HOW many times do we think there are never enough hours in the day to do all the things we want or need to do?

The pressure to work longer, harder, faster in a 24/7 society means we often struggle to keep up with the housework - unless, that is, you decide to hire someone to help out at home.

Almost one in 10 households currently employ at least one person and more than a quarter of households (27 per cent) have, or are considering, employing staff to help out with domestic work or chores, according to new research.

Of those who employ home help, a massive 82 per cent employ cleaners, 30 per cent gardeners, 17 per cent nannies and 16 per cent someone to do the ironing.

Time pressures are the main cause of the boom in domestic staff - 70 per cent claim that they do not have the time to do the duties themselves - while 36 per cent of us prefer to spend our time doing other things. Unsurprisingly, a third of us said we just dislike doing chores.

THE CONVENTIONAL CLEANERBarbara Lister, aged 56, is the owner of cleaners The Magic Wand. She said the company has about 40 clients of all ages, occupations and lifestyles.

"It's for people who haven't got time to do it so we do it for you," she said.

"The type of jobs we do varies quite a lot. I even put up a shelf the other day for someone.

"We help people move and clean their new house, sometimes watering the plants, mowing the lawn, house or dog sitting. It's not just going in and spraying the polish on the furniture."

She said she has seen her work increase because more people go out to work and run their own businesses.

"We work for a lot of professional women in a huge geographical area," she said.

"It isn't just rich people who we work for, but it's for people who think it's not worth their while to do it in their weekends."

THE OVEN CLEANERPeter Jacques, aged 59, of Ovenclean, said there has been a massive increase in the number of clients he has because they lead busy lives.

He said: "Two years ago when we started we had zero clients, now we are doing three a day, six days a week so it has increased and that's generally because of people's lives. At the moment, people are so busy whether they are working or enjoying themselves they just haven't got time to clean."

He said he has a wide range of clients from elderly people to those with money to burn, but the majority are busy families who have not got enough time in their lives to clean.

"We have got to the stage now where we're looking at getting another van," he said.

CASE STUDY ONE: HARD-WORKING COUPLERandeep Singh is a director of an optician's in Worcester.

He has recently got married to his wife Emma, who works at another optician's in Droitwich.

They have since hired a cleaner to help with the chores around their home.

"She cleans, does the washing and the ironing," he said.

"We heard about this particular cleaner from a friend. We have had her for about six weeks. She is really good - in fact, she has been a godsend. We just haven't got the time to do it because we're both quite busy.

"It also means whenever we have time off work we have time to do whatever we want to do."

The 26-year-old said the cleaner works four hours a week at his home and is paid £6 an hour.

"It is well worth it," he said. "It's probably the best money we spend every week."

CASE STUDY TWO: THE BUSY MUMVanessa White, of Warndon Villages, Worcester, has a cleaner who comes to her home twice a week.

She has had a cleaner, who works a total of six hours every week, for four years.

"I got a cleaner because, at the time, I was working very long hours and things weren't getting done and I had the kids as well," she said.

"She's great - everything we need doing, she does it. I just have to try and stop the kids from undoing all her work."

Mrs White said she has a good working relationship with her cleaner, letting her be as flexible with her hours as she wants or needs.

She said everybody should have a cleaner.

"If you get the right one it's brilliant," she said. "Some people have nightmare stories, but we have been lucky."