WOH families - do you have housekeeping help? - Page 2

[Caneel]

We used to have a wonderful woman for years, she did a fantastic job but experienced health problems that prevented her from working.

After she got sick, two things happened at the same time - her daughter took over her job and the clutter in our house started to grow.  I ended up letting her go because I was spending HOURS prepping the house for her arrival (by prepping, I mean putting away cr_p so she could actually clean) and even with me leaving in the house in a "ready to clean state" she wasn't doing a good job.

We would very much like to get someone to clean again but for a number of reasons, we arent' quite there yet in getting a new person.

[LittleBirdy]

Lots of really interesting replies!!

I am in the process of setting up a consultation and really hoping it goes well.  I am away from DS enough during the week and I really would like to have the time to do stuff with him on the weekends.

[physmom]

At the moment no because I'm not getting paid for my work (eventually I will be paid retroactively but it won't be for at least two months so we're counting every penny we have in the meantime!!). However, once I start getting paid we're going to have a cleaning lady come in probably once a week!!! I can't even tell you how overjoyed I am about that. I was a WAHM pretty much the first two years of DD's life and the house was a mess! We have since moved and pretty much have nothing in our apt at the moment so cleaning is pretty easy but it's extremely annoying because DH has dust allergies so we need to deep clean the apt at least once a week. I can wait to no longer have to do that!

[Caryliz]

OMG yes.

We have someone come for 4 hours a week. She cleans the kitchen and bathroom top to bottom, dusts, straightens and does floors in the dining room, living room and family room, and cleans two long wooden hallway floors and a large wooden staircase (we have a large Victorian house). She doesn't do the bedrooms or laundry because I feel like I can manage those, or the windows, because there are many and they are large so we just do them twice a year when we are swapping out the storm windows/screens. This way we keep the cleaning costs manageable.

As previous posters have noted, one of the great things about knowing that our cleaning person is coming is that I get on myself and everyone else to put our stuff away and declutter surfaces before she arrives, so she CAN clean when she gets here. We only have her for 4 hours, and I don't want her to waste her time doing the everyday; I want her to do the deep cleaning that I really hate doing.

Also, as I have pointed out to my friends who give me a hard time for using a cleaning person, given my work schedule (50+ hours/week and frequent travel out of town), my family time is really precious. I'd frankly rather hire someone to clean my house so I can spend time with my family, than hire a babysitter or put my kids in front of the TV, or give up precious "couple time" in the evenings, so I can clean house, KWIM?!

I also recognize that I am lucky enough to be able to afford to do this. That said, I would give up a lot (and at times I have) in order to continue to afford it, because having cleaning help so greatly contributes to our quality of life.

[JudiAU]

We have a weekly housekeeper. She does all major cleaning, changes the sheets, but does not do laundry. Probably the absolute luxury I would ever get up. For us, it is sanity saver. Before we had kids, it was every other week. Our house just gets so dirty with small kids. Dh does a big laundry on the weekend and we do diapers throughout the week. Our nanny folds the laundry and puts the kid's laundry away./

[DCMama01]

I am desperately looking for a house cleaner!

DD is 18 months and my condo looks a hot mess right now! I find it overwhelming sometimes. I am debating whether to do monthly or biweekly. Does anyone know how many hours of work (biweekly) is standard for a 2 bed/1 bath? I miss coming home to a clean house.

[LittleBirdy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DCMama01 

I am desperately looking for a house cleaner!

DD is 18 months and my condo looks a hot mess right now! I find it overwhelming sometimes. I am debating whether to do monthly or biweekly. Does anyone know how many hours of work (biweekly) is standard for a 2 bed/1 bath? I miss coming home to a clean house.

It varies from place to place & person to person, I'm sure but we have a 2 br 1.5 ba duplex and our cleaning person is here for 2.5-3 hours every other week.
 

[tccandlsccmom]

I used to, but then our finances crashed and thereafter I left my now-ex...it DID help a lot, I would rather be with the kids than doing the big chores (but keeping up with the little ones is both comforting...and I do it the way I like.  That said, once I emerge on the other side of this tunnel my hope is to get someone to come in every other week to do the heavy lifting again...

[t2009]

If I ever can afford it I will DEFINITELY be finding help taking care of our house. I don't function well with as much clutter as we have & yet I can never motivate myself to spend my free time cleaning it up. Also, I am a perfectionist, so cleaning any room is like a 1 hr-plush chore for me... time that I simply don't have. I keep telling myself that we need a system for the clutter, but my brain just doesn't function that way... I make piles of things & piles turn into clutter & clutter hides lots of dirt.

It's funny because this should really not be a problem: DH sees clutter & I see dirt, between the two of us, you'd think we'd have it all taken care of... but the reality is that we both much prefer making messes with our son (or leaving the house) than cleaning up said messes.

For the rest of the summer, I'm home with DS, so I do find I'm more able to take care of household chores. But when I start working... we will need serious help!

[dakover]

Yep, my husband and I both work > 50 hrs a week and we have a maid service come once a month.  We straighten, vacuum, dust on the 2 wk in between, but they do all the bathrooms, kitchen floor that I just wasn't getting to.  I can manage laundry, my husband does dishes, and we both pick up, but it was stressing me out that we couldn't get to some of the deeper cleaning.  We decided that it was worth the money to be able to spend more of our weekends playing and doing activities with our son than cleaning.  We still don't tell his parents though, because they are cheap and wouldn't understand (his mom has never worked outside the home and doesn't understand why our house isn't spotless and thinks it must be my fault, even though I'm the primary earner).

[Lynne Holloman]

I did have someone in weekly ($80) but I have to save some money to move so no more cleaning. I'm a full time accountant pregnant with baby #4. all kids are under 5. i need help!

[DCMama01]

I've decided to go with once a month with the option of doing biweekly if needed. My friend has a lady she recommends so I'm going to go with her. Just have to get my house clean enough for her to come in.lol

[nmouse]

Love reading all the answers on this thread. I don't have my baby yet and already I live in filth, which (due to a long slow lowering of standards) really only bothers me when people come over, and NEVER bothers my fella. I have tried many chore-sharing approaches over our 12 years together but have never found a conflict-free solution to our different attitudes, other than me just doing all the work and resenting the hell out of it. I don't resent it now only because I'm not currently working, but when I'm working 50-60 hours and stressed the rest of the time, I can have a breakdown at 12 am over the state of the bathtub. Having a cleaning person when we both WOH again seems like it will be the perfect alternative to killing my guy over the disparity of importance we each place on the suspiciously yellow base of the toilet, spotty kitchen floor, moldy shower grout, etc. Meanwhile, it is refreshing to live vicariously through the folks in this thread. :)  And I just want to say, for those of you who are sound a tiny bit like you feel you have to justify having cleaning help, you don't! Having a professional clean your floor doesn't impair your virtue any more than masturbating makes you go blind.

[Diane B]

I'm increasing my work hours, and we're going to get a housecleaner again (yeah!!)  But I had no idea that some will CHANGE THE SHEETS.  wow - any other "extras" I should ask about/negotiate? Our previous one did the bathrooms, kitchen, dusting, and floors (vacuum and wash) and emptied trash, every other week.

[Fuamami]

I own a cleaning business, and what you listed below is our standard, plus changing sheets. We don't do laundry because we are rarely in a house long enough to get a whole load done. One of my employees works on the side doing people's laundry and ironing, so you might be better off going with an individual cleaner over a company if you're looking for that. Oh, and we also straighten up, but don't really put things away.
 

Originally Posted by Diane B 

I'm increasing my work hours, and we're going to get a housecleaner again (yeah!!)  But I had no idea that some will CHANGE THE SHEETS.  wow - any other "extras" I should ask about/negotiate? Our previous one did the bathrooms, kitchen, dusting, and floors (vacuum and wash) and emptied trash, every other week.

[phathui5]

We've had phases where we've had help and when we haven't. At this point, it's been about three months since we've had anyone come clean and I actually called someone this morning and made an appointment for the end of the month.

I don't think there's anything to be embarassed about when you have someone come clean for you. You're helping keep someone employed (good for the economy!) and making things less stressful for yourself (good for your family!).

[jdg]

We did a few years ago when it was just DH and I and we were both working really long hours - every other week to deep clean.

We don't now and haven't in several years, but we both have stated that once the credit cards are paid off those interest payments will be funding house cleaning. Babe is 14 months old. We do have two nannies who split the hours during the week - one is great about general picking up and the other is really not. The one who is good about it works in the mornings, but unfortunately that means when I get home at the end of the day the house has frequently been destroyed by the babe and the afternoon nanny, so I spend my first 20-30 minutes at home cleaning up after their day.

[XanaduMama]

I'd love to know how much you pay for your cleaning service, how long they're usually there (and I guess how big your house is), and whether you use a company or a private individual. This thread is blowing my mind--why haven't I thought of this before?!

[LittleGriff]

We pay $20/hour to a private individual for 2 hrs/week. Plus, we provide cleaning supplies. Her rate is actually slightly lower ($17) and she would normally provide supplies but we wanted all eco-friendly stuff. We feel like we're getting a really good deal based on some quotes we got when first looking.

Our house is 1500 sq ft and we are only having her do floors and bathrooms. We like doing the rest ourselves.

[*bejeweled*]

Yes. Every single Friday. DH told me, "You're always in a good mood on Fridays." Damn right. Total marriage saver.