Get a concrete routine, not a general claim
Ask her to walk you through what she did in her last household — which tasks happened daily, which weekly, and roughly how much time each took. A candidate describing a real routine ("floors and kitchen every morning, bathrooms twice a week, windows monthly") is giving you something you can evaluate, unlike a general answer about being hardworking or thorough.
If she’s worked in a household similar in size and layout to yours, ask directly how long the full routine took there — it gives you a realistic sense of what to expect, rather than an idealised answer to "how would you clean my house."
- Ask for her daily and weekly routine in her last household.
- Ask roughly how long each part of that routine took.
- Ask about specific surfaces and appliances your home has.
Why home size and layout matter more than general skill
A candidate with genuine experience in a small apartment has real skills, but a larger or multi-storey home introduces different demands — more floor area, stairs, more rooms to rotate through on a realistic schedule. Ask directly about the size and type of homes she’s worked in before, and be honest with yourself about whether your home is a meaningfully different scale.
The reverse also matters: someone used to a large household with support may find a smaller, single-person routine involves different expectations around pace and independence. Neither direction is a problem on its own — it’s just worth naming clearly rather than assuming any housekeeping experience transfers automatically.
A short, honest conversation about pace and priorities
No one can clean everything equally fast and equally thoroughly every day — ask her directly how she decides what to prioritise when time is short, and be equally honest about what matters most to your household. This upfront conversation avoids a common source of quiet frustration later, where standards were never discussed.
If housekeeping is one of your household’s two or three duties that can’t slip, name that specifically, and consider a short trial period to confirm the working pace matches what you expect before treating the arrangement as settled.