What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Questions on how we spend our money and our time - consumer goods and services, home and vehicle, leisure and recreational activities
djheini
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Location: Scotland (formerly Boston)

Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by djheini »

Also metro Boston here. Started cleaning service ~5 years ago at $75/visit for biweekly cleaning of a ~700 sqft condo (living solo). At some point I just started rounding up to $80/visit. It's 2 or 3 people who come clean, probably about 1.5 person-hours of cleaning per visit. I did also keep paying them normal rate through covid when asking them not to come clean.
Xrayman69
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by Xrayman69 »

srt7 wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 am
worthit wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 6:25 pm HCOL, $170/month. ~4600 square foot house including basement. 3 people take about ~3.5 - 4 hours. My neighbor with a ~ 6200 square foot home with 3 small kids also pays $170 but every 2 weeks which also include changing sheets and doing the laundry. We opted not to do that as we are picky about who handles our linens and clothes (this might change as we age).
Amazing price!! Which city/metro?
Wow for HCOL.

1150 SQF single bedroom single bathroom condo in MCOL Midwest condo. $105/once month. 2 person team about 2 hours??? Don’t know how much time as we are never present when they arrive. They do an average job at best but they are reliable and show up. Started 5 years ago at $75/month. Dust, vacuum, clean kitchen and bathroom. Change bed sheets. Essentially like a hotel service. Nothing complex or deep.
Mike83
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by Mike83 »

$110 per visit, on a two week schedule. We have a one-level 3600 'under air' Square Foot house, as we call conditioned space in Florida. With the kids gone we close off their bedrooms and baths. Her focus is bathrooms, kitchen, mopping tile and vacuuming the remainder of the floors, dusting, bed linens, putting as much through the washer/dryer as time permits (about 3.5 hours).

Our house stays pretty clean w/o kids, especially with the new self emptying Roomba (Costco) that has a game changing capability to map your floorpan. It runs every morning in the kitchen and 'dinette', and on Saturday its program runs in three shifts to cover our lived in areas. Before the kids visit, we run it through their rooms as well, and may have the housekeeper focus there too after they leave.

Between housekeeper and Roomba, that's six complete vacuuming of the living space per month.
chazas
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by chazas »

$150 every two weeks for 5000 sq. feet, 5 br, 4.5 ba. She brings a team of 2-3 additional folks, takes a little over an hour. But it’s just me so a lot of it doesn’t really get dirty.
stoptothink
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by stoptothink »

chazas wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 6:05 am $150 every two weeks for 5000 sq. feet, 5 br, 4.5 ba. She brings a team of 2-3 additional folks, takes a little over an hour. But it’s just me so a lot of it doesn’t really get dirty.
One person in a 5,000 sq. ft. home?
chazas
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by chazas »

stoptothink wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 6:12 am
chazas wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 6:05 am $150 every two weeks for 5000 sq. feet, 5 br, 4.5 ba. She brings a team of 2-3 additional folks, takes a little over an hour. But it’s just me so a lot of it doesn’t really get dirty.
One person in a 5,000 sq. ft. home?
Yep. It was a great deal when I bought it after I split from my ex - a brand new spec house built by a builder who usually works in the more pricey areas of the DMV. Would have been around 2M in their normal NOVA neighborhoods, but was only 700K here after sitting for 6 months. It’s super well built, well insulated with low bills. I added a pool and home theater just before costs skyrocketed. I have a 1.875 percent mortgage. I can walk to bars, restaurants, shopping and the commuter train to DC. I love all my neighbors.

One neighbor wants to buy it for family members and I’ve looked around, but much smaller older houses in my area that need renovation are now close to that price. If I moved to DC or Arlington I’d only get a 1 or maybe a small 2 BR condo. In other words, no where to go that I’d save money and in any event the QOL would be lower.

If I move it will probably be in retirement just because I want to go to warmer climes.
Topic Author
Small Law Survivor
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by Small Law Survivor »

Broken Man 1999 wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:03 am OP, look at it this way: You stated in your first post, ".... For many years we paid her $150/visit..."

Consider the new rate an updated amount. Might have been time for a raise, IOW.

I upped my lawn guy a few bucks last week. Inflation hits us all.

Broken Man 1999
Yeah, I guess it's just hard to adjust to inflation when you're 70 years old. I'm sort of mentally stuck at age 25-30 when it comes to a lot of things, this being one of them. Lets see, I heard somewhere recently (probably a financial podcast) that a "rule of thumb" is that prices double every 25 years. So something that cost $10 when I was 25 would double twice by the time I'm 75 = $40. It's just hard to adjust to that psychologically.

I quite smoking in my early 20s, but I remember when a pack of 20 cigarettes cost 27 cents. I see that in Massachusetts at present a pack is almost $10 (!!). Unreal ....

When I graduated law school in 1979 my "BigLaw" job in D.C. paid $27,000/year. Now BigLaw pays starting associates around $200,000/year.

Inflation, in all its many forms, is no joke!
72 yrs. mostly-retired lawyer. Boglehead since day 1 (and M* Diehard long before that) under various names
dukeblue219
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by dukeblue219 »

NYCaviator wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:50 am.

Are most people going through one of the national/local chains or just hiring an individual from a personal referral?
There's a huge layer in between of small businesses with a staff of maybe 6-10 cleaners and an owner. We use someone like that. The owner doesn't do any of the routine cleaning but comes by once a year or so to look over the property. We have the same 2 or 3 cleaners each time at our house.

They're more reliable and accountable than a chain that sends random, underpaid employees each time, but more flexible than a single person freelancing.
worthit
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by worthit »

Xrayman69 wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:17 pm
srt7 wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 am
worthit wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 6:25 pm HCOL, $170/month. ~4600 square foot house including basement. 3 people take about ~3.5 - 4 hours. My neighbor with a ~ 6200 square foot home with 3 small kids also pays $170 but every 2 weeks which also include changing sheets and doing the laundry. We opted not to do that as we are picky about who handles our linens and clothes (this might change as we age).
Amazing price!! Which city/metro?
Wow for HCOL.

1150 SQF single bedroom single bathroom condo in MCOL Midwest condo. $105/once month. 2 person team about 2 hours??? Don’t know how much time as we are never present when they arrive. They do an average job at best but they are reliable and show up. Started 5 years ago at $75/month. Dust, vacuum, clean kitchen and bathroom. Change bed sheets. Essentially like a hotel service. Nothing complex or deep.
srt7 wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 am
worthit wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 6:25 pm HCOL, $170/month. ~4600 square foot house including basement. 3 people take about ~3.5 - 4 hours. My neighbor with a ~ 6200 square foot home with 3 small kids also pays $170 but every 2 weeks which also include changing sheets and doing the laundry. We opted not to do that as we are picky about who handles our linens and clothes (this might change as we age).
Amazing price!! Which city/metro?
DMV area. MD closer to DC.
j0e0r7
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Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 12:42 pm

Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by j0e0r7 »

It's their job. It's how they make their living. You shouldn't expect to pay a friend less than their going rate. And they shouldn't be offended if you decide to go with a cheaper service either.

But I would consider the trust that you have with that person to be worth a lot. You don't have to worry about theft. That seems very nice to me.
squirm
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by squirm »

My wife convinced me to have a service come over for $500 for a "deep clean". Three ladies came over one day for about 5 hours while we were doing errands. Came back and we both thought it was a waste of money.
DoTheMath
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by DoTheMath »

Small Law Survivor wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 9:00 am
Broken Man 1999 wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:03 am OP, look at it this way: You stated in your first post, ".... For many years we paid her $150/visit..."

Consider the new rate an updated amount. Might have been time for a raise, IOW.

I upped my lawn guy a few bucks last week. Inflation hits us all.

Broken Man 1999
Yeah, I guess it's just hard to adjust to inflation when you're 70 years old. I'm sort of mentally stuck at age 25-30 when it comes to a lot of things, this being one of them. Lets see, I heard somewhere recently (probably a financial podcast) that a "rule of thumb" is that prices double every 25 years. So something that cost $10 when I was 25 would double twice by the time I'm 75 = $40. It's just hard to adjust to that psychologically.

I quite smoking in my early 20s, but I remember when a pack of 20 cigarettes cost 27 cents. I see that in Massachusetts at present a pack is almost $10 (!!). Unreal ....

When I graduated law school in 1979 my "BigLaw" job in D.C. paid $27,000/year. Now BigLaw pays starting associates around $200,000/year.

Inflation, in all its many forms, is no joke!
+1

Even low inflation eventually adds up.

It sounds like you've been paying the same rate for years and presumably have slowly dropped below the prevailing rates in your area. Paying the person in 2020 was certainly generous on your part, but I also can't fault the housecleaner for quoting the current rate when asked. Especially since it sounds like for years they haven't been asking for raises and, presumably, you haven't been offering them.

Even if their quote is on the high end, I'd still consider it reasonable given that this is likely to be the rate for years to come. Plus, it is worth it to me to have someone who does a good job that I can trust. Who wants to save $20/month and then have to worry they are stealing or cutting corners or going to quit in 6 months?

My guiding principle in these situations is to recognize that the money in question surely makes orders of magnitude more difference to their budget than it does to mine and to be generous.

It would be interesting to cross-reference the people posting their outrage in threads about the recent bump in inflation and insufficient raises against the people who fault the housecleaner for citing what seems to be the prevailing rate when asked.
“I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains...” -- John Muir
mw1739
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by mw1739 »

My wife handles it, but I believe it's $180 every 2 weeks in our MCOL area. This is the most expensive cleaner we've had, but she also does the best work. Usually 1 person for 6-7 hours, but occasionally brings a helper to shorten the cleaning.
Luckywon
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by Luckywon »

mw1739 wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 9:54 am My wife handles it, but I believe it's $180 every 2 weeks in our MCOL area.
If you put in a request under the Freedom of Information Act, I believe she's obliged to answer :twisted:
blackbird
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by blackbird »

$179 once a month. 2,437 sq. ft., one person.
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Rob5TCP
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by Rob5TCP »

Until Covid, I paid a woman $20 per hour plus lunch. With a tip and lunch, it averaged about $25 per hour. She did laundry, bathroom/kitchen, my 1 bedroom (800 sq feet) once a month (this varied if I had company coming to visit, or if I was away).

During Covid, I paid her for one cancelled visit and asked her back about 6 months ago. [OT comments removed by admin LadyGeek]

My new person starts on Friday, $165 to clean my apartment. Interviewed about 6 people on Craiglist. [OT comments removed by admin LadyGeek]

I figure, my house, my rules. The person has a right to say no, but then I won't have him/her work here.

PS Prices varied on Craigslist from $95 up to $300 for a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, smallish kitchen and small bathroom.
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by LadyGeek »

I removed some comments related to vaccination as a condition for employment. As a reminder, see: Please read before posting on coronavirus/COVID-19
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z91
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by z91 »

If that's the going rate in the area, I don't see how random internet users will help any more..
deltaneutral83
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by deltaneutral83 »

Size of home not important, it's an hourly function. Also, If i try to replicate a professional house keeper, it takes me 25-35% longer and done 80% as effective, not the same "shine" as a pro who does it every day. So there's that.
michaeljc70
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Re: What Do You Pay Your Housekeeper/Cleaner?

Post by michaeljc70 »

I do not tip a cleaning person every visit. Only for the holidays. As others said, this can vary a great deal based on location, but also many other factors like number of bathrooms and what they do (fold laundry? clean inside of fridge each time?) and if they bring their own supplies. If they are with a franchise service that has marketing, customized vans, etc. it almost always costs more than having a sole proprietor or very small operator. How far/convenient you are can play a big role in the cost. If they are cleaning your neighbors house/condo/townhome and can clean yours the same day vs. drive 30 minutes each way just for you that can be a big difference. If I had someone that I knew did a good job that I trusted, that is worth a few extra bucks.

Being home all the time now we just do it ourselves. I find they are in my way (or more in my personal space) if I am home when they are cleaning and dislike that.
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