I've NEVER tipped a housecleaner

[Anonymous]

I use a company, a service. Not a mom and pop operation, not a self-employed lady. They come once a month and charge $120. Am I supposed to tip at Xmas time? Oops.

[Anonymous]

If you have a regular cleaning staff that takes care of your house, I would tip them even if they come from a company.

[Anonymous]

I personally think tipping has gotten a little out of hand. I think you can give a holiday gift (cash) if it's a relationship you value and you feel like doing it. I am reading a book right now on getting control of your finances, and one of the points the author makes is that if you keep worrying about what everybody thinks about what you wear, or drive, or eat, or live in, you will never get control. Same thing applies to DCUMs and tipping. Some of the instances I have read about here where people think tipping is obligatory really surprise me.

FWIW, I have a housekeeper and I do give her a Christmas bonus, but that's because she is my employee. I don't tip the landscaping company that does our yard, though. The people are different every time. I would not tip Merry Maids, or whatever, either for the same reason. Draw the line where you think it should be for you.

[Anonymous]

I mean honestly, I'm a SAHM and the cleaner once a month is a stretch for me financially. I do it for my own sanity. I really don't think I could afford, nor do I think it very necessary, to tip that amount at Xmas time to a service.

[Anonymous]

I do. If anyone needs it, it's folks who do things like clean houses for a living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do. If anyone needs it, it's folks who do things like clean houses for a living.

Actually though, if it is a service, they may forbid tipping. We had a service come this spring and my husband didn't tip. He felt really bad and I called the service to see what we should do and what is standard - they said absolutely not, against the rules, as tip is included (FWIW they did a great job, but did charge an arm and a leg).

We now have a woman come in once a month and we do tip her as she is not with a service. She charges $90 and we give her $100, a few times we've given her $105. At Christmas we will tip her more.

[Anonymous]

I give our cleaner a bonus of what we pay for one cleaning - $90.

[Anonymous]

Ditto on the bonus of a one-cleaning fee ($65 in our case, in D.C.).

[Anonymous]

I give our cleaner a $5 tip every time for a $75 2x month job. I hide the tip upstairs in a place where she sees it and the company owners don't get it. I know it's not the most extravagant tip but it's what we can afford. at christmas we will give a tip to the company owner and one to her employee that cleans our house.