I don't have a cleaner at the moment but have in the past. I had one lady for five years and although she wasn't all that good I kept her because I was too soft. My advice would be, dedice with Mrs H what it is you want doing, don't leave it up the the cleaner. You could write her a rota for jobs that don't need doing every week, so, once a month she washes the windows, once a month the inside of the oven, once a month cleans the chimney (joke!) but you know what I mean. The other advice I would give is to say at the beginning that you only want help for a short time (twelve weeks) whilst you are busy on a work 'project', this will be your 'get out' clause if things don't go well, and it saves you from saying 'you're on trial'. If she proves invaluable after this time then you can always extend the contract further. This I feel is esp. important as she is a close neighbour. To be perfectly honest I wouldn't use a close neighbour, I'd ask the agency boss for someone further afield, but that's up to you, if you know that you're going to have a fab working relationship for a long time to come then go ahead. Best Wishes, S.