am I the only person without cleaning help?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Oh - and less cleaning means more time for lovin'.

LOL. If I ever want to convince MY husband to hire a cleaning service, I now have the perfect arguement.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised at how few sahm's have weighed in. I don't begrudge anyone their decision to have a cleaning service--heck if I could afford it if I could. I will say that for the person who thinks that sahm's should feel guilty having a cleaning service doesn't realize two factors: kids at home allllll day create a ton more mess than kids who are only home a few hours a day. Also, if I took the time to clean up after everything we did and with cooking 3 meals and dishes from 3 meals, etc--I would literally never spend time with my kids. So I have to do some tidying during the day but the bulk of it at night and weekends--exactly when you don't want to do it either. Not starting a fight between wohm/sahm, I respect everyone and there are plodded and minusses to both situations, but I get annoyed when I see that people think that sahm's have the upper hand here and don't deserve the extra help.

[Anonymous]

Plodded=plusses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, but my house is a wreck. I want to but get hung up on the legalities and don't want to pay taxes. Plus I'm so hopeless at cleaning, the one time I had a cleaning lady I didn't know what to tell her to do.

Hire a service. That's what we do. Then you don't have to deal with taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I both work and we have one child and two dogs and we do not have cleaning help. Our home is decorated in the 'minimalist style', so there is not a ton to dust and move around. I clean on Saturday mornings while my DH keeps our child busy. Laundry is done on Saturday afternoon and folded Sunday when DC takes a nap or has an activity. Sometimes, we do laundry on a Thursday, depending on how much there is. Our home is clean and neat, but probably not as spotless as it could be, but with two dogs and a 4 year old that is to be expected. I have not problem with my home. DC also helps and we teach him things little by little. I would love to have some cleaning help, but our monetary priorities are on a different level right now, so the cleaning help is not going to materialize any time soon and that is okay.

TBH, I like my house cleaner than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A cleaning lady is not a status symbol. I sometimes have one, but mostly do not. Extremely high HHI, have nice things, etc. I have had several cleaning people, mostly good. I would recommend the one I had most recently. But honestly, if you clean a little at a time (bathrooms one day, for example) it isn't so bad.

It is humorous to me how many people here do things in order to try to have a status symbol. Seriously, it's funny.

I spend $200 a month on a housecleaner, but drive 10 year old cars. Driving a car that requires a $800 monthly payment is a status symbol. Having a cleaner is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mom of 3 who works FT out of the home (so does DH) --- and I'm discovering that pretty much everyone I meet has outside help with cleaning (either weekly or every other week). Is this the norm around here? If so, I'd appreciate some tips on how I can persuade DH to get on board.

Does your house get messy if you work FT?? If nobody is home the majority of the day, do you really have a crumb filled kitchen, dirty bathrooms, etc THAT much to justify the expense of a cleaning service? I can maybe understand a SAHM having a messy house being home 24/7, but if you are working and the kids are in school/daycare?

Yes. Our floors get dirty just from people walking on them. Dust accumulates no matter who is home. The baseboards get cobwebs. The toilets get filthy from regular use. I don't see how some PPs can keep a house clean by doing only 5 to 10 minutes at a time. It takes me at least 15 minutes to scrub one floor, not just "swiffer" it.

[Anonymous]

We are both FT working and have an 11 month old and simply can't afford it. I get those "deals" for cleaning people and then I do it, but otherwise, we can't afford it.

I would in a heartbeat if I could.

As it stands, we actually keep the house pretty clean ourselves, but we spend about 30 minutes on it every night...

[Anonymous]

We have held out so far without a cleaning person. (We both work FT and have a 2.5 year old.) DH and I take turns cleaning every other weekend. This works well, because we are a good team in dividing up cleaning tasks. Our HHI is lower than many on this board and while we could technically afford $200 a month, we have prioritized putting money toward some savings goals. That said, we are expecting #2 later this year and, even with the added daycare cost, we may have to get some housecleaning help, since I feel like we'll have a lot less free time on weekends.

[Anonymous]

We can only afford to have a cleaning service come 1/month. I have them do a very good job on the bathroom and kitchen. The rest - dusting, vacuuming, etc - we take care of whenever we get to it. We gave up cable tv to afford professional cleaning.

I am in grad school, so we're getting by on one income, but we still hire a cleaning service because it is cheaper than couples counseling, which is what we would be paying for if we had to fight/negotiate who does the heavy cleaning all the time.

[Anonymous]

Nope. No house cleaner for us. (2 kids, both of us have always worked FT) Our kids are teens and since they were very young, they've been expected to help clean the house. It's something we all do as a family and doesn't take much time at all. Now that the kids are older I notice that they are much better at picking up after themselves than many of their friends. They know that if they make a mess, they're going to have to clean it up.

[Anonymous]

No cleaner for us either. We've considered it though and will likely make that 'leap' when we have another child. I say leap because I didn't grow up with money and the idea of hiring a cleaning person was always a very upper class thing in my mind. My dad works as a cleaning person now, so feels weird to me to be in a position of hiring someone like my dad. I know it's very normal here, but growing up I didn't imagine I would wind up with enough disposable income for this to even be a consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. No house cleaner for us. (2 kids, both of us have always worked FT) Our kids are teens and since they were very young, they've been expected to help clean the house. It's something we all do as a family and doesn't take much time at all. Now that the kids are older I notice that they are much better at picking up after themselves than many of their friends. They know that if they make a mess, they're going to have to clean it up.

But picking up isn't cleaning. My boys pick up after themselves, and we have a cleaner every other week.

[Anonymous]

10: 26 - boohoo. So do I. Do you want a medal? I personally like saving money. That is how people hold onto their money - but no one here seems to get that concept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. No house cleaner for us. (2 kids, both of us have always worked FT) Our kids are teens and since they were very young, they've been expected to help clean the house. It's something we all do as a family and doesn't take much time at all. Now that the kids are older I notice that they are much better at picking up after themselves than many of their friends. They know that if they make a mess, they're going to have to clean it up.

But picking up isn't cleaning. My boys pick up after themselves, and we have a cleaner every other week.

They also know how to clean bathrooms, vacuum, dust, and do their own laundry. It's not hard if everyone does their share.