What is normal when it comes to having a cleaning lady?

[Anonymous]

As a house cleaner
Cold water or cup of coffee is nice.
Every house is different.
And every family is different. I actually bring people chocolate or food lol. And some give me food lol
I clean by the hr.. so I don’t often care what people want done.. unless it’s excessive deep cleaning. The whole time.
Your cleaning lady knows what she needs. Your cleaning lady is a human and don’t hover over her or nitter. It’s a hard job. And many people think everything can be done in a few hrs. Hate to tell you no it can’t. And have reasonable expectations or you won’t have a cleaning lady

[Anonymous]

Also I hate the oh hey we are away can we just skip one. Think about that this is your cleaning lady income. Not to mention they now have more work no extra time.
I rarely cancel only if I had the stomach flu.
So stop doing this ! This is when extra cleaning can occur. I’ve stopped doing extra and killing myself to get windows for well off people who cancel at the last min and don’t pay.

[Anonymous]

Do you tip your cleaners?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Normal is that you will find cleaning ladies who will do a good job the first couple of times and then they start to flake out on you.

I think everyone has a different take on what works and what does not work for them. My relationship with my cleaning lady did not follow a "norm" but I did everything to retain her because I found a gem after having gone through many cleaning ladies through the years. Was she the perfect worker? No. But she fitted well with what I wanted. I have had this lady for 17 years and I have been all shades of WOHM/WAHM/SAHM/PTWM in the meantime. She is no longer working for us since the pandemic but I have given her money, supplies and encouraged her to get other clients. She is working full time but she has called me and told me that whenever I want her back she will make time for me. Let's see.

She came twice a week. I got total of 6 manhours for $150 a week. 3000sqft home. 4 beds, 3.5 baths. No pets. Non-smokers. Family of 4. We are first owners. I obviously did not need her to clean my home so often - so we negotiated that she would do chores for me for $25 an hour. This meant that she was folding clothes, organizing, decluttering, chopping veggies, prepping for parties, putting up holiday decorations, recycling, cleaning pantry/fridge/freezer, taking care of my indoor plants, cleaning basement and garage, helping with yard work, vacuuming my cars, grocery shopping, picking and dropping my dry cleaning, warming and serving food and drinks during parties etc. I realized that this was the kind of help I needed to maintain my home, instead of just getting my house cleaned.

All of this was happening when I was home and I was supervising and at times training her. In 17 years she knew my house inside and out. And over the years a fondness and appreciation grew - I was giving her meals, doing her shopping using my warehouse membership, giving her generous gifts, being flexible with her days, tutoring her kid, loaning her money, connecting her with county services, going with her to court to get her child support, gifting her her child's back to school supplies and clothing every year, paying for her winter gear, paying for everyone in her family to get flu shots, letting her stay in my basement when she was between apartments, and giving her all the old clothes, shoes, household goods, tools, furniture that I would have donated otherwise. I was her easy, happy gig. She was my man friday. It was a win-win for us. She was efficient, creative, honest and had a ready smile and positive demeanor. She was also a fast learner and knew how I wanted things done. Obviously, she was also doing a lot of things to make life easier for me and pitching in when I needed more help. She could work and do projects for me during summer break because her kid could come to my house, hang around with my kids, eat meals, do homework etc...and she could save on childcare cost. As she was a working single mom, I made sure that I made life easier for her. Plus, I was paying her very well.

I miss her a lot but there was no way she could work for me because she is an essential worker at a local hospital. I am able to keep my house clean without her because everyone is pitching in, I am not entertaining at all and things have become simplified. My house was also pretty organized to begin with thanks to her.

Having a cleaning person at your home is a business transaction. Somehow, it is very rare to find a person who can do the work consistently, honestly and with a good attitude.You will go through a lot of people and if you are lucky you will find a good one. If you find a good worker, you must treat them with respect, pay them well and try and retain them for as long as you can.

I pay $175 for 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment that’s about 1000 sf. They are amazing and 2 people clean non stop for 4 hrs.

[Anonymous]

Ours come at 8, stays until 10. Weekly. We've never provided food (and certainly not socialized for an hour around breakfast). We pay if we go in vacation, cancel for whatever reason, etc. We don't pay if they cancel/go on vacation.

[Anonymous]

Our house is about 3500 sq feet, amd we never provide food for our house cleaner. They (2 of them) stay about 3-4 hours, and clean from top to bottom:
Bathrooms - tub/shower/floors/sinks/countertop
Kitchen - floors/countertops/sinks/cabinets/fronts of appliances/table
Bedrooms - change sheets/clean floors/etc

They also dust everywhere, vacume all rugs, and depending on time (and if our college age kids are home or not) sometimes do other things like clean the inside of the refrigerator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK. If you're seriously asking this question, it's not the norm to cook any meals for the cleaner. Mine comes in at 11am, they clean till 2pm. I pick up all the toys, dirty clothes, paper from the floor that my kids left so they can vacuum. I'm guessing others might not. I load all my dishes so they only need to clean the sink. They don't get annoyed or ask for extra if I forgot and there were a few dishes left behind. They never asked me to do either the picking up or the dishes, I just do it as a common sense/reasonable thing to do. I stay out if their way- if they are cleaning the upstairs, I don't use the upstairs bathroom or the rooms. Once you start fully trusting them, you could even be out of the house entirely.

This is us but weekly.

This is the way I operate with my cleaning lady. She has been coming for 18 years. She comes for 3 hours a week and I am usually absent, although my husband works from home and keeps out of her way. I put everything away before she comes so she can concentrate on cleaning. I load the dishwasher and she empties it. I strip the beds and put the dirty bed linen in the washing machine, so she can make up the beds and hang the washed sheets from the machine. The place sparkles.

[Anonymous]

We have a team of 2-3 that comes every other week for 60-90 minutes for a flat rate they provided for us. They just do a deep clean and change the sheets and make the beds. I have everything picked up and the dishwasher running when they get here so they can just focus on the cleaning. We go away for a month every year so they do come right before we leave and do not come until we get back. We do give them 2 big bonuses a year.

[Anonymous]

No meals provided. I would only do that if it were an all day housekeeper situation.

We have a group of 2-3 women, they are only there for about 1.5-2 hours (our house is about 1800sqft and they don’t do the basement or dh’s office). We put clutter away so they are just CLEANING and not organizing. My dh works from home so he lets them in and out and stays with the dog in the office.

We don’t ever get “deep clean” effort I don’t think, but all hard surfaces are dusted and cleaned and fabrics are vacuumed.

[Anonymous]

Is it normal to have broken items on a very regular basis? We've had the same cleaning company (often different people) for 8 or 10 years. Every third time or so, there is a broken vase, picture, or something else.

This time we came home and the paper towel holder is gone. It was a marble stand that sits on the countertop (not super fancy, from Target or World Market or PB I think.) I assume they broke it? It's not the cost that bothers me so much but the fact that I constantly have to fix or replace something. And at least leave a note!

[Anonymous]

We have a team of six wonderful ladies. They come every Friday, but the time varies. If they come before 9 I will make chilaquiles, with a choice of salsa roja or verde. If they come around lunchtime I will make a steak with veggies and fries, a tuna salad, or saltimboca. If they come towards evening then it is usually a seafood starter (think ceviche or boiled shrimp), followed by some kind of stew, and then a flan for dessert.

[Anonymous]

I have had the same woman since 2018. 5 hours/week, 9 to 2. About 1x/month I have different extras that I have done. Windows or my office or DH's office (we WFH) etc, in which case I pay for an extra hour.

I make her lunch, but only because I make lunch (nothing fancy) and I wrap her's up so she can take it with her when she leaves. I provide water and she loves Coke Zero.

I give her an extra 2 weeks pay for Christmas bonus. I also give her any and all extra food I have every week because we don't like leftovers and she seems to love them. I offered and she always wants them. I also give her any extra clothes, items, whatever that we don't want. (I don't like clutter.)

I come and go as needed because she is trustworthy and she makes my life easy as I hate to clean, and she is a great cleaner, trustworthy and does whatever needs to be done.

[Anonymous]

It's important to keep expectations low. Cleaners make things look clean but they never clean as well as you would if you had the time and inclination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to hire someone to help me with my household. We are moving in Feb to a bigger home (not a huge house, about 2500sqft, just bigger than our tiny apt) and I know I'm going to need help. Growing up we had a cleaning lady only a few times a year to help us with big cleans like spring cleaning or right before the holidays. I'm looking to hire someone for weekly cleaning.
Can anyone give me advice on what is expected from your cleaning person, what is expected of me as the customer, etc? For example, my coworker told me that her cleaning person arrives at 8 am. Coworker cooks breakfast for the cleaner and then she usually gets started cleaning at around 9 am. There are specific areas that she wants deep cleaned and everything else is kind of a touch up.

My main concern is that I don't want the person to feel like I'm hovering over them.

What is normal for you if you have someone to come clean for you?

Men seem to mis-think that a Cleaning Lady organizes their home and ott it so their stuff away— then cleans the surfaces and vacuums the floors.

Nope, the more cluttered and untidy your house is, the less they have to do! No surfaces to clean, no problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK. If you're seriously asking this question, it's not the norm to cook any meals for the cleaner. Mine comes in at 11am, they clean till 2pm. I pick up all the toys, dirty clothes, paper from the floor that my kids left so they can vacuum. I'm guessing others might not. I load all my dishes so they only need to clean the sink. They don't get annoyed or ask for extra if I forgot and there were a few dishes left behind. They never asked me to do either the picking up or the dishes, I just do it as a common sense/reasonable thing to do. I stay out if their way- if they are cleaning the upstairs, I don't use the upstairs bathroom or the rooms. Once you start fully trusting them, you could even be out of the house entirely.

This is us but weekly.

This is the way I operate with my cleaning lady. She has been coming for 18 years. She comes for 3 hours a week and I am usually absent, although my husband works from home and keeps out of her way. I put everything away before she comes so she can concentrate on cleaning. I load the dishwasher and she empties it. I strip the beds and put the dirty bed linen in the washing machine, so she can make up the beds and hang the washed sheets from the machine. The place sparkles.

wtf. What stuff? Why only you?