18 June 2026

Weekly or fortnightly? How to choose the rhythm

How often a cleaner comes depends on your home and your household. The rules of thumb, plus how many hours you need per visit.

Two rhythms are common with regular household help: every week or every other week. Weekly suits a larger household, pets that shed and a home where someone is in all day. Fortnightly is often enough for a small household, a flat or a home that is empty during the day.

Four things steer that choice more than the size of your home. The number of people living there, because dust and clutter scale with occupants. Pets, because hair and grit on the floor are the fastest-visible work. Working from home, because a house in use all day soils faster than one that stands empty from nine to five. And the layout: a hallway with a light floor or an open kitchen shows sooner that a clean is due than a home with dark floors.

Besides how often, there is how many hours per visit. For a flat or a small terraced house three hours per visit is often enough; for a family home over several floors five hours or more is realistic. In doubt, the safe route is this: start fortnightly with a generous estimate of hours, and adjust after a month. A cleaner who knows your home will tell you what it needs.

Separate from the rhythm, there are moments for a deep clean: in spring, after building work, or when a busy stretch becomes visible in the corners. Such a clean removes the backlog, after which the regular rhythm keeps it there. What each of those options costs is in the price index.