<p>Every week. $80. House is three level, five bedroom. We don’t have her wash the sheets, do the laundry, or do the dishes. </p>
<p>I do bring in another cleaning lady/ friend - for a more intense cleaning twice a year. More like a spring cleaning … pay $20 an hour for this.</p>
<p>I just don’t have time to dust vacuum, clean the bathrooms, etc. We keep things pretty straightened up so picking up before, losing things, not really a problem. </p>
<p>I have had problems with theft in the past - so when we find someone we trust that’s worth a lot too.</p>
<p>I use a service (major franchise) but the same team cleans my house each time. Every other week $144 each time. D.C. suburban area. 3000+ square foot house. I cleaned my own house when I was a SAHM but as the hours at my part time job have increased to close to full time I just don’t have the time anymore.</p>
<p>I used to joke that I worked fulltime when my children were little so I could afford to pay someone to clean the house. It’s the last thing I wanted, or want, to do.</p>
<p>$130 every other week, in Fairfield County, CT. We do a terrible job straightening between her visits so she just piles things neatly on the kitchen table.</p>
<p>I was I could find one. When S1 was little, I had a woman who came in every 2 weeks. Can’t remember how much I paid her. However, she became more and more unreliable herself, although she always sent her grandmother to replace her! It really bothered 30-something me to have this 70±year-old lady cleaning my house while I sat around and watched. </p>
<p>I never have found anyone in our new location. I wanted someone recommended by someone else. The local cleaning services in town tend to use students in this college town, and people I talked with were not too happy with the results. </p>
<p>H & I both hate to clean. We have a very high tolerance for clutter. With kids gone, we close doors and don’t often look in a few rooms or the basement. With a very demanding job, it’s all I can do to manage to keep the sinks, toilets and kitchen clean. I vacuum when I can’t stand the dog hair anymore. </p>
<p>Nrdsb4, I understand about the dog. During shedding season, our golden retriever lays on the carpet and when she gets up, there’s an imprint laid out in hair.</p>
<p>I pay for my parents’ cleaning people in NJ. They come every other week. The house is 4000+ square ft. It is $120/cleaning. My mom is very appreciative of it because of her age. It’s only two of them in the house, they don’t use those bedrooms and bathrooms when we are not there, so every other week works for her.</p>
<p>Where we are, south of border, I have a housekeeper who comes in 3 times a week for $400/month. She runs out of things to do, so she’ll iron everything in sight - H’s underwears, D2’s jeans, and keeping my closet immaculate (think about shirts organized by color, suits by season, and shoes all lined up by color). Most people have an housekeeper 6 days a week, but we don’t have little kids and we are fairly low maintenance.</p>
<p>Every other week. $100 per visit. I said when I went back to work full time that I’d get a cleaning lady so I did; she comes with a crew of 2 or 3 others. She’s been cleaning for people on my cul-de-sac for over 15 years, at least 5 of us use her and I convinced my 80+ year old mom to have her come in once a month to do the heavy cleaning. </p>
<p>They clean things that I never had time to: baseboards, plantation shutters, lighting fixtures, blinds, light switches. Vacuum & dust everything, bathrooms, kitchen. They don’t change sheets or do laundry.</p>
<p>I was a FlyLady follower for quite some time & still have a list for myself of must do’s for everyday: make beds, do dishes, laundry sorted, garbages emptied, catbox cleaned. If I get through that before I leave for work, then things don’t get out of hand. I wipe my kitchen counters every day and usually vacuum 1-2 times between cleaning crew visits (I have 3 cats.)</p>
<p>We have a wonderful young woman come every other week and pay her $85 for the day, which is usually about five-six hours for about 3000 sq. ft. She does an amazing job- cleans three bathrooms, changes and washes sheets and towels, moves furniture in the living and family rooms, scours kitchen and washes floors, dusts and vacuums the furniture, sills, baseboards, fixtures, etc. I don’t have to tell her anything unless I want something special done. Now that the kids are gone, I don’t have her clean their rooms unless they are coming home for some reason. I do have to vacuum in between her cleanings, as we have a sheddy Lab, but usually just once. I trust her completely and usually leave the house- walk the dog or shop, for most of the time she’s here. </p>
<p>I’d happily pay her to come every week, but she’s totally booked, six days a week! I found her through a friend, who was nice enough to give me her “day” every other week, as she had been using her every week.</p>
<p>I loved my cleaning people until they raised their rates to $125.00 for about the three hours they were here. The zip code one lives in definately creates the prices we pay for all types of services and don’t even get me started on the variety of quotes we received to take a tree down.</p>
<p>My twice a week lady went home for the holidays so I hired a service. They sent FIVE women who blitzed through my house in an hour. It was the most frenetic scene, one going through the baths, one in the kitchen, one dusting, and one with a vacuum back pack being followed by one with a wet mop. I thought the dog might stroke out there were so many new people in the house scurrying around. There was nowhere to hide, but in an hour they were done and did a great job. I paid the same as I pay my lady, but it takes her half the day. (Which suits me much better!)</p>
<p>My mom is a cleaning lady. She works at one house all week, from 9 am to 4 pm. It’s a really big house out in Greenwich and she does everything, like laundry, ironing, bathrooms, kitchen, bedrooms, closets, grocery shopping, etc. My mom has been veryyy lucky because the lady she works for loves her and vice versa. Also, she gets paid extremely generously, more than almost anyone else in my family. It’s all about location I say, as we live only about 15 mins away from Greenwich, CT, a very rich neighborhood.</p>
<p>I pay $25 per hour, per person for cleaning. I’ve had the same woman for nearly 10 years. She’s had various helpers during that time–some better than others. She cleans the entire house and irons our clothes (I wash them–she’d wash them, but I’d rather do that myself). I’ve used a cleaning service in the past and prefer having one/two people who are self-employed rather than a group of folks who work for some large service. I trust my cleaning lady; she’s honest and I don’t worry that something will get stolen if I leave the house when she’s here. That’s worth a lot to me and I’m willing to pay more. She invited me to her citizenship ceremony a few years ago.</p>
<p>I love the woman who cleans for us, my house is 3200 square feet I pay her $110 every time, usually twice a week occasionally she comes more. I pay her 2 weeks vacation and extra when she does extra things. I also have someone who irons every other week, I pay her $20/hour. I am not a fan of cleaning, it is only H and I but the dog sheds a lot, I wind up vacuuming almost everyday. Our small beach house costs more to clean ($125) because it’s tough to get to, I only have a cleaner every other week when I’m there. I do ask anyone who borrows our house to pay for her to clean when they leave.</p>
<p>I pay $80 weekly for a 4 bedroom 3 1/2 bath house. Two women in their 60’s spend about two hours to vacum, sweep, dust, clean the bathrooms, etc. They change the sheets every other week. They’re somewhat slap dash, but completely honest and reliable. Basically, they’re too nice to fire. Now that we’re empty nesters, we don’t need them every week, but I haven’t had the heart to cut back.</p>
<p>I have a cleaning GUY who comes once a week, brings an additional two/three people who change out yearly. Does everything, baths (2 1/2), bedrooms, changes sheets, floors, blinds, ceiling fans etc. Some weeks it’s great and some just fine but it keeps me on my toes getting everything picked up and laundry done before they come. Have had him for 10 years and pay $85 (3500 sq.ft.), although there are some rooms like the guest room and loft that are barely used. Nothing like having it all clean at one time, if only for a few minutes.</p>
<p>On a related note, did any of you see the movie “The Help”? Am I the only person bothered by it? It just hit a little too close to home, but maybe that was because of my years in the South.</p>
<p>I have two cleaning women and they both come once a week. The first one is not very detail-oriented. She is a sweetheart and has been with us for over 10 years; started when we lived in a 2300 sq. foot house and is now cleaning our 6000 sf home for $75 for about 2.5 hours of work. She just does the basics: bathrooms (5), light dust, vacuum, mop tile and clean kitchen. The other cleaner comes two days later and is extremely detail oriented. She was a former preschool teacher (for my Ds) but lost her job when the catholic school shut down. So I hired her to do some heavy “spring cleaning” and just kept her on. She spends six hours DEEPLY cleaning one or possibly two rooms. I pay her $100. My hubby isn’t too happy about the $175 per week spent on two different cleaners and wants me to get rid of one but I love them both and can’t bring myself to do it.</p>