Hi all. I'm looking for a cleaner to give my flat the once over say once twice a month. Can anybody recommend someone trustworthy, reliable and not too expensive?
Having a weekly cleaner is the right of all middle class females, whether they are princesses in Finchley or slumming it in Stroud Green. It is a mark of status and serves no other purpose.
I have tried to persuade Mrs K to dispense with the weekly and get a proper firm in once a month for the same amount of money.
At least they would do the job properly and move the sofas / clean behind the cooker / inside the cupboards - jobs that in my experience weekly cleaners never do.
And they fill the house with Kiss FM and hoover noise for one full day a week. I work at home.
You might as well say what's wrong with growing your own vegetables, educating your own children, fixing your own boiler, cutting your own hair etc. I don't see what makes cleaning a specially reprehensible service to outsource?
Most of the examples apart from growing your own veggies require a level of skill that most people don’t have.
Cutting your own hair I guess depend how follicley challenged you are.
Guess it is a bit like having a dishwasher. What on the earth are the children for if not to do the chores etc !
I quite enjoy tidying up on a saturday morning. Get up at a decent hour, stick the radio on, then potter around putting things in their place, doing the dishes, and giving the sufaces a wipe. By 11am I'm usually having a celebratory coffee in my gleaming living room, feeling at peace with myself.
I must admit that I find the idea of having a cleaner slightly strange. Perhaps it's some kind of inbuilt work ethic I have, but I don't really like the idea of paying somebody to clean up my mess in my own flat. I'm sure that if I never had enough time, ie was unable to keep things tidy due to juggling a whirlwind of children, lavish dinner parties and a variety of social / professional commitments then I might end up having to get one. But I would still feel weird about it. Guilty.. ashamed maybe. Don't know. I didn't grow up with a cleaner, and cleaning up after myself just seems like an integral part of life.
Hi NoOne, I have a fantastic cleaner whom I'm happy to see if she can fit you in. She charges £10 per hour and comes to mine and another person in the FP area on Wed.
As I live alone, she only comes round every 2 weeks and she is fine with that and normally takes about 2.5 hours to do everything.
Send me a message about times and days that would suit you and I can ask her is she is free.
As for feeling guilty and ashamed about a cleaner, I don't grow my own food, fix my own car, clean my own suit for work or iron my own shirts - why would I feel guilty about having a cleaner? I think the opposite in that I'm helping employ someone who does a great job at a fair price.
yes, I see what you mean, and I don't think it's 'correct' to feel guilty and ashamed. Out of the things you suggest, apart from ironing shirts, that stuff requires the kind of skill, equipment and supporting infrastructure that most people don't have - ie - access to car parts and regular training in mechanics, a dry cleaning machine or a farm, but wiping up, hoovering the flat etc doesn't really require specialisation in skills or equipment, and it just seems (to me) like a set of skills that humans should have and practice for the sake of their own dignity, like being able to dress oneself, prepare food etc, things that are generally handled by your parents until you are old enough to do them yourself. Cleaning up after yourself sort of falls into the same thing (for me). I am fully willing to admit that I am incorrect on this one. It's not like cleaning my flat is the highlight of my life, or even an important / interesting part of it. Just a couple of hours a week maybe, that would otherwise be spent doing something as equally futile in the grand scheme of things.
I don't view people who do employ cleaners as living in some kind of arrested infantile state, but instead, as people who do not have the same hang up about it as me.
But as I said, I don't have the kind of lifestyle that means I can't easily do it myself (along with the tedious shirt ironing and boring dishwashing), and were this all to change and I found myself living in a large place that I didn't have time to keep in a habitable state, of course I can see that a cleaner is a solution to a problem.
I guess it's down to what we find interesting. I contribute to paying for a gardener to keep a communal garden, but often go out there and you know...garden a bit.
I don't live like a pig and keep things clean (though the 1st thing I bought for my flat was a dishwasher) but thinks like dusting and cleaning toilets and showers seems like a bit of a pain in the arse to do. I think I am a bit of an infantile though, a busy one though.
help - i need a cleaner too who will come every few weeks. am off ferme park road and would love some recommendations for reliable and trust-worthy help
am writing with a little trepidation of getting branded lazy.. which i am from time to time, but mostly just bogged down with work.
My cleaner's great but I think she has enough clients already.
I have a cleaner because if I didn't, I'd end up wallowing in my own shit. There are some things I would just never get round to, like changing my bed sheets and mopping the kitchen. Also, I struggle to fit a duvet cover on a duvet.
Hiya - as the one who started this thread I can happily say that I now have a cleaner and she is wonderful. I think she is fully booked up but I'm happy to pass on her number to you - it might be worth asking if she can squeeze you in. This site is wonderful!
I am currently looking for a cleaner to do about 2-3 hours work every couple of weeks. Can somebody please recommend one or 'whisper' me some contact details?
Hate to say this....but I run a recruitment company in Wood Green and one of our consultants deals with domestic and commercial cleaners (among other things). Whisper me if you're interested, probably would be able to do you a quote.
Am new to Stroud green ( moved all the way from Holloway) , and to StroudGreen.org- and am very happy to have found myself here...
Am pleased to have found this thread- as would love to find a cleaner that comes recommended- and already works locally-.
I am impressed that others have found what they needed here- can anyone help me?? - I think I need about 2- 3 hours per week...
Gas Powered Ninja- do let me know a quote if you can.. Thanks
Comments
I'm right near FP station. Is that near you?
I have tried to persuade Mrs K to dispense with the weekly and get a proper firm in once a month for the same amount of money.
At least they would do the job properly and move the sofas / clean behind the cooker / inside the cupboards - jobs that in my experience weekly cleaners never do.
And they fill the house with Kiss FM and hoover noise for one full day a week. I work at home.
But no dice.
(gay man)
I must admit that I find the idea of having a cleaner slightly strange. Perhaps it's some kind of inbuilt work ethic I have, but I don't really like the idea of paying somebody to clean up my mess in my own flat. I'm sure that if I never had enough time, ie was unable to keep things tidy due to juggling a whirlwind of children, lavish dinner parties and a variety of social / professional commitments then I might end up having to get one. But I would still feel weird about it. Guilty.. ashamed maybe. Don't know. I didn't grow up with a cleaner, and cleaning up after myself just seems like an integral part of life.
As I live alone, she only comes round every 2 weeks and she is fine with that and normally takes about 2.5 hours to do everything.
Send me a message about times and days that would suit you and I can ask her is she is free.
As for feeling guilty and ashamed about a cleaner, I don't grow my own food, fix my own car, clean my own suit for work or iron my own shirts - why would I feel guilty about having a cleaner? I think the opposite in that I'm helping employ someone who does a great job at a fair price.
I don't view people who do employ cleaners as living in some kind of arrested infantile state, but instead, as people who do not have the same hang up about it as me.
But as I said, I don't have the kind of lifestyle that means I can't easily do it myself (along with the tedious shirt ironing and boring dishwashing), and were this all to change and I found myself living in a large place that I didn't have time to keep in a habitable state, of course I can see that a cleaner is a solution to a problem.
I don't live like a pig and keep things clean (though the 1st thing I bought for my flat was a dishwasher) but thinks like dusting and cleaning toilets and showers seems like a bit of a pain in the arse to do. I think I am a bit of an infantile though, a busy one though.
am writing with a little trepidation of getting branded lazy.. which i am from time to time, but mostly just bogged down with work.
I have a cleaner because if I didn't, I'd end up wallowing in my own shit. There are some things I would just never get round to, like changing my bed sheets and mopping the kitchen. Also, I struggle to fit a duvet cover on a duvet.
Another pointless remark of no help to anyone I suppose, but there you are.
if she's busy, Taff Bach - is your cleaning domestic goddess still on a pedestal and by chance in need of some extra work?
Am pleased to have found this thread- as would love to find a cleaner that comes recommended- and already works locally-.
I am impressed that others have found what they needed here- can anyone help me?? - I think I need about 2- 3 hours per week...
Gas Powered Ninja- do let me know a quote if you can.. Thanks
I have a brilliant cleaner who I have had for 3 years, he does my mums, some shops in Crouch E, some other friends.
He is great, totally trustworthy, he it Catholic with 3 kids and lives in Stroud Green.
He has a lot of work, but he might be able to take another one on.
If you want his phone number and any other details. Please whisper me.
Thanks.
Bridget