For some a cleaner is a pricy luxury – but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are several approaches to keeping your cleaning costs down.
The key thing is to reduce the amount of time it takes a cleaner to work through your house.
When you employ a new cleaner, a good way to get their best price is to tidy your home and clean before you show them round. A cleaner may quote higher for a dirty, cluttered home. Don’t go overboard, though! They may also quote more for a home that is absolutely sparkling because they will assume you have very high standards.
Decluttering will go a long way to help with keeping your cleaning costs down, as there will be less detailed cleaning to do, and fewer awkward spaces. Consider putting some of your stuff into storage to make your home less cramped and easier to clean. Self-storage is one option – and if you’re wondering how much it is to rent a storage unit, you may be pleasantly surprised at the low prices.
Another way to reduce cleaning time is to tell your cleaner to skip certain rooms. You could ask your cleaner to focus only on the bathroom and kitchen. Or you might ask them to only clean your bedroom once a fortnight. If you are skipping rooms on a rotating basis, put a written cleaning schedule together, otherwise you and your cleaner will inevitably disagree about which room gets cleaned on a given week. We’ve got a blogpost with some more ideas for getting the most out of your cleaner. And Good Housekeeping has a list of how often you need to do domestic tasks, which you can use as a basis for your schedule.
How to reduce your cleaning bill with the cleaner you already have
Telling your cleaner that you need to reduce their hours is a bit of a delicate task. But don’t put it off: the longer you wait, the more awkward it will become. And there are a few ways to make it easier.
You should give notice if you possibly can. Many cleaners work on informal contracts, and if this is the case you would be quite within your rights to make the change straight away. But doing this could cause disruption to your cleaner. A loss of £20 a week might not seem a huge amount to you, but to someone who can only work ten hours a week, it is quite a chunk of income. So give notice.
Another thing you can do is find them a client who can make up the hours you are cutting. You may have a friend or neighbour who wants a clean every other week, for example.
If you are wondering what words to use when you ask your cleaner to reduce their hours, it’s best to be direct. A phrase like, ‘I’m really pleased with your work, but I need fewer hours of cleaning from next month. We would like two hours every other week, on the first and third Tuesday. Can you make that work?’
Store to save on cleaning bills
If you’re looking to put some of your domestic goods into storage to save on cleaning bills, check out Store and Insure: we can save you money on the insurance that is part of your contract with the storage company. Get a quote today.
