At what income do you not have a cleaning lady?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI $250K, 2 WOH parents, 2 kids (preschooler and infant)

No cleaning service b/c I want the kids to be able to develop those skills. I grew up in a house with a live-in nanny/housekeeper. When I went to college, I had no idea how to do laundry or dishes, much less clean a house. I take care of the daily maintenance after the kids go to bed. We (DH, DD, and I) dedicate an hour or two each weekend to do a deeper clean. The areas of deep cleaning rotate every other week to keep the weekend chore list short.

Plenty of cleaning left to learn when you have an every other week cleaning lady. If you take care of the daily maintenance after the kids go to bed, when will they be learning how to do laundry, dishes and clean the house?

I am training my daughters to be Masters of the Universe, not scullery maids.

[Anonymous]

HHI $225K, both parents WOH, 4 kids
no house cleaner....well actually we have 6 of us. The kids all have chores and DH and I do the rest. I was shocked when my middle school child came home and said she was the only student in her class that had ever cleaned a toilet!!!

[Anonymous]

$50k, family of four, no cleaning lady

[Anonymous]

I am laughing at the holier-than-thou ness of many of the people in this thread who haven't hired anyone.

How DARE people spend their own money the way they want to!

[Anonymous]

I grew up middle class in the Midwest, and we always had a weekly house-cleaner. My parents both worked in FT sales careers and so they figured their time was better spent earning money than cleaning. (Both often worked on Saturdays, for example.) For people who work on a salary, the calculation may be different.

My DH grew up where they spent Saturdays cleaning and doing household chores. His parents both worked FT.

When I went to college (in 1990 , I had not done heavy cleaning before, but it was no problem to learn right away. I cleaned my own dorm (and later apartment) for 8 years through college/law school/first job. I really enjoy cleaning. (Just because you have a house-cleaner as a kid does not mean that you don't learn to do cleaning. If anything you get used to having a nice clean house and want that for yourself.)

Then at age 26, I found a lady who cleaned apartments 1x per week. Like my mom, I felt like I could earn more money working hard at my job than cleaning.

Now DH and I both work FT and have 3 kids. We've always had a weekly house-cleaner. I wish I could be a SAHM and clean my own house. But we found a great lady who has a team that comes in and spends a few hours each week. It's so great to come home and have the house thoroughly clean. We pay them $125/week.

I once read that one of the big reasons for arguments among couples is the division of housework. A common suggestion was to hire a house-cleaner to come. I think it's probably good for the marriage if divison of housework is an issue. (My DH is a neat-nick and so I don't think it would have been an issue for us.)

For people who think it's strange to have a stranger in the house, I don't think that's an issue. It's a pretty common occurrence to have someone clean.

[Anonymous]

At 50k I had a cleaner. Worth every penny! Plus it's only what $120 for one or $240 for two visits a month.

[Anonymous]

~ 200k no cleaning service. Hopefully soon! Need to pay off the 50k HELOC we got for our forever home down payment. On a strict budget until then, wanting to pay it off within 2 years since we closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am laughing at the holier-than-thou ness of many of the people in this thread who haven't hired anyone.

How DARE people spend their own money the way they want to!

I think people are just answering the question? I don't see your view.

[Anonymous]

We're at 165K.

I don't feel we can afford a cleaner now. If I could? I totally would.

[Anonymous]

$230K and no cleaning lady. We did have one at $100-150K - the kids were young and, with two working parents, it was tough to keep up. I am glad we did it during that time - it was a splurge that was worth it. Now the kids are preteens/teens and both create less mess and assist with household chores, so it's not necessary to have one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't fathom not having cleaning help after having children. I would work just to pay for my cleaning lady. Everyone we know has a cleaning lady. Someone stated on another threat that only the top 10% had cleaning help. Is that true?

See, I look at this differently. My hours and salary are what they are, I'm not changing them based on a decision to get (or not get) a cleaning service. Instead, I see this as paying someone to clean so that I can spend an extra few hours with my family on Saturdays instead of cleaning the house. That extra time is totally worth the cost to me. It's no different than paying someone to paint my basement so that I don't have to spend my weekends doing it ... or fixing the plumbing ... or changing the oil in my car.

We started a cleaning service when HHI reached around $200K combined. Wish I'd started years earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess this should be a spin off, but I'm more curious about the percentage of households where both people WOH full time, vs. the households where one person is a SAH. We have a cleaning person that comes two times a month. We both work full time.

I cleaned my house when I WOH and I still clean it now that I'm a SAHM. So my answer is the same in both situations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't fathom not having cleaning help after having children. I would work just to pay for my cleaning lady. Everyone we know has a cleaning lady. Someone stated on another threat that only the top 10% had cleaning help. Is that true?

Started last year, I was 48. our HHI is $300K+. I went back to work, have two school-aged kids. That's the only reason I hired someone. And she comes twice a month. Truly the best investment towards helping me keep my sanity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am laughing at the holier-than-thou ness of many of the people in this thread who haven't hired anyone.

How DARE people spend their own money the way they want to!

I think people are just answering the question? I don't see your view.

agreed! where'd THAT come from. a little bit of an over reaction you think?

[Anonymous]

$175k and we have a biweekly cleaner, $70 each time