for those who have a housekeeper

[emmababy]

We are expecting our second child in August, and were thinking of hiring a housekeeper to come every other week. Just curious, what the going rate would be on a 3 br home?

 

[frtchr]

Congratulations! We're expecting our second in September, and I have a company, Mini Maids, come to help. They come every week, and they send 3 or 4 people at a time. Our house is 4400 square feet, and it takes them about an hour to do it. The charge is $100 a week.

 

[puffkin]

From what I have read it varies from area to area. It also makes a difference if you go with a service or an individual.

My cleaning lady (she operates by herself) does my house for $90 biweekly. It is a 2000 SF 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath. She does EVERYTHING except windows. She even hits the light fixtures, towel racks, inside the microwave etc. I think she does an excellent job and we are very pleased even after almost 2 years. Every now and then she misses something, but I just leave a note and she does it extra good next time (and never misses it again!).

I found her in the paper because I don't know anyone who has a cleaning lady and the services were so expensive. I have referred her to several friends now and they are also happy. However she charges some more than me because there houses are a lot messier. She always says my house is so clean and not full of a lot of knick knacks so she charges me less.

I would highly recommend getting one if you can at all afford it. Trust me, I don't make a ton of money, but I have fairly high standards of cleanliness and was killing myself to keep up with everything. WE have cut way back on eating out and I brown bag my lunch so I can afford my cleaning lady, but it is so worth it to have that extra time with my family

 

[disneymomof1]

Our neighbor has a company come called Merry Maids and he said they charge him $100, he has the service every 2 weeks. After I went back to work with DD I found a lady from our neighborhood who had just retired. She had mentioned to me that she was thinking of taking a few houses to clean. I jumped on her immediately. She charges us $50.00 a week and I tell you I can't get my house as clean as she can. Sometimes she will go to the store for us, or make a casserole or start dinner. She is a godsend. I was thinking recently of approaching her to see if she does laundry too, but DH said he did not want her washing his dirty clothes, so I guess I will be stuck being the full time mom, full time social worker, part time grad school student, wife, cook and laundry worker!!!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

It definitely varies with location. I'm in Columbus. I noticed you are in Ohio too. I pay $100 per cleaning. I have a 3br/2.5ba house.

 

[jen2207]

Hiring our cleaning lady is the best thing I ever did! She works on her own, I got her from a referral from a friend, $50 per time. She spends about 3.5 hours - scrubs floors, toilets tubs etc. (4br, 3500 sq ft) It is great. She told me to put our sheets in the laundry and she would make our beds for us too - with a crib and bunk beds??? it is heaven!!! =)

 

[RadioFanatic]

I have a 5 bedroom home but have the cleaning lady just clean two as others are "extra" and two full baths, LR, FR and kitchen for $75 every other week.

 

[Princess Roo]

I had someone come for my last trimester, since I was having early contractions, and then the first 3 months of the new baby as my birthday gift (my birthday, not the baby - LOL). I actually didn't like having someone else clean my house...just couldn't get used to it. I'm thinking about having a service come in to deep-clean twice a year so I don't have to do some of those tasks, but I won't have to have someone in my house all the time.

The woman who did ours does several homes in our neighborhood that are 3 or 4BR older (smaller) homes for $80-100 per visit if she comes every other week.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I would highly recommend getting one if you can at all afford it. Trust me, I don't make a ton of money, but I have fairly high standards of cleanliness and was killing myself to keep up with everything. WE have cut way back on eating out and I brown bag my lunch so I can afford my cleaning lady, but it is so worth it to have that extra time with my family

Exactly!!!
Ours is $70 biweekly. 3br 2 ba rancher. best idea we ever had!
I just factor it into the cost of working FT. I don't shop for clothes much, wear scrubs and sneakers to work so my other costs of working are very low.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

We are expecting our second child in August, and were thinking of hiring a housekeeper to come every other week. Just curious, what the going rate would be on a 3 br home?

I live in Alabama. My housekeeper comes every Friday and she cleans anything and everything I need her to for $75.00 per week - only thing she doesn't do is laundry. I have a 5 bedroom, 3 bath house.

 

[emmababy]

Thanks everybody for the posts! I currently have a lawn service, so I will have to wait until this fall, but wanted to get an idea of how much.

 

[moparop]

We paid $200 for ours in Michigan, but we had a lot hardwood and apparently that costs more.

 

[HerdOHuds]

We have an every-other-week gal come in. She does floors, windows, changes sheets, wipes down the kitchen, and cleans the bathrooms. We have a 4 bedroom, 2 bath in So. IL. It costs $50 for 3 hours. I think she wants to raise her rates because of the cost to drive to our home, but I love that she mops the kitchen floor and know that there is no way we can afford to pay her what she is worth! She also does my mom's house the same day.