You probably spend at least a few hours every week on household chores. If your schedule is full and you have always wanted to ditch the mop to spend more time with your or catch up on your hobbies, it may be reasonable to hire some help. However, if you wonder if hiring a home cleaner worth the money, you can check a few things.

Read also: Professionals Share 8 Secrets to a Keep Your Home Clean Longer

CALCULATE THE COSTS

House cleaners generally charge £12-£30 per hour, which might be more affordable for you than you imagined. Location, pets, lifestyle and adding extra services can raise the rate, so when hiring a domestic cleaner ask for a detailed estimate! However, if your family isn’t too big and you don’t have several pets, you’re not going to spend more than £15 per hour for a high-quality home cleaning service.

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HOW MUCH AN HOUR OF YOUR TIME WORTH

Have you ever wondered how much precisely your time really worth? You can use some of the calculators on the Internet like this one to find your individual hourly rate. Then, after you track how much time you spend cleaning for a week and estimate the amount you should “pay” to yourself if you were a paid cleaner. Use this figure to weigh the value benefit of hiring a home cleaner. You may discover that getting a professional cleaner, who will clean significantly faster than you, can actually cost you less than dealing with the chores by yourself.

Read also: 6 Myths Stopping You From Hiring a Professional Cleaner

Ask your friends if they are using domestic cleaning services and if they are happy with it.

ASK A FRIEND

Hiring a domestic cleaner is a lot like choosing a contractor: recommendations are priceless! Ask your friends, neighbours or co-workers — chances are more of them have home cleaners than you might think. Listen to their opinions, ask about prices of the service in your area and try to call a phone number or two. If your friends rely on this cleaning service, you can, probably, too!

Check also: 7 Benefits of Hiring a Cleaner for Your Home

Cleaning companies work only with vetted and insured cleaners.

INDEPENDENT CLEANER OR CLEANING COMPANY?

Cleaning service businesses might charge more per hour than independent maids. But you will rest assured that you will be covered if, say, a laptop or your favourite ring goes missing. Cleaning services are licensed, bonded and insured, plus they always run the background checks on their employees carefully, because their reputation and credibility depend on this. If you do choose to search for an independent cleaner, it’s smarter to hire one who has been in the trade for at least one year and can provide at least 5 references.

Read also: How to Prepare Your Home When Hiring Professional Cleaners?

Leave the tedious chores to the professionals.

THINK OF THE PRIORITY TASKS

Write down a list of chores that you really need to be done around the house. Most of your cleaning needs are probably typical when it comes to a company’s cleaning procedures, but some tasks (such as ironing or window cleaning) can cost extra. You can consider re-ordering the chores on the list tedious cleaning tasks for the domestic cleaning service, and the lighter, daily duties for you and your family. This will help you keep the costs down, while still decreasing some of your work and freeing more time for you.

Check also: How to Get Your Teen Involved in Home Cleaning Chores

Hiring a home cleaner isn’t the best solution to everyone, but if chores are a significant cause of stress in your life, or just take a massive part of your free time, booking a cleaner might be one of those things where spending a little extra money it’s worth. And if hiring help isn’t your thing, maybe your cleaning routine needs merely some small improvements.