xp: question about house cleaning service

martinsgirls

I posted on this on my local Nest board too but figured I would ask you guys for feedback too: 

 So Martin's friends have very generously gifted us a cleaning service to come clean the house for us 3 times as a baby gift.

I have never used a service before and just had a few questions for those who have used a service:

What do you usually tip? For the first visit, there will be 2 people coming, then for the next visits there will only be /one person.

I have them coming on Monday, 8/26 and am due September 6-Do you think this is a good time to have the initial cleaning done? They will come 2 more times every four weeks.

If you have pets do you let them roam free while they clean? I think the boys would go hide but Bella is noisy and annoying and would probably be all up in their business...perhaps I can have her stay in the office with DH (I will not have them clean the office because DH works from home).

Any other suggestions? Do you have a room you like them to focus on?

Our house has 2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms (master, nursery, guest room) living room, TV room, kitchen, office (they won't be cleaning in there).

TIA 

IrishPiratess

I rent the bottom of a split level. The woman who owns the house has a cleaning lady come in every other week.

We don't tip her. 

And yes, sometimes the dogs are out and about while she's there, and sometimes not. 

 

We pick up the general piles of "stuff" that accumulate around the place and at least do our own dishes. she does the general cleaning. (mopping, dusting, bathrooms, scrubbing etc.)

 

she cleans the top floor and our space downstairs as well (we have essentially a one bedroom apt worth of space down there)

olga1311

we have regular cleaners come in once in two weeks and we never tipped, just paid the agreed upon amount. I don't think you need to tip them. usually it takes them maybe 20-30 mins to clean a small/average room. Maybe your husband can take a 30 minut break and have them clean the office too? You can instruct them to not move anything/touch anything just clean the floors at least and maybe some dust. It just seems a waste for them to come in and leave the office untouched. As far as pets, I let my cat roam free. She really doesn't care all that much. Maybe occasional sniff here and there and then back to doing her thing. I just make sure she doesn't get out while they are hauling all their supplies into the house and have the front door open but other than that the cat does her usual thing which is mostly sleeping

docco11

tipping depends on if you have a service or an individual.  If it's an individual, I wouldn't tip.  They receive all the funds from the cleaning and set their own prices.  If its a service, I would tip.  We have a service and I tip 20%.

She comes every 2 weeks and spends 4 hours cleaning our 5 bed/3 bath home.  We have a dog and keep him locked up while she is here or he will go nuts and bother her.  I would ask the person if they are a pet person or not.  If not, I would keep the animals in a crate.

CDMay2006

We had a bi-monthly cleaning service for a few months.  I don't remember what we tipped, but we weren't pleased with them (the cleaning they did was good, but they would clean things not on the list and not clean things on the list, and would come on the wrong days/times).

Our cat roamed free.  By that i mean she hid under the bed the whole time.  The dog we kept kenneled.

I liked for them to focus on the kitchen and bathrooms, and dusting.  I also liked that they did the floors, since that was before i got a steam mop.  I think the cleaning schedule you have planned sounds good.