WOH families - do you have housekeeping help?

[LittleBirdy]

And by WOH I just mean any family where there is not a parent home during the day :)

I opened my eyes today after 9.5 months of just trying to keep myself and DS fed, dry, and rested and realized my house is disgusting.  And I'm feeling like the only  way I could even begin to keep up with the work is if I spent my entire Saturday & Sunday cleaning the place - and it's only a 2 bedroom duplex!!

So do you have housekeeping help?  How often?  What do they do?  If you don't, would you if you could?  And how old are your DC?

[GuildJenn]

I'm home on mat leave but when I was working full time no, I didn't. However my son was older - he as 22 months old when I went back to work, and I had help for the first three to make the transition.

I did have a cleaning schedule and when we started off a lack of clutter, but the clutter got worse - something I'm addressing right now. My method basically is to clean either a room or half a room every night, and then use weekends for the other stuff.

[moonstones]

Yep. It is really worth it to me.  Our help comes bi-weekly.  I can stay fairly on-top of keeping our house de-cluttered on a daily basis, but scrubbing the tub and floors? Forget about it! Our cleaners scrub the kitchens and bathrooms, clean out our fridge, wipe the windows, vacuum, dust, and wash sheets & towels.  There really is not much better than coming home to a clean house. 

[Lizbiz]

Yes, I have help.  Our nanny does breakfast dishes, folds our laundry, makes our bed in the am, and does light straightening during the day.  I also have people come twice a week to do the vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing out the bathroom and kitchen.  It's not really deep though, but it totally gets us through the week.  

I do the laundry, the shopping and meal planning, the cooking I share with my husband, and we split the deeper (very occasional) cleaning.  I also handle the major straightening and keeping our stuff in order. I also keep the kids clothes in season and the right size.  

We play on our strengths - he does a lot of other household management stuff.  We split pretty evenly, I think. 

But the basic housekeeping - neither of us has any inclination or control issue about who cleans the toilet - and we are blessed to have that taken care of.  

I will do this as long as we can afford it.  My kids are 3.5 years and 16 months.

[Alyantavid]

No.  I've never had any housekeeping help and my kids are 9 and almost 5.  And if I could afford it, no I wouldn't. 

[waiflywaif]

Yes, someone comes every other week for a "deep clean." We keep things clean and picked up in between. It's great.

[CatsCradle]

No, we live in a co-op apartment (although it is fairly large) and DH and I have managed to split a lot of the basic stuff.  It generally takes me about 20 minutes to clean the bathroom on Sundays.  DH cleans the kitchen floor on Sunday evening and while he does that, I vacumn the whole apartment.  DH does the dishes that have collected in the sink every morning before he leaves for work, and I do the evening dishes.  I tend to dust only when I see dust.  LOL.  We usually weed recyclables together (DD has tons of fun doing the shredding) and she is old enough now to assist us with stuff.

I can't say that we're perfect housekeepers, but I really can't see the point in having hired help to assist us.  It is just built into our weekly routine and I think that maintaining a schedule of doing things is really helpful.  Now that the weather is nicer, we are less apt to be in the apartment during the weekend, so we really don't have a lot of messes to deal with anyway. 

[*MamaJen*]

No, it's just me and DS in a two-bedroom apartment, so it's not too much trouble to keep it relatively clean. I wouldn't mind having someone come in every two weeks or so to do some deep cleaning, but I'm in grad school so money's tight enough that I'd rather do it myself. That said, if BF and I get married and we're living in a house together and both working, I would really be inclined to get a cleaning service.

[amberbirthdoula]

I'm a nanny and I do basic housework when I'm not with the baby (putting away laundry, dishes, picking up, sweeping, watering the plants etc..) and it seems to be a big help for the parents who both work. The dad once said, "I know when you've been here because I don't have any chores" :)

I say anything you can afford in terms of help would allow you to relax more and enjoy your time at home. 

[Poodge]

Yes, we have a house cleaning service come every two weeks. They do the floors, dusting, bathrooms, kitchen. If I could afford it I would have them come weekly. We keep up in between and do a deeper clean of every room once a year. DS is two and we have another on the way. We had the house cleaning service when it was just us two, neither of us enjoys housework.

[marinak1977]

Once we were able to afford it we hired cleaners to come every 2 weeks. They clean the bathrooms, kitchen, dust, vacuum, make the beds, and do some straightening. It really helps and I have more energy to organize and declutter when I'm not stressing over dust and dirty showers.
We have a 16 MO and 3 active dogs in a 3 bedroom house and it gets dirty with dog hair and covered up with baby toys very quickly.

[parsley]

We've had housecleaners on and off.  We don't have anyone currently and the level of dust is really beginning to bother me and I have no idea when we'll get around to doing the deep clean that is so essential.  One of the other benefits of having some help with housecleaning is that I found it would motivate me to get the house really straightened up and clear out clutter before they came so they could do a good job on surfaces.  Right now without any cleaners we have more clutter as we haven't been "cleaning for the cleaners".  It is expensive though...

[mambera]

I :heart: my cleaning ladies.

When it was just me and DH we were able to keep reasonably on top of the grime ourselves.  After we had DD that went totally out the window, and I sat up and looked around one day when she was maybe 7-8 months old and realized the house was disgusting and there was no way I was ever going to get it livable by myself, never mind maintain it that way.  So I hired a cleaner.

They come 1x/month for us - I'd love to have them every two weeks but it's just a little too pricey.  So I still do the bathrooms (badly), we both sweep/vacuum as necessary, etc., mostly on the weekends - but it's OK if I do a fast/bad job because the cleaning ladies will make it all nice again the next time they come through.  They do a great job - I'd never do half as good a job as they do even if I had the time; I just hate cleaning and want to get it over with.

By the way, ITA that having them come really gives me incentive to keep the clutter down so they can actually clean.

[mooshersmama]

Yes, we have a cleaning lady come every other week.  It's a lifesaver.  They do the deep cleaning, mop floors, scrub bathroom, change all sheets, dust, etc.  We only have one child, she's three, and we have a very small 2br condo.  It's so worth it.

[Mosaic]

DH and I both WOH about 50 hrs/week. We do not have housecleaning help.

We had somebody come over to clean twice about 4 years ago, and I loved AND hated it. She did a much better job on some things than I could do, and I did love how great the house looked. But I apparently have some issues because I felt terribly uncomfortable and embarassed having "Help." I'm all for it for other people, and I love the IDEA of it; but the couple of times I tried it, I just couldn't get over myself. So no, even if we could afford it, I can't see getting regular housecleaning services.

[LittleGriff]

Yes! 2 hours every Friday to clean our 2 bathrooms and vacuum/mop the floors (2/3 wood, 1/3 carpet) in our 1500 sq foot house.

We've been doing it for about a year now after arguing about the division of household labor for about 8 years. Technically, it's dh's job to look after cleaning but I always ended up doing it since my threshold for dirty toilets is lower. Marriage saver!! It's just enough to take the edge off the home drudge but not as personal or expensive as having someone deep clean our entire home. We are super neatniks and control freaks and fond of our privacy so don't trust/want too much household help, if you know what I mean. But it buys us an extra couple of hours to play with the kids or attend to our laundry and is a perfect balance for us.

We've been thinking of asking her to throw another hour in weekly to do a little laundry and maybe some dusting/kitchen but it's really not that hard for us to keep on top of the rest. It was the toilets and floors that we just really couldn't ever seem to find time for.

[A&A]

No, we do not.

[34me]

Nope.  I've been going it alone for a loooong time.

[HollyBearsMom]

Yes, we have a a service that comes every two week.  I no longer WOH but we still have the cleaners. 

[althara]

I did when my daughter was a baby, but not now. And my house is a disaster most of the time. Mostly because I have far too much stuff in my small house.