How much do you pay for a housekeeper?

[MosMom]

I am seriously considering hiring a housekeeper to come in weekly or bi-weekly and get the extras done. I'm currently considering taking an assistant manager position at work and that combined with 2 kids, summertime, and really just hating cleaning in general makes me want to do this.

We have a 4 bedroom house with 2 1/2 baths. 2960 Sq. Feet. If you have a similar sized home, how much do you pay? I'd like to hire an individual instead of a cleaning service like Molly Maid. Any disadvantages to doing this? I would make sure they were bonded/insured.

 

[Serena]

I sure don't pay myself enough at all.

 

[MosMom]

I hear ya!

 

[Miss Kelly]

The lady I work for has 2 women come in and clean once a week for $40 (btwn the both of them). They stay approximately 90 minutes and do just about everything. They change the sheets, vacuum, mop, dust, pick up toys, clean bathrooms, etc.

 

[wilderness01]

The going rate around here is $12 to $15 per hour per worker.

 

[kadaten]

Our home is very similarly sized and we've had 2 different ladies come give us estimates. They both wanted $75 per visit to come every other week. Sometimes they bring a helper and sometimes not....pay is the same either way....time spent would be 1.5-2 hours. I didn't go with it as it seems a little steep to me, but everyone on my street has one of them coming in and so do my 2 closest friends....but they're all dual income families so the money wasn't as a big a deal to them. (That price assumes you supply the supplies....if you want them to bring all the supplies it's $5 more per week.)

As for the differences between hiring an individual and a company....
--if an individual is sick, then you may have trouble rescheduling since many of them have a full schedule, but I would think they'd be pretty flexible. If you have a company, they'll send someone else.
--either way someone's got your key....either a company that has multiple people but has hopefully screeend their people, or one person, who you don't have a background on....a toss-up!
--If you're concerned about tax implications, you may want to make sure the individual files all appropriate paperwork and isn't doing it "under the table" unless you're comfortable with that. My DH has a gov't job that could be hurt down the line by "under the table" type workers working for us, so we have to make sure it's all reported as income. That seriously limits our choices as many don't file that paperwork since it eats up so much in taxes (I completely understand, but just can't use them.)
--bonded/insured issues that you already know about

Good luck! I hate cleaning, too! DH gets a raise this summer so I'm hoping to divert some of it to a cleaning lady myself

 

[phyllis1966]

My house is about 2600 sq. ft. and I pay $85 biweekly for 2 ladies. It takes them about 2 1/2 hours to do the whole house, including changing the sheets on 2 beds. It's the going rate around here, and a company like Merry Maids charges almost twice as much, from what I've been told by friends who've inquired.

 

[snoopy]

My sister's house is of similar size and they wanted $100 to clean hers. I had hired a company like Merry Maids to come in and clean while she was in the hospital after having had her first baby. I was very disappointed and unsatisfied with what I got for $100, let me tell you. I ended up doing most of the scrubbing myself - they surface clean ONLY. If I were to ever hire a maid service again (which is doubtful since I do like to clean myself, I know, I am weird.....) I would never go with a large maid service like that, I would hire an individual and specifically tell her what I wanted done.

 

[Hillbeans]

I agree and think that Merry Maids charges a lot, probably because everything is "on the books" so to speak.

I have a lady come to my 3 bd/2.5 bath house and she charges $65. This does not include windows, and I have the house in good order before they come. They change the linens, clean the bathrooms, vaccuum, dust.

 

[jel0511]

My house is a similiar size, and I pay $65 per week. She cleans EVERYTHING and even scrubs the floors!! She's wonderful, and I'd never get rid of her! It is such a blessing that I don't have to worry about the cleaning anymore. Now, if I could only find someone to do my laundry..........

 

[kaseyC]

We have a nice lady who comes in bi-weekly. We pay her $75. Our house is about 3700 sq feet. It takes her about 4 hrs.
One of the best things we did when we hired her since she does not speak english well. We walked through the house with her and identified everything we wanted done and then she gave us a price.
She is awesome and I love not having to clean. I am a SAHM with 3 DDs so it is nice to be able to focus on the girls and just having to handle the daily minor picking up and wiping.

 

[Tea Please]

We pay 80.00 weekly. She is here for about 4/12-5 hours. But I also make her lunch and she stays and has coffee too. I really like her. She does an awesome job and I know she really needs the money. Sometimes she brings her teenage daughter and I'll slip the kid some cash too.

 

[Bob Slydell]

$70 a week for a similar sized house every 2 weeks.

 

[Microcell]

My sister in law pays $100 bi weekly and it does not look all that much cleaner to me. She is always cleaning anyway becasue she can't have someone clean a dirty house.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

I pay myself with a trip to Disney!

Seriously, I cannot stand the thought of a stranger cleaning my house.

 

[Rajah]

I think ours is about $60 or $70 bi-weekly for 2 ladies to come in and do just the main floor. It would have been another $40 or so to do the second floor, but we do most of our living on the first floor so that's the one that gets dirty faster.

Ours is an actual cleaning service, but it's a private one rather than a large chain. I was dubious about them at first (because I hadn't had good experiences in the past) but now I *love* having them come. The ladies are wonderful, and the house is spotless when they get done.

 

[Dodie]

I paid someone to clean my house for a few weeks following a surgery last year. (Wish I still had her around, believe me!)

She charged $18 per hour. She came for 4 hours one day per week. ($72) She provided her own cleaning supplies.

It would have been $15 per hour if I provided the supplies, but she had a list of specific things that she required. It was cheaper to just pay her to use her stuff.