We have one come at least every other week, sometimes more frequently if guests will be staying with us. Heck yeah it’s worth it. My one stipulation is that it be done while I’m at work and finished before I get home.
Of course I would no question but no live in. I don’t want to have some psycho in my house.
(I haven’t read the thread.)
I’ve had someone come in to clean once a month or once every two weeks for the past 25 years. When I got married, she came every week, but since my husband died, I’m back to once a month. I live alone, but heck- I don’t like cleaning. Period. It’s not THAT expensive. Usually the person I’ve hired really needs the work, too, so it’s win-win.
One lady I had for a while was ~70, a widow. Her husband had died of alcoholism in the state hospital. Her son had died of AIDS from a blood transfusion. She said to me one day, “I shouldn’t be having to clean houses at my age. I should be at home with my husband, bouncing my grandchildren on my knee.” She was absolutely right. We had a good, mutually beneficial arrangement. Eventually she did stop working. Now I have a guy who comes with his nephew once a month.
I would never need anyone more often than once a week, and the idea of a live-in full-time maid totally creeps me out. A robot or android maybe, but not a person.
Growing up, we had periods where we had a live in maid and otherwise we had a cleaning lady who came once a week. My parents have a maid who comes in on week days but who isn’t live in. My wife and I have a cleaning lady who comes in every two weeks to clean. I should add that my wife and I aren’t terribly messy but our son is.
My preference is for what my parents have. She cooks, tidies up the house, does laundry, and irons. My parents have a cleaning lady who comes on Wednesdays and does a deep cleaning. We wouldn’t need the cleaning lady but someone tidying up, cooking and doing laundry would be awesome.
I wouldn’t want a live in maid, because they are always underfoot and then you never have any privacy.
I can’t understand why anyone who works full time would willingly spend free time cleaning their house. My mother went back to work when I was about 15 (after raising 5 kids, I was the last) and the first thing she did was hire a lady to clean the house once a week. I grew up with the philosophy that if you work full time, if at all possible, hire someone to clean.
So I’ve pretty much always have had a cleaning person, minimum once every 2 weeks. Even when I wasn’t working, Mr. Athena insisted on a cleaning lady - I think he didn’t think I’d really do it, and heck, if he felt that strongly about it, who was I to disagree? 
Overall, yeah, it’s a bit of a pain when they come, but really, I just hide in my office and work so it’s not that bad. When we both worked outside the house, we’d give the cleaning people keys, and have never had problems. The hassle is well worth the benefit of not having to give up half my weekend to clean the house.
My mom cleaned houses when I was a kid, and when I was a teenager I helped my parents clean an office building for extra family money. Eventually my parents moved on to other things and my brothers and I did this work for a couple of years ourselves.
It is work I have no moral objection to doing, and so would have no problem paying someone to do.
Because I live alone (not counting the dog) in a 3BR townhouse that takes all of 3-4 hours to thoroughly clean? And on an average weekend I might only spend 1-2 hours on cleaning?
I can’t understand why anyone would live in a house that it takes them a full day to clean. 
I’m torn on this. I hate cleaning and I love having stuff clean, but like others in the thread I’m not crazy about someone being in my house. Not so much because of theft concerns or “ooh, that woman has some weird ideas about decorating”, I’m just not that comfortable with strangers.
Also, I’m cheap, and it’s certainly something I CAN do, I just don’t like it, so it seems frivolous to outsource the task. Guilt, anyone? Feel free, I have plenty.
That said, we did have a cleaning lady for a few months but my husband couldn’t deal with the tyranny of having to pick up his stuff twice a month, and I couldn’t handle scooping it all up and stashing it somewhere for the cleaning, then re-distributing it after the maid left. I invariably misplaced stuff and that led to unhappiness on everyone’s part.
What I’d really like is for a crew to come in twice a year and really detail every room. I could keep up with the routine stuff then. Theoretically.
I want a part time maintenance person and part time gardener too.
Yay another Erma Bombeck reader. I never find anybody that says anything if I mention her.
She was my first introduction to humor writers (if you don’t count the John Lennon poetry I read as a little kid, but his humor was very. . .British). I like to think that reading her paved the way for the likes of Dave Barry.
We used to have a cleaning service who came in once every two weeks. When we got our Roomba we got rid of them. We spent maybe more time picking up before they came than we saved on their non-floor work. My wife works from home, so she left when they were here to not get in their way, and that was sometimes a pain. They also sometimes missed stuff on the ceiling, which annoyed me.
Once a month, to compensate for me being a bachelor.
I’d love to have one once a week or even every day. Once a week would make sure I didn’t let anything get out of hand as far as picking up. If it were every day I’d like them to take care of the laundry, dishes, and dinner as well, and that would be AWESOME.
For those of you saying the reason you don’t have someone come in to clean is because you aren’t comfortable with them in the house, my wife was/is the same way. I work from home, so I’m here when the cleaner is here, but tucked away in my office (until they want to get in there, then I go upstairs to play with the cats for a little while).
My wife has changed her work schedule so that she’s at work when they’re here.
The cleaner you hire would probably prefer that you’re actually NOT there, if at all possible. You just get in the way, and they have to be conscious of not making a giant mess while tidying up and cleaning.
Our cleaner moves furniture around, etc. in order to get things really clean. And if you’re there, it just makes it trouble.
Well, I could afford it, and I would love to have someone come in once a week to spruce the place up, but I’m home now with Junior and I can’t justify it.
It would be awesome, but I would feel a ton of guilt. I would also feel like an ass sitting around watching someone clean my place but to avoid that I would have to bundle up me, the baby and the dog and go somewhere and it’s the middle of winter here. Meh - it’s easier just to do it myself.
I do think it would be nice though…
Yes and a butler too. I’ve always wanted someone to buttle.
Because I want it done my way, and because I’d rather do it myself than have someone else messing with my stuff. 
They’d still be in my house, whether I was there or not. I don’t see how that’s different. 
Definitely. But I’d feel weird living with someone who is not at least a pretty close friend. I’ve only had a roommate twice–in college, and that only worked out because we were essentially equals, and, after a little room swapping, compatible as friends.
But I don’t think I’d mind a full-time maid. She’d mostly be here while I was asleep, and there’s nothing here worth stealing.
Oh, hell yes!
In fact, when I worked crazy long hours (sometimes 80+ hours a week), I hired a cleaning woman to come in every other week to do the cleaning and laundry. I lived by myself and wasn’t home much, so it really didn’t get too dirty in between. It was worth every penny not to have to do those chores during my precious time off work.