re: cleaning lady...

[KLynnTX]

If you have a cleaning lady, how long does she spend in your home, and what exactly does she do during that time? How often does she come? Just curious...

[jenL]

:lurk5:

[justamouse]

I don't have one, but when we bought the house I was offered the cleaning lady's timeslot the previous owners had. She's the best around and if you have her, you are LUCKY. She used to work for my mom when I was younger and she's even more desired now. 80 bucks for 4 hours and your house is CLEAN.

[Tiff in TX]

I don't have a cleaning lady, but my parents do.

 

She goes to the house every other wednesday and spends about 6-7 hours at the house. The house is 4800 sq/ft, so it takes some time.

 

She does the following:

Vaccums

Sweeps the hardwood

Mops all tile floors

Cleans all toliets and showers

Cleans kitchen and bathroom countertops

Wipes the finger prints off the stainless steel appliances

Dusts wood surfaces and blinds

Wipes down window sills

Organizes the kitchen pantry

She also generally picks up things, but my parents are pretty neat and tidy.

 

About once every two months, she does the baseboards and celing corners.

 

She does a great job and my parents have entrusted her with a key to the house. My mom pays for her to come to my house about 3 times a year to do a thorough cleaning.

[nono]

I don't have one now, as she quit after she pulled her back at another client's home.

 

She came weekly for 3 hours. She was in charge of bathrooms, dusting, mopping all hard surfaces. $60 a week. I am in charge of all the rest. Sometimes, we'd work in tandem, sometimes not.

 

I had her do the things which are harder to do with little ones following me around. Also, I was in charge of the overall cleanliness of the house, so there was no "what am I paying for" thoughts creeping into my mind.

[Scarlett]

I am cleaning a man's house so I'll tell you what I do.

 

For $60 I am there about 3 hours. He has a 2800 sf 3 bedroom 3 bath home house but he is an elderly widower and doesn't use all of it. One of the bathrooms and 2 of the bedroom doors are shut and I never go in there.

 

I clean the master bathroom

 

Change his sheets--including washing the dirty set and folding them.

 

I clean the sink and toilet to a second bathroom--the third is never used---I sometimes swipe it out--other times don't even open the door.

 

I dust the part of the house he uses.

 

I sweep and mop the entry way, master bath, second bath and large kitchen/eating area.

 

I vacuum.

 

He spends a lot of time in the kitchen/eating area (there is a small tv in there) so I am usually in that area the longest...I spend time on his stove top which is ALWAYS dirty....counter tops, the area where he feeds his dogs....each week I try to do a little extra in there (one week I cleaned the refrigerator doors, the next week I worked on the outside of the microwave, and next week I plan to clean the inside of the microwave etc) This is a house that has not been cleaned regurarly for a long time..

 

If I cleaned that entired house I would charge $75 and expect to be there closer to 4 hours.

[Scarlett]

I don't have a cleaning lady, but my parents do.

 

She goes to the house every other wednesday and spends about 6-7 hours at the house. The house is 4800 sq/ft, so it takes some time.

 

She does the following:

Vaccums

Sweeps the hardwood

Mops all tile floors

Cleans all toliets and showers

Cleans kitchen and bathroom countertops

Wipes the finger prints off the stainless steel appliances

Dusts wood surfaces and blinds

Wipes down window sills

Organizes the kitchen pantry

She also generally picks up things, but my parents are pretty neat and tidy.

 

About once every two months, she does the baseboards and celing corners.

 

She does a great job and my parents have entrusted her with a key to the house. My mom pays for her to come to my house about 3 times a year to do a thorough cleaning.

 

What do they pay for this?

[BridgeTea]

I've never had a cleaning lady, but I was one for several years. Let me see if I can help.

 

The jobs were all similar as far as what I did. The time varied based on the size of the house and number of bathrooms, mostly. Most of the houses had no pets or children; if there were children's rooms, they were picked up before I got there and I only went in to vacuum and dust like any other room. I had each homeowner prioritize their cleaning needs/wants at the initial meeting, but really, everyone's list was similar. Every single home was once a week. It's what I wanted, and it's what the customers wanted. Here goes:

 

1600-2000 sq. ft: 3 hours.

2000-4000 sq. ft: 4-5 hours, depending on # of bathrooms.

4000+ sq. ft: 6-7 hours.

 

I had a set # of hours at each house, would go through the priority list, then find things to do to fill the time. (I was paid hourly, and I worked the full time)

 

Change bedding on all beds. I laundered bedding at only 2 houses. No other laundry.

Clean bathrooms, meticulously.

Dust everything at all levels.

Wipe down or scrub surfaces that get touched.

Floors, baseboards, stairs - mostly on my knees.

 

I would fill any odd requests, like vacuum cars, sweep (nice!) garages, clean glass, help hang holiday decorations, set out dishes for parties. I never cleaned an oven, emptied a dishwasher, or scrubbed a pan, though. It never came up. I was more of a "surfaces maintainer" than anything. I worked mostly in one neighborhood that I can't afford to live in.

 

Hope this helps.

[Tiff in TX]

What do they pay for this?

 

I will ask my mom and get back to you.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I don't currently have one, but I had injured my neck a few years ago, and had cleaning help for a few months.

 

I paid $175.00 for 4 people for 2 hours. They vacuumed and dusted the whole house- 3 large bedrooms, living and dining rooms, basement family room and office-including baseboards, ceiling fans, corners and blinds. They cleaned the 1 full and 2 half bathrooms-sinks, toilets, shower, tub, floor. In the kitchen they washed down appliances, cleaned out microwave, scrubbed sink and washed floor on hands and knees. In sunroom, they dusted ceiling fan and blinds, washed table, and scrubbed floor on hands and knees. I had them come every 2 weeks. I made kids and dh pick up beforehand so that they could just clean.

[TwinMominTX]

I have a housekeeper. She works for me 20 hours per week and I pay her $15 per hour. She comes 4 hours per day 5 days per week (usually) or 5 hours per day 4 days per week - whatever works best for her schedule. She cleans the house, does all the laundry and irons.

 

I pay a bit more than the going rate as she's worked for me for 2+ years. Around here the going rate is about $10 per hour. I've never liked paying by the "job" for house cleaning as it always seems like people will eventually try to get done as quickly as they can. I'd much rather pay by the hour for a set number of hours - there is always something that can be done to fill the time.

[Ester Maria]

Our maid works for us 2-3 days a week (two-week schedule: one week she comes twice a week, one week she comes three times) for 6-8 hours each time. She is extremely flexible and is nearly a member of the household, does what she sees that needs to be done and a plethora of other small jobs that come up.

 

She thoroughly cleans all of the surfaces, floors, bathrooms, loads / unloads the dishwasher if needed, cleans glasses and lights, cleans ovens, takes care of bookshelves and paintings and other places where dust is likely to accumulate, takes care of plants if needed, organizes the pastry and even goes shopping for various supplies for me. She pretty much has her own schedule of when she does what, and is in charge of pretty much everything other than general picking up that we all do. She often has some time to kill when she's done with the big things, so she often ends up cooking, shopping, doing my errands, answering the phone and door, doing/folding laundry, organizing our wardrobes, etc. Basically, more of a housekeeper than a classical cleaning lady.

 

Next year when the baby arrives she'll be working for us 5 days a week.

[rookie]

Our housekeeper does a complete clean one day a week (6 hours) and then works two hours per evening (6-8PM) four other days a week. On the complete clean day she cleans all bedrooms (including sheets) and baths, vacuums, mops, sweeps porch, etc. My dc strip the beds, empty trash, and do the clothing laundry so she does not touch that. On the other evenings, she helps out with whatever needs to be done: dinner prep, dinner clean-up, quick vac/mop, iron, etc. She makes $10/hour which is the going rate in our area. I am a clean and neat freak with no clutter in our home. So, she is not spending time on tidying (which I would have the dc do anyway) or organizing - just cleaning to my OCD standards. :tongue_smilie:

[Melissa in Australia]

pre homeschooling I worked at Home Help; cleaning and personal care for elderly.

An example of what I would do is this, shower and help get dressed, do laundry and hang on line, make bed with clean sheets, vacuum whole house, mop hard floors, clean bathroom, dust. They would have their house cleaned once a week, I would come again 2 other times a week for 30 minutes to shower them

I would do this in 1 1/2 -2 hours I was paid $ 15 per hour. There was no dawdling, And I got fit. I had to do around 5 houses per day.

[kalanamak]

Okay, for 10 dollars an hour, you also pay the taxes, etc. or is this done "under the table"? Around here people who work for companies (even if they are the only employee) charge more.

 

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/Advice/PayTheNannyTaxIfYouOweIt.aspx

[The*A*Team]

The going rate in my neighborhood is around $125-150 per house. The first cleaning is anywhere from $250-400 though. I'm in a North Atlanta Suburb.

 

The houses here in my neighborhood are 2700-4500 sq. ft on average.

 

I would love it if I could pay by the hour! You cannot get a cleaning person here for 10 or 15 per hour. More like 25 or more I think. Actually, I have a 4000 sq. ft house and I used to have a cleaning person and her husband clean and they were done in 2.5 hours! The cleaned every room, changed bedsheets (6 bedrooms) and did floors, etc... They work fast!

 

Christina

[kalanamak]

No matter how I edit it, it keeps coming back!

Edited July 9, 2010 by kalanamak
huh?