Household help? Have you had it? What kind? Was it really helpful?

[melissel]

If I cannot quit my job in January like I hope to, I've told my DH that that means that a big chunk of my salary will be spent on household help so that I'm basically just working, HSing, and feeding us. But beyond having a cleaning lady/service, I have no idea how I'd go about finding any other kind of household help!

 

What else is there? How do you find people? What I really need is a housekeeper, not a cleaning service. I need someone who can come in a few times a week and put all the books back on the shelves and the toys where they belong, and wash the dishes and wipe down the tables. I need someone to help me manage all the clutter that keeps building up and the basic day-to-day activities. I need ALICE! Do people even do this kind of thing anymore?

 

Any other thoughts/ideas/experiences are appreciated.

 

(And please, no flames if you were so inclined. I'd much rather be doing these things myself and training my kids to do them rather than outsourcing them, but this does not seem to be in the cards unless DH has a major change of heart somewhere along the line.)

 

TIA!

[MIch elle]

Could you hire an older teenager in your neighborhood or one that drives? I bet there are homeschool teens that would love to have a job like that! Ask around in your homeschool circle. Be VERY specific with the job description and hours/days!

[herbalgirl]

Do you belong to a church or a club or something of that sort where you might be able to find a teenager or a woman who'd be willing to help out for a reasonable amount of money (less than a service company)?

 

Do you use a babysitter? Would she know of any other girls/women who might be interested?

 

Those are the first things that come to mind.

[melis108]

I definitely think you could find someone to help you. I would start asking around. I have a friend who does house cleaning, but if asked, I'm certain she would take this kind of work.

[TKDmom]

I recently hired a friend of mine to help me out around the house. This pregnancy has physically draining enough, that I just couldn't keep up with the house. I can get the kids to pick up and help with the dishes and such, but no one was doing the actual cleaning.

 

It has been wonderful to have help. She comes in twice a week, and does an amazing job. And it's soo much easier to keep the house clean in between her visits. Picking up the days stuff is so much easier if you actually started out with a clean house in the morning. This friend of mine has a husband who has been out of work for over a year, so it helps out both of us to have her come. I just wish I could pay her more. I really don't have any advice for you on how to find anyone, though. Other than a suggestion to consider anyone you or your friends know who may be looking for a way to bring in some income.

 

I had tried Merry Maids before, but I could only afford to have them come every other week, and other than getting the bathrooms clean, it just wasn't often enough to be worth it.

[Ester Maria]

I have exactly that - a "household help", not just a "cleaning lady". She comes over twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) and stays for 7-8 hours. She's been working for us for years and she seems to have formed some kind of her own schedule when to do what. There are some things she does every time she comes (the floors, dusting, bathrooms, etc.), while the rest of the time she just does the "little" stuff which vary depending on the day and the situation - she does the dishes if there are dishes to be done, organizes my kitchen a little if it's disorganized, does the laundry if there is laundry to be done, if it's done but needs to be ironed she does that, puts random things in the house back to their place if they're in mess, stuff like that. Once a month she does the extra things, such as the windows and the curtains, in a more thorough cleaning of the house (usually it's two days in a row). Everybody who's at home at that time helps out with that monthy cleaning.

 

The rest of the time we just try to be clean all together. I've taught the girls to always clean up after themselves and to keep their rooms in a reasonable order, and DH is also a relatively tidy person. We don't have much issues with cleaning, everybody does their part in it, but it's still relatively little, given that we do everything regularly so the house is always decent.

 

So yes, there are still people who do it. Some of them pretty well in fact. ;)

Edited July 16, 2009 by Ester Maria
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[Jean in Newcastle]

It really depends on who you hire. I've hired two friends to help me over the last couple of years. Both were perfect at first. Then the first friend started to balk at anything that required much physical effort (she was overweight). I kept her for about a year but during the summer when she had to stop working to be with her kids more, I just quietly phased her out. The second friend worked more with my dd7 - she worked well with her during the fun 1st grade stuff. But once we hit 2nd grade which required more teaching effort on her part, I found that she would just quietly "never get to" the "hard" subjects. Again, fortunately her schedule and mine reached a point where they didn't mesh and we were able to stop the routine while still saving our friendship. If I did something like this again I think I would look for a stranger who I could lay out my requirements and hold them accountable without worrying about our friendship.

[camibami]

They exist! We have a wonderful Korean lady who comes every Friday. SHe cleans, cooks, watches kids- the works. FOr us, she just cleans mostly, but I do use the time she is here to go somewhere alone, or run errands. SO far, only errands, but I am hopeful one Friday to get to do somehting "fun". SHe cooks full meals and takes care of babies for some neighbors, for others just cleaning like for us. More like Alice than Merry Maids.

 

Do they exist in the US? I don't know. But I would hang a sign up at church, the grocery store, etc. The economy is tough, and people need jobs. Heck, if my kids were in school, I'd do that- I'm an awesome cleaner and organizer, as long as I didn't cook, LOL.