Comments on: Paying Others to Provide a Service: When Is It Frugal?

By: angie

angie — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:54:43 +0000

I don’t think any of the millionares next door have hired cleaning help.

Sometimes when you have younger children you have to just plain lower your standards for a while. It is a matter of priorities: floor you can eat off of or eating with your family!

By: Rob in Madrid

Rob in Madrid — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:28:22 +0000

We have a cleaning lady for a very simple reason, no matter how much time I spend I can never get it as clean as she does.

big negative, things get broken all the time. How do you bend European style plugs is beyond me, I have to unplug and put away everything before she comes.

I also do it because with the crisis in Spain she really needs the cash.

By: Terry

Terry — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:06:41 +0000

Dear Trent,
Cleaning houses was very profitable and not difficult for me while in nursing school and I learned alot too! I’ll tell you why. Most often, when people hire a “maid” they straighten up the night before. They remove piles of papers from tables, pick up clothing and toys from the floor, etc. When the “maid” goes in, all she does is clean. I could fly through a 4 bedroom large home in less than 4 hours, including scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom floors on my hands and knees. Most services don’t do that. What I learned is this: Keep up with the clutter, and when it is time to get to the cleaning, just do that. If you come across clutter during that time, DO NOT LET IT SIDETRACK YOU! Move it and continue cleaning. Go back to the clutter another time. Once every two weeks should suffice, unless you are in the process of toilet training your son. LOVE YOUR BLOG!

By: Lynne

Lynne — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:55:52 +0000

“with a one year old just learning how to feed herself, we wind up with a fair amount of food on the table and on the floor”

Get a dog. ;-)

By: NP

NP — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:31:52 +0000

and another thing…

Growing up and in my younger adult years, I had to do housekeeping which interfered with what I would have rather been doing. I always felt that I would know I am successful when I could hire a cleaning person! I think paid housekeeping is right there with paid pest control. If you can afford it, it’s worth it.

By: NP

NP — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:06:30 +0000

I have a cleaning professional who comes every other week with a few weeks off for sickness or vacation. She does the heavy cleaning and costs only 50 dollars a visit. Worth it to this 2-income 2 kid family. I like having a home that is on the clean side but don’t always have the time to make it so. Our cleaner is like a member of the family. There are plenty of chores for my kids to do in between as keeping a tidy home is a daily occupation. My kids still handle the dishwasher, laundry, garbage, making beds and other chores. I love Flylady too and want to recommend her to those of you seeking to learn to clean and organize your home.

By: Desiree

Desiree — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:46:24 +0000

I wish my in-laws would get a housekeeper. They have a huge 8 bedroom house that they built themselves for 15% of what’s it’s worth now. Using cheap labor (me). There house is always dirty.

She just can’t keep it clean. It takes 3 days to just get everything done. No children, one person only living in the house almost all the time.

They have no debt and have a very large income. They finally broke down to get a gardener which is nice though.

In Indonesia they had 4 maids and 3 gardeners @ $15/week each. That was overpaying their typical wages.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:43:51 +0000

It really comes down to how much quality family time is worth to you. Chances are, it’s more than the $14 you’d spend on a cleaning lady. Also another thing to keep in mind, is that they are probably more efficient than you or your wife, so what may take you 4 hours, might only take them 2. So in comparison, it’s almost like you’re paying them only $7 an hour.

By: michelle

michelle — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:02:52 +0000

Monica, my mom used to make us do that to. The whole day before the cleaning lady would come (every 2 weeks) she would run around all nuts trying to pick everything up before they got there. Always seemed kind of pointless to me. Plus the things I need done the most they wont do, my biggest chores are washing dishes, doing laundry and straightening up items, all which they wont do. The company we had was constantly changing the maid that would come, so we never got to feel comfortable with anyone in particular, plus they did weird things, like scrub the coffee pot too hard to remove the writing on the dials, or throw my toothbrush in my bathroom drawer. Just weird.

By: Monica

Monica — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:24:02 +0000

Whatever you do, don’t clean your house up to prepare for the cleaning lady. My mom used to always make us clean before she came over because she didn’t want her to think that we were “pigs.” I hated it and preferred that we didn’t have a cleaning lady growing up!

Now, with two small children, I wouldn’t mind the help though I’m a stay at home mom and would think that hiring a cleaning lady would be as frivolous as sending my children to day care for me to simply run errands and do my own thing. I just can’t simply justify it in my own head. If I were working, yeah, but I’m not and money is tight.

By: liz

liz — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:12:01 +0000

This is the new “keeping up with the Jones” boy, our friends have a cleaner we dont wont them to think we cant afford them or our jobs are SO timeconsuming and HARD that we couldnt possibly concentrate on cleaning up after ourselves. Flylady – spend a few minutes on that site and get some discipline going. Dont talk yourself into wasting money.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:03:57 +0000

I clean houses for a living and I can tell you this: If you are going to spend any amount of time “cleaning” for the cleaning lady, If you have a house that can be cleaned top to bottom in less than three hours, or if you have to vacuum everyday anyway because of the babies wanting to put everything in their mouths, it is not worth it to have a cleaning lady. $56.00 is a lot of money, and if you are going to go with a bi/weekly cleaning that is $112.00 a month. I don’t buy the argument about how much is your time worth and spending extra time with the family. It boils down to that you just don’t want to clean. Cleaning with your kids is a great way to show them how to do it so when they are old enough then they can do it and you won’t have to. I clean for quite a few families with teenaged kids that don’t even have the slightest idea of how to load a dishwasher or carry their dirty clothes to the laundry room. Mom and Dad are teaching these kids that you can just pay someone to do all the things they hate to do, they can go ahead, be lazy, play video games, the cleaning lady will get the trash out.

By: Miranda

Miranda — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:42:59 +0000

We have had several housekeepers and are currently without, they have pros and cons. The obvious pro being, they clean your house, and for the most part I have always been happy with the jobs our housekeepers have done.

The cons, we were paying $160 a month for this service, we still had to do the nightly clean up after dinner and messy baby thing, and other chores each day. One housekeeper broke our vacuum which cost over $200 to repair. Things would get lost and not found for long periods of time. And more items were broke than when I clean myself.

By: cheapo_reapo

cheapo_reapo — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:58:55 +0000

I look forward to cleaning. Not only am I a neat freak but I find cleaning relaxing I put my ipod on and listen to a podcast or two.

Is this weird?

By: John A.

John A. — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:57:17 +0000

Wrote a similar recent blog entry. Most people never consider time worth more than money as we typically under value it.

Have a read: http://basicriches.blogspot.com/2008/04/dont-waste-time.html

By: Marcia

Marcia — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:02:40 +0000

This was an enjoyable post and I also enjoyed reading the comments.

We struggled for years over whether or not to hire a cleaning person. We both grew up in families where that kind of thing was “family time” – and was normally scheduled. Even after we married, we’d get into a groove of cleaning for 2 hrs every Saturday morning, no problem.

But then we had a kid. And our house descended into filth. Okay, it wasn’t that bad but we just couldn’t keep up with it with one full time and one 75% job and a toddler. And my standards weren’t that high.

So we hired a housecleaner. And it’s been (mostly) awesome. We waited so long because I got recommendations from friends. They either said “she has a waiting list” or “she doesn’t do deep cleaning”. So I waited until I found a good recommendation without a waiting list.

Unlike a previous poster mentioned, our housecleaner does the deep cleaning. She wipes down the fridge and microwave. Cleans the ovens and stove. Mops the floors. Dusts everywhere, including the baseboards. My house is actually clean now. This also means we have more time on the weekend for more “fun” family chores, like sweeping the patio, vacuuming BEHIND the furniture (first time in 2 yrs).

Do I still feel bad about the $75 every two weeks? A little bit. But we can afford it, and I’d rather be playing with cars with my toddler. Maybe when he’s a bit older, he can help clean. But now? He slows me down. And a professional can clean a LOT faster than I can.

I know when we cleaned ourselves we easily spent 1.5 hrs per person per week on vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing the tub and toilet, cleaning the mirrors and windows, removing cobwebs, cleaning the fridge and micro, scrubbing the stove top, etc.

By: t

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:29:56 +0000

$14 per hour? That’s fairly cheap. Also, did they have a minimum?

By: Carol

Carol — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:26:35 +0000

I can’t imagine hiring cleaning help to be frugal at all. Sounds like a big luxury to me. Cleaning is just a part of life. I also recommend the FLylady system, which worked great for me. Sometimes I still feel somewhat overwhelmed though, after working full time and needing to plan, shop and prepare meals, and of course let’s not forget the laundry. Wish the Flylady system had been in existance when my childen were little, though. I’m sure I would have had a much more peaceful household. Flylady’s system promotes just that. Another thing to remember – keep clutter at bay. When rooms aren’t cluttered, they are much easier to clean. Unlke other posters who claim perhaps there is too much house to take care of, you should downsize, I think it is probably too much clutter which needs downsized. I have a really small house but would love a bigger one. I don’t think it would be any different to clean, in fact it might be easier.

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:13:16 +0000

I agree that maybe you should look into doing it every once-n-awhile or every couple weeks rather than every week. And someone to do the heavy (not everyday) cleaning, like dusting vacuuming, bathrooms, etc.

My parents hired someone every week or two to do the heavy cleaning. They only did that for 6-12 months, becuase a) they decided it wasn’t worth it any longer and b) they had to switch housecleaners a couple times and could no longer find someone they were 100% satisfied with. Now they will typically hire someone before big events like our family Oktoberfest, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

By: Megan

Megan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:07:25 +0000

My parents did their own cleaning when I was young. However, we lived in a small 2 bedroom house with only 1 bathroom, a dining room, and kitchen. Eventually, my mom hired someone to do the cleaning, because that was important to her. It freed up more time for us to be together. I think it is a valuable service when you can afford it, especially if you are a busy family, always on the run!