Thinking of hiring a housekeeper

[NYEmomma]

Never thought those words would EVER come out of my mouth!

Not that I wouldn't love to have one as I loathe housekeeping, but I never thought we'd have the money for it.

We still don't *really* have the money for it, but I'm realizing as I go further along in this pregnancy that I'm going to NEED help once the twins get here.

I'm due July 1 so we're expecting (hoping) they'll arrive sometime in June. I'm thinking of getting someone to do housekeeping work starting in May when I'm going to be too big & tired to keep up with much and continuing throughout the summer.

DD will be in preschool starting in the Fall and hopefully by then I'll have the babies on some type of schedule that will allow me to get a bit done in the morning when she's in school.

I'd prefer to hire just a local person, maybe a mom that wants to make a bit of money on the side, that type of thing, rather than a company. But I have NO clue what to expect. What types of things do they do & not do? Will they clean while I'm still home? What should I be anticipating being charged?

Right now I'm planning on just having someone come once every 2 weeks. We have a 1100 sq ft house with 3 bedrooms & 1 bathroom.

 

[hinodis]

My cleaning lady is fabulous. She charges $100 for my 2200 square foot home. I have 4 bedroomsa nd 2 and 1/2 bathrooms. She does what I ask her to do. She comes every 2 weeks. She provides all cleaning supplies and leaves them her for in a cleaning caddy for me to use in between her visits. She even brings her own vacuum. She puts air fresheners in my bathrooms as well as bath and body works soaps. Hire one as soon as you can! And yes I am almost always home when she is here because I work from my home.

 

[puffkin]

My cleaning lady comes every 2 weeks. Just ask around, that is how I found her. She will do whatever I ask (except beds). I pay her $20/hour. My house is 2000 SF (3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths). She takes 3 hours so it is the best $60 I spend! Sometimes I pay her for 4 hours and she will tackle some extra things for me. I do supply all the supplies, she leaves me a list of what she needs.

I got a cleaning lady shortly after DS5 was born and I went back to work. I can honestly say that there is no way it has gotten easier as he has gotten older. If anything, it has gotten harder to clean. It is honestly the best money I spend every month

 

[Kitzka]

I'm not sure how big my house is but we 2 bedrooms and 2 bath. It's not a huge house but DH and I hate cleaning and always fought when we had to do it. About 7 years ago we got a cleaning woman to come once eery 2 weeks. She does the bigger things like really scrubbing the bathroom (toilet, tub, floor, sink, counter), kitchen (scrubbing/mopping the floors, sink, counters, stove, cabinet, etc). She vaccums, cleans the inside of the windows, sweeps and mops the hardwood floors, cleans the dust out of my hurricane shades, etc.

She comes once every 2 weeks. I pay her a set $75 everytime she comes. Sometimes she is at my hosue for 3 hours and other times 4 or 5 (depending on how much she is doing that time). Usually we are not home but she is a relative of a friend so we trust her. But other times DH or I are home and it hasn't been an issue. if she needs to celan a particular room and we are in it she will say, i am going to clean the downstairs bathroom and this is the last room or whatever and we will vacate for a bit so she can do what she needs to do.

DH and I often say that she helped save our marriage as it's a big thing we no longer fight over. I do light cleaning in between her visits (like spraying and rubbing down the tub or toilet and light sweeping or counter cleaning).

We only have 1 DD but are so busy that it has been well worth it for us. We will get rid of cable and cell phones before we get rid of our cleaning lady!

Lara

 

[BBandDisney]

 

[DuckMom]

Loved my cleaning lady, but got rid of her when I stayed home with the boys. I would LOVE to bring her back on, but I can't justify the expense right now. If I had another baby, I would find the money though We have a 1700 square foot house with 3BR and 1.5 baths. We paid $65 every two weeks and she did everything but change the sheets (she made the beds though). She had a key to our house and I just left a check every week. I supplied all the cleaning products, but she brought her own vacuum because we don't have much carpet and ours was bad. I found her through a friend.

I have used other cleaning services and people I've found through craigslist on occasion and have never been as happy. I think you need to set clear expectations. I, for one, get annoyed when the inside of my microwave doesn't get cleaned and the fridge doesn't get wiped off. I have a friend who could care less about that, but would rather pay less and do that herself. If you end up paying by the hour, I would make a list for your cleaning person of the jobs you want done by the importance (ie bathrooms or most important things first down to inside of microwave). That way, the things that are most important to you get covered before little things you can live without.

I also have found that my cleaning lady would put away toys or move clutter, but the services didn't do that. I had to have the kids roomed basically picked up in order for them to take care of the floors. In a perfect world, my kids toys should be all put away all the time (by them), but I don't live in a perfect world, so you might want to check on that too. It drove me nuts to come home to a house that was "clean" but still had toys on the floor.

Also, if you don't supply the products, I would check on the chemicals, etc that they use. If you prefer more natural products, make sure the cleaning person is aware of that.

 

[englishteacha]

I wish we could hire a cleaning person! We only have an 800 sq. ft. home, though. I'd ask around to friends to see who they suggest. In my school district we have a "classified" ad and often times people will ask there for recommendations for people to do work for them, or people will post about their college kids looking for extra money doing yard work or cleaning, etc. That's where I'd start if I were looking.

 

[scottmel]

I had an estimate down by an agency over the phone. $250! Ah noo...I found a local woman that takes about 5 hours and charges 80. I think it fair. I have 4 beds, 3 baths and a dog!!! What I like is she spends abot 4 hours cleaning and the last hour doing odd things - and the odd things differ each time. Maybe she cleans the panes on the french doors or vacuums under all cushions on furniture or does ceiling fans. She does it on a rotation. I like this method b/c she does things I really woudln't think to do.

 

[bettymae1121]

I don't but I know two people that do and spend $75-$100 per visit.

I'd love to have one but until our remodeling is done it would be a waste, the construction mess would be back in less than 24 hours from the maid's visit.

 

[plutolovr]

Okay, had a 2yo when I got pregnant with my twins, carried them for a full 9 months (they were born 3 days prior to their due date). Never needed a housekeeper. We had a 2-story 3 bedroom home. As long as you get the babies on a schedule (you will need to do that, don't let them dictate the schedule), you can do it yourself and save yourself some money. Clean up everyday and it won't get overwhelming.

When it comes to heavy cleaning, like floors, changing sheets, etc. do one room at a time, don't try to do them all in one day.

 

[NYEmomma]

Okay, had a 2yo when I got pregnant with my twins, carried them for a full 9 months (they were born 3 days prior to their due date). Never needed a housekeeper. We had a 2-story 3 bedroom home. As long as you get the babies on a schedule (you will need to do that, don't let them dictate the schedule), you can do it yourself and save yourself some money. Clean up everyday and it won't get overwhelming.

When it comes to heavy cleaning, like floors, changing sheets, etc. do one room at a time, don't try to do them all in one day.

Sorry I'm not as organized as you are. The babies aren't going to be on a schedule until they're several months old -- they nurse when they need to nurse, for as long as it takes. When DD was young, sometimes that would be an hour each time... and she needed to eat every 2 hours. Around the clock. I may be wrong here, but I'm anticipating it taking a bit longer when I have two to feed.

When I have a few free minutes, I'd rather spend it devoting some much needed time & attention to my daughter than trying to clean a toilet.

I know myself, I know my housekeeping skills, I know the psychological problems I suffer with hormonal changes... I'm going to NEED some help & while I applaud you for being super mom & doing it all by yourself, I'm ok admitting that I'm not that good. I'm happy to find ways to cut our budget to have some help for a few months to get over the newborn hump.

 

[NYEmomma]

Thanks so much for all the advice, everyone.

I'll definitely get a list together of things I would like the housekeeper to do when we get to that point. I'm thinking clean the bathroom, clean the kitchen counters & wipe down the appliances, scrub the bathroom & kitchen floor, clean the windows, clean the baseboards (maybe every other time?), dust & vacuum. Does any of that sound out of the ordinary??

We do have a finished basement as well that is being converted into a playroom but I don't think I'll ask to have that cleaned. I'm figuring I'll rarely have the toys picked up enough to have her down there to clean.

For those of you that have found an individual person to clean instead of an agency, do you have some type of agreement/contract written up? If you do, was it something they provided or something you came up with?

I'm part of a local Craigslist type group on FB but it's closed & is all friends and friends-of-friends so everyone is familiar with one another. There's a couple ladies on there that have said they do a bit of housekeeping on the side for a little bit of extra money. I think I'm going to contact them... if it works out, fantastic! If not, that's ok too.

 

[furb & dez]

And why isn't the husband stepping up? Haven't seen anyone bring that elephant in the room up...

 

[NYEmomma]

And why isn't the husband stepping up? Haven't seen anyone bring that elephant in the room up...

Oh, no worries, he's really helpful! Everything is 50/50 around here though I do take charge of the housework since I'm a SAHM and he works FT.

He does all the laundry so he'll continue to do that, of course. I'm going to do some freezer cooking before the babies are born so he'll probably do dinner most nights (he's not the best cook, lol).

But he works an hour away from home so by the time he gets home & we get dinner done, it's 7:00ish and DD needs a bath before bed at 8:00. Now, he's able to get some stuff done while I give her a bath (he dries her off, lotions her up, gets PJ's on, etc. after) but I'm guessing he'll be on baby duty during bath time.

The way our house is set up, I can't do any housework aside from dusting & picking up toys when DD is sleeping. You can hear everything from her room, so vacuuming is out. And it's next to the bathroom so cleaning the bathroom is out.

We'll have weekends, but I'd rather spend the first couple months getting us ALL adjusted to our new family dynamics than cleaning. Once DD starts preschool in the Fall & hopefully the babies will be on something of a schedule by then, I'll be able to take over the housekeeping again.

 

[TosaTrio]

We found our cleaning person through a friend. She charges $80 ( 1700 sq ft including Rec room) and is here between 3-4 hours. Make sure it is clear what she will and will not do. Our cleaning person washes bedding, cleans dishes ( if there are any) picks up toys and straightens up. She also washes my DD (7) laundry. I have had people in the past who would never pick up anything and literally just dusted, cleaned floors, bathrooms etc.

I have had someone clean my house for well over 10 years and it is money well spent IMHO.

 

[daniele_ut]

NYEmomma - don't let anyone make you feel guilty for needing (and I do mean needing) extra help around the house. My kids are 7, almost 4 and one week old. My pregnancy this time was high risk and fraught with complications. I was on restricted activity from 18 weeks on and then on bedrest from 32 weeks on. I delivered last week at 36 weeks in a very complicated c-section/hysterectomy and DS is now in the NICU. We hired cleaning help when I was put on restricted activity and it has been a lifesaver. She has been coming every 2 weeks and we pay her $75 each time. I wish we could continue to keep her while I'm on maternity leave, but she'll come again later this week and probably one more time while I'm healing and then I'll start keeping house myself again. If I had twins, though, and could spare the money, I absolutely would keep the help.

We found her by asking friends for recommendations.

 

[scottmel]

Why do people need to say why someone DOESn't need a cleaning person? I am early 40's totally able to clean my home with one DD12 and a husband that does the laundry. Yet I have a cleaning person every two weeks b/c I like it....I am highly organized and love to spend my time doing something other than cleaning....

 

[NYEmomma]

NYEmomma - don't let anyone make you feel guilty for needing (and I do mean needing) extra help around the house. My kids are 7, almost 4 and one week old. My pregnancy this time was high risk and fraught with complications. I was on restricted activity from 18 weeks on and then on bedrest from 32 weeks on. I delivered last week at 36 weeks in a very complicated c-section/hysterectomy and DS is now in the NICU. We hired cleaning help when I was put on restricted activity and it has been a lifesaver. She has been coming every 2 weeks and we pay her $75 each time. I wish we could continue to keep her while I'm on maternity leave, but she'll come again later this week and probably one more time while I'm healing and then I'll start keeping house myself again. If I had twins, though, and could spare the money, I absolutely would keep the help.

We found her by asking friends for recommendations.

Gosh, that sounds like a ROUGH pregnancy!!! Mine was so simple & normal with DD that all these warnings & possible complications the ob is telling me about has me so paranoid... the idea of maybe being on bed rest, of having the babies premature, of them spending time in the NICU. It's all so scary!!

Your DS is still in the NICU? I hope he gets to come home with you soon!

I definitely don't feel guilty about hiring someone to clean for me for a couple of months... we all have our strengths & weaknesses as humans and as parents. I freely admit that I have NO housekeeping skills. It takes me forever, I never seem to use the right equipment, I forget to do stuff that's obvious to other people & I just have no motivation to do it. I try my best, but it's not something I excel at. Though I'm sure I have other talents that some other people out there struggle with too. I have horrible allergies though so I need to keep on top of the cleaning & I'm going to have enough other things to worry about after the babies are born than to try to fit my pathetic attempts at cleaning in my day.

 

[mistysue]

If you can find a person rather than a service, I think you will be much happier. Services tend to come in and just dust/vacuum and wipe surfaces - generally they will not pick up or put away ANYTHING. I don't have any connections to an individual and the list of what a service won't do is driving me crazy.

I know you said your husband does it, but I would love to have somebody who could just occasionally sort our laundry and dishes. It seemed like with each kid the laundry doubled. Sometimes I can't figure out how all this fabric got here. We average over a load a day so most of the time it doesn't even get put away, each person just has a pile of clean stuff in their closet that we hunt through. Both adults working full time and kids with extra demands will do that. (why I ever decided to cloth diaper... not sure it was worth the stress)

Good luck with your babies! Hopefully nursing will go a little easier, I found that it was MUCH easier with the younger of my kids that are 2 years apart which really helped with getting anything done.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I posted a similar thread several weeks ago. I was looking to hire a cleaning lady to clean my home before a Christmas party.

I found her on Craigslist. Like you, I didn't want a big company (like MerryMaids). She had a nicely written ad...I e-mailed her...checked her references...and hired her. $100 for initial cleaning and $75 for bi-weekly cleanings. My husband and I are still discussing if we will hire her for the bi-weekly cleanings but she did a great job and I will consider having one over again.

We were home when she cleaned (DH was not comfortable with a stranger in the home alone). We stayed out of her way and it was no problem.