Do you pay someone to clean your house?

[Lonewolf]

This past weekend was my daughters 2nd birthday. Both my wife and I work, so in order to really do the nitty-gritty cleaning I took a half day to get things done while our two little-ones were in daycare. Although the day-to-day "cleaning", such as laundry and dishes, etc seems easy to maintain, its the scrubbing the tubs and toilets and mopping the floors that seems to happen less frequently since the little ones arrived.

One of the couples was admiring everything we did to get ready for the party, and my wife told them that I took a half day to get things in order. They stated that they pay someone to clean thier house twice a month . . . for a little over 200 dollars. Although I admit it would be nice to have this service, my wife and I can justify spending that type of money for this service. The other couple (both working parents as well) stated the money is tight, but the peace of mind is worth it.

How many other pay for cleaning services? Is a hundred dollars a cleaning sesson the norm? I don't think my wife and I are considering this anytime soon, I am just interested in knowing how many utilize this service.

Lonewolf

[fairy74]

No, I don't personally, but know several people who do. I think how much it costs depends on the person you hire and the number of rooms you have.

[lieweheksie]

I do- and she's coming tommorow-yeh!-twice a week- I live in South Africa- so very different situation
I work long hours and knowing my house is clean and the basic laundry done is such a load off my mind, also frees me to other things like cook from scratch- so I guess the $ balances out
If I am having a party she will do an extra shift- paid- this means I get to spend time on the NB stuff- getting food ready,decor etc
If you can afford it and find someone you trust and are comfortalbe with then it can be worth it- I also like to think of me being able to pass on my good fortune by giving someone else a job

[PrincessPerky]

We do not pay anyone, and it is tops on my list when I win the lottery!

I would prefer someone weekly than bi monthly, or better daily though, I clean my bathroom nearly daily, vaccuum as well and all, I really don't think taking two days off a month is worth 200$....

On the other hand I know plenty of people who will gladdly pay for someone else to clean, and then complain of finances, while snidly remarking about 'lazy stay at home mothers' (who clean bathrooms for free.....)

It is your money, spend it on what you wish, so long as you don't need our tax money to bail out, who cares.

[Daylily]

I do not pay someone to clean. I figure it is something that I can do myself. Additionally, I have issues with trusting someone to have access to my house.
The rate in my area is $20/hour.

[jodi]

I do not do this regularly, but did it in the past when DH and I were selling our house. We both worked FT then and couldn't seem to keep it clean for very long! I paid the intern at my job $10/hour to come over for a few hours to get the house in shape (she had told me that she did it on the side while in school). Definitely worth the money then, but not something I can justify doing regularly when I can do the work myself.

[Little L]

I wish! I would love for someone to come and do the heavy cleaning: mopping, scrubbing tub/shower/toilets and dusting (although that isn't what I consider heavy cleaning). The rest I can handle.

We do have a gardener that comes twice a month. They mow, fertilize, prune roses, etc. I pay them $60/mo so that is doable; $200 for a housecleaner is not.

[Jewelfine]

Our wonderful cleaning lady just came today! We get her every other week because both my husband and I work really hard (from our home) and neither of us have time or inclination to clean the house. Our time is better off workign on our businesses then cleaning the house. It is my little bit of heaven! We spend so much time in the house that we think of it as a business expense.

:-)

[Hot dog]

It seems like a good idea if you have to take off and make more than $100 a day to pay someone cause it is less than it costs to take off but I have so much vacation time I would probably use that and not pay anyone. I keep saying I need a personal assistant to keep me straight so I think I will add a housekeeper to my list of wants not needs Only after all bills and retirement are taken care of of course.

[getforfree]

I would never pay someone to clean my house. Not only that I 'don't want to spend money, is that I don't think anybody can do it the exact way I want it done, so that would just create extra work for me. Because we have little kids, most of our cleaning, is picking and sorting stuff, because they make lots of mess. I would rather take time off work, and kick my dh and kids outside for a couple of hours and do it all myself. At least I can get some quiet time.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I used to, it was $100 every other week. Stupid stupid stupid, instead I got another dog and stopped doing it. More mess but I can't. My dog's sort of vicious, well he was, and that had to stop. I didn't think he was so aggressive, we used to have no problems with our first dog. but now it's not worth the hassle because he goes nutso if we crate him and she comes in to clean, he'll try to break out and bloody his nose and paws.

It was heavenly, now my house smells like dog poo and looks like crap. I try cleaning all the time, but seriously my hubby is a slob so I'm cleaning up after 3 animals it seems.

[Ima saver]

I use to have a cleaning lady that came once a week. Since we moved here, I have not found anyone that would do a good job. I have tried a few, but they weren't good.

[pearlieq]

We do and we love it!

We have a service come in every other week to do the heavy stuff. DH and I take care of the daily chores like laundry, dishes, trash, and picking up. We actually lucked into someone really inexpensvie. They charge us $72 per session. The bigger companies like Merry Maids charge about $100 for biweekly cleaning.

We tried to do without for a while and just realized that we hate cleaning and hate having a dirty home. It would be one of the first things to go if money were tight, but we've got the money, so why not?

[scfr]

No, we do our own cleaning but I have hired housekeepers under some special circumstances in the past (for a few months after I was in an accident, for the first several weeks when our house was up for sale and so many people were coming through to look at the house, and one time to help with spring cleaning).

We don't use someone regularly because we have the time to do it, I like the mild workout that it provides, we can save money doing it ourselves, I have heard horror stories about housekeepers who steal, and frankly I don't think anyone else can do a better job than we do.

However, I wouldn't hesitate to hire a housekeeper if I were injured again, became disabled, got too old to keep things up, or just did not have the time. It's a perfectly legit expense for many.

[newlyfrugal]

Hiring a housekeeper is a dream of mine. My house is a disaster and never seems to get any better no matter how much time I put into it. Things were manageable before kids but horrible ever since.

My brother and I did all the cleaning of my parents house growing up and I guess my mom got used to it because as soon as we left, she hired a housekeeper to come in twice a month. Thought it would make me made, but it made me feel appreciated because she obviously missed having a clean house.

Sara