What's the best way to find a cleaner?

[Rivlas]

When I need cleaning I have a few friends who are in the business so use them.

Ask around as someone will know someone etc

[BellyBelly]

Cleaners are in seriously short supply and hard to find around here - and then you just have to hope you find a good one. In desperation I checked out the gumtree website and found two cleaners who are awesome and I use them all the time. At first I used one, an Australian mother who is lovely but recently she has become more unavailable due to family problems, so I have been using a second I found who has lots of experience. Most of them have a police check which is important and also references. I am here when they clean so I feel okay with it, but its been great. They both clean really really well and are great people, who charge $20p/h using my stuff or $25 with theirs. You can always give someone a trial clean and if you dont like them, dont ask them over again.

That way you're not paying a third party, it just goes direct and also usually very little waiting time especially if you want an urgent clean. I think Absolute Domestics I called once and had a very bad experience with, at a time in my life when I was desperate for any help and at the worse parts of postnatal depression. Still makes me mad thinking about it now, but I will check before I say anything further.

[*Ali*]

I was also going to suggest gumtree- we started looking and there were a few adds on there, you can also place your own add looking for a cleaner. There are a few websites with just cleaners listed on them, I just did a google search and found some.

[rubibaby]

i'd go with word of mouth...ask friends, fam, mother's group buddies, etc...