list for her.  Vacuuming in this instance means just the visible bits with no edging tool.  Once she is managing the whole house in one visit, then I'll talk to her about extra tasks (moving the furniture in one room per week, for example). 

[ErinE]

Since I started work full time, we have employed a cleaner - initially a service, but we are trying out an individual now. She's not getting much done, I think because she is extremely meticulous. I'm going to try to write a simplified list to help her to move on:

 

Clean two shower rooms, and clean the bathroom but not bathtub (we rarely use it)

Clean counters/cooker and sweep/mop floor in kitchen

Vacuum and dust the house (three bedrooms, two reception rooms, front hall, small entry porch and corridor).

Clean the glass of the wood stove

Change the sheets in one room, and dump dirty sheets in laundry room

 

Remembering that UK homes are not usually enormous (it's an extended cottage, a bit bigger than this one.), is four hours okay for this? The house is reasonably tidy but there's a bit of clutter.

 

Thanks

I've timed myself cleaning before (knowing something will only take XX minutes stops me from procrastinating). I've posted my times below, but they're based on a picked up and uncluttered home.

 

3 Bathrooms - max 1.5 hours. I generally take 15-20 minutes each, but I do the same task in each bath before I move onto the next fixture. I put cleaning solution on all toilets, showers and tubs in the house then scrub each room individually starting with sinks, tubs, showers, and finishing with toilets. Mirrors are done all at once. Sweeping all at once then mopping all at once. When I was doing each room in total, it was about 30 minutes per room.

Dusting - 30 minutes max. I keep very little on horizontal surfaces which speeds up dusting. 5 minutes per room.

Vacuuming - 20-40 minutes for similar size two-story home, depending on amount of furniture and done at the end of cleaning. I have an extension cord so I don't have to keep moving the vacuum.

Kitchen - 30 minutes to clean uncluttered surfaces.

Sweeping and mopping kitchen and 3 baths - 30 minutes done all at once. I use fresh water between rooms which takes time to fill the bucket.

 

That's about 3.5 hours. I found I was more efficient when I did each task in the whole house, before moving onto something else. I've noticed some cleaners prefer cleaning thoroughly each room, which slows things down.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Man that sounds grueling.

 

LOL

 

I have no idea how long that should take.

 

 

[Sherry in OH]

Does she need to pick up or clean around the clutter?  I find picking up and moving items to be the most time consuming part of cleaning.  It takes time even if all I do is shift the items to vacuum or dust under them. Actually sorting and putting away stray items takes even longer. 

 

[Ausmumof3]

Since I started work full time, we have employed a cleaner - initially a service, but we are trying out an individual now. She's not getting much done, I think because she is extremely meticulous. I'm going to try to write a simplified list to help her to move on:

 

Clean two shower rooms, and clean the bathroom but not bathtub (we rarely use it)

Clean counters/cooker and sweep/mop floor in kitchen

Vacuum and dust the house (three bedrooms, two reception rooms, front hall, small entry porch and corridor).

Clean the glass of the wood stove

Change the sheets in one room, and dump dirty sheets in laundry room

 

Remembering that UK homes are not usually enormous (it's an extended cottage, a bit bigger than this one.), is four hours okay for this? The house is reasonably tidy but there's a bit of clutter.

 

Thanks

Our house is similar in layout though possibly the rooms are larger. Four hours is the minimum I could do it in and only if it's not cluttered.

We are in the country and the house is not well sealed so it does get quite dirty.

Edited December 31, 2015 by Ausmumof3

[Guest]

I used to clean homes professionally. The longest took five hours, but these were very large houses (3500-5000 sp ft) with three-to-five bathrooms/powder rooms. That said, clutter does slow things down. The smallest house I cleaned was nevertheless quite cluttered and it still took me at least a few hours. The main thing I remember was this lady had ninty-billion bottles all around the edge of her tub, LOL, so I had to move the bazillion bottles, clean the tub, then put them all back. That took freakin forever. :D

[Guest]

Sounds right to me. The lady I used to work for had someone come in twice a month to clean for her. She really didn't NEED it, as she had 24/7 caretakers, and we did a lot of cleaning just to have something to do. This is what she did, and it was done in right around three hours.

 

Vacuumed living room, dining room, long hallway and two bedrooms (using a Rainbow, so there was additional work that went into preparing that)

Mopped kitchen floor and cleaned counters as well as the stainless steel stove

Mopped and cleaned two bathrooms

Dusted in living room, dining room and one bedroom

Changed and washed bedding in the master bedroom (one other bedroom was storage and the other was used and bedding changed by the lady who worked overnights.) Sometimes I would pull the linens off and start them in the wash before she got there, so that did cut down on the time.

 

Take into account that she had to move a lot of things to dust, and she would often stand and have a conversation with my boss for 15-20 minutes whle dusting. She would get there at 9 am and leave around 12-12:30. Like I said, us girls did cleaning daily, so it really wasn't dirty at all.

 

 

Edited December 31, 2015 by tbog

[SKL]

How often will she clean?  It would take less time the more often she comes.

 

I guess 4 hours sounds OK for that amount of work.  I have maids come in about once a month and they do a total of 7-8 hours (2 people x 3.5-4 hours).  They do the work you described, plus an additional 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and the basement.  I do try to have most of the rooms neat before they come; otherwise they would get less actual cleaning done.

[Laura Corin]

Thanks, everyone.  I already know that it takes me half an hour to clean each bathroom.  I changed the sheets on a bed last night, and that took 10 minutes.  I cleaned the main sitting room this morning - it's the most cluttered room, what with the tree and Christmas cards.  Including cleaning the stove glass, it took me 19 minutes.  If we say 20 minutes for each sitting room and 15 for each bedroom, then it comes to

 

1 1/2 hours bathrooms

1 hour kitchen (estimate)

10 minutes to change one bed

40 minutes on sitting rooms

45 minutes on bedrooms

30 minutes for the other small areas

That totals 4 hours and 35 minutes.

 

So every week she could do bathrooms, kitchen, main sitting room, front hall and porch, and change bed, for 3 hours 15 minutes.  Then she could do one or two other areas per week, giving her leeway because I think she cleans better than I do.