Housecleaner cost question.

[Felicia]

For anyone that IS a housecleaner... please tell me what the cost would be to clean house:

House:
approx 5000+sq ft
5 bedrooms plus large sitting room/office off master (dust,vacuum,mirrors)
4 1/2 bathrooms (scrub,sanitize,mop)
double staircases (vacuum)
dining room (dust, mop and vacuum)
living room (dust,vacuum)
large kitchen (clean,sanitize,mop)
even larger 'eat in' area (dust, clean, mop)
two 'antique' rooms (14 X 17 & 12 x 27) dust, vacuum

Occupants:
late 30's couple with two small children (2 & 3yo)
AND one set of grandparents

Takes approximately 5 hours to clean.

In order to make extra money I started cleaning the above house. It is very large and quite a workout. I come out of the house soaked from sweat as they refuse to turn the air conditioning down past 80 (even on the 90degree+ days). The occupants only pay $80 and DH says it is too little for amount of work I do.

What do you think? What should the cost be?

 

[Pamlur]

You are getting paid about half what I would be paying for a house that size, plus my air is always where my housekeeper needs it to be.

 

[Gigi22]

Good grief! You need a raise! Do you know what the going rate is in your area?

My house is a modest 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, and there's only the 2 of us (both retired, and a bit underfoot) and 1 indoor cat. I pay my housekeeper $75 every 2 weeks. It takes about 3 hours to clean our house, and I keep our a/c at 73 degrees F. in the summer, the furnace at 2 degrees cooler in the winter.

The big thing in my house is the wood and tile floors that have to be cleaned.

 

[momto2girls]

That doesn't sound like nearly enough to me. The main two floors of my house are around 5000 sq. ft. If I only have this space cleaned (not the finished basement or the carriage suite), I pay $135 for a bi-monthly cleaning.

ETA: The main two floors (which add up to about 5000 sq. ft.) have 3 full bathrooms and 2 half bathrooms. Also, I always turn my air conditioning cooler for my cleaners.

 

[JessicaR]

I pay $125 every 2 weeks and she is here working 5 hours. You are under paid for your area. I would ask that they put the air on while you are there.

 

[Felicia]

Wow, you all are opening my eyes! So apparently $80 each week is too little for the work I do. I don't need to do this job, but I like the 'manicure/pedicure' money from it!lol Yes, the heat is unbearable. I bring my own bottled water.

oh,,, forgot to mention...
I also bring my own vacuum, mop and broom!!! They supply the cleaning liquid supplies.
AND they are home the entire time. very rarely they will take the kids out, but they try to keep them in separate rooms.

 

[Lynne M]

Oh, my, that sounds way, way, way too low. Especially for Westchester. I would think a company that does housecleaning (Merry Maids, etc) would charge at least double what you're charging for a house that size. I doubt very much that I could find someone to clean my little 2 bedroom apartment for $80, and that's with 2 tiny bathrooms, no staircases, no dining rooms, no antique rooms.

Are you using your own cleaning products, or do they supply them? If you're providing the cleaning products, I don't see how you're making any money at all.

Spend some time on Google researching rates for house cleaning. You're essentially running a small business. Treat it like that, figure out what other people who provide the same service in your area are charging and price your services accordingly.

ETA: I see that they supply the cleaning products. But you still need to replace mop heads occasionally, and there's wear and tear on the vacuum that needs to be figured in.

 

[Lynne M]

Oh, and as for the temperature, setting it that high is thoughtless and rude. When I had painters and carpeters in, I told them to set the temperature to whatever was comfortable for them. When people are doing hard manual labor in my home, it's only right that they be comfortable.

 

[JessicaR]

Wow, you all are opening my eyes! So apparently $80 each week is too little for the work I do. I don't need to do this job, but I like the 'manicure/pedicure' money from it!lol Yes, the heat is unbearable. I bring my own bottled water.

oh,,, forgot to mention...
I also bring my own vacuum, mop and broom!!! They supply the cleaning liquid supplies.
AND they are home the entire time. very rarely they will take the kids out, but they try to keep them in separate rooms.

I supply everything including breakfast and lunch and bottled water and a pot of coffee.

You do too much for too little. I bet they know it too!

 

[ilovepcot]

I don't need to do this job, but I like the 'manicure/pedicure' money from it!l.

NO ONE needs a manicure/pedicure this bad. These people are taking advantage of you and it obviously isn't bothering them one iota.

 

[Janepod]

GIRL, NO! I am in Fairfield County (so basically the same demographics as Westchester) and that would be $150 here, MINIMUM, more like $180. And we would supply everything you need and leave the air on.

I am all for manicure/pedicure mad money but I don't like to see anyone being taken advantage of. Shut it down.

 

[disykat]

Around here, $15 an hour is not that unreasonable for standard house cleaning. What sounds more unreasonable to me is getting that all done in 5 hours. You are entitled to a reasonable workload and some breaks, regardless of how much people pay in your area. IMO, vacuuming 5000 sq ft including stairwells is sort of above and beyond and falls more into a "heavy cleaning" category and should get more pay.

One thing you probably can't change since they are home when you are cleaning is the temperature.

 

[scubamouse]

I'm in Westchester and we pay $100/week for a 4 bed/3.5 bath 3400 sf house. Our house is cool and we supply everything. You're definitely underpaid.

 

[Felicia]

Thank you all for your input. I found the job craigslist, and since it less than 1 mile from my house, AND i love cleaning, I figured what the heck. They offered $80, and since never doing anything like this before, I figured it was 'going rate'. DH has been saying all along it didn't pay right. Guess he was right

Some of you pay $125 - $135 every other week, but would you pay that much EACH week? just curious.

 

[Scrap4me]

Run for the hills!

For 10 + years I cleaned residential in the Charlotte, NC area. Mainly I worked in the Ballantyne area cleaning million dollar plus homes. I cleaned for football players, bank executives, lawyers and a few doctors.
What you have described is something that would be charged like this:

Initial Clean is $250 -- This is a very deep scrub, everything moved, and cleaned, including drapes and blinds.

Bi-Weekly After Initial is $ 175, more if you are required to dust every single knick-knack on display.

Having to work around people is such a pain in the cleaning bucket! I loved that my clients were rarely home.

Time for you to step to the plate and ask for a raise. Do not settle! If they are unsure about the price, have them call Molly Maids or Merry Maids..they will have their eyes opened! They know you are their cleaner...with one of these companies, they work in pairs, and you are never guaranteed the same cleaners every time.

Rethink working for just $80. After all my years of cleaning I had to give it up. My back simply could not do it anymore! And let me tell you, my bank account misses it! For 3 years straight, my income was almost $80,000 just cleaning homes..Sure I worked 6 days a week, sometimes 12 hours a day, but man the payoff was great!

Good luck! And don't back down!!!!

 

[Scrap4me]

Thank you all for your input. I found the job craigslist, and since it less than 1 mile from my house, AND i love cleaning, I figured what the heck. They offered $80, and since never doing anything like this before, I figured it was 'going rate'. DH has been saying all along it didn't pay right. Guess he was right

Some of you pay $125 - $135 every other week, but would you pay that much EACH week? just curious.

Some of my clients were weekly. If they wanted the full package weekly, it was full price. Others were full clean one week, and basics (bathrooms and kitchen) the next. For the basics the price was typically 1/2 of normal. Believe me, if they love the work you do, they will pay!

 

[CTMomof2]

Fairfield County resident here.

I pay $150 per week for a 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom home, 3800 square feet.

We treat her like family.

You are being taken advantage of.

 

[1Jackpot]

My housekeeper comes once a week, just to do more thorough cleaning. I pay her $250 once a week. Now, we have an 8000 sq foot home. 5 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, play room for the kids. She's there all day. We generally leave for the day so the kids don't get in the way. I supply her with whatever she needs to do the job and always keep the house cool. I feel bad because I like the house cold and sometimes it feels like a meat locker in here! I also try to make her a lunch ahead of time and leave it in the fridge.

 

[Nicolepa]

Around here, $15 an hour is not that unreasonable for standard house cleaning. What sounds more unreasonable to me is getting that all done in 5 hours. You are entitled to a reasonable workload and some breaks, regardless of how much people pay in your area. IMO, vacuuming 5000 sq ft including stairwells is sort of above and beyond and falls more into a "heavy cleaning" category and should get more pay.

One thing you probably can't change since they are home when you are cleaning is the temperature.

I don't know where in Washington you are, but in the Seattle area $25/hour is cheap.

OP, 5 hours would be AT LEAST $125 here, more like $150/175.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

We pay that much for a space 1/5 that size in the city. I would expect to pay at least $150 for what you are doing.