Do you have a housekeeper/cleaner?

[RunningBum]

Just wondering how many of you do, and how often? I don't, except for a short spell a long time ago, for a number of reasons: I'm cheap, I don't really like having a stranger in the house, and I'm not terribly picky about how clean my house is. I also got annoyed at stuff being re-arranged.

On the other hand, I really don't clean as well or as often as I should, and I'm wondering if I should just have someone come in once in awhile.

[RunningBum]

If it falls in between the ranges, just go with the closest or next highest one, whichever you feel like. Any comments about why or why not are welcome.

[vicente solano]

We have one.Very nice and hardworking. Always with a smile. Comes on weekdays three hours each day. We´ve had her for almost 7 years.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vicente solano We have one.Very nice and hardworking. Always with a smile. Comes on weekdays three hours each day. We´ve had her for almost 7 years.

Out of curiosity, what do you pay her?

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vicente solano We have one.Very nice and hardworking. Always with a smile. Comes on weekdays three hours each day. We´ve had her for almost 7 years.

That's a lot of cleaning!

I have Molly Maid come once a month, two people for two hours. It costs $88.

[freebird5825]

Yes indeed.
The cleaning frequency is once every 4-6 weeks, as she is available. I pay $15 per hour for sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, dusting for a total of 4 hours per visit.
I do my own fragile knickknacks and windows, as these are HUGE time killers for a cleaner. I clean my own refrigerator and oven interiors. I also get my personal stuff out of her way as much as possible.
Can you tell I used to houseclean myself to make extra money?

[Khan]

I did, but she hasn't shown up in 3 months. House looks like @#$%.
Need to start cleaning.
Need to move to a one bedroom apartment.

[Moemg]

I have never had a house cleaner mostly because I am thrifty (cheap). I am considering getting one a few times a year for heavy cleaning . I can handly the weekly stuff .

[Ronstar]

We had one for several years, and I sensed they weren't doing a good job, so I tested them by putting debris around the house. Sure enough, the debris was still there after they left, so we fired them. Now we clean ourselves.

[Charlotte]

Yes, I have a 2-person team who come in every other week to clean. They vacuum, sweep, mop, clean 2.5 baths and change the sheets and run the sheets thru the laundry. It takes them about 2.5 hours to accomplish this and I pay them (in total) $100 for each visit.

It does indeed feel a little expensive to me, but... if I didn't have them it either wouldn't get done or I'd spend too much of my valuable free weekend time doing it. Plus, it does actually force us to pick up our stuff, file our paperwork/bills, put things away, etc. I've had the same cleaning dream team for a little over 8 years and I plan to keep them as long as they are willing and as long as my DH and I are both still working.

[Danmar]

We have cleaning people at each of our 3 places. Runs around $20/hour. We will spend time at one place then move on to the next. Cleaners do the first place so its clean when we go back. Agree it's pretty complicated and good planning is required. All cleaners have been wih us for years and are just great-trust them completely.

[FIREd]

I am too cheap to hire a housekeeper. Plus my MIL has struggled to find above mediocre help in this area and I don't wanna deal with the kind of characters she had to deal with. So I clean myself. A few times a year, when we do the top to bottom deep cleaning, it would be nice to have someone helping though.

[mystang52]

"Quality of life" for us includes a cleaning woman every other week so we don't have to do the vacuuming, shower cleaning etc. For us it's money gladly spent.

[MDJO]

Long time ago, we had one. House was always clean. We paid $40 per week for sweeping, clean kitchen, bathroom, dusting. In retrospect it seems like we paid too much . Now I have more money, but no cleaner, house is always a mess. Would like to have one again, but I'd have to clean the house first just to get it ready, its so full of stuff......

[Fireup2020]

This was my 2011 luxury splurge after moving in with DFB - every other week - think it's a team of three people who blast through the house. The initial clean was awesome (end of Dec) - advice welcome on proper cleaning advice for the cleaning company...a few things I'm not tickled pink about...but not enough to be pissed about... ($93/every month)...makes me feel sort of "grown up"

It's nice to know my personal hourly wage has improved to the point that I feel basic cleaning is wasting my time (I'd rather be doing home projects or having fun outside the home!) I still do laundry and keep it neat between "cleans"

[Dancer373]

I'm the cleaning person in my home. I remember while growing up we had a house cleaner come in every 2 weeks (if I remember correctly) and my mother did the mad dash through the house to have it clean before he got there

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RunningBum Just wondering how many of you do, and how often? I don't, except for a short spell a long time ago, for a number of reasons: I'm cheap, I don't really like having a stranger in the house, and I'm not terribly picky about how clean my house is. I also got annoyed at stuff being re-arranged. On the other hand, I really don't clean as well or as often as I should, and I'm wondering if I should just have someone come in once in awhile.

I have never had a housekeeper, either. For me the main reason has been that I don't really like having a stranger in the house. As I grow older, at some point I will probably have to hire someone. I did buckle and hire a gardener this winter.

[Purron]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I have never had a housekeeper, either. For me the main reason has been that I don't really like having a stranger in the house. As I grow older, at some point I will probably have to hire someone. I did buckle and hire a gardener this winter.

+1 for the housekeeper, but not yet for the gardener.

[toofrugalformycat]

I have never hired a cleaner, except once when we temporarily moved out and were renting the place to someone else, the rental management company we hired arranged for a cleaner after we left. We occasionally have people over for dinner, and that forces me to seriously clean beforehand, but I do not enjoy it. I'd feel weird paying someone to do what I think is my job (but WHY is it my job - I do not care to analyze that). DH can endure more mess than I, so I'm the one that usually does the cleaning. We are soon having a visitor who will stay with us a few days, so we have some serious cleaning and throwing away to do, because we won't be able to hide the dreck in a back room! I agree with Khan, most days I wish I had less stuff. But deciding what to get rid of, oy!

[youbet]

While DW and I were both working full time, we had a house keeper in for 4 hours every Friday. Plus, MIL came weekly and did all our laundry. Now both retired, we accept interior cleaning, laundry, most yard maintenance and most exterior house upkeep as our part time jobs. We'll see how that goes as we get older and as market conditions (hopefully) continue to improve. I could see dialing some landscaping and housekeeping services back in sometime in the future. We'll see how we feel, what our traveling schedule looks like and if we feel comfortable paying for it vs other opportunities for the money.

BTW, this is just personal taste, but I don't see the point of having a house keeper for only 4 hours per month. You're still doing most of the chores yourself yet you have an expense and a monthly deadline to be ready for her. With our weekly schedule, the house keeper had time to change the bedding (which MIL had already washed, ironed and left in the linen closet), clean the johns and the kitchen, and generally dust and vacuum weekly. She was there enough she knew our house well and very little prep for her arrival was necessary on our part. When we retired and cut that service, we cut it completely. We'd rather do it all ourselves than do part of it and planning what the house keeper will do on a monthly basis. Again, just personal taste.