hiring a house cleaner - lots of questions

[babymama]

What are the pros/cons of hiring an individual vs a service? I'm in the beginning research phase and the individuals seem to be less expensive. Would I get more accountability from a service (ie, quality control) vs an individual? FWIW, early estimates for service every 2 weeks show I would pay almost double with a service what I would pay for with an individual.

I was thinking of having the house cleaned either every 2 weeks or every 3 weeks. Can't decide? My sense is that 3 weeks would be ok, but 2 weeks is more realistic, given the fact that we both work fulltime outside of the home. Any thoughts?

What is our tax obligation if we hire a private individual to clean out home? We want to be "above board" with our payments. Thinking out loud here, but wouldn't the tax obligation fall on the person providing the service (claim it as income) not on us as clients. I keep getting flashbacks of Zoe Baird in her confirmation hearings. Eek!

Thanks,
Lydia
Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03

[kensjen]

Well, we went with an individual. My DH did this for me while I was PG, and then we kept her about a year. After that, I started to feel like I would rather just do it myself, and save the money...but I am starting to rethink that decision. ;)

Anyway, I had an excellent recommendation, which I think made it such a good experience. Someone that we know has had this woman clean her house for several years, so we felt very comfortable with it. In fact, she still cleans several houses in our neighborhood...we recommended her to many friends. I liked that it was her and only her every time. (we had her come ever other week) There is usually a high turnover rate with many of the agencies, and they like to send a pair of cleaners to rush through the house in a short amount of time. So you usually have many different people in your home, which makes me uncomfortable. We had sort of a friendship with our cleaning lady, she was a nice single mom who needed the extra money. She was always on time, and did a great job. She usually stayed about 2.5 hours, and we paid her $20 an hour. She cleaned the kitchen, bathrooms, all of the floors, vacuumed, and dusted. It was nice!!

After a few months, we trusted her enough to just leave the key if I was out. That was a big step for me! LOL But it was nice to not have to worry if we would be home, and how long she would be there, etc. She cleaned the house while I was in the hospital having DS. Now that was a great thing to come home to!! A clean house!!

I feel that every other week was perfect for our needs. We had thought about every week, but we really aren't too messy of a family, yet! LOL I didn't have to do too much work in between her visits, and I could always call her if I needed her to come a different week. She also did special projects (cleaning out the fridge, windows, etc) which was super! I hate doing that kind of stuff. I imagine with you working, it would be so wonderful to have someone else take care of these things for you. It will give you more time with family, and you won't even feel bad about it. :)

We just paid her by check, and she actually had an accountant who helped her with her taxes. She had been doing this for years, and it was almost like a business for her. Most people that I know do not withhold taxes for the cleaner...I think if it were a full time thing, maybe. (oh, don't I wish...!)

So, my feeling is for you to find an individual if you can. Do you have any friends/neighbors who can recommend someone? Or maybe you can interview someone and really check out references. It will be less expensive, and I really feel like an individual has more pride in their work. (A friend of mine uses molly maids and pays a lot of money, but they only pay the girls $7 an hour, and the agency gets the rest. So obviously they are not as motivated to really do a great job) I also felt better with the lady I had, because she really took pride in her business, wanted my referral, and was very open to suggestions or criticism. She really WANTED to do a great job, and I respected that.

Anyway, hope that helps a bit. I wrote a lot, but I don't feel like I said much! ;) Have fun, it really takes a load off!

[jk3]

Using a service is far more expensive than hiring an individual. We've used a service a few times and it is typically 3x as expensive as our regular housecleaner. Our regular housecleaner does a more thorough job, IMO, but I'm sure that can vary. Not sure about the tax questions. We aren't planning on any political careers in the future.

Jenn
DS 6/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030603/2/5/1/-5/.png

[jasabo]

I used Molly Maids for a couple weeks and fired them. The work was fine, but they didn't send the same people each time, which I really wanted b/c I have 2 dogs and need people who don't mind dogs. I had to lock the dogs out in the backyard one week b/c one of the girls didn't like dogs and it was like 110 degrees out and my dogs are inside dogs, so I was pretty irritated. Especially b/c I specifically requested people who don't mind dogs. PLUS they were VERY expensive. So I called a few people who had ads in the paper and interviewed them and ended up hiring a woman who did great job, got along great with the dogs and the kids loved her. And she was about $30 a week cheaper then MM. I was really happy with her.

Anyway, I ended up letting her go b/c - this is going to sound really dumb - I got tired of cleaning up before she came over. I'd have to pick up all the toys from the floor and straighten up all our piles of junk so she could clean around them. I finally decided that I was cleaning up so much, I may as well just do the rest myself too. But I don't work outside the home, so it's a different situation than you have.

I think it's a really great thing to have, and highly recommend it if you don't mind having to clean up before they get there.

As for finding someone, I'd ask your friends, playgroup moms, etc. for references. Definitely interview a few first before you hire. As for taxes, I didn't pay any...probably not smart, but I was too lazy to research the requirements.

Lisa - mom to 18 month old twin boys

[kensjen]

hahahaha Lisa, I totally understand about cleaning before the housekeeper came! LOL That is actually another reason I let our lady go too...but I was afraid to admit it!! hahaha Thanks for helping me come clean! (no pun intended!) ;)

[wagner36]

We use a service, and I actually don't think that they are too much more expensive than an individual here in Chicago. We pay $18 an hour, for 3 hours, every other Wednesday. We usually give our cleaning lady a $10-15 dollar tip each week, because we really like her (she's also extremely attractive, so I'm guessing that DH (who is home when she comes) gives her more like $15 each week). We get the same woman every week - and she is really great with Charlie and is always really excited to see him - she has been teaching him some words in Polish, even. She does a pretty good job, but we have a bigger house now (and never upped the hours) so she never quite gets everything done. She generally stays at least 45 minutes extra each week, which is one of the reasons why we always tip her. I don't think we could go every 3 weeks, but i have considered having 2 people come at the same time for 2 hours, instead of just increasing the current time to 4 hours w/ one person.

We chose to use a service because my husband is excessively paranoid about theft, and so making sure the organization was bonded was very important to him. I also like that fact that someone is always there to answer the phone if we need to switch dates, etc. - I feel like it is more reliable.

Hope that helps!

[mama2galpals]

hi i used to use a "service" but it was a woman who had several people cleaning for her not a national type service. i used one of them once and boy was it expensive. i've also had one individual clean and i like that for the above mentioned reasons...same person who knows the deal at your home etc. i think the key is to get a recommendation from someone you know who can say this person is honest. it's hard at first to trust someone even with a referral but you can tell after a while. hth!




rita
mommy to
olivia 2/7/97
stella 9/24/00
emma 1/23/03

[lukkykatt]

We use a service for a few reasons. The service comes with a team of about 4 or 5 people, so they are in and out in about an hour. I am home fulltime and DH works from home, so having someone at our house for hours was not for us.

Also, I will not have someone cleaning my house who is not insured and bonded - especially since they are sometimes there when we are not. I am paying more for peace of mind, but that is ok with me.

We have our house cleaned every 2 weeks - that has been a good amount for us. I just do minor cleaning in between visits.