How much do you pay your housekeepers?

[mefordis]

I live right in the heart of Buckeye country too. It is a virtual sea of scarlet and gray here quite frequently.

I loved growing up in a college town (Ann Arbor). I really miss Saturday football. I'm hoping my 8 yr old wants to go to U of M or another Big Ten college to get that experience.

 

[ccgirl]

When I had my housecleaner, I paid her $120 every two weeks. She was there for 6 hours. She was amazing. Even cleaned out the fridge. Sadly, she moved away and with the economy and my two layoffs I just do it myself now. The house has never looked the same. I have vowed to get a cleaner again this summer so I can enjoy my weekends more though!

Like you, I am in the Northeast and that seems to be the going rate around here.

 

[mefordis]

Yeah, it seems to be the going rate.

What is your strategy for cleaning? I'm going to make a spreadsheet with each day of the week and do one room a day. I'm going to set the timer for 45 minutes and after that 45 minutes I should be done with each room!

When I had my housecleaner, I paid her $120 every two weeks. She was there for 6 hours. She was amazing. Even cleaned out the fridge. Sadly, she moved away and with the economy and my two layoffs I just do it myself now. The house has never looked the same. I have vowed to get a cleaner again this summer so I can enjoy my weekends more though!

Like you, I am in the Northeast and that seems to be the going rate around here.

 

[msmama]

I think that sounds high, personally.

I pay my cleaning lady $100 every 2 weeks (I'll give her double next time for Xmas). She does floors, bathrooms, dusts. Windows 2 times a year. Oven every couple weeks. Cleans out the fridge every so often (she has a schedule that she rotates that I can never remember but there's usually an "extra" above and beyond the normal stuff). Will change sheets but I don't often have her do that.

The problem I have with doing it myself is that the house then is never actually clean. Sure, everything may be dusted, but the floors need to be done. The floors are done, but the bathrooms need to be done.

With my cleaning lady, everything is actually clean on the same day, something I could never actually manage myself (even before I had kids). It's way easier for me to touch up and just clean up messes over that 2 weeks then. Frankly, she's better at it than I am. I admit it.

Personally, in my list of priorities there are several things that I'd cut before cleaning lady!!

If you ask around - friends and neighbors, maybe you could find someone cheaper. I know mine isn't taking on new clients, but she knows people that are, so...

 

[princessmom29]

Without trying to start an argument, why are you implying that I didn't work? While raising our 2 kids both my husband and I worked and kept our own house and did (still do!) our own yard work . I wasn't always a lady of leisure eating bon bon's LOL!

becuase you siad you were primary caregiver to your daughter's baby, I assumed you were home with the child all day. I wasn't implying that you were a lady of leisure. Being a SAHM doesn't mean you are, but IMO it makes it a LOT easier to keep a spotless house. Most days I leave at 6:16 and walk in the door between 7 and 8. I do my own cleaning, but my house is not as clean as I would like becuase at some point i have to just leave it and go to bed if i want to be functional the next day. DH leaves at 5:20 and is back about the same time, so he cannot pick up the slack either. During the summer, I have no problem staying on top of everything becuase I am home. Ok, break is over and kids are coming back. Back to teaching.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Actually, it's quite the opposite. If both my spouse and I worked 50+ hours a week, our house would be spotless during the week, since there is no one there to mess it up.

My kids manage to mess it up between school and bedtime. And with 2 of us working full time it's for sure hard to to get it all done.

 

[beansmom]

becuase you siad you were primary caregiver to your daughter's baby, I assumed you were home with the child all day. I wasn't implying that you were a lady of leisure.

I work full-time and have a 5-year old and DH is in college full-time. And we manage to clean our own home. I've never even considered hiring someone. I find it so bizarre that anyone would spend money on that (especially the amounts I hear people mentioning).

well, i AM a lady of leisure so to speak. I work with my husband part-time..2-3 days a week usually and for about 4 hours per day. I have raised 3 children and cleaned house all the time they were growing up. I am now married to a doctor who makes six figures and we have a 3k sf house. I have cleaned my share of house and I darn well don't apologize for having a housekeeper now. I do enjoy a clean house but I would rather spend MY time doing other things.

To each his own....my 'own' happens to include a housekeeper and NOT cleaning toilets.

 

[tms295psu]

I clean my own (no extra money or I'd definately pay!!!)

My aunt has a very large home (10,000 + sq ft, 6 living rooms, 9 bathrooms, 6 bedrooms... completely insane in my opinion) she pays 2 women $15/hr to come in 1 day per week... average 8-10 hours. They clean windows, scrub floors (tile grout is done with toothbrushes YIKES!, wipe woodwork, dust including all artifical plants, etc.) Only thing they don't do is laundry (no changing bedding, washing folding, or putting away)

If she is getting ready for the holidays or spring cleaning, they come 2 times per week for a week or two.

My aunt also cleans WITH THEM most times

 

[englishteacha]

I can't remember the last time my entire house was clean at once. We do it ourselves. We both work full time. If you do a little each day, it's not too bad. Giving up an entire Saturday to clean is awful, so I try to do a little here and there. If the sink needs cleaning, I clean it. If the counters are buried, I'll attack those. Even if we had a cleaning person come in, they wouldn't put away our clutter! Our home is tiny and we just have too much stuff. (We're working on that, though!) In our area, a cleaning person charges $50+ per visit. It's not in our budget to hire someone. Unfortunately (for me) I have severe respiratory allergies so I have to use gentle cleaners. It takes a lot longer to clean a tub with elbow grease than when you can just spray something noxious on it that will eat the soap scum!

Oh, and I was a housekeeper at a motor inn in college. I can clean a bathroom very quickly and change a bed pretty darn fast, too. It's easy to clean a room with no clutter! I have a friend who HATES laundry but loves cleaning. If she lived closer, we'd barter and I'd do her laundry and she'd clean our house!

 

[beansmom]

I clean my own (no extra money or I'd definately pay!!!)

My aunt has a very large home (10,000 + sq ft, 6 living rooms, 9 bathrooms, 6 bedrooms... completely insane in my opinion) she pays 2 women $15/hr to come in 1 day per week... average 8-10 hours. They clean windows, scrub floors (tile grout is done with toothbrushes YIKES!, wipe woodwork, dust including all artifical plants, etc.) Only thing they don't do is laundry (no changing bedding, washing folding, or putting away)

If she is getting ready for the holidays or spring cleaning, they come 2 times per week for a week or two.

My aunt also cleans WITH THEM most times

Holy camoley!!! that's a MANSION...and where the heck did she find people who would clean like that for $15 an hour???? She must be a Svengali with the 'help'. Wow.

 

[jmac323]

Oh I was so excited to see this post. Lots of great info and stories. currently we are in an 1800 sq. foot home in Northern California and I do all the cleaning (I hire someone to do carpet cleaning and windows/blinds annually) but I do everything else. I'm kind of a neat freak too, so for the most part the house is pretty squared away. I work full + time and so does DH. We have a 5 1/2 year old and 1 1/2 year old. Both girls grew up listening to the vacuum in the background whilst napping so they are used to noise around the house while napping which is nice. Both also like to "help" clean. I give them the dusters and they go to town with me LOL.
We're moving to a 3000 sq ft house in 3 weeks, and I start my Master's program at the same time so I've been thinking of hiring someone to come in once a month for deep cleaning (bathrooms, windows, baseboards, etc). I have no idea on price and I've looked on Craigslist and seen some that I thought were great deals but not through a service so I was kind of worried about that. Here's a couple questions i have:
- do you use a service? or pay under the table?
- are you home when they come to clean? (for intance, I work from home one day a week and that might be a good day to have someone come in?)

Just curious on those things. I feel like with the lack of time I'm about to experience the money spending on someone else doing our chores will be so helpful so I can focus on my school work and my free time with the girls. Thanks for all the info!!!

 

[hsmamato2]

.....oh,wait, this is a serious question on the budget board? sorry,can't help it...... wait,this is the budget board,right? ok I'm ready...flame away!

 

[mefordis]

.....oh,wait, this is a serious question on the budget board? sorry,can't help it...... wait,this is the budget board,right? ok I'm ready...flame away!

I see your point! However, I see posts about American Girl dolls all the time on this board. That used to amaze me, as well. But then I realized that everyone has a different budget. Some budgets accommodate some luxury spending. It is also a WDW message board. An expensive vacation spot (IMO) that many people frequent annually!

Even though we bring in a good amount of salary, I still have to keep us on a budget.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I posted a housekeepers thread on the Community Board last week.

I'm having a lady come in on Friday (first time) to clean my house for a party I'm having Saturday. $100 for that first cleaning. She said it would be $75 for bi-weekly cleanings, which seems reasonable to me. I'll have to see how good of a job she does to see if it would be worth it. I would love, love, love to just focus on keeping up with the clutter and doing spot-cleanings than having to spend a decent chunk of each weekend doing a deep clean.

It just seems like the whole house is NEVER clean at the same time.

 

[ccgirl]

I can't remember the last time my entire house was clean at once. We do it ourselves. We both work full time. If you do a little each day, it's not too bad. Giving up an entire Saturday to clean is awful, so I try to do a little here and there. If the sink needs cleaning, I clean it. If the counters are buried, I'll attack those. Even if we had a cleaning person come in, they wouldn't put away our clutter! Our home is tiny and we just have too much stuff. (We're working on that, though!) In our area, a cleaning person charges $50+ per visit. It's not in our budget to hire someone. Unfortunately (for me) I have severe respiratory allergies so I have to use gentle cleaners. It takes a lot longer to clean a tub with elbow grease than when you can just spray something noxious on it that will eat the soap scum!

Oh, and I was a housekeeper at a motor inn in college. I can clean a bathroom very quickly and change a bed pretty darn fast, too. It's easy to clean a room with no clutter! I have a friend who HATES laundry but loves cleaning. If she lived closer, we'd barter and I'd do her laundry and she'd clean our house!

This. Exactly. There is someone in my family that thought I was crazy for paying a cleaning person. SHe always said her house was just as clean. Wrong!!! If you looked at her ceiling fans, light bulbs, pictures etc they were always dusty. Her bathtub was never as clean as mine, nor the windows.

well, i AM a lady of leisure so to speak. I work with my husband part-time..2-3 days a week usually and for about 4 hours per day. I have raised 3 children and cleaned house all the time they were growing up. I am now married to a doctor who makes six figures and we have a 3k sf house. I have cleaned my share of house and I darn well don't apologize for having a housekeeper now. I do enjoy a clean house but I would rather spend MY time doing other things. To each his own....my 'own' happens to include a housekeeper and NOT cleaning toilets.

This exactly too. Since I work full time outside of the home, I like to spend as much family time as I can on the weekend and don't want to spend it house cleaning.

Oh I was so excited to see this post. Lots of great info and stories. currently we are in an 1800 sq. foot home in Northern California and I do all the cleaning (I hire someone to do carpet cleaning and windows/blinds annually) but I do everything else. I'm kind of a neat freak too, so for the most part the house is pretty squared away. I work full + time and so does DH. We have a 5 1/2 year old and 1 1/2 year old. Both girls grew up listening to the vacuum in the background whilst napping so they are used to noise around the house while napping which is nice. Both also like to "help" clean. I give them the dusters and they go to town with me LOL.
We're moving to a 3000 sq ft house in 3 weeks, and I start my Master's program at the same time so I've been thinking of hiring someone to come in once a month for deep cleaning (bathrooms, windows, baseboards, etc). I have no idea on price and I've looked on Craigslist and seen some that I thought were great deals but not through a service so I was kind of worried about that. Here's a couple questions i have:
- do you use a service? or pay under the table?
- are you home when they come to clean? (for intance, I work from home one day a week and that might be a good day to have someone come in?)

Just curious on those things. I feel like with the lack of time I'm about to experience the money spending on someone else doing our chores will be so helpful so I can focus on my school work and my free time with the girls. Thanks for all the info!!!

Let's see if I can answer your questions. I did not use a service. Process of elmination here.

I was home when she first got there, usually. Else, I would just leave the door unlocked. So, for me it was essential to have someone I trusted.

Here's the thing. I get home at 6pm at night, and those are the nights without the extra curricular activities. I cook dinner. Go over homework, pack lunches for the next day, do baths and put the kids to bed. It is then 9:30pm. No time then to scrub the bathrooms, vacuum, dust, do the windows, mop the floors, ceiling fans etc. So, while we are not home during the day, the house is not getting cluttered but it certainly is not getting clean either. Dust will still accumulate when people aren't in the house. It's amazing how much damage we can do in the short time we are home too.

So, that is why I have vowed to make it a priority in my budget to get a cleaner again this summer. I want to go to the beach on the weekend. Not mop my floors and dust.

 

[ccgirl]

.....oh,wait, this is a serious question on the budget board? sorry,can't help it...... wait,this is the budget board,right? ok I'm ready...flame away!

I see your point! However, I see posts about American Girl dolls all the time on this board. That used to amaze me, as well. But then I realized that everyone has a different budget. Some budgets accommodate some luxury spending. It is also a WDW message board. An expensive vacation spot (IMO) that many people frequent annually!

Even though we bring in a good amount of salary, I still have to keep us on a budget.

Exactly. Everyone has a different budget.

 

[RadioFanatic]

I feel inspired by folks who have house cleaning routines and involve their kids in the process. Some of the info. on this thread is helpful and informative but I don't understand posters who have to express their opinions in a negative way. I surmise the OP came from a humble background but has a DH who makes waaaaay more than an average salary and housekeepers are the norm in her circle. It seems she's trying to strike a balance between frivilous spending and practicality.

I do think $165 is average for my neck of the woods, if you only have them every 3 weeks. My neighbors are spotless, 2 adults, no kids, 3500 s.f. house and they were paying $150/cleaning for a once-a-month service.

Thank you, I was thinking the same thing. Both dh and I work 50+ hours and frankly, having a cleaner come in twice a month saved us our marriage bc our biggest argument was cleaning. We pay $104 each time in upstate NY.

 

[hsmamato2]

I see your point! However, I see posts about American Girl dolls all the time on this board. That used to amaze me, as well. But then I realized that everyone has a different budget. Some budgets accommodate some luxury spending. It is also a WDW message board. An expensive vacation spot (IMO) that many people frequent annually!

Even though we bring in a good amount of salary, I still have to keep us on a budget.

I know...I know.... I just like to come here and read lots of great posts and advice...most especially when I need a 'budget' boost b/c I don't have any extra! And all the 'buy stuff spend more (it's a DEAL)' posts do get to me at times.... sorry I'm still laughing though,and I'll continue to just thinking about the idea....

 

[momto2girls]

.....oh,wait, this is a serious question on the budget board? sorry,can't help it...... wait,this is the budget board,right? ok I'm ready...flame away!

We all have different budgets. And just because a bi-monthly housekeeper IS in my budget, doesn't mean that I don't look to save money on other things when I can.

 

[mefordis]

They are not pulling out the furniture to clean! I just pulled out a chair to string lights around a window and there is DUST and dirt behind it!