I have a housekeeper who comes 3 days a week for a total of 18hrs. She does NO heavy cleaning, we have a cleaning service for that. She picks up, does laundry, grocery shops, makes beds, sweeps floor, does meal prep, runs errands, and wipes down surfaces.

I live I a house that is 2500sq feet and like another poster it takes 4 people 1.5 hrs of heavy work to get this done. I personally think a housekeeper and a cleaning service are two totally different groups.

I pay $15/hr for this.

Get this book: "A housekeeper is cheaper than a divorce" to help you figure out how many hours you need.

I paid $11/hr for what you are asking for in a small blue collar town. I would imagine $20/hr is probably right in DC. I actually found that PT work was appealing to a lot of people, and had mostly retired women or SAHM's looking to make some money while their kids were in school apply for the job. I was able to offer flexible hours, guaranteed hours, 2 weeks PTO plus holidays, and additional unpaid time off whenever she needed it.

My house is 2000 sq ft and it takes six human hours to clean it top to bottom (a couple comes to do ours, so it's 3 hrs with both of them) and we pay $150 per clean. So, for 3000 sq ft, I think you'll probably owe a more for the clean.

I've also had some one come & cook meals for us for the week ahead. We wanted healthy and from scratch. Two large meals took 3-4 hrs. If you want three meals, that's probably five hours.

You might have more luck with allowing her to prepare some of the meals at home and bring them to you, but overall, I'd expect to pay $300 for both the cleaning and the cooking, plus the cost of food.

Do you want the entire house cleaned more than once over the three days, or do you want all rooms cleaned one time? (Ex: Living areas, kitchen and baths M, bedrooms W, kitchen and baths F vs. bathrooms and kitchen M, living areas W, bedrooms F)

And how thorough do you want the cleaning to be? Do you want the full bath done in 15 minutes or in 30?

Do you plan to have the menus planned and needed items on hand or will you want her to shop as well each day or weekly?

Depending on your answers, I can see this being a 15 - 20+ hour a week job, with a higher rate than a FT housekeeper would get because of it being PT, so maybe $20+ per hour, and PTO based on her hourly work time would be a great bonus.

You might also see if any of your neighbors or friends need housekeeping help, because offering FT work, even if it's with 2 - 3 families, would seem to be more appealing than PT, since she would then need to find other work on her own that fits outside of your needs.

I'd like to hire someone to clean the house and prepare a meal for 3 of us during the week for 3 days a week in the afternoon/early evening. Our house is about 3000 sq ft with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. How many hours a week do you think would be required and how much per hour is the going rate? Given that this is part time do most do PTO?