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UPDATE: Bobbi reveals all in Was Hiring a Cleaning Lady Worth It?
Part of my life philosophy is “I can do it myself.” This concept has helped me to learn to do everything from baking bread to teaching my daughter to read. However, I am finally ready to cry “uncle” in one subject. CLEANING!
OK, I’m going to out myself here. I have decided to make a very un-frugal financial decision and hire a professional cleaning person. There! I said it to the world. I feel so weird spending money on something that I can do myself, but I have to try it.
I recently realized that at least half of the conflicts in my household have been about cleaning. Now that is just plain silly. I don’t like to clean, so I am trying to get my family to do it. And guess what? It isn’t going well.
I surveyed my friends, got recommendations, and called one of the cleaners. She came over to my house and looked at the extent of the mess (said it wasn’t so bad) and my supplies. Now that I have decided this is something I am going to splurge on, here is how I am going to get the most from my expenditure.
- We have established a price and an amount of time that will work with my budget.
- I am telling her what are my priorities so that she does the most important things first.
- I am ensuring that the house is picked up before she arrives. I want her to spend her time doing the cleaning that I don’t like to do. Mainly scrubbing floors – yuck!
- The cleaning supplies will be out and ready so she doesn’t have to hunt for them.
- I am planning on doing a project while she cleans. I get inspired when someone else cleans, so I’m going to clean out my closet. That way it will seem like I am getting tons done. It’s kind of like when you walk on the moving sidewalk in the airport. You are going so fast!
- If I am not happy with the work that this cleaner does, I will try someone else. It is important that I feel that my money has been well spent.
- I am going to learn from watching. I always feel that I don’t understand the right way to clean. I’m not very efficient. Someone that cleans for a living has to become efficient at it or they won’t be successful. I’m sure I will learn a lot if I pay attention.
I’ll let you all know how it went and what I learned in next week’s post.
For those of you who aren’t ready to throw in the dust cloth on this subject, might want to check out Fly Lady to get good cleaning tips like the 5 minute room rescue.
Everyone else, fess up.
Do you pay for professional cleaners?
Related Reading
- Part 2: Was Hiring a Cleaning Lady Worth It?
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- Secret Uses for Ammonia, Foil, Salt, and Baking Soda
- 31 Secret Uses for Vinegar (and a Video version)
- 25 Uses for Hydrogen Peroxide
- Baking Soda is My New Cleaning Lady
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
Money well spent! A cleaning lady can do in a few hours what it takes me most of the day to do……and does it much better! She does an amazing job on the bathroom, especially the showers. The nice thing is the whole house is clean at once. The biggest thing is just get the clutter out of the way before she comes or else she puts it somewhere to get it out of the way and you might not find your things for awhile…..
@Kathie Yes! I agree. How would the cleaning lady know which of the 18 different jars of moisturizer is the one I REALLY use?
Since I am disabled, the one thing that I can’t do is the heavy cleaning. I was lucky that I found a cleaning crew that does an amazing job. They come in once every two weeks, bring their own supplies and they are out of my home in under two hours. They do all the heavy stuff. They clean my kitchen from top to bottom, both of my bathrooms, dust and do the floors of the main rooms. Their price definitely fits in my budget and it is money well spent. If I tried to do this myself, it would take more than a day and I would wind up in bed for at least 2 days afterwards.
@Evie Would you like to share the name of your cleaning company?
A cleaning lady can focus on just cleaning – you have to make decisions about things as you go along. I have almost always had help cleaning – you are right it stops lots of stress at home!
@Christy Thanks for sharing this. Glad to know that I am not the only one that has unnecessary stress about DUST!
I find I get sidetracked when I clean (I think it’s because I HATE housecleaning). I figure that I’m better off working an extra hour or two to pay for someone else to do in 5 or 6 hours things I probably never would get done. It is also a lot better than all the fighting with my husband and kids. I think I would eat rice and beans before giving up my housekeeper….
@Kathleen My sister told me that at one point she went out and got the part time job primarily to pay for a housecleaner. I am starting to see the bigger picture here.
My mom is a cleaning lady on the weekends. She cleans friends homes for like 50 bucks or $10 the hour, she only goes like one or twice a week and everyone loves her! She is pretty amazing! She does the tough jobs like wax counters and floors, even outdoor upkeep. If you could find someone like her in your area you would really save!
Oh yes…. and like you, I pick up first so she concentrates on the actual dirt! And I think it is cleaner than I would get it.
My kids and I have worked out a chore chart and an agreed on price for doing different chores. I end up paying them $20-$30/week total and the house stays “clean enough” 🙂
i.e $2.50 to clearn the shower, $1/load of laundry washed and put away, $1.50/meal prepared and cleaned up. It’s been working pretty well. So anytime they want to buy something special, i remind them that there are chores they can do.
When my husband was still alive, and my sons were at home, everyone had specific chores for which they were responsible. Now that I’m “of a certain age” and no longer physically able to do anything which requires getting down on my (titanium) knees, I have a wonderful woman who comes in once a month to do both BRs, the kitchen (especially the oven/stove), the floors (both mopping and vacuuming), windows, etc… whatever I feel is the greatest need. I budget for her time, so don’t regret the expenditure in the least. Does she put things back where they were? Not always, but I can do that myself!
@Bobbisbargains, I use Atlas Clean Living.
I, too, pay for a housekeeper every other week for 5 hours each time she comes. I pay $14/hour plus social security & employer taxes. That seems to be the going rate in southern California (if you do it legally). I couldn’t stand the conflicts with my husband and sons about housework, since I am the only one who cares if things are neat and tidy. I run a business in which clients come to my home office, so the place must be presentable. The money spent for the housekeeper is a bargain since the peace of no conflict in my house is nearly priceless.
Julia,
Hiring a cleaning person is SANITY for me! But I would never (again) hire “A” cleaning person. It’s a “GROUP” of cleaning persons for me (and all my friends too) now! You hire “A” cleaning person and you have to pay for cleaning supplies too – and she’s there all day – unbearable for me! So I hire a group – and it’s very economical too – I have a fairly large house and they are out in 2 hours tops! A group always brings their own cleaning supplies, vacuum cleaner, cleaning cloths etc – and I only pay $70 for them & the supplies – the house is shining and clean in 2 hours hooray! Try it Julia!
All the best,
Your friend Marie
We had a house cleaner that was fantastic. Then she moved. I went without for over a year. The stress of having to work a full time job then clean house and yard on weekends was too much. We recently hired two college students (recommended by the janitorial service that cleans my office location) who come in every other week to do the bathrooms, kitchen, vacuuming and dusting. What a relief.
A cleaning person is SO wonderful. Housework is a source of many, many arguments and the rates always strike me as low. Plus, having someone else do the basic cleaning frees me to do bigger projects like reducing clutter, painting, and redecorating.
I have had the same cleaning lady for over 10 years now (and it is a luxury), for me it’s worth it. Otherwise, since I work during the week, I would need to spend most of my saturday cleaning. I budget accordingly. I cut costs in other areas in my budget (clothes and grocery).
When I first started dating my husband, I realized neither one of us was going to do a good job cleaning, and I HATE cleaning up after others. So, since we were both working, we budgeted for a cleaning lady. 28 years later, I do not regret that decision AT ALL. I am, however, going to try using a company that sends several people the next time I have to hire a new cleaner. That sounds like a better idea to me.
I’ve always wanted a house cleaner but I’m afraid that they are going to steal from me, break something, ruin my granite/wood floors, or accidently leave a door open and have my cats escape. I hate cleaning and this post has encouraged me to find someone. Anyone in Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley that can highly recommend someone to me?!
Sara, I have a reliable and trustworthy housecleaner. She’s pretty good at the big stuff – floors, bathrooms, windows. Not as great on the little details. We often choose not to be at home when she’s here. I do live in north San Fernando valley. She may be looking for work. (not sure how we would connect through this BB)
@May and @Sara Feel free to leave the cleaning company’s name and contact info in a comment!
When my twins turned 9 months old, I realized that it had been at least a year since my floors had been mopped. Of course, I had spent the preceeding year thinking every. single. evening that I would do it as soon as I had the energy. Well, I still don’t have the energy but my husband intervened and hired a cleaning lady who comes every other week. She does the whole house (including changing all the sheets) in less than 3 and a half hours. The place sparkles!
I will confess that I paid a professional cleaner and it felt so good. Like you, I tried to get the family to help, but that wasn’t working out so well. I got a referral from a friend and that was all she wrote. It was well worth the money spent and I will definitely hire this person again.
I absolutely adore our cleaning lady. She is a marvel and comes every 3 weeks. I would like her more often, but this is within our budget. It just means every 3 weeks it is all done at the same time and I have one weekend without any chores. I thoroughly recommend it!
When my wife and I got married, I learned she was terrible at housework. I am pretty organized, and clean bathrooms and kitchens “like a guy.” But she leaves stuff all over the place. We got a referral to a cleaning lady from a friend. She comes every two weeks, $90, and for four hours she cleans – floors, kitchen stoves, polishes furniture, etc. She said if we hired her for every week, she would drop her rate to $80 and would do laundry too. However, we have not gone that route yet. We would probably be split if this lady wasn’t there to keep the place clean.
For Bargain Babe – do it “yourself” is fine, if you have unlimited time. But if you value your time, then sometimes it makes sense to pay. I like the principle in Four Hour Work Week – that pay someone to do something if you could earn more during that time.
May,
I too live in the North SFV. Maybe you can give me the name and number to you cleaning lady too. I don’t know if you worked out how to get this info to Sara, but I’m interested. Bargain Babe, any suggestions?
BargainBabe suggested I put the company’s name but there is no company. Just Marta.
I do need to say that she knows very little English. I speak Spanish so I have no problem communicating with her. Still interested?
@May and @Sara (again) May, if you don’t feel comfortable sharing Marta’s contact info in the comment section, email me and I’ll pass the info onto Sara.
Absolutely everyone except Sharon has said they use a cleaning lady. Is there anyone out there who does NOT hire a cleaning person? I’d really like to know!
My wife and I don’t use a cleaning lady. We like to do a lot of the cleaning ourselves, even when we don’t have a lot of time, and we found a program called The Glow System (http://bit.ly/glowsystem) that helped us set up a weekly cleaning and organization schedule. It’s been really effective, I think.
May, I don’t speak Spanish but it couldn’t hurt to have Marta’s number. Not sure you want to post it here so she ends up getting a whole bunch of calls! My email is Sara_in_tarzana@yahoo.com if you prefer to get me there. Laura, you can email me too and I can forward the info May gives me.:-)
Thank you Sara. Unfortunately I don’t speak Spanish and would need someone I could communicate with.
I will forego pedicures, hair styling anything before giving up my cleaning crew! We pay $85 for every two weeks.
I do not have a cleaning lady but once I get some debt paid off that will be on my list. Husband and I work full-time and have two young boys..I cannot possibly clean the house like I need to.
My hard-working once-a-month cleaning lady understands most English, and is able to communicate in it, although Spanish is her primary language. I pay her $80 per month, for which she works from 8:30-2:30 (hours approximate), or however long it takes her to do what’s needed. Anyone who could restore the nasty bathtub left that way by too many males using and not cleaning it is worth every penny! She works mostly in the SF Valley. If anyone is interested in contacting Vilma, let me know, and I’ll pass the info along via BB. I imagine that other schedules and pay are probably negotiable, as she does go to some clients 2x or more per month.
It really seems to vary. I had one cleaner that charged $150. We used her one day a month for a few months, and she was really good, but we just couldn’t bite the bullet on the cost. Then we found a different cleaning company. They send a couple of women over twice a month for a total of $150, and we’re happy. We buy the cleaning supplies, but with coupons/deals, that’s not a big issue. We’ve even picked up a few things at dollar shops. I agree – I’d rather work a few extra hours and come home to a clean house.