Cleaning Service/Maids

I have had the same person clean our house the last 7 years. Best money spent. DH & I both work full time +, so it is well worth the $80 bi-weekly for our 2400 sq ft home. Never had any issues with theft. Love coming home to a clean house! And it also motivates us to keep it kept up before and after she leaves.
 
utrecht said:
I wouldnt say that fear is irrational at all. When I was working undercover I came across an identity theft ring and got close to one of the women in the ring. She worked for a maid service and several of the maids were stealing customers identities by going thru their personal papers, stealing mail from inside the house, writing down credit card info, etc...while cleaning.

They could've easily also been casing houses to burglarize them later or worse, rob the residents later. Luckily these people weren't violent.
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Good point! I wouldn't want to invite identity theft, burglary, or robbery.
 
Put me down in the the "waste of money" camp.
 
I thought I might get a face punch if I admitted we have a cleaning lady every two weeks.

I also do not particularly enjoy someone else in my house but for me I find it's four hours of stress every two weeks in exchange for living in peaceful order the rest of the two weeks. Cleaning was something I made into "my" job vs DH's (as he would always have chosen to pay someone else to do it), and he pretty much fired me. It is her job now and she does it well, is very pleasant, and actually just arrived! We don't spend time chatting as she wants to get right to work. We always have everything organized and stowed/decluttered before she comes--I have seen my friend's cleaning service start by washing dirty dishes in the sink, folding laundry, etc., and these are not the things I want help with.

I do look at the annual cost but it doesn't have an impact on the rest of our spending. If it did DH would just have to unfire me.

Unlike DD's nanny, who works exclusively for her and for whom DD pays all taxes, I think cleaning ladies like ours who work for several employers are considered independent contractors and are responsible for their own self-employment taxes, etc., so I don't think that is an issue (at least when I was an independent contractor my clients didn't worry about my taxes).
 
I've used services in the past without any problem. It's nice because it forces you to tidy everything away before they come, so the house looks cleaner. Currently we have a dog with "issues", so it's easier to do the cleaning myself. My house is clean, but without the extra push, it's still cluttered. I tend to slide everything to one side, clean under it, and then slide it back. Currently, I'm in the habit of doing a small amount of cleaning every day. Preventative maintenance works better for me than scheduling a big block of time.

What I don't understand is why, if I prefer reading electronically, a trail of papers and books seems to follow me everywhere?
 
Silver said:
After awhile it seemed as if the quality of the service declined.
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The same thing happened to me. I had two different people and happened to them both. I only tried the cleaning services for one year. (about 10 years ago every other week for $75). I concluded that it wasn't worth the money, although I do hate cleaning.
 
We have weekly service and pay $20. With the addition of our new baby we are going to get a live in at the beginning of the year and will be paying around $300 a month plus room and board.
 
Count me in the "relieved to find out we aren't the only ones here who have a cleaning service" camp. We started an every-other-week service when kiddo number 2 arrived and we were both working full-time. Have kept it up as I dislike cleaning (especially dusting floor mopping) and I already don't have time to do all the things I want to do. Over the years we tried individuals, local services, and franchises of national brand services and have stuck with the latter even though they are the priciest. We did have theft issues with local services and didn't want to get into the SS business for individuals.
 
Use cleaning service at two of our homes and private individuals at the other two. Well worth it as we hate cleaning house. Couldn't do it with so many places in any event. They do a great job, very reliable and trustworthy. Cost about $20 per hour. Cleaning services cost more as they are employed by our property managers who make most of their revenue this way.
 
We've been using the same cleaning woman's family for many years. When DW and I were both w*rking, I loved paying for a cleaning woman in lieu of several hours of my leisure time on Saturday (not to mention it was a chore I despised).
When I ER'd, no surprise I still love my free time. There are a gazillion other things I'd rather do than clean the house, including....doing nothing. I'm only too happy to keep paying for this.
It does help that I have full trust in my cleaning people's honesty.
 
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I used to have a maid (Marie) once a week when I worked and was raising children. She was like a member of the family. She came at 7:30ish and left around 4:00, $60/day, did laundry, ironed my daughters stuff and my husbands shirts. Loved her!

About 10 years ago, Marie was diagnosed with cancer and did not make it. I have not been able to replace her. First, thinking there was no way I would find anyone like her and second, because I have a lot of sensitive information in my home and didn't trust others. I then stopped working and have since cleaned my house myself.

Although lately I have been wondering about getting someone twice a month. I still can not justify the costs (got a quote for over $150 , 3,400 SF home) since I have hours that I can do it. Also because with a dog and a cat, I have to vacuum every other day anyway. I just don't do the upstairs that often since the kids are gone now. The downstairs, which is where the master bedroom is located, is very manageable. :).
 
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About 6 months after moving into a 2-story 2900 s.f home, DH and I hired a housecleaner for every other week cleanings. It made us declutter and organize our belongings regularly before her visits so that she could clean more easily. It also meant the upstairs was no longer neglected. The dust level was noticeably improved. It was worth it.

Now that we live in a one-story 2900 s.f. home, we have been doing the cleaning ourselves. It has been manageable, but the clutter starts to build up now.
 
Same cleaning lady for many years. Now every two weeks. When DW was going through cancer treatment we had the cleaning lady come weekly and paid SS tax for a couple years. Now every two weeks we work with cash. Justifing it is easy, keeps us out of divorce court;)
And it gets crazy the day before cleaning when DW and I running around getting things organized before the cleaning lady. Hey, aren't THEY supposed to clean? But it does keep the house nice for longet periods of time.
 
Some may not know that NYEXPAT lives in Lima, Peru. ;-)

DW has a cleaning lady in every 2 weeks at $60 a visit. An older divorced lady with this as her sole source of income. Found by personal reference. Consistent, reliable and honest.

We can afford it but I would just as soon do the job myself. Still, it keeps peace in the house.

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Ed_The_Gypsy said:
Some may not know that NYEXPAT lives in Lima, Peru. ;-)

DW has a cleaning lady in every 2 weeks at $60 a visit. An older divorced lady with this as her sole source of income. Found by personal reference. Consistent, reliable and honest.

We can afford it but I would just as soon do the job myself. Still, it keeps peace in the house.

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Not sure I would do the job myself but the peace part I understand. Two lady cleaning service every other week.

heh heh heh - Plus the house came with the new Wife. Since I was a cheap SOB all those decades leading to ER I figure it's Karma or something. And you can't take it with you or so I've been told. :angel: :facepalm: ;)
 
We use a service twice a month; I thought when I retired I would do it, but just don't like doing housework and I have better things to do with my new found time. DW is still w*rking and she also does not like doing housework so the service is great all around.
 
When I was working I had a cleaning service once a month and really appreciated coming home to a clean house. Then I moved, still working. I hired people from the same cleaning service at the new location, and it was a disaster. After three problems (including blocking my toilet with a cleaning rag) I fired them. I have been doing my own cleaning since, but I don't enjoy the process and don't do as thorough a job. I am debating getting a cleaning service again. My main concern is the risk to privacy.
 
We are DIYers on everything unless we simply don't possess the skills. Reason is simple... we tend to do a better quality job with closer attention to detail, and it provides a sense of pride and satisfaction. House cleaning is no exception. I wouldn't say we "enjoy" house cleaning. But we certainly don't dislike it enough to pay someone to do it for us.

DW and I divide up the chores. I clean the kitchen every night after dinner and keep the living areas organized, picked up, with everything in its place on a daily basis. Once per week, DW does the bathrooms and dusts, while I clean floors and rugs. She makes the bed every morning and takes care of laundry. I clean all porches and other outside areas and do windows 2 or 3 times per year. We've had this routine for over 30 years and it works fine for us.
 
I'm in the "too cheap" camp. DH and I typically don't pay for work that we can do ourselves. Keeps us busy and in touch with the condition of our home and belongings. Hell, I feel decadent when I run my car through the car wash rather than washing by hand. We know we can afford to hire help now, but it is hard to justify when we are healthy and capable.
Most of my friends have house cleaners and really like it.
I do pay to have my hair cut and colored....so I'm not too cheap 😉


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We have used only sole proprietorship personal cleaning services that came highly recommended through direct referrals and/or Angie's list. We started when our 2nd son was born. Both my spouse and I work and this helps alleviate the stress and home responsibilities required of a dual income home with kids. It's a small price to pay for the second income stream. We have it cleaned every two weeks. Only every other cleaning is whole house as opposed to downstairs including kitchen only.

It costs me only two hours of my wages each time. Takes two people 3 hours to clean. You do the math.

I trust her well. In three years she broke one item and cried over it. It was something I could replace easily and cheaply. We chat about life and buy her kids tickets to events on Holidays and such.


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Dog said:
I'm in the "too cheap" camp. DH and I typically don't pay for work that we can do ourselves. Keeps us busy and in touch with the condition of our home and belongings. Hell, I feel decadent when I run my car through the car wash rather than washing by hand. We know we can afford to hire help now, but it is hard to justify when we are healthy and capable.
Most of my friends have house cleaners and really like it.
I do pay to have my hair cut and colored....so I'm not too cheap 😉


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+1 so glad to see its not just me :) if I can do it myself I do, I'm just way to cheap to pay for someone to clean my house once every couple of weeks when I'm perfectly capable of doing myself at least once a week...
 
We have someone come in every other week-- LOVE IT. She was just here today and the house looks great. It is an expense but we budgeted it into our retirement. She worked for us before when we were working full time and just continued on when we retired. I retired--not to clean house but to enjoy my life. YMMV of course.
 
For the past 30 years, I had a house cleaner come twice a month. Once I retired this past year, I have someone come monthly. I justify the cost by knowing that my entire house sparkles at the same time when she is finished, which is something I can no longer accomplish (especially in three hours or less). It's the cost equivalent of two casual dinners out a month and worth it!

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We parted ways with our independent housecleaner in early summer after probably 10 years of weekly cleanings. We started when our first kid was born and it was a huge help. Now the kids are old enough to help, and we took the first month's payment and bought a Roomba... of course we've named it "Cathy". No doubt it is a pain, but we're saving $400/mo and arguably demonstrating better examples for our kids... and did I mention saving $400/mo? We "woke up" to LBYM late.
 
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