At what disposable income do you feel you can afford a weekly house cleaner?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks much for all your replies. I, too, feel that a cleaner home would bring down my stress level significantly. I am literally always thinking about a tidy home, no dog hair, clean sinks, etc. I think we'll cut down on eating out.

PS: I find it strange that a marriage should depend on this, but sadly, I'm afraid it's true.

[Anonymous]

there are options, we do a full house clean every other week. However, you could do 1 full clean the first week of the month and then the next weeks just do living room/kitchen/master to make it cheaper

[Anonymous]

I have a bi-weekly cleaning. In fact today is the day and I am excited to go home later.

I am single parent with one child and $200K HHI. I think it is well worth it. I would love to have her come every week but to me that seems frivolous, not sure why.

One of the best things about the cleaner is that it forces you to be organized. For example we had to tidy up yesterday so the cleaner could clean today. The night before and the day of are the cleanest times at our home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about disposable - but we were at 275k HHI and I felt I couldn't justify. Just bumped to 650k HHI and am now doing it every week at 100/week. It's so amazing I am tempted to ask them if for twice a week they'd do 75. They charged 150 when it wasn't weekly, maybe you can negotiate down for weekly? That's what I did.

Classic DCUM.

NP here: more work, steady income, known family, cleaner home so less work, bulk discount. Very reasonable to negotiate the rate down. Ignore the snark and jealous harpy.

You earn $650k/year and are nickle and diming your housecleaners. I have no issue with weekly cleaners (we have a weekly cleaner at 250k HHI) but I do have issues with trying to pay a sub-living wage.

NP. Oh here we go, another higher than thou high earning Liberal.

It's called saying "no." As in, "no, that's too low. I will go clean for someone who pays me better." Voila!

If you are concerned about living wage, feel free to give away all of your $250k.

[Anonymous]

In a two income HH it's a must.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If both parents work full time then it's necessary

For you, maybe. Not for everyone. I think its great to hire cleaners if you want to and can afford it, but a family cleaning up after themselves rather than paying someone else to do it is hardly necessary. Insisting that it is "necessary" and not a luxury just adds another thing we need to do to keep up with the joneses.

Who scrubs the bathtubs? That's more than "a family cleaning up after themselves." My family does keep the house picked up, but I've never seen my husband or children pick up a mop or scrub brush.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about disposable - but we were at 275k HHI and I felt I couldn't justify. Just bumped to 650k HHI and am now doing it every week at 100/week. It's so amazing I am tempted to ask them if for twice a week they'd do 75. They charged 150 when it wasn't weekly, maybe you can negotiate down for weekly? That's what I did.

Classic DCUM.

NP here: more work, steady income, known family, cleaner home so less work, bulk discount. Very reasonable to negotiate the rate down. Ignore the snark and jealous harpy.

You earn $650k/year and are nickle and diming your housecleaners. I have no issue with weekly cleaners (we have a weekly cleaner at 250k HHI) but I do have issues with trying to pay a sub-living wage.

NP. Oh here we go, another higher than thou high earning Liberal.

It's called saying "no." As in, "no, that's too low. I will go clean for someone who pays me better." Voila!

If you are concerned about living wage, feel free to give away all of your $250k.

What religion do you consider yourself? Just curious ... also curious if you have any views about the likely immigration status of cleaners who work for much lower than a living wage.

[Anonymous]

I joke that my next raise will go towards having the cleaners come every week instead of every other week. We held out until we had two kids and I often wonder why we didn't get a cleaner sooner - it has been a game changer in terms of how much less stressed I feel over not having to find time to mop and dust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I joke that my next raise will go towards having the cleaners come every week instead of every other week. We held out until we had two kids and I often wonder why we didn't get a cleaner sooner - it has been a game changer in terms of how much less stressed I feel over not having to find time to mop and dust.

You joke, but I actually got a new job with a raise motivated in large part by the desire to have weekly cleaners ... it was the first thing I added to our new budget. Weekly actually does make a big difference compared to biweekly. With weekly cleaners (who also fold and put away laundry) I basically don't have to worry about anything other than keeping kitchen and dining room surfaces cleaned and the dishes. If I do have extra cleaning time/energy on the weekends, I can use that for other one-off projects, like organizing closets, garden, etc. It's GREAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If both parents work full time then it's necessary

For you, maybe. Not for everyone. I think its great to hire cleaners if you want to and can afford it, but a family cleaning up after themselves rather than paying someone else to do it is hardly necessary. Insisting that it is "necessary" and not a luxury just adds another thing we need to do to keep up with the joneses.

I agree with the second poster. For me, this is pretty far down on the list of "extras" -- my husband is a great help with cleaning and neither of us are particularly angst ridden about having a perfect house. I'd rather spend that 100-400$ per month on wine, or better cheese, or savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks much for all your replies. I, too, feel that a cleaner home would bring down my stress level significantly. I am literally always thinking about a tidy home, no dog hair, clean sinks, etc. I think we'll cut down on eating out.

PS: I find it strange that a marriage should depend on this, but sadly, I'm afraid it's true.

I think that it sounds like to you, this is worth it! Go for it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If both parents work full time then it's necessary

For you, maybe. Not for everyone. I think its great to hire cleaners if you want to and can afford it, but a family cleaning up after themselves rather than paying someone else to do it is hardly necessary. Insisting that it is "necessary" and not a luxury just adds another thing we need to do to keep up with the joneses.

I agree with the second poster. For me, this is pretty far down on the list of "extras" -- my husband is a great help with cleaning and neither of us are particularly angst ridden about having a perfect house. I'd rather spend that 100-400$ per month on wine, or better cheese, or savings.

The difference is that your "husband is a great help with cleaning." My husband hasn't cleaned anything in 20 years. And to be honest, we don't need the $250 that badly for savings or other splurges.

[Anonymous]

I have three houses so I would not even know how to juggle that.

[Anonymous]

I hate deep cleaning, but am okay at spot cleaning and tidying. To me there are a lot of things I would give up to keep my cleaner. She comes (with help) once every 4 weeks. My husband earns approx. $100k and my salary goes to childcare. It's no problem, but our only debt is the house payment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about disposable - but we were at 275k HHI and I felt I couldn't justify. Just bumped to 650k HHI and am now doing it every week at 100/week. It's so amazing I am tempted to ask them if for twice a week they'd do 75. They charged 150 when it wasn't weekly, maybe you can negotiate down for weekly? That's what I did.

Classic DCUM.

NP here: more work, steady income, known family, cleaner home so less work, bulk discount. Very reasonable to negotiate the rate down. Ignore the snark and jealous harpy.

You earn $650k/year and are nickle and diming your housecleaners. I have no issue with weekly cleaners (we have a weekly cleaner at 250k HHI) but I do have issues with trying to pay a sub-living wage.

NP. Oh here we go, another higher than thou high earning Liberal.

It's called saying "no." As in, "no, that's too low. I will go clean for someone who pays me better." Voila!

If you are concerned about living wage, feel free to give away all of your $250k.

What religion do you consider yourself? Just curious [u]... also curious if you have any views about the likely immigration status of cleaners who work for much lower than a living wage.

Is this some kind of a bigoted dig?