Sorry to crash this thread, but I've also been thinking about this for ages too. Is once a fortnight enough? We have 4 b/r, study and 2 b/r but 2 of the rooms are hardly used and only DS almost 2 uses the bath downstairs. But then I find I need to clean the upstairs floor at least every second day.

Also, I'm not sure how I feel about having someone in my home. Do you stay home when they're there or go out?

Thanks.
We are pretty tidy people anyway - eg we wipe over the stove after cooking each meal, and all the kitchen gets a good wipe down each night after loading the dishwasher etc, and we dont have much clutter, everything has its place, so maintaining the house for a fortnight is pretty easy for us. I rarely get the vacuum out in between to be honest, unless we've had a playdate and the floors get a bit trashed. A few days before cleaning day, the floors are looking ready for a mop as expected but they are not to the point that they are feral or anything.

Our cleaning lady comes while we are at work. I leave the key in the letter box which she returns and she turns the alarm on when she's done. When I'm on maternity leave I plan to keep using her and that will be my morning out