We have a cleaning service that comes in every other week, and costs about $90 per visit. They vacuum, dust, mop, and clean bathrooms and the kitchen (wipe surfaces and in the microwave). What they don’t do is move any stuff around, so if something is in the way, the surface won’t get cleaned. Therefore, we have to tidy stuff and move things out of the way up so they can clean. They don’t do dishes, but they do make beds.
We’ve never had any problems with theft, just a couple of things broken, but that’s going to happen no matter who is cleaning. They usually have three people come in for an hour or so. They provide all the cleaning supplies except the vacuum cleaner. Our house is about 2500 sq. ft.
If I could get away with paying that for 1 hour per week, with a basic guarantee of no stealing or breakage, I’d pay it in an instant.
Far better than $121 per hour at this place. I do, however, wonder if a higher rate of pay results in a lower chance of theft and breakage.
One of my concerns is my hobbies. I have a lot of breakables around the place, which constitutes about 90% of the clutter. I’d hate to have to come home to property damage.
We have a woman that comes in every other Friday to clean for us. She’s self-employed and has been cleaning for us for probably close to ten years now. I’m not sure where my wife found her, maybe recommended by a co-worker.
We pay her $60 a visit. She sweeps and mops the kitchen floor, cleans both bathrooms, vacuums the carpets in the bedrooms and the area rug in the living room, and swiffers/mops the hardwood floor in the living room and hallway. Oh yeah, and some dusting too. It takes her between one and one-and-a-half hours.
Never had a problem with theft – if we did, she wouldn’t still be working for us. My biggest complaint is that she is a little careless with the vacuum cleaner sometimes and we have nicks and dings in some of the furniture from where she has banged into it.
We provide supplies. If we’re out or low on something, she will leave us a note and we’ll make sure we have it for next time.
We don’t “clean” before she comes over, but we try to pick up and make sure that stuff is out of her way so that she doesn’t have to work around it.
I’ve never had a maid but I was one, about 10 years ago.
The company I worked for charged $60/hour and paid us $8/hour. We were not paid for travel time, gas, mileage. We usually got 4 or 5 houses done over a 12 hour period and most of them took only 1 to 1-1/2 hours to clean. This gives you some idea of how much time we spent travelling. Instead of scheduling all the customers from the same area on the same day, we’d sometimes have an hour drive (one way) to reach a customer and then the next day, we’d do it again to clean for someone a mile down the road. Our office manager was an idiot. This was actually why I quit.
Anyway, we did basic cleaning. We didn’t do windows, dishes or laundry. We vacuumed and moped (actually we didn’t use mops. We used rags. The boss insisted that mops don’t really clean). We did bathrooms and counters, vacuumed furniture, etc.
I never stole anything but I did once break an ugly statue from Disney. The morons had it on the side of an unbalanced (homemade) three-legged table. I barely touched it with the vacuum and the stupid statue fell.
Oh, and I don’t think any of my customers ever cleaned before I got there. This was fine with me. After all, what’s the point of a maid if you’re cleaning first.
But, the one lady who used to leave her crusty dildo on her nightstand really could have picked up at least a little.
I doubt I’ll ever hire another housekeeper/cleaning person from a cleaning service or company ever again. The best results we’ve had have come from the people we’ve had referred to us from friends. The difference in price and service is astounding.
We’ve had the same cleaning lady for about 6 or 7 years now, and we absolutely love her to death. She comes for half a day (12 to 5 or 6) and charges me $110 for a pretty big area. She mops, vacuums, dusts, cleans toilets, sinks & counters in the kitchens and baths, dusts and changes any sheets that need changing. At the end of the day, she takes out all the trash & the place sparkles. Yes, we pick up the house before she gets here. If we didn’t, she couldn’t get done what she needs to get done.
We have a cleaning service (actually, one woman, plus whatever friend comes along to help her. Sometimes there are two of them). We got her name from a door tag, nearly 15 years ago.
They clean and tidy the house top-to-bottom, excluding a couple of areas we’ve told them not to mess with (I don’t want them “organizing” the computer desk, for example).
We’ve never had anything go missing - even times where there’s been cash lying around. Very specific and recent example: I had a large envelope with all the Girl Scout cookie proceeds in it - roughly 2 grand - and it was undisturbed and nothing was missing.
We have had things get broken. Only one of those was anything we cared much about (a handmade clay figurine).
As we are utter slobs, and view nearly any horizontal surface as a place to dump papers etc., it can sometimes be an adventure to find things after the cleaning crew has been by. Of course, we view this as our own damn fault (if we picked up the worst of the clutter beforehand, it wouldn’t be a problem).
My first housekeeper I found because she put flyers up all around my apartment building. She did a good job but she was really, really flakey about getting to my place on time in the morning when she said she would and I always ended up being late to work the day we had an appointment. I need to be there to let her in because the key to the building has a “DO NOT REPRODUCE” on it so there’s no way any legitimate person will make me a copy and the building owner is a hardass and charges an extra $100 per month to let “approved” housekeepers in.
My current housekeeper I just found after a Google search and she manages to come early and on time.
Cost?
#1 cost about $60 a visit. #2 charged me $80 for the first time and I paid her $80 the second time but we’ve negotiated down to $60 a visit from now on. This is a 1 bedroom apartment and I think those prices are on the expensive side compared to what some people pay, but since I leave them alone with all my stuff and nothing has ever gone missing etc., I’m content to pay people a decent wage for not being shady.
Theft & Concerns
No, and I’m kind of intrigued by the fact that they even clean all the incense/ash in front of the Hindu idols I have around the house. They don’t have a key to the place because my building requires a front door key that is non-reproduceable so there’s no point giving them a key to my apartment.
Time and Space
It seems to take them about 40 minutes but they do the deep cleaning (vacuuming, wiping everything down, bathroom, scrubbing out all the sinks, mopping the floor). It’s a pretty big 1 bedroom apartment. She brings her own supplies except for the vacuum.
Pre-cleaning
I am obessively tidy these days (somehow my slobbiness reformed naturally around 2 years ago). I make sure to take care of any clutter around the house if there is any. So the house is never disgusting looking as in super messy. I just have a singular lack of desire to do anything like wipe down the windows, dust, mop, vacuum, clean the toilet bowl etc…
She comes over every week and spends around 3 hours cleaning, home is a little over 3000 sq. ft. Basically, it’s getting the bathrooms; counters, toilet, shower and tub disinfected and spotless. Kitchen counters wiped down, dishwasher unloaded, stove and oven cleaned and floors mopped. Elsewhere all the furniture dusted and carpet vacuumed. We only brought her in because of good references so no, we’ve never had a problem with theft. She’s a real bargain too, $75 but that may be because over the years we’ve recommended her to a number of friends and neighbors. Our price has remained constant but she charges them twice as much. I do give her a pretty good Christmas bonus.
I found mine through a google search and she was one of two that had their business name on the answering machine. I pay $200 a month for a weekly 2 hour cleaning where she vacuums, dusts, organizes, does the dishes and my laundry for the week. My place is 1600 sqft 3 bedroom 3 bath with a single occupant so there really isn’t much mess aside from the dog hair. By far the best money I spend every month I would quit eating to be able to afford her.
Not sure how my wife found our current one, but she is great. $80 for a cleaning (about 2-3 hours) every two weeks. Cleans everything: 3 bedrooms, three baths, about 2000 sq ft. No, I do not cleans before she comes.
Our last housekeeper actually did steal from us: About $300 in spare change. The company she worked for, when asked to declare the theft with their insurance company, asked us to file a police report. We did. The police took it VERY seriously, investigated, found she had priors, gave her a polygraph - which she failed - and arrested her. Her current trial, after one continuation, is scheduled for May. We changed all the locks, and still have not gotten any money from her company. Fun times. :rolleyes:
This is the magazine that we used. If you live in one of those areas and are willing to pay for a subscription, they have reliable ratings on housekeeping services (and a ton of other stuff).
Found my current cleaning lady on Craigslist. I pay $70 a week for her to clean one day a week. Even though I have kept her for a couple of years, she isn’t that great. However, it is worth the 70 dollars for me not to have to scrub floors or clean toilets. Her missing dust bunnys I can deal with and do on my own. We have to furnish all of the supplies.
I interviewed someone else today as a matter of fact. The current cleaning lady is nice which is why I probably kept her so long but it is at the point that she is changing days randomly on us and that is annoying.
She has broken canisters and this week, our wood floor swiffer thingy was damaged.
The last time I was looking I was quoted from 50 dollars a week to 150 per week. There is no way I would pay that even if I could eat off the floor after their visit.
We had a housekeeper in Dubai who came everyday except Friday and worked for about 2 hours cleaning the place. I think her company charged about 400 AED (about $110) per month. She was from the Philippines and was trustworthy and worked out well.