Anonymous wrote:I am currently reading a book, written by a French sociologist, about the "rarified" world of the "super-wealthy" who can afford not merely part-time house cleaning, but a full-time employee (albeit in France).

I don't know what the author is fussing so much about, because in my not "rarified" circle of not "super-wealthy" people I know several who employ a full-time house cleaner (in addition to a nanny). They are normal, down-to-earth people, far from pretentious.

As for me, we employ "merely" a part-time house cleaner.

So I am wondering how common it is among the people on DCUM, because I personally am certainly not part of the 1%, and my acquaintances with full-time help are not either.

I do know a few here but back home in Asia, every upper middle class family had one or two full time employees, some of whom lived in a "servant quarter" in backyard, usually with their families and both spouses worked there, one cooked and cleaned while other drove family car.

For those of you who have someone come in regularly to help out (not just weekly or bi-weekly cleaners but someone who runs errands, organize pantry, cook etc.), how much do you pay them per hour?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What size house would justify a FT “house cleaner”? I’m thinking at least 10,000 sq/ft. Anything less and there isn’t enough cleaning to occupy 40 hours every week (minus some vacation time).

Those with a FT "house cleaner" typically have them doing a ton of different things. Laundry, ironing, picking up kids/transporting kids to activities, cooking, grocery shopping, etc. Basically they have them doing everything a SAHP would be doing in a day, so that when they get home from work, they can have a break.
I know that as a SAHP once my kids were late ES/MS I had plenty of time to typically get everything done during the daytime so our evenings could be more family time.
If you can afford it, why not hire the help

I would consider laundry and ironing as part of a FT cleaners job. Once you include cooking, shopping and kids I think the job title changes (to what I am not sure).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What size house would justify a FT “house cleaner”? I’m thinking at least 10,000 sq/ft. Anything less and there isn’t enough cleaning to occupy 40 hours every week (minus some vacation time).

Those with a FT "house cleaner" typically have them doing a ton of different things. Laundry, ironing, picking up kids/transporting kids to activities, cooking, grocery shopping, etc. Basically they have them doing everything a SAHP would be doing in a day, so that when they get home from work, they can have a break.
I know that as a SAHP once my kids were late ES/MS I had plenty of time to typically get everything done during the daytime so our evenings could be more family time.
If you can afford it, why not hire the help

Most people I know with any kind of full time help, they’re definitely not just cleaning 40 hours per week. We had full time help for about 4 years, but this included all school pick up/drop off, cleaning/laundry, grocery shopping, errands, and some meal prep. Most people who have responded here aren’t asking someone to clean 40 hours per week. Having a full time person just cleaning is crazy.

Anonymous wrote:What size house would justify a FT “house cleaner”? I’m thinking at least 10,000 sq/ft. Anything less and there isn’t enough cleaning to occupy 40 hours every week (minus some vacation time).

Those with a FT "house cleaner" typically have them doing a ton of different things. Laundry, ironing, picking up kids/transporting kids to activities, cooking, grocery shopping, etc. Basically they have them doing everything a SAHP would be doing in a day, so that when they get home from work, they can have a break.
I know that as a SAHP once my kids were late ES/MS I had plenty of time to typically get everything done during the daytime so our evenings could be more family time.
If you can afford it, why not hire the help

Anonymous wrote:What size house would justify a FT “house cleaner”? I’m thinking at least 10,000 sq/ft. Anything less and there isn’t enough cleaning to occupy 40 hours every week (minus some vacation time).

Our house is 12,000sf. We probably only use 5000 regularly. We don’t use the dining room or formal living room normally or our three guest rooms. We have a large basement we also don’t use unless we have guests. We have cleaners come twice per week and that is enough for now. One day is clean house and one day is laundry, cleaning and cooking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a live in housekeeper until my youngest went to college. I now have a full time housekeeper but miss the live in because of the dogs. We have a clean house and home cooked lunch and dinner 5 days a week. It really helps me keep my weight down. My parents and my in-laws all have full time help. HHI 550. I don’t understand why all these folks making $850K+ don’t simplify their lives and get full time help.

Because, unless you are paying someone off the books, you would be paying $40K + benefits to have full time help. And in reality, probably more if you are "on the books". Most people do not want to do that type of work so it's difficult to find someone reliable

But at $550K/year (that's $400K after taxes, maybe less), I'm not spending $40-50K on a housekeeper. I'll pay $3-4K/year for an every 2 week housekeeper and cook for myself

Inflation moves the numbers, but if you are paying someone full-time hours to do a 4hr/day or less job or less (how many hours a week just to keep a house clean?), you can pay a low hourly wage and they can enjoy the downtime for their other pursuits. If they are also nanny and cook, that's not "full time house cleaner".

ITT: People who don't know they are 1%ers.

Anonymous wrote:I'm French. Some of my relatives, when I was a child, had a full-time housekeeper, who oversaw maids coming on certain days, laundry, food, and managed deliveries, repairmen, etc. My mother grew up with a full staff, not quite Downton Abbey (missing the butler and footmen), but with several housemaids, a cook, her kitchen helpers, someone to wait at table, and outdoor people for the gardens, farm and hunting pack/stable.

Which French sociologist? The French intellectual "elite" is a quirky bunch of people. France in general doesn't like wealthy people. In France, you use your wealth discreetly and tastefully. Otherwise it's heads on pikes all over again

This sounds AMAZING!

What size house would justify a FT “house cleaner”? I’m thinking at least 10,000 sq/ft. Anything less and there isn’t enough cleaning to occupy 40 hours every week (minus some vacation time).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a live in housekeeper until my youngest went to college. I now have a full time housekeeper but miss the live in because of the dogs. We have a clean house and home cooked lunch and dinner 5 days a week. It really helps me keep my weight down. My parents and my in-laws all have full time help. HHI 550. I don’t understand why all these folks making $850K+ don’t simplify their lives and get full time help.

We have a $3m HHI and live in a 12,000sf house. I don’t want someone in the house everyday. We have help 2x per week. I also value my kids doing chores. I have 3 kids. Yesterday, 1 kid did the dishes, 1 kid did laundry and 1 kid took out the trash.

We have a friend with similar income and lives in our neighborhood. They used to have a FT live in housekeeper and FT nanny and a driver. The kids wwre getting so spoiled, leaving socks around and not even putting their plates in the sink that they got rid of their FT housekeeper.

We have many neighbors who have FT help. One mom prides herself on not doing any housework and he daughter probably has never done a chore in her life. This is not what we want. Others are dual professionals who just want a clean house.

You don't your kids aren't spoiled with your lifestyle?

I try hard not to spoil them. They are good kids. There are some very entitled kids in our area and it is my goal for my kids not to be like them.

DH and I come from humble beginnings. Our kids know this.

In Bethesda, I have met neighbors over the years who have had various foreign postings (many with the World Bank, IMF, or foreign embassies). They all seemed to kind of like living in developing countries because, even as middle class people, they could afford a lot of household help. It appears that there are plenty of people in those countries who were willing to work for modest wages as maids or gardeners or babysitters.

These neighbors kind of disliked living in the U.S. because they could no longer afford household help on middle-class salaries.

Upon reflection, it is a shame that people in these developing countries are so poor that they have to work as maids and gardeners for sub-standard wages. At least in the U.S. we have protections and minimum wages for people. They are not just destined to a life as a servant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a live in housekeeper until my youngest went to college. I now have a full time housekeeper but miss the live in because of the dogs. We have a clean house and home cooked lunch and dinner 5 days a week. It really helps me keep my weight down. My parents and my in-laws all have full time help. HHI 550. I don’t understand why all these folks making $850K+ don’t simplify their lives and get full time help.

We have a $3m HHI and live in a 12,000sf house. I don’t want someone in the house everyday. We have help 2x per week. I also value my kids doing chores. I have 3 kids. Yesterday, 1 kid did the dishes, 1 kid did laundry and 1 kid took out the trash.

We have a friend with similar income and lives in our neighborhood. They used to have a FT live in housekeeper and FT nanny and a driver. The kids wwre getting so spoiled, leaving socks around and not even putting their plates in the sink that they got rid of their FT housekeeper.

We have many neighbors who have FT help. One mom prides herself on not doing any housework and he daughter probably has never done a chore in her life. This is not what we want. Others are dual professionals who just want a clean house.

You don't your kids aren't spoiled with your lifestyle?

Anonymous wrote:I had a live in housekeeper until my youngest went to college. I now have a full time housekeeper but miss the live in because of the dogs. We have a clean house and home cooked lunch and dinner 5 days a week. It really helps me keep my weight down. My parents and my in-laws all have full time help. HHI 550. I don’t understand why all these folks making $850K+ don’t simplify their lives and get full time help.

Because, unless you are paying someone off the books, you would be paying $40K + benefits to have full time help. And in reality, probably more if you are "on the books". Most people do not want to do that type of work so it's difficult to find someone reliable

But at $550K/year (that's $400K after taxes, maybe less), I'm not spending $40-50K on a housekeeper. I'll pay $3-4K/year for an every 2 week housekeeper and cook for myself

Anonymous wrote:When we lived in a 3rd world country when I was a kid (we were expats) we had full time household help. The first time it was one person who was a nanny/maid. The second time was a full time maid and a nearly full time gardener. Both of these were places where help was very inexpensive and where doing basic things like laundry, cooking and grocery shopping was a production. In the first place laundry was by hand and hung dry. In the second place we had a washing machine (a luxury) but not a dryer. That place was also very dusty/desert so cleaning had to be done daily.

Needless to say when we returned to the US, life was quite different.

Easy to do that in countries where you only need to pay the help $2-3K/year per person.
Personally, I've experienced that when visiting family in India and while it's nice, I would not want that full time. Seems a bit intrusive and you have to constantly worry about having stuff stolen/etc (Despite searching for quality workers, family members had it happen a few times to them, had to fire the worker after they were caught stealing even after a few years of being employed for them where they thought they could trust them).