Housekeeper fee

[DrWahoo]

What is a reasonable price for housecleaning ?

[SuzySunshine]

I would love to know the answer to this as well - I'd love to have someone come in and clean my house once or twice/month but I have no idea what is reasonable.

[Stella]

I paid $20/hr. I know people who pay $60 for a 3000 sq foot house and I know people who pay $200. I think it depends where you are. I would call around to a few places and negotiate!!!! They wanted to charge me $85 for my 600 sq foot apartment and I said no way. They wanted my business and cut it by more than half.

[Vishenka69]

It all depends if you go through an agency or privately and how many people/how big your place is. In NY most people who go through agencies pay $100+ for small apartments or $50-60 without the agency. Most of our friends have cleaning help, nobody thinks of it as luxury anymore.

We have weekly help that costs us $50 for a small 2bed/1bath apt. It takes her about 4 hours to finish the apartment. If I want her to do windows or we have lots of dishes from a dinner party, she stays an extra hour ($60). I buy all the cleaning products myself.

[SuzySunshine]

So another question - do any of you that have cleaners, have inside dogs? Molly stays in the house in her crate when we're not home. She is deathly afraid of the vaccum cleaner so whoever cleaned our house would have to let her out of her crate and put her out in the yard unless she did it when I was home.

I can't imagine a cleaner would want to do that?

[Stella]

I do. Paris is crazy about the vacuum as well, but there is just nowhere else for her to go except the crate, so there she stays. She usually goes nuts when I vacuum and tries to bite it or attack it through the crate but it didn't seem to be a problem to just leave her there.

[alison]

This reminds me. My parents have a lab and he used to be afraid of the vacuum cleaner until my dad forced them to be friends... By force, I mean, my dad held the dog while my mom vacuumed him. He was freaked out at first, but now he loves it. It's like getting the ultimate massage AND gets rid of pet hair without having to buy a Dyson Pet.

Disclaimer: This might not work with smart dogs.

We have weekly help that costs us $50 for a small 2bed/1bath apt. It takes her about 4 hours to finish the apartment.

Pretty much the same here, only our apt is 1BR, 1 Bath. We pay about $10/hour and he comes for 4 hours a week. He rotates the heavy stuff like cleaning windows and the wood floors. We buy all the cleaning products to his specifications.

Disclaimer: This might not work with smart dogs.

So true.


Cheri, I think you can find someone willing to accomodate Molly's needs. I think you would have better luck with someone who has their own business rather than one of the bigger services. You could ask for recommendations and then check it out by phone first. When we have had our house cleaned (which I LOVED!), I asked that they not leave the dog out the whole time so he wouldn't bark. They would let him in and out.

I think it depends on where you live. Some people charge by the hour and some by the room. And it depends on how often they come to clean -- monthly might cost more than weekly.

The larger companies definitely cost more than independants. In Cleveland I had an 1100 sq foot house, and had paid $100 to $150 to have it cleaned. Here I have closer to a 3000 sq ft house, and pay $75/once a month for a deep clean. I still handle the regular upkeep, but have them come in and scrub floors, bathrooms, high dusting, strong kitchen cleaning.

The caveat is the smaller independants don't have the workforce or flexibilty to be able to come back out and correct problems. My last cleaning was a disaster - the woman did an AWFUL job, and when I complained the owner of the company apologized profusely and offered me a credit, but didn't have anyone to come back out and fix it. The IL's were coming the next day, so I ended up having to go back and re-do most of what I'd wanted done. I'm using my credit next month and then firing the service.

I think it depends on whether you go with an individual or a service. I found services charge $20/hour or higher. But they probably are better trained and trustworthy.

I just found someone to come 2 times a month for $60 each visit. She's Guatamalan, not with a service, and was referred by my landlord. It's easy to find this kind of help in LA.

The great thing is she brings her cousin so I have 2 people here cleaning at the same time and they finish our place in about 4 hours. She seems honest. She cleans my neigbors place as well and her husband works with the building maintenance man, so I trust her so far.

We have 2 inside dogs and one is a major problem with strangers, so he stays in one of the rooms that isn't being cleaned at the time. I move him around because I am home at the time. But I am getting him a crate today to make it easier. The other dog barks a little at the vacuum but seems used to it by now. She roams free cuz the maids like to play with her.
I would love to have the place cleaned once a week but since we really can't afford what we are paying now for cleaning, I feel guilty enough.
It's just such a great deal though!!! 2 for 1!!

[alison]

Boy do I have it good with Putzherr. I'm sure he could make a pretty penny if he took his services on the road.

I've got a guy from AT&T here right now doing some wiring and he commented about how clean our floors and baseboards are and how he felt badly that he'd dirty the area around our phone jack!

I'd cook him a mean Indian chicken w/potatoes if he'd come this way and do some scrubbing!

[DrWahoo]

Can you request certain chores like if you only want bathrooms cleaned ?

[DCJenn]

You're paying them- you can request whatever you'd like (within reason of course)

I paid 98 bucks (130 with tips) every other week for three or four women to spend 2 hours doing a deep clean.

Jenn