Tell me about your cleaning service/maid?

[CaFeeney]

I found that one of the mom's of a student in my school was cleaning for several of the teachers so I contacted her. What a GEM... she comes every 2 weeks and does the floors, bathrooms, dusting, cleans the kitchen appliances, etc and then every once and a while she picks a project like the linen closet or the refrigerator and organizes it . She even did DD closet once...I honestly don't know what we would do without her.
After I had DD and went back to work full time I was just overwhelmed with trying to do it all. I felt a bit guilty that I wasn't able to keep up with it myself but the way I look at things I am now able to actually enjoy my weekend time without having to clean one of the days.
I still have to keep up with the dishes, laundry, etc but she makes it so nice to come home every other Tuesday to a clean house!
Oh, we pay $75 each time she comes and I believe she is here about 3 hours. We have 2 bedroom, 1.5 baths so it is not a huge house.
I think I would give up cable before her if we had to cut back..it really is a quality of life issue for me.

 

[angierae]

We have finally given up. We had one housekeeper who we really liked who charged $12/hr and then suddenly she disappeared one day. Called to say she'd have to reschedule to another day, and then we never heard from her, she never returned our calls, etc.

The second girl we had showed up for one day and then walked out in the middle of cleaning because our cats were too wild for her (no, they're not.)

The third woman agreed to $50 a week. She came twice, spending about two hours each time (one bathroom, kitchen/dining room, TV room, living room. No bedrooms.) Then she couldn't come one week because she didn't have gas money to get to our house.

Then she came back one more time, and then started asking for $75 to come out. I told her that she was only spending 2 hours, and there were a few things I thought she was skimping on, but if she rectified those problems I'd give her $60.

She never came back.

I'm not willing to pay $100 for a service to come out. Our house is small, and it only takes two hours to clean. So I'm back to doing it myself on Saturday mornings, although right now I'm stalling and posting to DisBoards rather than getting moving on it. *sigh*

 

[nathaliabrown]

For our 3000 sqrft we were having a person come every other week and she would charge us 80 for 4 hours. She would spend the first 3 hours doing her normal cleaning and for the last we would give her a list of other things we would like for her to do and whatever she wouldn't get to that week she would do on the next visit.

On a side note my father who lives near the border has a livin house keeper from Mexico who he pays 400 a month which includes food and a room.

 

[WeLuvDiznee]

Holy cow,those prices are cheap! I just had a lady who owns her own service come to my home and quote me,she told me she'd bring 2 other women,do a major spring cleaning to my 2,250 sq ft home,(500 of it is upstairs,which I told her not to bother with,it's my husband's work at home area) are you ready- $250.00! And I thought it was a great price! They take apart all light fixtures & clean them ( I never do that),They do stuff I would never do!

 

[Phlip]

We just don't let the house get dirty, LOL-
My kids clean their own rooms (really) DH takes care of the office and basement lounge. I do most of the laundry and vacuuming. Dusting is done by me while on the phone (talking with a friend, taking care of some household business) or the kids. Bathrooms get a deep clean every other week or so, and a wipe down every day, same with the kitchen. Everyone cleans up after themselves. I'll do a couple windows when the mood strikes-they are old 12 over 12's and a huge pain-I take all of the screens out once a season and clean them-they take a couple hours.
I don't think I'd ever have someone come clean my house-I'm way too picky, and way, way too cheap!

 

[Jennifer in MI]

I haven't read all the replies. But, I have a two friends - one is a single mom. The other is a well-to-do mom who is going back to school. I hooked the two of them up. My newly-single mom friend is cleaning the house of the well-to-do mom.

I would encourage you to find someone who really needs the extra money and is motivated to do whatever it takes to get ahead. Make a VERY detailed list of what you want done. VERY detailed. You don't want to be disappointed with what she does.

My friend spends around 6 − 7 hours at her house. She tidys the house, dusts, vacuums, mops, and does 4 − 5 loads of laundry. IF there's time, she will work on a special project - windows or lighting fixtures, for example. She earns $100/week. I think it's cheap!!!

ETA: Her house is probably 3500 sq ft. Three baths. Five bedrooms.