Housekeeping MEGA Thread

[ExtraSlow]

Last I checked cleaners were $30/hour through an agency. I think probably goes 2/3 to the person doing the work.

[pheoxs]

Weekly / semi-Monthly cleaners seems rather a waste of money to me. It's not much to keep up on things around the house but I wouldn't be opposed to hiring someone once a quarter to do a big clean of the house and do the deeper clean that I don't want to do.

[Rocket1k78]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

would be interested in the cleaner you use, what is the average cost?

my old house was 1950sq/ft and it was only $100 which included 2 cleaners for 2 hours and their own supplies, new house is 2650 and they charge me $130.00 now. I'll pm you the company

[Rocket1k78]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Weekly / semi-Monthly cleaners seems rather a waste of money to me. It's not much to keep up on things around the house but I wouldn't be opposed to hiring someone once a quarter to do a big clean of the house and do the deeper clean that I don't want to do.

Monthly is the sweet spot for us

[nzwasp]

We use some Russians.

For my 2000 sq. house it costs approx $125 if I add the basement its an extra $50.

They come every 2 weeks. I asked if the price would come down if they came more frequently and the head Russian said "It doesn't matter how often we come your house is always dirty"

They either send 1 or 2 girls to do it and it takes between 2 and 4 hours. It seems pretty thorough.

One thing I don't like is that we have a blue recycling bin and a black garbage bin that is clearly labelled in each bathroom (plus the main bins in the kitchen) the cleaners put all trash regardless of type into the black bin outside. I confronted one of them last clean about this and they said they didn't realize the blue bins weren't trash The reason I don't like this is because it unnecessarily fills up our outside black bin.

They also unplug the hot water vending machine to plug in their vacuum cleaner when there's another empty socket 1m away.

Some of the cleaners are a bit daft. One lady came 4 times last year and left her iPhone charger every single time.

[nismodrifter]

Pre covid (and pre-baby) - used to have 2 girls we know personally help with cleaning. Trust worthy. I could leave them and not worry. Q 2week visits, full deep clean, house looked amazing in 4 hours and was truly shining. They also helped with food prep for the week, laundry, other home organizing projects, etc.

Then COVID happened and we had a baby ~2 weeks before lockdown hit. Nobody entered our home for a few months. I did everything. That was fun.

Then we found a nanny. She helps with everything. She's good but I don't really expect her to take care of my boy who has enough energy to power a small city, and on top of that do a deep clean of our entire house q weekly. Cleaning now happens as I feel it needs to happen. I help out with various things when I have the house to my self, she does the rest.

Re laundry. Nobody touches my dress shirts.......ever. Had a bad experience with a lady many years ago and will never let that happen again. The shirts aren't Eton like true beyond ballers but I am pretty OCD about my shirts.

Biggest pro tip.....I've created a basic 2-3 page user manual. It outlines which products are to be used where, where to avoid using abrasives, the task list, and my various rules including which color rags are to be used on particular areas (kitchen/washroom/general cleaning). I have it organized in a room by room fashion. Update it weekly on Sunday based on what needs to be done, print it off, and nanny can work through the tasks as she has time.

[Disoblige]

I never used cleaners, never will, but have seen some people who do.

In the end they are people and I noticed that sometimes, they use soiled towels longer than they should be. So what happens is your bathroom, kitchen whatever might look clean, but you may notice a faint smell of dirty towel. I noticed this on certain counters, the bathtub etc.
It's fucking gross, actually.

Risking that in itself is enough for me to say no.

[you&me]

Some of this seems so strange to me... In this thread, you have guys that will post inquiries to research the most minute details of a minor purchase, but one poor experience with a cleaner and it's "never again"?

There are about 14,000 things I'd rather spend my time doing than clean my house and it's something that I'll have done every week (or so) and spend thousands of dollars a year on... To me this is not a one-and-done kind of experience and if it takes a little research or input, or trial and error, so be it... Nismodrifter is doing it right - you're paying for a service and if you want something done a certain way, speak up.

[ThePenIsMightier]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

...

Then COVID happened and we had a baby ~2 weeks before lockdown hit. Nobody entered our home for a few months. I did everything. That was fun.

Then we found a nanny. She helps with everything. She's good but I don't really expect her to take care of my boy who has enough energy to power a small city, and on top of that do a deep clean of our entire house q weekly. Cleaning now happens as I feel it needs to happen. I help out with various things when I have the house to my self, she does the rest.

...and nanny can work through the tasks as she has time.

God, I miss our nanny! We were very similar to this. First priority is kids. Second priority is kids. Third etc is don't leave a mess, vacuum if you have a chance, empty dishwasher if it's full, light sweep, and maybe laundry maybe once a week.
We didn't want a house cleaner who happened to be supervising the kids and it worked out super well for everyone.

[Mitsu3000gt]

We tried 2 different maid services, both came highly recommended and one of them was a prominent one recommended on these boards.

Both times, they just did the bare minimum and only cleaned visible areas, doing a pretty average job at that. Literally everywhere I checked beyond the carpets/floors, etc. wasn't even attempted. I can do the easy stuff myself, it doesn't take long to vacuum, I hired them for the annoying stuff and was disappointed. I probably just had bad luck but I'm 0/2 so far.

[killramos]

I don’t get the feeling most cleaners in Canada care if they are working or fired.

I never saw them do anything but bitch about us the entire time when I checked in on the security system.

I dunno, I guess end of the day I didn’t feel like I got enough for what I was paying them one way or another.

Maybe my time just isn’t as valuable as other people’s though, I can understand that.

[Buster]

I've never seen cleaning lady PTSD before.

[littledan]

This thread has stayed on topic long enough.

I wouldn't need a cleaning service if I wasn't cleaning up after myself, my kid, AND my wife. Somehow blue chores are blue chores, pink chores are 50/50 split, and dishes are my responsibilty because otherwise I pull 8 nested bowls out, 2 of which are half clean and 6 of which are no clean. Lol.

[suntan]

We had cleaners. Stopped using them when my wife lost her job. Would like to get them again. Cost about $250/mth to come every two weeks. No laundry though.

[ExtraSlow]

Man, laundry would be sweet. Not worth paying $30/hr for it, but yeah I'd appreciate that.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Me and the wife have been talking about it for years, but never actually pull the trigger. It's extra weird with covid, and being home full time right now.