Do you have a house to look after, but don’t have the time or energy to clean it all? Are you looking for a solution to keep your home spotless at all times without having to tire yourself out? Call in a competent cleaning lady. But before you do, you need to estimate how much time you’ll spend on cleaning so that you can manage her tasks and her salary. A cleaning lady doesn’t just clean, depending on the needs of the household, she also looks after the cooking or the children, and that takes time. In short, here is some valuable advice on how to manage a cleaning lady’s time and hours per week.
How do you calculate cleaning time? First of all, calculate the surface area to be cleaned
Managing a cleaner’s time depends first and foremost on the surface area to be cleaned. Cleaning a large house does not take the same amount of time as cleaning a 3-room flat. So the first thing to assess is the number of rooms and the total surface area to be cleaned.
Generally speaking, a 20 m² interior can be cleaned in 1? hours. You can therefore use this first figure as a basis for your calculation. For a surface area of 30 m², you’ll need around 2 hours 30 minutes. For a home between 60 and 80 m², it will take around 4 hours. For homes larger than 100 m², it takes at least 5 hours, and so on.
How should the work of a femme de manage be organised? Consider the composition and details of your household
As we mentioned earlier, a cleaning lady can also look after the components of the household. If she is responsible for keeping children and furry pets clean too, this can affect the amount of time she spends cleaning. So it’s important to consider these points when managing your cleaner’s time.
On average, washing a child under the age of 14 takes 30 minutes. The same goes for furry pets such as cats and dogs, where the cleaner can spend up to 20 minutes washing an animal. Note also that the larger the family, the more laundry the housekeeper will have to wash, iron and put away.
List and organise household tasks in a quick housekeeper schedule
In her job, the cleaning lady has an endless list of tasks to do. It’s hard to list them all, but you can group them into categories. To better manage your cleaning time, you need to list the tasks to be done during cleaning hours.
Cleaning hours: make a schedule yourself to organise your cleaning time
Drawing up a list or schedule allows you to keep track of the hours the cleaner works. All you have to do is list the tasks and specify what time they have to be done. As each task is completed, the cleaner will tick the corresponding box so that nothing is forgotten.
Household organisation: set up a housework rota
A cleaner isn’t a robot, and she can’t do everything in one day (washing, for example). Rotating tasks allows you to manage the compulsory jobs that have to be done every day and the more in-depth cleaning tasks.
When managing your cleaning lady, you need to be firm but always courteous and polite. Be precise in your instructions to avoid misunderstandings. Especially when it comes to delicate tasks such as cleaning the fridge, coffee machine, dishwasher, bathroom or tidying up the kitchen.
