Cleaning the house

It varies a lot by region, and of course, size of your house (we've had this discussion many times before ).

$120 is not at all unreasonable. I'd be more wary of an hourly rate, b/c you could end up with a dawdling slowpoke. Also the hourly rates I've been quoted before are per-person (in a 2 or 3 person team, for example), so you end up with the $120 or more quite easliy.

[SuzySunshine]

We have ours come every other week. One visit they do the whole house, the next visit they just do the main living floor, the other floor is an office, guest room, bathroom, playroom - we don't use it near as much.

When they do the whole house it is $115 when they do the main floor it $72. Ours is a service, not an individual but its a locally owned service, not a major brand like Molly Maids. Services tend to be a little more expensive I found.

[diggitydot]

How do we deal with it? We have kids who have daily, age-appropriate chores. DH does most of the upkeep junk, DD1 does the kitchen, DD sweeps/mops the floors, DS cleans his room and picks up all of his
toys/artwork/whatever. I take care of the rest, which is doable.

[Meenah]

I just let it go until I can't stand it anymore. DH wouldn't notice the difference if I didn't clean for 2 months or if I cleaned every day.

[Vishenka69]

The prices are very region specific. In NYC service industry is much cheaper than here in the boonies. For about 900 sq ft apt there we paid $50 weekly. Right now for a 3500 sq ft house we pay $150 bi-weekly. I do feel that we got a much more thorough cleaning in NY but not many people use cleaning service here, so it's hard to get recommendations.

I have a rule that I never go to bed with a messy kitchen - I do the dishes, wipe down the counters, and rinse out the cans and bottles for recycling, and clean up whatever cabinet/drawer DD emptied while I was preparing dinner that night. It is nice to get up in the morning and be able to make DD's bottle and my coffee without having to trip over Tupperware or have to empty a sink to get to the water (we have a very small, one basin sink). I would say that I stick to this rule 95% of the time.

I also always pick up DD's toys and whatever shelves she has dumped over the course of the day - my DH does not understand why I don't do this during nap time too, but I tell him that it is too much. I pick up her messes only once a day so that I don't go crazy - I don't mind stepping over toys in the meantime.

As far as vacuuming, mopping floors, etc. - it gets done when it gets done. I normally vacuum when I notice that I am picking dog hair off my crawler's pants. I get around to our bathroom when I do (normally not often enough) and I try to clean DD's bathroom at least every 7-10 days since she takes baths. I wish it wasn't so stressful when people came to visit, but I just don't have the energy to spend every nap time cleaning! But please don't tell my MIL that! As far as she knows, I keep a very clean house - this coming from the lady who never got up with a crying baby because FIL always took care of the babies at night.

I am jealous of those of you with a DH who understands his chores. I have been trying for the 6 years of our marriage to get him to "own" the trash, but we still fight about it very 2-3 days when it needs to go out. He says, "Just tell me, and I will take it out" or "Get it together and I will walk it out to the dumpster." He doesn't seem to understand that I need him to be completely in charge of at LEAST ONE thing around here - one thing that I never have to think about and I can know that it will be taken care of. He can't keep track of his own laundry getting done or even his own schedule, and I know he doesn't have the time to always do the grocery shopping or even to cook regularly.

Oh, and I have made DH promise that once he makes a decent salary, I will never clean another toilet again in my life. He doesn't agree with my choice, but he has promised all the same.

[Chrisada]

DH has kitchen duty, which he does maybe once a week if I bitch enough about it. Though he does usually cook, so he gets credit for that. I clean about three times a day. I feel like my life is out of control if our house is dirty. And the day DH becomes an attending, is the day I get a housekeeper.

I usually do everything inside the house EXCEPT for taking out the trash (obvious) and doing the dishes. I cannot stand to do the dishes. I do a good thorough cleaning on Monday mornings, then just straighten up the rest of the week until Monday again. DH knows that he must take the trash out and deal with the dishes. I will do laundry any day, but dishes I cannot stand! LOL

For those who have a cleaning service AND have kids, do you pick up the toys before they come over? Do you straighten up the house before they come and clean? For me, if I'm going to spend time putting toys away, tidying up the house, I might as well just clean it myself. I'd LOVE to have a cleaning service!

For those who have a cleaning service AND have kids, do you pick up the toys before they come over? Do you straighten up the house before they come and clean? For me, if I'm going to spend time putting toys away, tidying up the house, I might as well just clean it myself. I'd LOVE to have a cleaning service!

I make my kids pick up their toys, etc. and tell them that anything left in Stephanie's way will be packed up and given away. I do "tidy", but for me the effort involved in a "tidy" vs. deep clean is huge. Plus, this way everything gets cleaned AT ONCE and I have a clean slate to work from.

[Vanquisher]

For those who have a cleaning service AND have kids, do you pick up the toys before they come over? Do you straighten up the house before they come and clean? For me, if I'm going to spend time putting toys away, tidying up the house, I might as well just clean it myself. I'd LOVE to have a cleaning service!

I found my lady at care.com. She comes on Tuesdays. She will do anything I ask of her, and cleans up toys and does dishes and laundry. It takes her 5 hours to tidy, organize, do laundry, and clean my entire home top to bottom. My house is 2600 sq ft. She does everything, and my house is not clean by any stretch to begin with. You should see the mess we can make in a week. She put my CHristmas decorations away two weeks ago too. I pay her 15/hour or 75 per week. It is so worth it for my sanity sake. I didn't always have a cleaning person, but I do now, and I won't go back. Check out care.com. I interviewed three people. I actually chose the most expensive one because she seemed the fastest and most experienced. She is fantastic.

[DCJenn]

Nikolai is to clean up his entire room before the cleaning lady comes. He knows that Tuesday nights everything must be picked up and put away.

I try to do the laundry before she comes, too.

My only issue is that she has this incredibly annoying habit of moving things. She tries to organize us but her method of organization is to stack stuff up and move piles into places where I never find them. Last week I spent an hour trying to find the can-opener and finally I found it in one of the drawers of our bar. It was pure luck and desperation that I finally found it.

She does this to our friends, too. (Two other couples share her w/ us. in fact, one of the couples hosted a baby shower for the other couple and I had to rsvp via Facebook because I had no idea where she'd stuck the invitation. At least they understood)

Jenn

[Finding Equanimity]

My only issue is that she has this incredibly annoying habit of moving things. She tries to organize us but her method of organization is to stack stuff up and move piles into places where I never find them.
Jenn

Jen, Mine does that too!! It drives me nutso. At least I know she's thorough because seriously, she moves everything around to get things clean. At least that's what I keep telling myself as I grumble around the house trying to find the objects she has "hidden"!

I hired a cleaning lady and have my laundry done at the same time since our baby was born and I'm in heaven. Theres still plenty to do for everyday such as the kitchen, which everyone fights over bet. me, dh and 12 yr. ds. I still get resentful inspite of the cleaning lady. I am grateful, but I've been putting up with his schedule for eight years and its been tough even when residency is over, you have to get established and then theres research and teaching, yada yada yada.