<p>I am trying to decide what to give my housecleaner. She comes 1 day a week but has only been coming to our house for a couple of months. My husband thinks $50 is a good amount but I am not 100% comfortable with that amount.
Our previous housecleaner worked for us for 17 yrs so we had more then a working relationship. So gift giving was more personal.</p>
<p>Do you think $50 is too much or too little?
I would give one week’s pay as a bonus if you like her work. You’re trying to build a long term relationship… do you like the message you’re sending if you give less? more?</p>
<p>I think 50 is too little.
I actually am not that thrilled with her work. She is a nice woman who needs the work so I would feel bad replacing her. My D’s tell me I am too nice.</p>
<p>If you’re not entirely satisfied with the work, it’ll be easier to act on that feeling sooner than later. Giving a holiday gift that you feel comfortable with might make your eventual decision a bit less guilt-induced, though. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Do you give the paper carrier, garbage people and the postperson gifts too? I never know what to give or if I should do it at all.</p>
<p>For about 7 years now, I’ve had a woman come help me “deep clean” every 3 weeks. I pay her $50 for that (about 4 hours). At the holiday I always slip a crisp $50 bill into a thank you card, and hand write a holiday wish for her. I do this mostly because I want her to know that it is a “thank you” as well as a “holiday” gift, and separate from what I pay her. One extra amount of pay seems right.</p>
<p>I only receive the Sunday paper, so I don’t “tip” the delivery person, and am not even sure who comes around at 5 am Sunday…it gets tossed from a truck. I have never even thought to tip my postal delivery man. Although at work we have made Hershey’s kisses goodie bags and given one to all our delivery workers (UPS, FedEx, USPS, office supplies & the superintendent of the building)</p>
<p>I give my cleaning woman double the usual amount for her last December cleaning. She’s pretty good and very nice. We tip a minimal amount ($20) for the paper because he gets 10% all year long on our credit card. Postman doesn’t get a tip. Garbage men get $20 each - I think there are three on the truck. Water guy gets something too.</p>
<p>Our newpaper carrier puts a holiday card in with the paper in early Dec with her address on it. We send her $15. She has been our carrier for almost 15 yrs though we have never seen her. There was a one year time where she must have been away and we had someone else. She does a nice job packaging the paper so it doesn’t get wet. The person we had the other year we were constantly fishing the paper out of the bushes.
I don’t give my postman anything. We do give the postman at our office a cash gift. Don’t give to the garbage men.
We do give a cash gift to the gardeners. That one gets complicated since we use a service for several properties and we used to give the gift to the owner. Still do, but I also give $20 to each of the 3 guys who do my house.I don’t know if the owner shared the gift with his employees.
I am thinking I will give the house cleaner the $50 check from my husband and add another $50 gift card for the grocery store.
Like Just a Mom I put each of the cash gifts in a holiday card with a thank you.</p>
<p>I like these suggestions. Last year the garbage men left ME a gift! They like my efforts at recycling so much that they left me an shiny new recyling bin! We never see our paper person, but she did leave us a self addressed envelope and a nice holiday greeting. We have a longish drive and she always leaves it at the garage door, so I think I’ll give her $20.00. I do my own cleaning, so I’m going to suggest that my husband tip our cleaning person!
Happy holidays!</p>
<p>Here is the online version of the article I clipped out of the Seattle Times about holiday tipping in the Pacific Northwest:</p>
<p>[Living</a> | In this season of giving, we offer tips about tipping](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2004048602&slug=tipping02&date=20071203]Living”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2004048602&slug=tipping02&date=20071203)</p>