Those of you with a cleaning service

hoffse · December 2016

How often do they come?

H and I are due for raises, so we are probably going to start using a cleaning service in 2017. I just can't keep up with the house because we spend far too many weekends out of town.

For reference, we have 2 cats who shed everywhere.

csuave · December 2016

Every other week. That is the minimum I can handle with a dog in the house. Most services want a schedule of either every 1, 2, or 4 weeks.

cbee817 · December 2016

Everyone I know has the cleaners come every other week. Most of them have dogs and young kids- they seem to be happy with that time span but a lot of them say that they clean up the house for the cleaners, which just makes me laugh.
I was thinking we would get one after DD#2 is out of day care, but now I'm second guessing it... we'll see as the girls get more involved in outside activities (music, sports, etc). We don't have any pets and our house is just under 1,600 sq ft so that helps a lot with cleaning.

brij2006 · December 2016

Our girl comes every other week. We have a Collie and a long haired cat and I still have to vacuum a couple times in-between. She charges $10/hour which I know is insanely cheap, and she gets as much done in 4 hours as she can. She also does deep cleaning as well because she prefers to be the one that does all the cleaning. I let her have at it.
It's seriously the best $80 we spend every month. Just last night I was looking at the house thinking of all the cleaning I needed to get done, then remembered she's coming today. It was so nice to just wash the dishes, clean up dinner, and put our junk away yesterday instead of having to do a full 4 hours of cleaning the house.

LillibetteV · December 2016

We don't have a cleaning service because I'm too picky (I refuse to pay for anything that doesn't pass a white glove test and that's probably not realistic for what I'd be willing to spend) but with shedding pets I would do once a week. I know if I miss a week of vacuuming it gets gross and I've got one dog. I think planning for less would leave you unhappy.

jtmh2012 · December 2016

We keep considering. My wife had a live-in maid when she lived in Thailand, but sorry we just can't afford that here in the US. But we have considered having someone come in once or twice a month.

brij2006 · December 2016

cbee817 said:

Everyone I know has the cleaners come every other week. Most of them have dogs and young kids- they seem to be happy with that time span but a lot of them say that they clean up the house for the cleaners, which just makes me laugh.
I was thinking we would get one after DD#2 is out of day care, but now I'm second guessing it... we'll see as the girls get more involved in outside activities (music, sports, etc). We don't have any pets and our house is just under 1,600 sq ft so that helps a lot with cleaning.

Lol. This is my husband. "So wait, we have to clean because the cleaning lady is coming?" I always tell him she doesn't need to pick up his dirty underwear or try to clean around all of his crap sitting on the kitchen table and counter. Whenever I spend a day cleaning we go around picking things up and putting them away, it's the same for her.

hoffse · December 2016

Yeah I really don't mind picking up stuff, and we do our best to keep stuff mostly picked up anyway (though we sometimes fail with clothes). It's the all the rest of it I hate. The weekends we are home we spend hours trying to get the house back in order. It would not be so bad if we were home every weekend, but we are gone more weekends than we are home. Both of us are starting to travel more for work, and cleaning is like the very. last. thing. we want do after a road trip or a long day at work.

I'll be honest I am not that picky, and at this point I am willing to pay for any level of help that's decent.

That being said, we could afford to have them come once a week. I am super tempted to do that.

csuave · December 2016

@hoffse I know you are interested in getting a Roomba. From a MM perspective I think every other week + Roomba would work well for you (*with a caveat). Since you travel your showers and other living areas won't have much of a chance to get dirty in 7 days. The vacuuming is probably what needs to be done the most frequently.

Now, another option is to get a custom quote for every week and have that be a lower price per clean than what you would get for every other week. Some cleaners will give you a lower price per week for weekly cleans just because it makes their job easier and quicker. Others will not--for those this could be a negotiation of a list of items that only needs to be done every other week (baseboards, light switch plates, etc) and then with the reduced work there should be a discount.

hoffse · December 2016

Yeah, the floors are the worst because of the cats. You may be right that a Roomba would make it so every other week was fine.

Also, I have never cleaned our light switch plates other than sanitizing after one of us gets sick. If that's something people do every other week as a matter of course.... then clearly I need help.

LillibetteV · December 2016

brij2006 said:

cbee817 said:

Everyone I know has the cleaners come every other week. Most of them have dogs and young kids- they seem to be happy with that time span but a lot of them say that they clean up the house for the cleaners, which just makes me laugh.
I was thinking we would get one after DD#2 is out of day care, but now I'm second guessing it... we'll see as the girls get more involved in outside activities (music, sports, etc). We don't have any pets and our house is just under 1,600 sq ft so that helps a lot with cleaning.

Lol. This is my husband. "So wait, we have to clean because the cleaning lady is coming?" I always tell him she doesn't need to pick up his dirty underwear or try to clean around all of his crap sitting on the kitchen table and counter. Whenever I spend a day cleaning we go around picking things up and putting them away, it's the same for her.

I am with your husband! I HATE picking up stuff, but once that part is done I don't mind vacuuming, dusting, mopping, scrubbing toilets, or really any part of the actually cleaning. I find it oddly satisfying to see a full vacuum canister and a dirty rag to feel like I actually DID something.

smetter04 · December 2016

hoffse said:

Yeah, the floors are the worst because of the cats. You may be right that a Roomba would make it so every other week was fine.

Also, I have never cleaned our light switch plates other than sanitizing after one of us gets sick. If that's something people do every other week as a matter of course.... then clearly I need help.

To the bolded...I just thought the same thing about us

julieanne912 · December 2016

brij2006 said:

Our girl comes every other week. We have a Collie and a long haired cat and I still have to vacuum a couple times in-between. She charges $10/hour which I know is insanely cheap, and she gets as much done in 4 hours as she can. She also does deep cleaning as well because she prefers to be the one that does all the cleaning. I let her have at it.
It's seriously the best $80 we spend every month. Just last night I was looking at the house thinking of all the cleaning I needed to get done, then remembered she's coming today. It was so nice to just wash the dishes, clean up dinner, and put our junk away yesterday instead of having to do a full 4 hours of cleaning the house.

God, that is so cheap, I'd totally go for it. Hell, I'd pay someone that just to come clean my floors LOL. Cleaning folks around here are usually double that.

@hoffse yes, just get yourself a Roomba. We have 3 dogs, 2 of which shed A TON (they have double coats). The Roomba has been a lifesaver.

lbonga1 · December 2016

We can't afford it at the moment, but I would like someone to come once a month or so to do the deep cleaning, like the baseboards and such. I probably wouldn't notice the difference if those were done more often than that, and I definitely know my FI wouldn't notice. He doesn't even notice when there's a pile of dishes in the sink. FI used to be against a cleaner because of having someone in the house that he didn't know, but now that we have kids, he's coming around to the idea. As far as cleaning up before-hand goes, his mom explained to him when he was younger that there's a difference between a cleaning person and a maid. A maid will pick up after you, as well as clean, and a cleaning person is just there to clean. I don't know if that's correct or not, but it made sense to me. I wouldn't really want someone trying to find the right place to put my stuff anyway because I probably wouldn't be able to find it later.

vlagrl35 · December 2016

Mondays is my day to pick up around the house and do the weekly dusting and vaccuming. It takes me 2 hours to do the first level - not as long for the 2nd level. I don't do the 2nd level as often cause we don't live up there as much. I deep clean every other month. If I worked full time I would hire a maid just because there would not be enough time in the day to do it and I would want to relax with the family on the weekends.

short+sassy · December 2016

lbonga1 said:

We can't afford it at the moment, but I would like someone to come once a month or so to do the deep cleaning, like the baseboards and such. I probably wouldn't notice the difference if those were done more often than that, and I definitely know my FI wouldn't notice. He doesn't even notice when there's a pile of dishes in the sink. FI used to be against a cleaner because of having someone in the house that he didn't know, but now that we have kids, he's coming around to the idea. As far as cleaning up before-hand goes, his mom explained to him when he was younger that there's a difference between a cleaning person and a maid. A maid will pick up after you, as well as clean, and a cleaning person is just there to clean. I don't know if that's correct or not, but it made sense to me. I wouldn't really want someone trying to find the right place to put my stuff anyway because I probably wouldn't be able to find it later.

This is me in a nutshell. I don't really need help with the weekly cleaning, but I need serious help with the deep cleaning. I really don't like doing it, so it's pretty sporadic. But, looking into that needs to wait until my finances are more secure.

I hired a cleaning person once, but it was for a "one off" job at one of my rentals. For $40 he cleaned all the floors, baseboards, and walls for an 825 sq ft empty unit. He ended up not doing a very good job with the walls, but it was at least an improvement. He did a great job with the floors, they were filthy and even "sticky" (gross), and saved me hours of time. It was money very well spent.

In my area, you can hire an independent cleaning person for $10-$12/hour. I don't know the prices of going through a service, but I'm sure it is substantially more. I think they more do a structure of a flat fee for services, rather than hourly.

cupcait927 · December 2016

No cleaning person for us but my MIL cleans houses. She recommends every other week. She has clients that she does every week, every other week and once a month and says that every two weeks is the best frequency for most people. Just enough time to make it worth it to pay for, but not so infrequent that the house is a mess by the time she comes again. She keeps telling H and I that once we have kids, that we should do it so that we don't have to spend our weekends cleaning the house.

To speak to the Roomba - my MIL is also getting herself a Roomba for Christmas. They've got a dog and four cats so it's desperately needed. She spends all week cleaning other people's houses, so anything she can do to take the load off at her house, she's for it.

LillibetteV · December 2016

@short+sassy same! My MIL gifted us a few hours of her cleaning ladies as a housewarming gift so that they could do the deep scrub while the house was empty. I felt bad because I know my MIL spent a lot of money on it, but I was thoroughly unimpressed and still spent a few hours cleaning it myself after them, but at least it was a head start. An empty house is the easiest thing to clean! For example I said "clean the ceiling fans" and they literally wiped the blades, but not the attached light fixtures which were super gross. They're professionals so how detailed and specific should I have to get? They also left the kitchen counters super gross since that was their staging station and they didn't clean them on the way out. I feel like some cleaners go through the motions while others are better about keeping at a spot until the dirt is gone.

brij2006 · December 2016

We LOVE our Roomba! I have it run 3 days/week while we're at work. Only thing I don't like is that we have 3 levels so I have to physically move it (FWP) to the next level. But most of the time I just leave it in the area we spend the most time and let it go.
Between that and the cleaning lady I usually vacuum 1-2 times/week still. That's mostly because the dog lays on the couch while we're at work so it gets covered in dog hair and I can't stand it. The Roomba also does mostly a light cleaning. I'm sort of an anti-hair person and it makes me feel better to just vacuum things as well so there's less hair. Being pregnant, I actually got sick the other day because all the dog hair on our couch grossed me out so much. It's oh so much fun.

Not going to lie though, we've joked that we'd love to pay our cleaning lady to also brush the dog and pooper scoop the backyard. I keep telling H that we might as well hire a live in maid/nanny at that point.

AprilZ81 · December 2016

LillibetteV said:

@short+sassy same! My MIL gifted us a few hours of her cleaning ladies as a housewarming gift so that they could do the deep scrub while the house was empty. I felt bad because I know my MIL spent a lot of money on it, but I was thoroughly unimpressed and still spent a few hours cleaning it myself after them, but at least it was a head start. An empty house is the easiest thing to clean! For example I said "clean the ceiling fans" and they literally wiped the blades, but not the attached light fixtures which were super gross. They're professionals so how detailed and specific should I have to get? They also left the kitchen counters super gross since that was their staging station and they didn't clean them on the way out. I feel like some cleaners go through the motions while others are better about keeping at a spot until the dirt is gone.

We hired a cleaning person to come in right before Ava was born because we knew we would have family come in and I didn't want to spend hours vacuuming and mopping the floors. I was home when she came to clean and even then she didn't do a great job. It was nice that I wasn't the one doing it, but I know I would have done a better job.

I think some of it was in my head... When I clean I KNOW it was cleaned and cleaned to my standards, with a service (even if I'm in the house) I don't know for sure.

I would like to try again with a different person/service. My goal is to get someone to clean once a month and then we can just maintain it in between visits. Around here the going rate is about $100 a visit for a two story house... it is borderline on what I would say is worth it.

hoffse · December 2016

OMG OMG OMG my H just agreed to a Roomba!! The costco one is an 800-series, and it's $50 off right now. If it dies prematurely we can take it back.

I feel like my dream of having a moderately clean house is finally going to come true.

short+sassy · December 2016

brij2006 said:

We LOVE our Roomba! I have it run 3 days/week while we're at work. Only thing I don't like is that we have 3 levels so I have to physically move it (FWP) to the next level. But most of the time I just leave it in the area we spend the most time and let it go.
Between that and the cleaning lady I usually vacuum 1-2 times/week still. That's mostly because the dog lays on the couch while we're at work so it gets covered in dog hair and I can't stand it. The Roomba also does mostly a light cleaning. I'm sort of an anti-hair person and it makes me feel better to just vacuum things as well so there's less hair. Being pregnant, I actually got sick the other day because all the dog hair on our couch grossed me out so much. It's oh so much fun.

Not going to lie though, we've joked that we'd love to pay our cleaning lady to also brush the dog and pooper scoop the backyard. I keep telling H that we might as well hire a live in maid/nanny at that point.

My H has an acquaintance who runs exactly that business. I don't much about it or how much he charges. But he's been running it for a couple years now.

Those pet hair brushes, that pull hair from the undercoat, work great! When we are good about it, we see much less fur around. Our cat has short hair, but it is a double coat. She also likes to be brushed, so it is pretty win-win.

julieanne912 · December 2016

SITB:

I've thought about learning to knit, and knit stuff to sell from all the dog hair we get off our dogs when we brush them.

I'm mostly kidding.

short+sassy · December 2016

julieanne912 said:

SITB:

I've thought about learning to knit, and knit stuff to sell from all the dog hair we get off our dogs when we brush them.

I'm mostly kidding.

My H and I joke that we'll come home one day and find a mewing Nip kitten, created from all the fur lying around.

takmjs · December 2016

Oh how I would loooove a cleaning lady. My H would complain about the cost (no matter how cheap or how great a job they do), and I don't want to offend him. He's a stay-at-home dad, and he does a lot of the housework, but he just doesn't notice the details like I do. Our house really only has the basics done--laundry, dishes, sweep/vacuum, clean toilets and sinks--and that's it. Things like baseboards and light-switch panels are so far back on the list, I feel like I need some major help.

I'm more concerned now with decluttering and getting rid of all the junk we don't need. I'm hoping someday that will happen, and then I can focus more on deep cleaning. Someday....like maybe in 20 years after the kids are all out of the house?!

jtmh2012 · December 2016

Pepole clean light switch panels?

vlagrl35 · December 2016

I clean light switch panels and door knobs when I deep clean so not all the time. When DD was a sticky toddler I'd have to clean lots of door knobs and furniture weekly.

csuave · December 2016

jtmh2012 said:

Pepole clean light switch panels?

Any area where fingers touch should be cleaned. If you go into a house that isn't owned by the cleanest people and it is a little old you will see the light switches looking grimy. When H and I were looking to buy a house we went into one that obviously neglected cleaning. Their light switches would have needed to be replaced to look clean again. They had reduced the price on the house a couple of times and after seeing it we weren't going to buy it.

Now it can take a while for them to get grimy but it might depend on the people. I wash my hands a lot, especially when cooking. H, on the other hand might be cooking and touch things without the cleanest of hands.

Another example is the handrail on the stairs. Ours is painted white. I never touch handrails when using the stairs. H always does. As a result I can visibly see dirt on the rails that needs to be cleaned off at least once a month (twice is better). If H didn't touch these we could go a lot longer without needing to clean them.

Those of you with a cleaning service

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