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Anyone pay for house cleaning?

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vi edit said:
Young kids + dog + living in the country = house is dirty by the time I start with one end and finish up with the other.

The dog is really the worse of it. I can sweep & vacuum and 30 minutes later it still looks like a small fuzzy animal exploded on the floor. Plus muddy footprints coming in after bathroom breaks, ect. It's not a terrible amount of work..maybe 2 hours a week of pure cleaning up of the floors, and another 4 hours a month for dusting/deep cleaning/bathrooms/ect. So six hours a month. Which is just short of another full days work.

It's not hard work, but it's just...more work.
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We have a little schnauzer and she tracks in everything, but otherwise, no kids. I generally try to meet the dog at the door and wipe her legs off with a towel (esp. if it is or has been raining) and that helps cut down on what makes it to the carpet.

I can spend about 15 minutes dusting the house and it takes me about 20 minutes to vacuum (house is 2700-2800 sq ft). Cleaning bathrooms, etc. doesn't take much longer. It is those damn floors that have to be mopped that really suck.
 
I'm too cheap to even fathom paying someone big money to clean my house. And yes paying someone a wage of $50 cash a hour is big money.
Not only that but my wife would slap the shit out of me and tell me to quit being so lazy.
 
Five or six of our neighbors use the same cleaning lady. It works good this way, as she knows that if she steals from one of us, we will all drop her. She doesn't speak any English (Only Spanish) and 'could' very likely be illegal. She arrives every Monday at 8AM with her sister or daughter or who knows. I supply the cleaning supplies. When I come home for lunch around noon, they are finished. For the $100, my floors are polished, windows done, refrigerator cleaned, laundry done and folded on my bed, toilets so clean you could eat off them, baseboards wiped down, chandilier dusted, etc. etc. Home is about 2000 Sq Ft. But keep in mind, that because they come every week, it doesn't get that dirty inbetween.
 
Raizinman said:
Five or six of our neighbors use the same cleaning lady. It works good this way, as she knows that if she steals from one of us, we will all drop her. She doesn't speak any English (Only Spanish) and 'could' very likely be illegal. She arrives every Monday at 8AM with her sister or daughter or who knows. I supply the cleaning supplies. When I come home for lunch around noon, they are finished. For the $100, my floors are polished, windows done, refrigerator cleaned, laundry done and folded on my bed, toilets so clean you could eat off them, baseboards wiped down, chandilier dusted, etc. etc. Home is about 2000 Sq Ft. But keep in mind, that because they come every week, it doesn't get that dirty inbetween.
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$433 a month could buy a nice car.
 
SaigonK said:
So I was all about it, and my wife was not.
She said she felt like she could not keep her own house clean, lazy, etc. etc.

There are five of us, four girls and me, four bedrooms, three bathrooms.
3150 sqft of finished living space.

Its been 6 months now, my wife got over her misgivings and loves that we have the cleaner now. Every tuesday it's "does Sue come today...yes? Sweet!"

We pay $60 bi-weekly here (Maine, $20 an hour), so $120 a month. She will do the normal stuff:

Vacuum all rooms, wash down all counters and cleanup the kitchen, etc. clean all three bathroom completely. Wash the floors, etc.

Every so often (about once a month) if we put down something extra, she just does it. For example i have her wipe down all the trim around the house, baseboard, etc. or I have her wash down all the walls and doors.

We love it, with both of us being professionals at work, and with a kid in college, one in high school and the newest one in daycare...it makes life much easier.
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I'm in Maine as well. Which part of the state, and would you recommend your cleaning company? We're looking for one now.

Also, you're heating 3100 sq ft? Man. We almost did that, but since there's no natural gas in our part of Saco, we decided on the 2000 sq ft place one street over. Are you doing all of that on oil/propane?
 
IndyColtsFan said:
We have a little schnauzer and she tracks in everything, but otherwise, no kids. I generally try to meet the dog at the door and wipe her legs off with a towel (esp. if it is or has been raining) and that helps cut down on what makes it to the carpet.

I can spend about 15 minutes dusting the house and it takes me about 20 minutes to vacuum (house is 2700-2800 sq ft). Cleaning bathrooms, etc. doesn't take much longer. It is those damn floors that have to be mopped that really suck.
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You can do what we do - the swiffer wet mop. It definitely won't clean like a real mop if the floors are really bad, but once you get them clean, using one of the swiffer wet pads a couple times a week tends to keep them that way.

Our place is about 2000 sq ft, but it's ALL hardwood or ceramic tile, so it ALL needs to be vacuumed and mopped.
 
Cleaning girl coming Wednesday to give me an estimate. Thinking about not telling my wife. The house will just progressively cleaner. And I may just take credit.
 
we went with a women from mexico or columbia. She had current recommendations from some coworkers. She speaks like 10 words of english, which has cutout any small talk between us. Plus, I don't care if she is on her cellphone as I can't understand it anyways.

She is amazing.

End up costing me $70 a week. she has been here for 5 hours.
 
Rage187 said:
we went with a women from mexico or columbia. She had current recommendations from some coworkers. She speaks like 10 words of english, which has cutout any small talk between us. Plus, I don't care if she is on her cellphone as I can't understand it anyways.

She is amazing.

End up costing me $70 a week. she has been here for 5 hours.
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yeah $70 a week until you notice all the stuff disappearing from your house
 
OBLAMA2009 said:
yeah $70 a week until you notice all the stuff disappearing from your house
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I'm ok with that. We have no jewelry or pharmaceuticals in the house. She can steal all the clothes and toys she wants. I'm even giving her toys to take to her boys. I can finally start getting rid of this shit.
 
Rage187 said:
we went with a women from mexico or columbia.
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Rage187 said:
We have two very small children and both work well past 40 hours a week.
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You have two small children that work well past 40 hours a week?! I know child labor is great and all due to the small hands, but what is it you have you children doing for 40 hours a week?
 
20 bucks an hour is typical around here. I have her come every two weeks for 6 hours each, so 240/month. It's awesome, best money ever spent. The house is MUCH cleaner than my wife could ever get it.
 
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she did an amazing job. I'm kicking myself for not doing it earlier. this is going to help so much with our marriage because staring at a dirty house can piss you off. When my wife gets home tonight, I'm going to tell her to go sit down and relax.
 
Rage187 said:
she did an amazing job. I'm kicking myself for not doing it earlier. this is going to help so much with our marriage because staring at a dirty house can piss you off. When my wife gets home tonight, I'm going to tell her to go sit down and relax.
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Happy wife = happy life.
 
Five bed, four bath, 3,500 s/f. Cleaning woman comes twice a month. Best $150 you can spend. She cleans things I wouldn't even think to. House is spotless.
 
She rearranged all the kitchen counters and furniture in the living room.she moved everything, swept, mopped and dusted. I don't think we have really dusted.
 
nope. Cleaning ladies just vacuum and clean off counters. They pile your stuff into more piles of stuff.

Then they drink small amounts of all your hard liquor and rifle through your underwear drawer, and possibly use your toothbrush.
 
Just got a quote for my 1900 sq. ft. home. $85/cleaning for a bi-weekly schedule. First two cleanings were more expensive but then they settle in to the $85/cleaning schedule. The company we hire is going to rotate a room every cleaning for a detailed cleaning.

Just a tip: I wasn't comfortable giving out a key but found that my garage door was programmable for a temporary code and we have an external keypad.
 
$80 takes her 2-3 hours. A person recently was telling me they are paying $50 and it's about 2 hours, so I think you're looking around $25/hour is reasonable since they have to drive to where you are, use their supplies (yeah I realize they're cheap), etc.
 
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