I use a cleaning service and I let them in and stay for the duration. Our house has a small paneled “library” in it that we use instead as a room for our piano. It has a little attached study that can be closed off with a pocket door. I sit at the desk in there while they are working and pay bills, catch up on emails and the news, CC or other web sites I visit. It’s such a small little room that I don’t ask them to clean it. That way I can work in there undisturbed while they do their thing. When they are finished, I walk through the house to do a quick check, then their crew leader hands me a card with the date and a phone number on it to call with comments, then they head out to their next job.
They have a crew of 4, and even though our house is large, they can be done in 2 hours, particularly if our guest rooms have not been used since their last visit. That’s not very long to have to work in my study, so I don’t consider it a big imposition, or awkward in any way.
@abasket my house cleaner has a code for my gate. I’m usually home when she comes. My house is long and she has a set order of cleaning. I usually do paperwork or on the computer up in my room till I go out in the am. I come home mid day and still have privacy in my room till about 2. She does the master bedroom last. I also have an outside room that I can go in that she only cleans at my request. I try not to be home when she is here. Sometimes I’m home before she leaves oftentimes not. I pay her via check every other week and I leave the check on the counter if I’m not going to be home. In the 30 plus years I’ve only had 2 cleaning people. They both also cleaned houses of friends and I totally trust them. The big difference with my present cleaning person is we don’t have a lot of chit chat. We say hello, goodbye and that’s about it. My previous person we had a relationship that was more personal, she watched my kids grow up and would also babysit. We went to her wedding and watched her kids grow up.
As i now mainly have an empty nest I could cut back the cleaning. I keep what I have because I know how hard service people work to make a living, I can afford it and I love a clean house.
I worked for Merry Maids 20+ years ago when I was young and in need of money. Clients can ask for the same crew to come each time and can be accommodated as much as possible around vacations, sick time, and people quitting. If the management refuses to send the same people, then it is that store and not the company policy. We would be given the keys or garage code each time if the client would not be home and would have to return keys to the office at the end of the shift.
It is very, very difficult to remember all of the garage codes we had been given, let alone which code went with garage, so no big reason to worry that a worker would go break in. Besides the fact that we had been bonded in order to get our job and would lose both the bonding and our job if we stole something.
Over the years, I’ve tried two highly recommended services and neither cleaned as well I do, and I wasn’t going to pay for a job that I had to touch-up. Yes, I talked to the teams both times about the things I felt needed to be done better and they corrected the next time, but then something else bothered me. I’m just not a good housecleaning service client. The problem is more mine than theirs, and I don’t want to subject anyone to my obsessions.
Hubby and I clean the house together weekly over two days. On Wednesday, we do all the laundry and the master suite (bed/bath/closet). On Thursday, hubby steam cleans the floors, toilets, and all the kitchen stainless, and I dust and clean the rest of the house and do the grocery shopping. During the hot summer months, we have a service that does our front and back yards, but we take care of the yards the rest of the year on Fridays. Also, we often tackle one “big” task a week, like cleaning out the garage, washing all the windows, polishing cabinet fronts, sealing granite, doing interior paint touch-up, etc.
We have this down to a science: two-and-a-half hours on Wednesday, three hours on Thursday. The rest of the week is just making sure nothing is out or in the sink before we go to bed at night. We’ve always used a form of this divide-and-conquer pattern to ensure that the house is always clean and ready for entertaining on the weekends as we have a rule that weekends are for friends and parties. Now that we’re retired, the Wed/Thurs pattern seems like nothing, and we’re ready for entertaining most of the time.
“Clients can ask for the same crew to come each time and can be accommodated as much as possible around vacations, sick time, and people quitting. If the management refuses to send the same people, then it is that store and not the company policy.”
True but turnover came with the territory in my experience.
The ladies have a key as we are at work when they clean.I am not concerned as they are bonded and we have never had any issues. On the rare occasion that H or I are at home when they come , we typically will go to another part of the house (like the basement) or run errands.
@mom60 7 hours of cleaning for $130?? That’s crazy. The few times I was feeling flush/overworked doing two or three jobs at a time I’ve hired a house cleaner and you can’t touch anyone around here for less than $30/hour. I think the last time I had someone I was paying $75/ eo week for about 2.5 hours. Loved it. Can’t afford it on a regular basis. I think I was lucky enough at that point to hire that person for about 8 months I’ll be moving soon to a much small place with just one bedroom (and just me)…we’ll see how I do keeping up with things. I am good about kitchens and bathrooms, not so good about dust and other areas of the house. I generally keep the outside looking decent but even that could use a good landscaper a few times a year. Oh well.
“7 hours of cleaning for $130?? That’s crazy. The few times I was feeling flush/overworked doing two or three jobs at a time I’ve hired a house cleaner and you can’t touch anyone around here for less than $30/hour.”
I’ll be moving soon to a much small place with just one bedroom (and just me)…we’ll see how I do keeping up with things. I am good about kitchens and bathrooms, not so good about dust and other areas of the house. I generally keep the outside looking decent but even that could use a good landscaper a few times a year. Oh well.