June 8, 2021
Today is the day. It’s the final straw and you have had enough. Between working, looking after your family, running errands and all the other things that are going on, you just don’t have time to keep your home consistently clean. You’ve finally decided I need a cleaner.
Where do you start? How do you find a maid service? How do you know that your maid service or cleaning company is not going to cause more headaches than they fix?
Should you go for the cheapest one? Or the one that you spoke to who sounded nice? How do you decide who will be the best cleaner for you?
In this article, we will tell you everything you need to know about finding the right cleaner the first time around and how you can avoid all of the headaches that come with making the wrong hire.
Before you can decide on the right cleaner or cleaning company for your needs, you will need to have some understanding of what services they offer and what sort of pricing you should expect for these services. There are two main ways that cleaners will decide on their pricing – hourly services and flat-rate packages – and both of these ways have their pros and cons.
Flat-rate cleaning packages are packages that are usually based on the size of your home. To get a rough idea of the size of your home, your cleaner will tend to ask you how many bedrooms and bathrooms you have, although some may ask for the square footage instead. Generally speaking the larger your home is, the more you will be charged and you will be charged less if your home is on the smaller size.
As flat-rate packages are a set price, then they should include a standard set of tasks that are included as part of that price. These could be tasks such as:
If you have any areas of cleaning, you would like help with, then some companies will allow you to have that option – for an additional fee. Common add-on cleaning tasks include:
There are several benefits you can access if you book a flat-rate cleaning package, the main one being that you will always know what you are paying for your cleaning package in advance. Another benefit is that you will always know exactly what tasks are included in your cleaning package, and what is going to cost extra.
The downside to flat-rate packages is that you won’t be able to fully customise your cleaning package to your exact needs, meaning you won’t be able to specify exactly which areas of your house will be cleaned and also you may not be able to add all of the cleaning tasks you need if the cleaner does not offer them.
Flat-rate cleaning packages mean you pay a set price for the cleaning of your home, whereas hourly cleaning services are charged based on the time your cleaner takes to complete the tasks you have asked them to do – and these can vary with each visit. Often people who book hourly cleaning services choose the number of hours they want to pay for in advance, and then the cleaner simply stops once they have reached the allotted time – although other people prefer to see how long the cleaner takes to complete all of the tasks and then pay them for that time.
When booking an hourly service clean there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Firstly, does the cleaner have a minimum number of hours?
Secondly, if you are using a cleaning company, you should find out how many cleaners are being sent to your home, as the hourly rate will be per cleaner usually and not for the team.
Thirdly, you need to find out how experienced the cleaners are, and how long it will take them to finish the tasks you want them to do (roughly).
The main benefit of booking an hourly cleaning service as opposed to a flat-rate service is the scope of work is not usually limited to a limited task list. The cleaner will cover all of the basics, of course, but you will also have much more opportunity to customise their task list to make sure they look after the things you need doing.
Before you can decide on whether an independent cleaner or large cleaning company is better for your needs, you need to know the difference between them and the pros and cons of hiring each.
If you are looking for the most value for money option, then independent cleaners win hands down. Independent cleaners can set their hourly rate, and don’t lose any of it to a parent company and they also tend to have lower overhead costs. This means they tend to charge less than the larger companies and are more willing to negotiate rates with you. You will also receive a more consistent service as you are dealing with the same person every time.
As larger cleaning companies tend to have larger overheads, it will mean that they will have to charge more for their services. It may also mean that you don’t have the same cleaner in your home regularly if they do not send the same crew every time.
If you have decided to reclaim your spare time by hiring a cleaner then you must choose the best option to fit your needs and one that you can be comfortable with. Choosing to find maid by using Maid App will be the best option budget-wise, and you can also access referrals for our local, independent cleaners so you know exactly who you are dealing with.
