Wow. And to think I believed my grandparents had lost their minds when they hired one a few years back.
Guess they aren’t just for the rich after all.
Well, compared to me they still are, but you know what I mean.
While not as good as Chinaguy, I pay our Czech cleaning lady $12 to clean our apartment every week, and it is spotless when she is done. She also baby-sits and will do special favours (meet us downtown to take the baby for a walk in the pram while we eat lunch, then bring the baby back to us afterwards). She also cleans my office, but I pay her more for that because she buys food and drinks too.
She adds SO much to our quality of life for the pittance we pay her.
-Tcat
We pay $80 every two weeks. They (mother and daughter) stay for about 2 - 3 hours. They don’t clean the whole house, it wasn’t fair to them to send them into my two teenager’s rooms, so they clean 3 bedrooms 2 baths, kitchen, living room and office. It is absolutely incredible how much this helps me out.
$90 every other week. 3 Bedroom really old place a long way from anything.
But we’re looking for cheaper.
Ok, so someone tell me just what the typical cleaning lady will do. We really need one now and here’s what I’d want her to do:
- Fold clean laundry
- Clean kitchen, dining room floors
- Clean kitchen counter tops and dining room table
- Vacuum both floors
- Clean both bathrooms
That’s it.
<Small hijack>
Boy, are my eyes wide open right now. I’m a reference librarian in a public library, 5 years experience with a master’s degree and a half, and I make $9.30 per hour.
Amazing. I could actually make far better money working for you guys scrubbing floors. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
<unhijack>
Mrs. Furthur
Ours:
Mops the floors
Vaccuums
Makes the beds
Straightens up everything on earth
Apparently hides stuff (not intentionally)
Cleans the bathrooms inside and out (if you get me)
Arranges the flowers (no kidding)
3 people about 2 hours.
$60/Week + $300 @ X-mas
3-4 Hours bangs out 4 BR w/3 Baths LR Den.
Grace [size](I notice no one so far has a cleaning man, or, to be more non-PC, a house boy)[/size] does everything except the basement (where the dogs are) or the laundry.
My 1 responsibility: Leave the Absolut out and keep the fridge stocked w/grapefruit juice
I was going to list everything our cleaning ladies do, but the list was getting longer and longer.
I think a “typical” cleaning service will vacuum and/or mop, wipe down countertops and clean sinks, clean the bathroomsand may do light dusting. You may have to interview a few and tell them exactly what you want. IIRC the Merry Maids website had a list of “typical” services.
I recently hired a cleaning woman who’s worked for a relative for years and years. It’s great to go home to a lemony-clean home, but somehow I still feel guilty about it.
Anyway, I pay $75/visit, once every 2 weeks. Stays for about 3-4 hours each visit. My house is about 1320 sqft. (2.5 bdrm, 2 bath, large kitchen & family room.) I’m in the SoCal area.
She…
- cleans/mops hardwood floors
- vacuums rug & upholstery
- straightens messes (only moved things around the first time)
- cleans bathrooms & kitchen (how she gets the kitchen sink so clean is a mystery to me)
- does windows (well, the ones she can reach with the step ladder)
- remakes my bed so it’s hotel-neat
- cleans my fridge when necessary
- straightens my pantry
- unloads my dishwasher if she knows they are clean
- likes my cat
She mentioned that she would also wash my bed linens but I’ve yet to have her do that. The only “negative” is that since I have to provide her with the supplies, but that’s pretty minor to me. She’s a nice woman who seems to treat my home like her own.
Mrs. Futher: I know what you mean about how much some of these cleaning women make, but I have to remind myself that it’s hard physical work with no benefits and it can be instable work.
How much do you pay your cleaning lady? $75
How long does she stay? I’ve no idea - as long as it takes to clean the place. (Floors, counters, bathroom surfaces, no tidying, no windows, no ovens)
What part of the country? Mid-atlantic.
How biig is your house? Small to tiny. Old cape cod (four rooms plus bath) with attic converted to two rooms plus bath. Kitchen, diningroom, livingroom, office, two bedrooms, two baths, and a hall. However, we’ve also got a toddler, so increase the estimate of how much grime accumulates (whee, avocado hands, rice flung everywhere, etc.!).
800 RMB (~US$100) per month. She comes five days a week, cleans and cooks for about 4 hours each day.
We live in a 5 bedroom (4 and an office really), two bathroom, bungalow (main floor and fully finished basement). Our wonderful domestic engineer as she calls herself, charges us $40.00 each time she comes, which is every two weeks.
If she is going to clean the oven or fridge, it may be a little more.
She is awesome!
Sorry, Peg – didn’t mean to sound as if I were belittling cleaning people of any type. They earn every dollar, of that I’m certain.
Comparison of their salary with a librarian’s, though, just goes to show how little librarians get paid. 
Mrs. Furthur
My mom has been a professional “domestic assistant” for over five years now. And I used to do it, too (right along with her as well as on my own).
Typically we would:
- Clean the kitchen (countertops, stovetop, inside of microwave, dust edges of cabinets, wash any dishes found around the house)
- Clean bathrooms (mirror, countertops, tub/shower, toilet)
- Dust what was needed (mantle, desk, bookshelves, etc.)
- Clean all hard floors (sweep and then wash by hand :eel: on the knees!!) - it makes a HUGE difference.
- Vacuum carpets.
- Any special requests (change bed linens, dust blinds, etc.) that didn’t put us over our normal time limit.
I never had to make the bed for my client (the Mrs. did it in the morning). All I did in the kids’ rooms was vacuum. If anything was on the floor, it went on the bed (Mom’s rule - and I was cool with that). And I loved on their ignored golden retriever and three kitties.
$20/hour no matter what - and that’s a little low for this area (my hubby’s former co-worker paid her lady $60 an hour - and she never got anything really clean!!)
Now, my mom started out as (basically) a live-in housekeeper who didn’t sleep there. She did laundry, mowed the lawn/shoveled the walk, cooked, cleaned, etc. for her first client five days a week. Then they told their friends. So, a booming business was started.
My mom has worked in 2k sq foot townhouses and 10k sq ft palatial homes. Always the same price - just different hours.
And remember - Christmas gifts are GREATLY appreciated by your domestic assistant (my mom’s received everything from cash to gift certificates for massage to good wine and chocolate).
The average around these parts is US$20-30 per month, 6-7 days a week, a few hours per day, cleaning/washing/cooking/odd jobs/etc. Most work in multiple households to be able to make a living.
My parents pay $80 for three hours. She comes every week and vacuums all the floors, does the dishes (they have a dishwasher) and puts them away, washes the bed linens, mops the floors (so well you could eat off of them), and does a general cleaning of the bathrooms and kitchen. They pay her more if there are any “special requests,” like waxing the hardwood. My parents live in Northern Virginia and have a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house.
When I was very little, my mom had a lady that would come in and do all of that plus all of the laundry (there were usually four of us in the house at any given time) for $50. It seemed totally insane to me then too.
NYC 2BR apt, 2 - 2.5 hours to clean, $50 per visit every two weeks:
-washes dishes, does thorough cleaning of bathroom & kitchen, mops all (hardwood) floors, general cleaning (dusting, straightening out, etc.) of living room & bedrooms, takes out trash, cleans windows monthly.