Paying for housework? How to keep a clean conscience

As more young people pay for cleaners, Lydia Spencer-Elliott explores why clearing up after ourselves is harder than ever – and why many feel shame for outsourcing domestic labour

- Lydia Spencer-Elliott

I used to think that people who paid others to clean were lazy – too much money and not enough sense.

A nose so high in the air that they’d be too off-balance to even lift a vacuum cleaner. My mum took on extra work cleaning when I was a teenager. I met her off the school bus at various million-pound houses and failed to understand why their owners didn't mop their own floors or fold their own pants. The first part I can now comprehend; the jury's still out on the latter.

The thing is, we're all busy. Too busy. A survey of 2,000 British adults found that the majority of people don't have sufficient time in their weekly schedules to dust and scrub thanks to longer working hours, a desire to maintain a social life, and childcare responsibilities. Despite an ongoing cost of living crisis, the number of UK households who employ cleaners rose a surprising 70 per cent from 2018 to 2023, according to the most recent YouGov poll.

Mared, a 28-year-old who lives in London with her best friend Bam, 29, says her parents never would have dreamed of hiring a cleaner when she was growing up. She cleaned her room and they tackled the rest of their "hoarder" house as a family.

"I am more middle class than them, culturally and financially," the civil servant says. She employs Bianca, a biweekly cleaner, who charges the girls £60 per visit, to scrub areas they can't reach, shift stubborn stains and, sometimes, fold their laundry or make their beds. "It's a privilege to come home to a deep-cleaned house," reflects Mared. "These things take up your evenings and weekends."