What are the pros and cons of having a cleaning service? My DH and I are talking about it, but I have never had help before and neither has he. We are on the fence. Torn between not wanting to do it ourselves and wanting to teach our kids how to clean. We don't want them to be the husbands wives complain about because they don't help around the house
We have a cleaning lady that comes in every 2 weeks. We still have to 'clean' in between. The kids still must keep their rooms tidy, we still do dishes and wipe up spills and take care of nasty bathroom events. But the mundane vacuuming, dusting, bathroom scrubbing that takes time is gone. I never worry about people dropping in because my house might be in a state. It costs some money to be sure, but it is very nearly the BEST money I have ever spent on home maintenance.
I resisted a cleaning lady for years. I regret that.
Had one for a couple of years...would come every couple of weeks. We had to cut back expenses so that was the first thing to go. It was great when we had it though. Really helped with the deep cleaning items. Will do it again when we can fit it into our budget.
We have a cleaning lady that comes in every 2 weeks. We still have to 'clean' in between. The kids still must keep their rooms tidy, we still do dishes and wipe up spills and take care of nasty bathroom events. But the mundane vacuuming, dusting, bathroom scrubbing that takes time is gone. I never worry about people dropping in because my house might be in a state. It costs some money to be sure, but it is very nearly the BEST money I have ever spent on home maintenance.
I resisted a cleaning lady for years. I regret that.
We have a cleaning lady that comes in every 2 weeks. We still have to 'clean' in between. The kids still must keep their rooms tidy, we still do dishes and wipe up spills and take care of nasty bathroom events. But the mundane vacuuming, dusting, bathroom scrubbing that takes time is gone. I never worry about people dropping in because my house might be in a state. It costs some money to be sure, but it is very nearly the BEST money I have ever spent on home maintenance.
Same here, almost word for word. And my kids are better at picking up their toys (quickly and knowing where things go) than kids of some of my friends who don't have cleaning service. I figure when they are older I'll have them help with laundry, cooking and yard work and such. I honestly am not going to compromise my comfort and sanity for the vague benefit of them being a good house-keeper in the future.
We have a cleaning lady that comes in every 2 weeks. We still have to 'clean' in between. The kids still must keep their rooms tidy, we still do dishes and wipe up spills and take care of nasty bathroom events. But the mundane vacuuming, dusting, bathroom scrubbing that takes time is gone. I never worry about people dropping in because my house might be in a state. It costs some money to be sure, but it is very nearly the BEST money I have ever spent on home maintenance.
Same here, almost word for word. And my kids are better at picking up their toys (quickly and knowing where things go) than kids of some of my friends who don't have cleaning service. I figure when they are older I'll have them help with laundry, cooking and yard work and such. I honestly am not going to compromise my comfort and sanity for the vague benefit of them being a good house-keeper in the future.
Agreed. Best monthly bill ever. Has also saved our sanity (and our marriage I'm sure since there is no longer 1 person scrubbing for 3-4 hours on a weekend). Plus we can spend more time with kiddo. Everyone is happy.
Post by supertrooper1 on Feb 13, 2015 9:46:53 GMT -5
Everyone covered the best parts of having a cleaning service/person. Our biggest challenge when we had one was getting them into our house. Either one of us had to be there to let them in or we had to give them a key, which we hated doing. And I always felt awkward being there when they were cleaning, so if I was the one home to let them in, I'd leave to go run errands while they were there.
We have a cleaning lady that comes in every 2 weeks. We still have to 'clean' in between. The kids still must keep their rooms tidy, we still do dishes and wipe up spills and take care of nasty bathroom events. But the mundane vacuuming, dusting, bathroom scrubbing that takes time is gone. I never worry about people dropping in because my house might be in a state. It costs some money to be sure, but it is very nearly the BEST money I have ever spent on home maintenance.
I resisted a cleaning lady for years. I regret that.
Almost 100% this, although the only con I would identify is cost. Oh, and occasionally we have a hard time finding something when she puts it away for us.
But that brings up the point - it's not that you don't have to clean when you have a cleaning person. You do b/c you don't want them picking your stuff up as much as you want them doing the every day, heavy lifting.
I have no cons to our cleaning service. It is a sanity saver and prevents a lot of conflict in our marriage. There are a lot of other things we would sacrifice before we would let this go.
We have a cleaning lady that comes in every 2 weeks. We still have to 'clean' in between. The kids still must keep their rooms tidy, we still do dishes and wipe up spills and take care of nasty bathroom events. But the mundane vacuuming, dusting, bathroom scrubbing that takes time is gone. I never worry about people dropping in because my house might be in a state. It costs some money to be sure, but it is very nearly the BEST money I have ever spent on home maintenance.
I resisted a cleaning lady for years. I regret that.
I 100% agree with @ridesbuttons.
we still have daily cleaning that happens. My cleaning lady handles the big stuff - floors, counters, bathtubs, etc. plus she changes the sheets.
Speaking of budgets. We haven't looked into how much they cost just yet. A friend from work said it was $50 a month for them. (Not sure how often they came) how much do they run?, I love in Alabama with a pretty low cost of living compared to the rest of the country. We have to get some debt down because i was unemployed for 6 months. We have two loans that are almost up. We would be ready to start in about 3 months
Speaking of budgets. We haven't looked into how much they cost just yet. A friend from work said it was $50 a month for them. (Not sure how often they came) how much do they run?, I love in Alabama with a pretty low cost of living compared to the rest of the country. We have to get some debt down because i was unemployed for 6 months. We have two loans that are almost up. We would be ready to start in about 3 months
I haven't done extensive comparison, but in my area (Texas) its been $75-100 for biweekly cleanings and $90-150 for monthly cleanings.
Speaking of budgets. We haven't looked into how much they cost just yet. A friend from work said it was $50 a month for them. (Not sure how often they came) how much do they run?, I love in Alabama with a pretty low cost of living compared to the rest of the country. We have to get some debt down because i was unemployed for 6 months. We have two loans that are almost up. We would be ready to start in about 3 months
I'm in a major city in the Midwest. Our person charges $30-$40/hour. But have worked out a deal where she cleans every other week (our house is 1000 sq feet) and we pay her $60/cleaning.
Post by gamora24527 on Feb 13, 2015 13:55:07 GMT -5
Having someone come clean has been a real sanity saver. We have someone come once a week and it costs us $50 a visit (central Texas, 1000 sq ft). She has her own key, but she's been with us for four years. At first, we would let her in and she would lock up when she left and put the key through our mail slot if we weren't home. We provide all of the cleaning supplies. DH and I have so little free time that it's nice not to take time away from being with DS to do heavy cleaning. I am not at all concerned with my kids learning to clean at this point.
Post by erinshelley21 on Feb 13, 2015 14:02:56 GMT -5
Coming from someone that doesn't have one and can't afford one, at least not for a while, GET ONE! I'm spending so much of my spare time doing the stuff a cleaning lady could be doing that the deep cleaning never gets done. I hate the lack of cleanliness my house has and like most people, I don't want to sacrifice time with my son to do it. Get the cleaning lady. I'm sure you'll still be able to teach your kids how to clean at some point.
I'm convinced. I have to convince DH, but I don't think it'll be hard. Especially since he brought it up in the first place. And he usually is the one who refuses to spend any money unless he absolutely has too. I think by the end of the summer we should have one in place
Post by CurlieWhirlie on Feb 13, 2015 17:56:16 GMT -5
We are looking into this, too. Where I live, it would be about $100-150 per visit for our smallish three-bedroom house. My mom is getting us a one-time spring clean for my birthday, after we see how that goes we might get someone in regularly.
I'm ok with giving them a key. We leave our front door unlocked most of the time anyway.
We pay $95 a week. However, this includes our carpeted garage. This is a cleaning service in Central FL. They provide their own supplies and equipment.
When I had one, we paid $140 every 2 weeks. Their cleaning skills were 'meh' so I fired them. It was hard because I am not usually like that, But when there are still goops of food on the kitchen floor, I know you didn't clean it 'on your hands and knees' as advertised. On the search for a new one, b/c it's very hard to keep up.
It can be a really good thing when you don't have time or don't want to clean on your own. I had one when both the kids were babies, and I spent all my time BFing or pumping and holding a baby. Now the kids are older, I do have time to clean and wanted to save money so I canceled mine. My house isn't quite as clean but still not bad that I feel embarrassed if someone drops by. I found that they do maybe just a little bit more than me, so neither of us were doing a deep cleaning. I would love to have someone come in maybe 4 times a year, definitely for Spring cleaning and before the holiday to do a really deep clean like wash windows and wash all the walls. I feel like I have the basics down but that neither my weekly cleaning service nor I am doing that truly deep cleaning, and at this point I am waiting for the snow to melt to bother at least with the floors etc.
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