I have finally helped DH see the light to hire out house cleaning and are looking to start off with monthly visits (I think). If you have a cleaner come monthly, what kind of things do they do? And if you’re feeling share-y, what’s the cost?
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Ours comes monthly. She does the regular cleaning stuff- bathrooms, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, cleaning the kitchen, wiping down or dusting... we have a pretty big house and it’s $150 for a cleaning. She’s usually here about 4 hours. It would be ten or twenty dollars less if she came more often.
In between I sweep or mop in the kitchen as needed and wipe down the bathrooms. It is so nice after she comes!!
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Ours is monthly as well..she does the bathrooms, cleans the kitchen (not inside the microwave, fridge or stove), dusts, does all of the floors, wipes down our blinds (not super thoroughly, but more than I have ever done
). She also vacuums the living room furniture, dusts all of the surface areas, and cleans bedrooms. Most of her focus is on the floors, kitchen and bathroom. We pay $100/month and that's for the kitchen, dining, living room, 1.5 baths, 2 bedrooms and a small office.
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I thought a monthly cleaning service would be ideal, but when I talked to the cleaning lady, she basically said it's more work for her to come out once a month, so she'd have to charge us more because she would have to spend more time cleaning than if she came twice a month.
At first I thought she was kind of trying to take advantage, but I've realized that it's in everyone's interest if she comes twice a month. We spend $200 per month on cleaning and she literally does everything. 2000 square ft, 4 bed/2 bath house.
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Following. I want to get this set up ASAP. @looch your house sounds about the same size as mine, we have 2100 sf, 3 bed/3 bath. I am totally willing to spent $200/month for this.
What's holding me up is finding the right person who is trustworthy and does a good job. How did you find your cleaning service?
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Honestly, I think monthly will make you crazy - it's too long between visits, unless you're planning to only rely on them for a deep clean and you're going to still do regular vacuuming/dusting/mopping/etc. Ours comes bi-weekly and I still find the weekend before she comes the dirt is starting to stress me out.
We pay $85 bi-weekly, it takes 2 people about 1.5 hours.
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@MrsADS: After one bad experience I asked for recommendations on a local moms facebook group. One name popped up a couple times so I read her reviews on yelp, had her come over so I could meet her and I have been extremely satisfied with her service. Even though I trust her I do still put away our computers, ipads and make sure there isn't cash sitting around. I also didn't give her a copy of our key, I just leave it under our mat if no one will be home when they clean.
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@MrsADS: We used a referral from a family friend.
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Ours comes once a month for $150. It is a small house but we live in an expensive market. I really, really like it but after a few months I often think I want to save $1800 a year instead of spend it on getting floors, bathroom, kitchen sparkling clean. I do feel a sense of peace and everything is taken care of that is pretty priceless. If only it were cheaper....I got our cleaning by calling three places. Nobody I know gets cleaning done.
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Ours comes every other week and charges $85 for 2400 square feet. She brings about 4 people with her and they knock out the whole house in about 30-45 mins. She does all the basic cleaning - sweeping, mopping, dusting, cleaning counters/bathrooms, etc. It's wonderful and worth every penny!
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Our amazing gal comes every two weeks. We initially started at monthly, but when it came down to it it was not much more investment to have her come weekly. Here is why:
-monthly....6 to 8 hours, $150 per visit....harder to fit in bc it basically is a full day for her
-bi weekly...3-4 hours, $90 per visit.So $30 more and we got her every two weeks. We have VERY little touch up in between. I clean the toilets and keep the kitchen tidy, but thats it.
Kitchen: She cleans the kitchen, top to bottom main surfaces. She has cleaned the fridge inside once in the 4 months she has been coming.
Bedrooms: Vacuumed, tidied up, bed made, dusting.
Floors: All floors vacuumed, washed. All baseboards dusted.
Living Spaces: Dusted, picked up.
Bathrooms: Completely cleaned.
Right now, we do not have her do any laundry - but she is open to it. She also does not clean our basement unless requested. Its usually a nightmare of toys so it would take too long...plus I just do it once a month.
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@Foodnerd81: @LadyDi: do you feel like having the monthly service helps keep the house more clean overall? DH is looking at it more for the big chores like dusting fans and base boards. But it’s the basics that I want help with. We live in a large (for my standards) house with 3.5 bathrooms. That’s a lot of floors and toilets to clean!!
@looch: this is along the lines of what I was thinking, I guess i will ask some of those questions as I start to meet with people!
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Every other week is ideal, but we can only afford monthly right now. We pay $120 we live in NYC in a maybe 700sq apartment. It takes her a sold 4 hours and she really gets all the nooks and crannies. I try to make sure that I leave the house as picked up as possible and the dishwasher empty otherwise she spends time picking up instead of cleaning.
Between HD, myself and the nanny we manage to make it between visits with little cleanings.
I also just got a cordless dyson vacuum and it's changed my life.... our place is small enough I can do a pretty good job vacuuming the whole apartment in it's 20 minutes of charge.
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I'd recommend bi monthly for a few reasons.
I feel at about two weeks, I would end up having to clean the bathrooms myself anyway. Same for kitchen. The cleaner would essentially be doing a deep clean monthly, except it wouldn't really be deep...unless they are there for the whole day, or bring a team and you are really explicit about what you want done. .I pay $90 every 2 weeks for a 3/2, about 1400 sq ft apt. She does every room, organizes a bit (awesome). I throw all of the sheets in the wash and she remakes all of the beds when they are done. She's started doing all of the towels and bath mats without me asking which is great, and even runs a bit of laundry if it's out. She cleans the fridge, all surfaces, dusts, literally moves furniture to get behind it to clean.
Monthly wouldn't really help me. Well I mean I wouldn't turn it down, but bimonthly almost completely elimates cleaning tasks for me except for tidying up, which is why I got a cleaner in the first place.I found her via a friend/local mom Facebook group. I am on my second woman..my first couldn't show up on time which was a deal breaker.
It takes her about 3 hours.
Adding this service to our life has dramatically reduced stress in our marriage and life. Our weekends are more free to relax and not clean, I don't harbor feelings of resentment towards DH (he is not a tidy person and doesn't grasp cleaning at all).
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@Mrs D: this is exactly what I want, but DH is hesitant to have a cleaner bi weekly. Maybe once we start with someone or have the initial estimates come in, we can opt for the bi weekly option especially if it’s as comparable in price as yours was!
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@MrsRoo: Yes, it's also taken the pressure off of our weekends so we dont spend our one family day taking turns with the kids and cleaning. Or fighting about it. I can keep it decent between visits by doing light cleaning everyday (I have to anyways or our apartment would be 3" deep in cheerios and dried up rice).
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@MrsRoo: I am thinking about getting someone to come monthly too. I do so much daily/weekly cleaning myself that I cannot wait 2 weeks for a cleaning person to do it. So weekly I can't afford, and bi-weekly is pointless to me. But as others have said, it might not be cost effective. As long as it doesn't cost me more, I guess I don't mind them coming bi-monthly! But I actually have a few #s I'm planning to call soon and this is the list of stuff I want them to do:
Baseboards
Door/window trims
Windows
Inside microwave
Rangehood
Toaster oven
Oven
Dust
Fridge@Littlebit7: What you said at the end! If DH doesn't exist, my house would be so much cleaner b/c he is not clean and not tidy haha. Obviously I knew this about him. I love cleaning so it wasn't a big deal but with 2 kids, I agree I feel like I spend all my free time cleaning and I get annoyed when he creates messes. That's when finally I think I'm going to move some things in our budget to get a cleaner...
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I have someone come monthly and it's always SO NICE when she leaves. She does the basic stuff- bathrooms, kitchen, floors, dusting. She even organized my shoes when we first moved in and my closet was a wreck. I have a 3/2 house and I think I probably over pay somewhat at $140 a month, I trust her and she does a great job so I'm okay with it for now. I do wish I could do twice a month- she would charge $240 for that. I got her info from my realtor who uses her weekly when I had my previous house on the market.
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@snowjewelz: yes, your list is likely what we would want from a monthly cleaner. Which would free us up to just do the basics weekly.
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@MrsRoo: I'm stuck at a weird spot b/c I'm a clean freak and I feel like even getting someone bi-monthly, it will only help those 2 weeks; every other week I'd still be cleaning. I clean bathrooms every week, vacuum daily and mop twice a week (we have a dog, guests over at least once a week, and a crawling baby). Kitchen gets totally cleaned up every night. I don't see those things stopping, I guess I'd get a little break every 2 weeks? I really just want someone to do the big stuff b/c that's what bothers me that I can never get to the big chores. But maybe it is too much for 1 person to do once a month and maybe he/she can split it to do twice a month? Ahh, I don't know, lol.
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@Foodnerd81: I think you are in my area, and that seems like a much better price than what we had. I ultimately stopped having someone come because I thought it was too expensive for what it was - $95 to come once a month for a 1bed/1bath condo and she was there less than an hour, as it was never all that dirty. But perhaps it makes a big difference in price city vs burbs...
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We don't have a cleaner, but my parents do and I know the details. They have her every other Friday, 3-4 hours (one person) for their 4000sf 5 bed/3 bath house, and pay $150/visit. She does bathrooms, all floors, wipe down/dust all surfaces, windows...I think that's about it? Nothing like dishes/laundry/tidying. They love it! I hope we can afford one in the next few years.
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@MrsRoo: I do think it helps even though it's only monthly. Every other week would be ideal but this was our compromise and what fits into our budget right now. It helps me a lot with dusting in particular. I hate dusting, I don't like to do it, and I rarely do in between her visits. I still end up doing the bathrooms or floors (at least a swiffer) in between her visits but it takes me less time than it would otherwise. A lot of it depends on what level of dirt you are comfortable with too
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@snowjewelz: I have found theres a big difference is the sweeping and vacuuming I do every day and the much more attention the cleaner pays. I also let some things go like the stove top under the burners and they get that stuff. I wipe the bathroom down between cleanings, but let the cleaner get behind the toilet... things like that. It's also really impossible to clean our small place when the kids are awake or even with DH around. So it's really nice to have someone do it when we aren't home.
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@snowjewelz: so what my mil does is have her ladies (two of them) deep clean a few rooms every two weeks. She doesn't have them do the entire house, just gives them a specific area to deep clean the heck out of. . Maybe you could have them do a light clean of the bathrooms and kitchen, plus a few specific deep clean tasks that you could give them. Like master bedroom plus clean all windows. Or secondary bedrooms plus baseboards/fans.
I've found that while I'm an effective cleaner, my lady is WAY better. -
We did monthly for us and it worked. She really focused on the kitchen and bathrooms and other things like a good mopping. We did find over time there were things that were being missed but I do think its because every month she had to do a lot of cleaning (more of a deep clean) on the kitchen and bathrooms. So she didn't get as much time monthly to get all the cobwebs and detailed dusting done.
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I’ve done weekly, biweekly and monthly and by far the best/most convenient is biweekly. It’s enough that I just have to do daily maintenance between (typical things like dishes, wipe counters, stick vac) but not too much that I feel like it’s a burden (literally just finished up weekly and it felt kind of like a pain to HAVE to make sure things were really in order for her every week, feel like I have to be out of the house, have her money ready, etc).
We pay same no matter the frequency because she just charges hourly. And we really are overall clean and neat people so she doesn’t have to do more or less between weekly biweekly or monthly. It’s $120 in NYC for a 3 bed 3 bath.
She does the following:
Vacuumed and mops all floors, vacuums rugs
Changes all bed linens (mine and sons and eventually the new baby’s crib)
Washes all linens she took off
Laundry when I set it out for her (though I try to sort it, she washes dries and folds but I put away)
Bathrooms (detailed cleaning of baths and showers, sinks, toilets)
Kitchen (any dishes from that morning, empties dishwasher if it is clean, moves everything on counter and cleans counters, wipes down fridge shelves)
Dusts
Special projects as needed (example, I had a pile of ironing that I finally gave up on doing myself so I asked if she’d mind. When we went away in the summer since there was less to do she did baseboards, removed marks from walls with magic eraser, wiped out drawers, etc). -
Ours does the general stuff... a good clean of the bathrooms, vaccuuming, wiping down the kitchen, cleaning the appliances (we've never asked, but she cleans the crumbs out of the toaster), makes the beds (she'll change the sheets if we want them changed, we just leave clean sheets on the bed), dusts all the wood furniture.
She'll do specific things if we ask...like once a year or so we'll ask her to clean inside the fridge. If we don't leave any notes, she just does general vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing.
We pay $160 a month. It would be less if she came more often, but that's all we can afford. We're in a high cost of living area. We got a referral for her from friends that used her for years.
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We have our cleaner come twice a month - same as PPs have said - it costs as much, if not more, if she has to come monthly and honestly, with 2 toddlers 3 and under, the house is pretty grimey those weeks we have to skip a cleaning. 3 weeks between cleanings gets pretty grimey, 4 weeks is a mess (unless I undertake some of that cleaning). If we had her monthly, it would also mean DH, who works from home, would have to vacate the house for like 4+ hours, as opposed to 2 hours that it takes every other week.
We have a 3100sq ft house, 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a mudroom. Hard flooring downstairs and in baths, and carpet on stairs and all upstairs bedrooms. We also have a large, very heavily used kitchen/fridge. But no pets.
Our service comes every 2 weeks, they charge $90 (it would be more, per my cleaner, but because we pre-tidy for her, its faster and she charges us less). The first cleaning, the deep cleaning to set a base, has run us $250 (at our last house) and $350 at our current house. Each routine visit, they mop and polish our floors, clean all the glass/mirrors/windows, kitchen surfaces and appliance exteriors, bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting/polishing wood furniture, and they seem to always make our beds if we happen to leave them unmade. They also do one bigger service each time, of your choice, like baseboards, polishing/cleaning the cabinet fronts, fridge, oven cleaning, and cleaning the blinds. They also empty out any garbage and even our Diaper Genie.
Between visits, I usually have to sweep the downstairs floor for crumbs and sand and whatever else the boys track in. If its really bad run our Bissell wet/dry vac once a week. I wipe down surfaces daily. But that's about it. I'm wiping up the bathroom a bit more these days because of potty training, but I don't really deep clean the bathrooms anymore and its nice to have a fully cleaned kitchen every 2 weeks.
We pre-clean for our cleaners. We tidy up all the toys and what not so that the floors are clear. We wipe down or at least clear our counters and sink areas so they have less things to have to move around to clean. We make sure there's no dishes on the sink or dirty pans on the stove. If I'm asking for fridge cleaning that day, I try to at least throw away any gross things or anything past its use the night before. It probably takes DH and I about a hour to get everything squared away, or less.
TLDR, TOTALLY WORTH IT OMG.
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We used to have our house cleaner comes twice a month and it was great. But our work schedules changed, and since we like to be out of the house while she cleans, it was hard to find two days a month for everyone to leave the house. I hated to go to once a month (it didn't make sense for lots of reasons, including the price difference and such), so we actually have our cleaning lady come every three weeks! Kind of random but it works out for us. I was sooo nervous about finding someone I trusted to be in our house and have a key to our house! I found someone that cleans lots of houses within my best friend's extended family and has been doing so for years. The cleaning lady's whole family lives here and she often brings her little babies with her, which I love. ETA: I pay $100 and tip her $20. My house is only 1,000 so I am pretty sure this is a high amount especially since I compared it to my friends and they pay close the same for much larger houses. But we are always switching her schedule, so I don't mind paying more.
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Ours comes once a month. Wish it was more but my husband only wants it once a month bc he thinks he cleans (he doesn’t). We pay $85 for 3800 sq feet 5 bedroom/4 bath. It’s a great deal so even though she’s late by 30 min - hour most of the time, so I don’t complain. When she leaves, I dance around the house bc I love it.
We’re pretty tidy and clean people so my husband didn’t see the need. But the first time she was here, she did our blinds and cleaned our fans and he saw the dust all on the floor and it was good wake up call for him.
She comes with a team of 3 people and they do all the blinds, bathrooms, cleaning the shower stalls and tubs, tidying, kitchen cleaning of sinks, oven, stove and microwave , changing linens, stairs, vacuuming, taking out trash, etc.
In between visits, I do wipe down and clean the toilet when it gets gross but that’s about it.
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We just started monthly, since I feel we do clean often that monthly is cost effective
Our house is 1,850 sqft 1 story
She charges $25 an hr and does:
Basic clean vacum, mop, wipe counters, bathrooms:
But I have her dust, fans, baseboards, Windows inside and out, move/dust behind furniture she washes our curtains when she is here and also cleans fridge and stove
I've had her twice and it was $100 first month and $75 next I was extremely happy!!!! -
@snowjewelz: see my post that is pretty much what we do monthly!
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@FaithFertility: that's great!! I feel like we really need this extra help! I really didn't want to spend the money BUT I feel like our quality of life would improve so much!
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@misolee: haha. That is exactly the reason DH wants only monthly cleaning, too. He swears he cleans the house but in reality.... not so much. It sounds like you got an awesome deal! Our home is 3000 sq ft with 3.5 bathrooms. I would cry happy tears if we could get a monthly service for that price! Interviews start next week, so we shall see.
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@mrsroo
We found ours by seeing her come clean in the neighborhood. I literally was stalking her in the and asked what her rates were. Turns out she cleans like 30 houses in our neighborhood.
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@SweetiePie: I would love if my cleaning service had done everything yours does, bed linens and laundry in particular.
We'll likely be moving to a bigger place within the next year, and I'm definitely going to look for a cleaning person who does more stuff than the person I used in the past. -
@periwinklebee: Yeah I’ve only ever had a cleaning lady in NYC and I’ve had a few. They’ve all done that. I think because there’s so much more competition they all HAVE to do it. I’ve never heard of one not doing it because who would hire that person when they could easily find one who does.
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@SweetiePie: I was really lazy when it came to looking for a cleaning service, just got a recommendation from a colleague and went with that. When we move I'm definitely going to shop around more!
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@MrsRoo: we do monthly and I love it. Would love to have them 2x a month but can’t justify the cost right now. It’s $130, two people, here 2-3hrs. Our house is about 1800sf, 2 floors.
I asked for them not to touch the beds and laundry but they said they usually do the beds/sheets.
They clean everything. Wipe all counters and tops. Dust. Clean behind the tv, furniture, beds. Vac & mop all floors. Window sills dusted. Bathrooms deep cleaned. Microwave and toaster oven cleaned along with oven and rest of kitchen, etc.
). She also vacuums the living room furniture, dusts all of the surface areas, and cleans bedrooms. Most of her focus is on the floors, kitchen and bathroom. We pay $100/month and that's for the kitchen, dining, living room, 1.5 baths, 2 bedrooms and a small office.
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