If you had a housekeeper 5 hours a day
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Anonymous
Closer to 6-7 hours. We started out with just one person cleaning our 4,200 SF house and it was taking 6-7 hours. She did a fantastic job and cleaned everything but it takes a long time. We now have a team of 3-4 and it takes about 2 1/2 hours. |
Anonymous
| Follow my dog around the house. |
Anonymous
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If you are having them do both meal prep and cleaning, they should be able to fill 5 hours pretty easily.
You don't have them do everything every day. Tasks rotate. Every day will be the meal prep, cleaning the kitchen, straightening up, whatever. How often laundry happens could be every day or only twice a week depending on your family. Laundering and linen rotation depends on what you want. Deep clean of bathrooms once a week. Clean out refrigerator once a week. Clean microwave once a week. Vaccuum twice a week (every day if you have shedding dogs?). Clean the dishwasher and washer dryer once a month. Clean the oven once a month. Dust/clean light fixtures once month. I don't know. Whatever. There are suggested cleaning schedules all over the internet. You look at one and then make one that makes sense for your house. And if you expect to keep another person on task with it, probably create to-do lists for each day with the understanding that you will work together to figure out what is reasonable. |
Anonymous
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Cleaning and scrubbing fridge.
Reorganizing linen cabinets/bathroom under the sink cabinets, etc |
Anonymous
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This would be a dream. I work from home and like a PP I feel like I spend a lot of time meal prepping, doing laundry, doing dishes, etc. It could easily fill 5 hours/day if you throw in organization, seasonal closet organizing, etc. There is seriously so much stuff around my house that always needs doing. And if this person doesn’t fill every second, they could chill with the dogs, pick up groceries, Amazon returns, dry cleaning if they are willing to drive. Like a house manager.
I’m salivating thinking about being able to afford this! |
Anonymous
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It also depends on how large your family is, their ages, and activity. I have three kids, two of whom are teenage athletes, and I spend hours every single day prepping, cooking, and cleaning up from meals. I also do at least one load of laundry every single day, sometimes multiple loads depending on kids’ uniform needs. So in five hoursI could get those basic necessities taken care of plus maybe a couple of regular cleaning tasks… and maybe deep clean something if it was a particularly easy meal prep day.
I really think some of you must live alone or eat a lot of convenience foods to not understand how easily housekeeping and food preparation can fill five hours a day… |
Anonymous
Just get grocery delivery. Who shops anymore? |
Anonymous
I shop. I've tried delivery multiple times, and every time they get it wrong or choose produce poorly. |
Anonymous
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Are you saying they did all that in three hours? It seems like quite a bit, but of course, you might not need that done daily as the house will be clean. If they did not do all that in three hours, I would try and see how it goes.
There should be occasional fridge cleaning, windows, etc. I am about to hire someone full-time, in another country though, moving there. I thought we would have someone part-time, but the laws of the country do not allow that, so it is still worth it to DH and me even if the housekeeper sits around half the day. |
Anonymous
| If they will do admin tasks, if have them declutter. Scan my photos, file all my videos, clean out my closets, take things to donate or bulk trash |
Anonymous
| Our housekeeper does a fair amount outside especially this time of the year. She waters the garden, picks up dog poop, cleans the pollen off the porch, power washes the back hardscape, sometimes she goes at the windows she can reach if she has time. I have found her on the porch roof cleaning the skylights. |
Anonymous
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OP, do you have young children and/or pets??
The reason I ask is because that could make a huge difference in the amount of things that need done around your house. I would think vacuuming carpets (if you have them) would be 2x/week. As well as wet mopping both kitchen as well as bathroom floors. Dusting 1x/week, emptying out trash cans every day + possibly wiping down counters every day too. Cleaning the kitchen (scrubbing stove top, etc. at least 1x/week), wiping down front of appliances & cabinets weekly as well. Of course, ALL bathrooms scoured + sanitized weekly too. Then on days where you have extra hours >> some deep cleaning could fill up any residual time. This could include: decluttering (especially bedroom closets), scrubbing the interiors of ovens/refrigerators/microwaves/toaster ovens/etc., organizing the contents of pantry, washing out garbage cans, etc. 🧹🪣🧽 |
Anonymous
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25 hours a week of help is a lot.
Some of these things your kids should be doing depending on their age. Teach them life skills. Does she want 5 hours twice a week instead of 5 days? That would be my negotiation. She can then fill in the other 3 days. |
Anonymous
| Make sure she is able to move furniture and rugs without help if you are asking her to deep clean. |
Anonymous
| Op here. To clarify, this is 5 hours a day 5x a week. So 25 hours a week, not including travel time. I wanted 15 hours but it was too short for her. |