Does anyone here have a housekeeper?

Into+the+Kitty

I want to hire one. Does yours just clean, or do they tidy too?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

YellowLily2013

We don't. But we did growing up and friends do. I believe most of them just clean. But I'm sure you could come up with an arrangement if you wanted. Like put stuff in a basket or whatever... They won't be able to know where everything goes, nor do they like to get into you personal belongings.

RIngReady

We do, and I always tidy up before she gets to our house. 

She comes for 3 hours every 3 weeks. She is willing to do whatever we ask including tidying up: putting dishes away, starting/folding laundry, putting toys in toybox ect however that would take her time. I frankly would rather her spend her 3 hours cleaning and doing the stuff I dont want to do when I can tidy up and then things are where I want then. 

jcwinsto

RIngReady said:

We do, and I always tidy up before she gets to our house. 

She comes for 3 hours every 3 weeks. She is willing to do whatever we ask including tidying up: putting dishes away, starting/folding laundry, putting toys in toybox ect however that would take her time. I frankly would rather her spend her 3 hours cleaning and doing the stuff I dont want to do when I can tidy up and then things are where I want then. 

This.  Ours comes once a week.  I think it depends on the housekeeper and I think ours would do whatever I asked but I would rather she spent her time actually cleaning.  I pick up and put away everything before she comes.  She just does floors, bathrooms, dusts, etc.  I worry about the kitchen and dishes. I have had her do a couple specialty type things like clean the inside of the fridge and the oven hood and top of the fridge. With her doing the bulk of the basics I can concentrate on just keeping it neat and doing the extra things that come up.  I find that I am much more relaxed now.  I don't sit down and feel bad that I should be up cleaning the floors.

YellowLily2013

I've also heard you can make a list of "must clean" items and "would be nice to have cleaned" items. That way they can budget their time accordingly. Especially if you have a specialty item like the microwave or refrigerator you want cleaned.

YellowLily2013

Speaking of which. I should clean our house! I've been procrastinating.

stoneycakes

This is not what you asked, but I'll just contribute my experience since I'm sure you're dying to know  I was seriously thinking about hiring a housekeeper.  Then, we ended up putting DS into daycare so we could have time to work on our house before we listed it.  Now that we're done with the house, I'm still keeping DS in daycare once a week.  He loves the social interaction there and I take that day to do tons of cleaning, food prep, and a little me time.  I love the arrangement and it costs me about the same as a weekly cleaning would.

MoFree

We have a housekeeper / nanny. When DD naps she cleans. She also straightens up every day. We hit the jackpot with the woman we hired to watch DD while we work.

freezorburn

We have a woman who comes in once a week and she tidies and cleans. Sometimes we have to look around for our stuff because she might not put it back in the right place, but mostly that's kitchen stuff or DS's toys which tend to be in constant motion anyway.

I try not to leave too much in the way of dishes for her. As it is, she might clean a few things but mostly stacks things in the dishwasher, but then I have to check to make sure she hasn't put any wood, cast iron, or knives in there.

A few years ago, before baby, I had an injury and couldn't keep up with the housekeeping, so we had a cleaning service come in every other week. They also tidied, but our contract explicitly said they would not do dishes. But on the rare occasion that I left a couple things in the sink, they cleaned them anyway.

You've probably babyproofed, but I advise not keeping anything fragile lying around if you have someone come in to clean. Our cleaning service broke a glass figurine that I brought back from Murano. I was seriously bummed about that.

ufsandra85

we have one who comes weekly. she is here for about 3 hours and cleans, she will tidy if it isnt but i always pre tidy up because i rather her clean and she doesnt know where stuff goes

Mandmeesh

After you hire someone, ITK, send them my way!

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Mandmeesh

Yeah, if you're hired to clean, it's not awkward :-/

blondolphn

When I was working, we had some cleaning ladies come in every two weeks. Kind of pricey, but I don't know how they got my kitchen floors so clean. I really miss them. They also did a fantastic job on the bathroom, which I hate. So there's that. The first time they comein you are to be home so they can make a list of items not to touch (ie glass figurines) and they do a deep clean. 

Into+the+Kitty

Thanks for all the input ladies! Follow up question: Do they use the chemicals I have here or bring their own? We avoid bleach and harsh cleaning chemicals, and I would prefer that stuff not being used inmy house at all.

freezorburn

The service I used to use specified that they used green cleaning products, and brought their own. It's probably a good idea to interview and get estimates from several services so that you can learn whether they will bring their own products, what those products are, or if they will use what you provide.

Our current maid is just a one-woman operation. We kept on the woman who was cleaning for our landlords and then when she took a different job she recommended her SIL to us. They were not using green products here, but I've been gradually switching things over. The biggest challenge was switching her over from a conventional mop to a steam mop, since the new maid doesn't speak much english. My next project with her is to get her to use washable cleaning cloths, because I suspect she is bringing paper towels with her every week.

blondolphn

Ours has you buy the products and keep in your home.  They give you a recommended list of what to have on hand.

jcwinsto

I've only ever had our lady come when either MH or I were there.  I use the time she is there to do things I need to get done like paperwork or doing the outside chores like feeding animals and watering plants and working in the garden.  Or I've even taken the time to change all the beds and put clothes away and do extra laundry like rugs and stuff.  And of course take care of baby.  Our lady just does the cleaning on the side so it's not a service and I'm sure she is cheaper than a service.  I might feel comfortable with her coming when I'm not home when I get to know her better.  She uses my supplies and I don't mind because she is very reasonably priced. (Which is fine because I don't know how I got so many cleaning supplies and they need to be used up!) 

tjkdlhb

Just curious...
How much does it cost to have a cleaning lady?

jcwinsto

I pay mine $15 per hour and then $5 extra for gas since we live so far out of town. Takes her about 3 hours per week.

KLXVI

I've had a cleaning service come once a month since I've been working part-time while taking care of L. They always send a different person (always an older eastern European lady) and their cleaning method and chemicals differ with the person. We pay $100 for about three hours of cleaning. L and I hang out in a separate room while they are here.

Piggyback question: We've been tipping them each time around 20%. Should we be tipping them?

freezorburn

@KLXVI I'm not sure how I would feel if it was a different person every time. And not having consistency about what cleaning agents they are using ... but if you are comfortable with that then it's up to you.

As for tipping, we usually just tip at Christmas. And given that you don't have a consistent person I think it's very generous of you to tip each person.

KLXVI

freezorburn said:

@KLXVI I'm not sure how I would feel if it was a different person every time. And not having consistency about what cleaning agents they are using ... but if you are comfortable with that then it's up to you.

As for tipping, we usually just tip at Christmas. And given that you don't have a consistent person I think it's very generous of you to tip each person.

That's a good point.  This is my first time having a cleaning service so I don't know what is normal.  I guess that I don't mind a different person each time.  As for the chemicals, they are probably similar to what we would be using since we haven't switched to green cleaning products yet.  I did notice that one lady used vinegar instead of the harsher chemicals, though. I'll ask the head lady that calls each month about safer cleaning product options. 

ufsandra85

We don't tip. Only at holidays. She uses no harsh chemicals but ifi want her to i just have to leave it out for her

akflutterby

I've had the same housekeeper for a long time and she will do whatever I need her to do (including dishes, laundry, whatever). I've had other housekeepers though who wouldn't do the tidying part, just the cleaning, and one who straight up wouldn't even pick up stuff of the floor or coffee table to clean. I used Merry Maids initially and they were just crazy expensive, so we moved on to Craigslist where we had pretty good luck and have ended up with a housekeeper who is like family now. As for tipping, I only do it at Christmas.

Eta: she brings all her own cleaning supplies - including vacuum.

YellowLily2013

My friends hired one through care.com that's probably the best route if you want an individual and the option to use your own cleaners.

A commercial service will likely use their own products and can send different / multiple people. And will more likely just clean vs tidy.