Do you have a cleaning lady?

Mommy F.

Mon, May 19 2008, 8:59 pm

How often does she come? How many hours does she clean for?
What does she charge?

I am thinking of getting a cleaning lady once a week, but I have never had one before. What does she do? Clean the bathrooms? Mop?

chayitty

Mon, May 19 2008, 9:07 pm

I have a cleaning lady a few times a week. she deos laundrey, cleans bathrooms, cleans all the room, changes linen, mops the floor with a mop but once a week she deos it on her hands and knees..(I didnt ask her she just started on her own)..she also watches my 2 yr old so I can run out and do errands
If ur getting a lady for once a week I would tell you to give her the things u hate most...also depends on how many hours she'll be there
like bathrooms..changing linen...folding laundry ect....g'luck

ArthurDent

Mon, May 19 2008, 9:11 pm

I used a cleaning person once before Pesach two years ago. I think he (yes, "he"; the cleaning service sent a man) did a HORRIBLE job. My best friend said, "What can you expect? He's a man." Either way, I don't trust another person to clean my house anymore. Of course they're going to do a shoddier job than I would personally -- I'm the one who's going to live in it. This is particularly when it comes to how thoroughly you rinse out the EasyOff out of the oven when cleaning it. If you don't live there, don't eat from the oven, won't breathe in the fumes, and won't have your food intermingling with chemicals, why bother to rinse the oven thoroughly?

Can you tell that I'm still peeved about paying that guy?

I'll admit though, perhaps my story will change once I have another child, a larger house, and a few extra bucks hanging around for spending.

octopus

Mon, May 19 2008, 9:15 pm

I also agree- you need to add the option once in a while. On rare occasions, I have gotten cleaning ladies (I.e. hired help versus moi). Because I do not have a regular one, I find it very difficult to manage her and my children. I feel she is an extra person to babysit (especially in my kitchen-I NEVER leave hired help alone in there.)and it's a real pain sometimes. Plus they use up a tremendous amount of cleaning supplies, and can spend an endless amount of hours cleaning the same thing over and over again. And yet it is sometimes a necessary evil...
But on a regular weekly basis (or shall I say daily?) I do the bathrooms, kitchen, folding laundry,etc. I find that nobody does it as well as I do. If I could just have someone to mop my floors and clean my bathrooms, I think I would be a happier woman. but these cleaning ladies want hours of work. And quite honestly- after two hours, I'm ready to say "go already!" LOL

Maya

Mon, May 19 2008, 9:16 pm

I have a cleaning lady every Friday for 3 hours. She cleans my bathrooms, washes my floors with a mop, and does whatever else she sees that I neglected to do. embarrassed

I pay her $10 an hour.

I hate to clean, and try to get out of doing housework whenever I can. My husband is so happy that the house is clean once a week that he suggested I buy the cleaning lady some gifts! embarrassed

yo'ma

Mon, May 19 2008, 9:19 pm

When I lived in NY, after I had my third kid, I had one come once a week for 7 hours. Here, originally, I had someone come twice a week for I don't remember how long. Then when I couldn't move from being pregnant she started coming 4 times a week for about 3-5 hours depending. I decided that I don't want her so often, but I can't let her go part of the week unless I can find her another job for those days. It all worked out well anyway, because she's going to come later in the day twice a week and babysit also while I go to work.
I'm not that picky, but she makes the apt look presentable. She changes the linen. She folds my laundry, but I don't want her to do it or put it away. Sometimes she does other stuff like polish the silver, clean the oven (always the stove), the refridgerator, the pantry, etc... The other day she cleaned behind the dryer. She's not pro-active so I was a bit surprised about that. If you want specific things, you probably have to tell her.

Twizzlers

Mon, May 19 2008, 9:21 pm

yes I have a cleaning lady, she lives in our house, does everything from dishes to bathrooms (and a pretty awful job at that), to taking care of the kids, making supper and all.

can u guess what her name is????

u got it....TWIZZLERS!!!

seriously though, I get one once in a while when I feel like I will collapse or are very overwhelmed or s/t.

Koshermomma

Mon, May 19 2008, 10:02 pm

Twice a week - about 6 hours each time - $100for the week. She's not great, but my floors are done, my vacuuming is done, my bathrooms are spotless, beds are made, sheets are changed, silver is polished. She does laundry, but when she distributes it to the kids rooms, it's all wrong, and they complain. She does not know, or understand the concept of dusting. However, she is extremely honest, and I can leave her alone in the house with no worries, and whatever she does, I don't have to!!

raizy

Mon, May 19 2008, 10:37 pm

koshermomma I have almost the same cleaning help as u. but still when my dd doesnt find any clean shirts in her drawers I tell her to go look in the boys room. hmmm what whould a boy do with a girls shirt anyways... go figure them out...

cassandra

Mon, May 19 2008, 10:50 pm

Maya wrote:

I hate to clean, and try to get out of doing housework whenever I can. My husband is so happy that the house is clean once a week that he suggested I buy the cleaning lady some gifts! embarrassed

Imagine what you'd get if you cleaned the house yourself. Wink

chummy

Mon, May 19 2008, 11:00 pm

I used to have one twice a week for 4 hours. I pay her $7 and hr. ( I know it's a steal). I recently got one for friday's as well and it's been a lifesaver she charges $8. I am not the neatest person and I don't think I can ever go back to not having cleaning help.

MiracleMama

Mon, May 19 2008, 11:04 pm

I used to have only 2x per week; now that I am on partial bed rest I have 5x per week. She does everything - even irons really well. She's worked for me for many years already and totally trust worthy. She gets $10/hr.

yikes!

Mon, May 19 2008, 11:18 pm

My cleaning lady got knocked up and I haven't had the patience to tolerate someone new. She loved my daughter and probably wanted to have a rugrat of her own. I do miss my Angelica!!

lubmommy

Mon, May 19 2008, 11:24 pm

foreverhappy wrote:

You have to add the option once in a while.

I agree. Usually I don't have one but for example I had a good Mexican on Erev Pesach. It was a life saver!

pinkbubbles

Tue, May 20 2008, 8:57 am

I've been able to manage everything myself so far.. if I'm too busy with work or something then I'd probably get one 2 x or 3 x a week to do laundry, ironing, bathrooms, floors and dusting. Those are the tasks that take the most time and energy for me.
Some people here hire cleaning ladies to do the dishes for them when they have lots of Shabbat guests. It's worth paying her Â£10 when buying plastic dishes cost about 3x the price of that. Plus she deals with the kitchen afterwards, makes life much easier.