anyone have a housecleaner?

Wubster042109

after 9 years living together, my DH has FINALLY agreed with me on the notion that we need a housecleaner to come in at least every other week.  with both of us working full time, 2 dogs and now a 4-month old, we simply do not have time to keep up with everything around the house and he's gotten sick of our saturday's getting eaten up with household chores.

so for those of you that have a housecleaner, any advice for me as i start looking for someone?  i'd prefer not to go w/ a cleaning company (merry maids, etc), so i posted a job on care.com & also contacted a few individuals through care.com.

any lessons learned you'd like to share from when you hired a housecleaner?

 

kamcfarlane

i do have a cleaning lady, and i love her.

we found her on craigslist. the only advice i have is to have her point out what she will be cleaning when she comes to give an estimate. we found that if we pointed stuff out that we wanted cleaned instead of the other way around that it didn't get done. 

good luck!

yellowcar

Only in my fantasies.  Sigh.

But seriously, just make sure you check references.  Because if you go with someone independently, you have no one to turn to if something happens.

So jealous of you!

katydid2007

Think of anything and everything you want cleaned and ask her about it up front. It's a lot harder to add tasks after they've been at it for a few weeks/months. 

tosababy

We have a cleaning service and love it.  I chose not to go the route of a private person because it can get very dicey.  At some income threshold, even if they have their own business, they are your employee and you become responsible for tax withholdings, etc., or at the very least for reporting that you are paying them.  While there were things I didn't like about services, the risk of tax headaches and problems outweighed my concerns.  We have them come every other Friday and are very happy with them.

Enjoy your clean house!!

jlw2505

I have a house cleaner come in once a month and I love her.  Ask for referrals or ask people you know who they use.  I used a company like Merry Maids for a while and just did not like it.  My sister found this person through a posting and she is great and now also baby sits my sisters kids!  She also does my MIL's house!  No real advice but to be honest with what you expect, ask if they supply cleaning supplies or if you need to, what all they do and be specific and give good and bad feedback.