Question for people who have cleaning help

Pennylane824 · June 2009

How much do you pay and what do they do? I am SERIOUSLY considering having someone once or twice a month to just help out with deep cleans. It is getting harder and harder to scrub baseboards and showers and DH already does all the outside work and needs to finish the nursery.

Jenice32 · June 2009

We have a women come by every two weeks for a few hours and she charges $45, tip not included. We have her do different things. The last time she came she cleaned out our fridge and cleaned the kitchen. This week, we'll probably have her clean the floors, living room and dining room. At first I felt bad for not being able to keep our place clean, but now I'm so grateful we can hire someone to help us out.

ChicNotGeek · June 2009

We called Molly Maids. They are kind of expensive, ($39/hour per person ... ~2-1/2 hours on the first clean/2 cleaners ... depending on where you live and how dirty your house is), but they do an EXCELLENT job, and they are licensed, bonded, and insured, so you don't have to worry about any of your stuff disappearing. (My MIL just uses one of the local ladies in her town and a lot of her jewelry goes missing.)

We got to that point, too, where I had morning/all day sickness all the time, and we were just too tired and spent by the time the weekend came to attempt to clean the house. Our weekends have gotten so much more relaxing now that we don't have to stress about cleaning.

LeelaH · June 2009

I pay $85 and my house is almost 3,000 square feet. My cleaning lady does a HORRIBLE job, though. I'm just too lazy to find someone else that I trust to come in my house. She is supposed to clean all of the bathrooms, dust, vaccuum, mop, etc. She does all of that, just not great. It's good enough, though.

GraceOMally · June 2009

What you pay is based on regional rates and the size of the areas you want cleaned. We are in the Seattle suburbs and have our cleaner come every other week. She does the kitchen, two small bathrooms, livingroom and master bedroom in our modest sized house. We pay $80 each time. She charges $25 per man hour and has a partner, they probably work 2 hours she just doesn't charge us any more than the $80.

I am so glad we are able to have her come it frees up our time to hang out together or do other projects without worrying about neglecting the scrubing. She does a great job.

AJluvsLI · June 2009

Pennylane824:
How much do you pay and what do they do? I am SERIOUSLY considering having someone once or twice a month to just help out with deep cleans. It is getting harder and harder to scrub baseboards and showers and DH already does all the outside work and needs to finish the nursery.

We don't have a house cleaner but I was registered on sittercity.com for baby-sitting and they have other resources there like posting wanted ads fro house cleaners.

It's much more legit than craigslist and you can request references from people you are thinking of hiring.

You just list how much you are thinking of paying at a per hour rate and post it on the site!

Good luck!

ChicNotGeek · June 2009

AND the Molly Maids clean everything each time. They'll even change the bed sheets if you want them to. They cleaned all the kitchen appliances spotless, (including the disgusting stove top and inside the microwave), all the floors, bathrooms, toilets, sinks ... everything. All of the cleaning supplies they use are natural/organic/fume free. (Something I asked about because of being pregnant.) AND they took the garbage with them! Anyway, I thought that Molly Maids was awesome and well worth the price.

Brooke208 · June 2009

I am WAY too anal about my home to hire someone to clean it. I'm a clean freak. It kind of sucks, but at least I know everything is done right. It sure isn't easy... pregnant with a 3 year old AND bad foot/knee injuries. But seriously, I'm way to anal to hire help. I can't even stand when DH does anything, I usually have to re-do it.

ArmyBride0604 · June 2009

We have a lady that comes every other week. For $55 (our house is almost 1800 square feet), she vacuums, mops, dusts, cleans the baseboards, deep cleans the bathrooms, makes me be able to see myself in my stove and kitchen sink - basically everything but laundry. She even "arranges" things - I come home to a house that looks like it's been styled for a photo shoot - magazines placed just so on the coffee table, books arranged perfectly on bedside tables. She's magical and I love her.

We found her through our realtor - she's her housekeeper too and she has her clean the homes as a treat to the new homeowners.

jenna0627 · June 2009

Just so you all know....I am CRAZY JEALOUS of you all with cleaning people Stick out tongue

neonvicki81 · June 2009

My MIL has large house and they use Merry maids or something like that. They get two and they are done in about an hour. honestly, once wiped the floor when I spilled something and it was caked in dirt, even though they had come the day before..I dunno.. I wasn't impressed.

But, I would definitely stick with a company that is licensed, bonded and insured. One of my friends was going to hire a lady who wanted to be paid under the table (my friend thinks she was here illegally) and only wanted like 50 bucks. But, she wouldn't tell her her last name or anything like that. I thought it sounded sketchy. I'd personally rather stick with a company that does some sort of background check so you don't have someone stealing your stuff or "casing your joint".

krcdm · June 2009

We have someone come every other week. She comes with 2-3 other girls and charges $90 each time. We live outside of Boston.

krcdm · June 2009

Our house is 2400 sq ft. My husband and I both work full time and got tired of spending our entire weekend cleaning rather than enjoying the time off with our daughter. It is definitely worth it!