Do you have a cleaning lady?

gryp

Tue, May 20 2008, 9:12 am

Nope. I can't imagine getting someone to clean my small apartment. We would be tripping over each other.

mama-star

Tue, May 20 2008, 9:18 am

once a week for 4 hours, 10.00 an hour. everybody I know has cleaning ladies twice or even 3 times a week so I'm in the minority...

downsyndrome

Tue, May 20 2008, 10:10 am

I have cleaning help several times a week, depending on what that week's schedule is. I live in a large apt. B'H and the work is endless. I am quite a perfectionist, yet I am not ready to maintain the house on the standards that I like, all on my own. I just don't have that time, patience, nor love for housekeeping. I used to do it all on my own when I was a young veibele; my home was a museum - spanking clean, shining to a sheen! I am now going through 'balabusta burnout'.
I don't know how mothers of numerous young children can do it all on their own.
Just the schedule of my past few days would have had my house overrun by 'stuff' if I wouldn't have had my darling Catalina. (I pay her by the day - boils down to around $8.50 per hour)
Friday morning we left real early for an appt. in New Jersey with my son. We came home mid-afternoon, with only time left for me to 'chalish' a little bit from exhaustion and then quickly make potato kugel for Shabbos (the rest of the Shabbos foods plus challas and cake I did all on Thursday). IT was great arriving home to find a house that was almost ready for Shabbos from the cleaning/organizing perspective.
Sunday morning I had an appt. for myself. Straight from there I had about 5 community social commitments (tzedakah parties) where I had to go from one end of town to the other and drop in a check and smile to the hostess. This also took a lot of time. After serving dinner and tucking everybody into bed with hugs and kisses, I ran off to a medical lecture in Boro Park, which pertained to one of my children's needs. Straight from that lecture we had a levaya r'l to attend.
Yesterday morning at 7:30 my husband took my son to the lab for blood work which needed to be drawn before 9:00 a.m. (My husband's fainting there should really make up another thread titled "Laugh of the Day"!) In the interim I served breakfast at home, got the kids ready and off to school/cheder. When hubby and son returned from lab we needed to catch a bus to a radiology center where sonny boy needed some more testing. We got done at 12:30 p.m., after which I needed to go talk to an allergist about my allergic daughter's test results. I got back to my neighborhood at 1:30 p.m., ran to the supermarket to make a substantial shopping, got home at 2:00 p.m. (I was fasting) grabbed a coffee and brunch, and before I knew it the little ones were home, very needy, and supper still didn't have a name! The next few hours were as hectic as can be. So, of course my Catalina is here this morning 'undoing' all the 'damage' that we, as a family of seven KA"H can work up over a weekend! I can't imagine not having household help. Please don't take me wrongly; I say this humbly. We are far from rich, but to me household help is worth more than the bread I eat. I would rather forgo any and every luxury, and even some necessities to be able to afford the household help.
Please imas, explain to me how you do it without help. Are you up all night? What happens on a day when you have appts. and just don't get to doing what needs to be done and then by the next day you have an accumulation that is impossible to tackle?

chocolate moose

Tue, May 20 2008, 10:12 am

No, never had one. I don't like to pay for anything that I can do myself.

CHANY115

Tue, May 20 2008, 10:14 am

anyone in bp would like to share my cleaning lady im very happy with her. tuesday afternoon like after 2:30 she can stay late if you want. spanish $9 an hour

Tamiri

Tue, May 20 2008, 10:21 am

Downs, I want to know what your schedule looks like when you are REALLY busy LOL

downsyndrome

Tue, May 20 2008, 10:31 am

Tamiri wrote:

Downs, I want to know what your schedule looks like when you are REALLY busy LOL

It CAN get better/worse than this! LOL

ILOVELIFE

Tue, May 20 2008, 11:24 am

I never had one.

There are many times I really can use one but dh won't have a/one non-jewish in our home so I have a bit of a problem there. At one point, when I was on bedrest, I had a mother's helper for a cpl of times a week but she certainly didn't clean my bathroom and floors!! Very Happy

chummy

Tue, May 20 2008, 11:54 am

I live in CH and I found her through a friend. She was very new in the country and that was her price. Apparently she will go up as she gets better. But I have had her for almost a year and she does a pretty decent job and we have our routine. A lot of people I know do pay about $10. I guess the fresher off the boat the cheaper. Smile

sky

Tue, May 20 2008, 1:32 pm

Monday for 3 hours. $9/hour.

She cleans the kitchen, dining room floor, 2 bathrooms. Vacums living room and bedrooms when there is time.
When I have guests she also puts clean linen on the guest beds and cleans the basement bathroom (I loose out somewhere on my regular list)
I know my bathrooms would not get cleaned without her.
I would love another 1/2 hour to have her fold my laundry - oh well.
The month before pesach I get extra help.

Rivky

Tue, May 20 2008, 2:11 pm

I never had one up until recently when I b''h got pregnant and was ordered not to overwork. There's nothing like it but, me being the perfectionist I am-I still feel so much better cleaning myself. No one does it like you do!! (maybe not by eveyone???)

Mama Bear

Tue, May 20 2008, 3:45 pm

Wow dh would rather you work hard physically, esp when pregnant, instead of having a non jew CLEAN your hosue ( not cook your food or watch your kid)???

Mommy F.

Tue, May 20 2008, 5:47 pm

my friend is moving and offered me her cleaning lady she charges $15.00/hour. That's seems like a lot to me.
but my grandfather said he would pay for it for a month for my birthday present.
This summer I am running a camp in my home for 3 year olds, so I figure the house will need lots of mopping! And I don't like mopping very much.

Raisin

Tue, May 20 2008, 6:27 pm

I have someone 3 times a week for 2 hours at a time, although sometimes I ask her to stay longer.

when I was pregnant (the last few months) and post partum this time I had someone who came the other 2 days as well. Ah that was bliss 8) ... till she went back to Poland.

My cleaner comes in the afternoon/evening, straightens up, sweeps and hoovers, washes floors, counters etc irons plus anything else I ask her.

mrsrj

Wed, May 21 2008, 2:44 am

I'm newly married, but since I'm pregnant, I realize that I cant be as active in cleaning my house, as I used to. so I found myself a cleaning lady....
she is very good, bec since I spk spanish, I follow her around the house telling her what to do..... I pay her $10/hr and I always make sure to offer her a drink or a water bottle before she starts.....Take it from me, it makes all the difference in the performance of the job :)

Pizza

Wed, May 21 2008, 4:03 am

I have had cleaning ladies in the past, and it is such a mechaya

That said, for most of my married life, we have not had cleaning help. I am NOT a good housekeeper, and it really bothers my dh. I try to keep up, but it really is a losing battle here (6 kids from baby - 17 years old).

For almost all of our marriage, dh has cleaned the bathrooms. I HATE doing them, and even when I grit my teeth and do it, he doesnt think Ive done a good enuf job - so I told him, you dont like it, you do it. And he does. BH.

One thing that has helped in the past few years is that, I divvied up all the jobs I would have a cleaning lady do, and have my teens do them on Fridays as their pre-shabbos prep. So at least once a week, the house does look presentable, and its less sweat off my back. I just have to keep it up during the week. *just* Sad

sarahd

Wed, May 21 2008, 8:53 am

Till last week, I had a cleaner once a week for 2 hours @ $19/hour, which is the going rate . She did the bathrooms (1 full and 2 half) and vacuumed and mopped the floors, except the kitchen. Now she legalized herself and got a "real" job as chambermaid in a hotel, so I am helperless once again. She lasted 10 months, so I shouldn't complain. Her predecessor held out about 5 weeks.

I'm thinking of maybe going up to three hours a week and then I could get my blinds washed, furniture polished and windows cleaned, not to mention fridge and oven, without having to do them myself, which only happens about twice a year (not the fridge and oven, don't worry.)

Pizza

Wed, May 21 2008, 9:14 am

Whats wrong with the fridge and oven? Unless theres a major spill, the fridge here gets done twice a year, plus when my mil comes (dont want her to confirm the sneaking suspicion she has that her ds married a slob). My mother gave me extra money to buy a self cleaning stove, so that gets cleaned more often! And my 14 yo dd is responsible for the stovetop (which, now that you mention it, is ready to be tackled again... gotta leave her a note)

raizy

Wed, May 21 2008, 6:23 pm

downs I am with u. I am soo busy sometimes . I would practicley go crazy without a cleaning lady. I dont understand how some pple go without a cleaning lady . with lots of kids in the house its like a endless job to clean. cook . and watch the kids. forget about the million appointments we have to do on a weekly basis.

mimivan

Wed, May 21 2008, 7:48 pm

sarahd wrote:

$19 an hour?
I get less than that for editing...
Can I be your cleaning lady? LOL