The best type of help to hire out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were your kids' ages we had a full-time nanny who did all kid laundry and kept the kids' rooms and playroom tidy and organized.

My kids are older and we no longer have a nanny. We now have a "housekeeper" for 10 hours a week. In those 10 hours she does all kid laundry, drives my kids to some activities, cooks us 1-2 nights' dinners, and does random tasks as they come up like rotating kids' closets seasonally. She is very expensive, but worth every single penny!!!! (We also have a cleaning lady who comes every two weeks and she does our linens and every other week's worth of towels.)

I personally like having the help with the chores rather than babysitting.

Not OP but considering something like this. Did you continue to pay her nanny rates, or would you mind sharing her hourly rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were your kids' ages we had a full-time nanny who did all kid laundry and kept the kids' rooms and playroom tidy and organized.

My kids are older and we no longer have a nanny. We now have a "housekeeper" for 10 hours a week. In those 10 hours she does all kid laundry, drives my kids to some activities, cooks us 1-2 nights' dinners, and does random tasks as they come up like rotating kids' closets seasonally. She is very expensive, but worth every single penny!!!! (We also have a cleaning lady who comes every two weeks and she does our linens and every other week's worth of towels.)

I personally like having the help with the chores rather than babysitting.

Not OP but considering something like this. Did you continue to pay her nanny rates, or would you mind sharing her hourly rate?

Sorry if I wasn't clear...our housekeeper is not our old nanny -- it's a different person. The going rate for a part-time housekeeper is much higher than a nanny. We pay her $35 an hour. And most housekeepers don't do any kid stuff, but she was willing to do take my older DD to an activity 2x a week because it is a very quick drive. (My younger DD is at full-time pre-k while the housekeeper is there.)

[Anonymous]

OP you need to go through everyone's clothing and downsize. I have a 5 person house hold (2 adults, 3 children) and each child has only 3 private school uniforms, 5 shirts, 3 trousers (or 3 dresses/2 trousers, 2 blouses) and 5 pair of underwear/socks (or 3 socks/2 tights), and 2 sets of pyjamas. Sports outfits are similar quantities. 1 nice seasonal coat/hat/mittens or gloves, 1 set of wellies, 1 pair school shoes, 1 pair trainers, 1 pair loafers or mary janes. Yes, I do have help but keeping everything simple is key at any income level.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher who needed extra $$$ to pay for well, everything. I out an Avon Nextdoor to be a household assistant (laundry, errands, light housekeeping, etc). I had a lot of people message me. I ended up with an 8-10 hr a week job folding clothes for a family of three. Mom did the laundry mostly during the week and I’d come on weekends mostly and sit downstairs to fold it all and out it away. I’d also vacuum and run an errand or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Change your cleaner to once a week. It is life changing.

+1. And find a cleaner who you can pay extra to stay a bit longer and fold your laundry pile. Get your kids to fold their own laundry when they get a bit older

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have two kids ages 4 and 1, we both work full time, primarily hybrid schedule for one parent and the other is mostly in person with some telework based on Congress.

Not a unique problem but we are drowning in tasks, overflowing laundry and just lack of tidiness because of the kids ages.

We already have a cleaner twice a month, but the general disaster that ensues daily plus mounting laundry is making me feel frazzled. I’m pretty type A and a to-do list person and despite my efforts feel like I’m struggling to stay afloat with tasks around the home.

Anyone have experience on where to outsource here? Do I hire a sitter so I can organize and pick up more, work on Landry, do I hire someone just for laundry?
Not looking for full time help but a budget of 10 hours or less weekly to help with some of the mounting tasks.

Where to find this person ??! What has worked for you?

First of all - you have to triage your laundry situation. Strip all the beds, gather all the bath rugs, towels etc, gather all the clothes - stuff it all in clean garbage bags, and haul it to a full service laundromat. They will wash and fold it all for you.

Next - have your cleaner come back to back for two days - right after or before she is scheduled to come for cleaning your house, and you pay her to launder and fold your clothes. She needs to come back to back on the same week, so that her visit focusses on doing laundry and not cleaning your house.

Finally - figure out what works cheaper for you - having the cleaner do your laundry or having the laundromat do your laundry.

I used to pay my cleaning lady to do laundry for me. She used to charge by the hour and so it was easy for me to have her help with miscellaneous taskes - laundry, food prep, organizing, decluttering etc. Especially when kids were little.

[Anonymous]

I've used Happy Nest in the past, once when my washer broke and again when my dryer broke. I was very happy with them. They picked up the bag of clothes off my front stoop and returned it folded a day later. It was just too expensive to justify doing regularly, but my DCs are also older so their clothes were bigger and you get charged by the pound. It might be cheaper for OP since her DCs are younger.

[Anonymous]

When kids were around 4 and 1, I just had a full time nanny whose full time responsibility was taking care of kids. But this also included preparing their food / snacks, the kids laundry, tidying up after them. So, we’d come to a tidy house, clean kids dishes, etc, their laundry clean and folded…

Now that kids go to school, we have someone come a couple of times a week, to cook and fold laundry.

Even though we still do a lot at home, this opens up some space to have some sanity and to get to spend some time with the kids rather than always be either cooking or doing other housework.

[Anonymous]

Hire someone to clean the house, cook all the meals, and do the laundry every day or every other day.