housekeeping

By the hour. For a good cleaning (not that Merry Maids thing). 20 bucks per. I've got a cleaning lady; she's a cleaning machine. Doesn't even take a break. 4-5 hours (without doing the laundry. That takes up too much time, but she will if you want. ( Factor in another 1-2 hours for that.)

Frequency? I don't cook, so she doesn't have to do intensive stove/oven cleaning. And, I'm tidy. If you aren't , factor in another hour, for that. Once a week.

People I knmow with a one bedroom often have someone - 1/2 day (4 hours) every other week (without having laundry done)

There's no contract. If you need once a week, or twice a month, it's up to you.

We do $80 for one afternoon (more or less) per week. Due for a raise, so should be $100.

I pay $85 with laundry.

How much does aboutready pay with all of her frequent toilet poblems?

It's more to do with: Male or female resident? Get company often? Pets? Lots of books, furniture, stuff (more dusting, etc.). And, do you want it to pass the "White Glove" test?

My one bedroom (downtown) is $65 per cleaning. Which for us (we are very neat) is any dishes, bathroom, floors and dusting. No laundry. I think its kind of a rip since she is only there 1.5 hrs, need to find someone else.

"My one bedroom (downtown) is $65 per cleaning. Which for us (we are very neat) is any dishes, bathroom, floors and dusting. No laundry. I think its kind of a rip since she is only there 1.5 hrs, need to find someone else."

I don't care how small your apartment is, it takes a minimum of three hours to clean any home properly and thoroughly.

You ARE getting ripped off.

I know! You dont even know the story behind it though....shes a relative of someone who pretty much has a throatchoke on our board/managing agency and right now I dont want to piss the latter off since there is something I want done to my apt that needs to go through the board. Coop politics, they just suck!

I pay $20 per hour for 5 hours. My cleaning lady just asked for a raise to $24 per hour or $120. I'm thinking about it. It seems high. Is it? She eats lunch out of my fridge -- not always the best I admit but once in a while a bonanza. I spent weeks trying to get her fiancee a visa and spent weeks trying to renegotiate her fraudulent mortgage with Countrywide. Also have lent money in emergencies, given exorbitant wedding gifts, give birthday gift every year, a pie for her family every thanksgiving and of course a good christmas bonus . Plus there are many, many days when she leaves before 5 hours and very very few when she stays over 5. I love her but it I think I may have just hit a wall. Then I think, well she is completely trustworthy and how much should you pay for that. Should I go for the raise? Is $24 the norm now?

apt23: I hear you. It's time to cool the relationship a little or let her go. I try to stay away when my cleaning team of 2 arrives. I pay promptly and am generous at Xmas, but I don't know the details of their extended family and I want it to stay that way. Sounds harsh, but entanglement has its risks.

We had a cleaning person for years and watched as the quality of the job sloped slowly but inexorably downward. On the days the first (and then the second and third person) came to our apartment for about $70 a pop for a one-bedroom, I found myself wondering what wasn't going to be clean. I'm not a perfectionist, but it got to the point that basic tasks were being done shoddily. Finally, I stopped with the cleaner and did it myself. One half-hour task once a day, six days a week. Totally manageable. I always thought a cleaning person would keep my marriage and me sane, but I'm much happier (and a little richer) now.

nyc10023: how much do you pay for your team of 2? I work at home and am a hopeless lefty liberal which i realize is a curse. So when she is in the next room weeping in my laundry over the man who can't come to america, it is hard to ignore. btw, i got the visa.

You have a 2br or 1br? You'd be paying about the same (100) for the amount of work. Work standards inevitably slip with cleaning help. However, the nice thing about the people I have is that I have maintained some distance (hard to do when I'm around) so when things slip a bit, I remind them that XYZ needs to be done.

You can try my Lorna. She asks for nothing additional, and only drinks some iced tea,or water. Never broke anything, and is honest.

i think to some extent the amount you should pay depends on how much time you need. if you need six or seven hours (larger apartment, lots of dusting, with laundry), it makes it more difficult for your housekeeper to pick up another cleaning job on that day. she may still do it and work a 14 hour day with transportation, but it wouldn't be pretty).

we STILL don't have a housekeeper, i do it myself and only so so, but we have a roomba!! (although since all the washing machines were not maintained at least i send the laundry out).

Truth, i may very well ask you for your housekeeper's name.

I defininitely learn some interesting things reading SE. I pay $80 for a 2 bedroom apartment. It started out as $70 maybe 6-7 years ago and last year I raised it $10. My housekeeper is very dependable, but her cleaning skills could be better. However, I hate cleaning an apartment so I deal with it. My housekeeper also liked to share her troubles with me, but I stopped having those kinds of conversations with her because she started thinking that we were more friends than employer-employee. Now we have a few minutes of small talk when she arrives and then I leave her to do the work. I've had a few housekeepers over the years and I find it's hard to find someone who'e both dependable and a very good cleaner.

i used white glove elite, they are 22 per hour and 25 if you use them ad hoc, min of 4 hours. a little pricey but i have had a few cleaners there that are AMAZING!!! i do it myself mostly, but when i want to treat myself i use them. i tried a service that was $70 and spent 90 minutes doing what they missed!

Oh, Lorna doesn't complain about anything. You will love her!

We have a housekeeper we like very much. I could be borderline OCD, and I find that she cleans as well as me from back when I did my own. I pay a bit more than we could, we have given regular annual raises, and we give a nice Xmas bonus & something for time off due to maternity. We can certainly afford it, and quite frankly she deserves whatever incremental amount over a "regular" cleaner.

I think people should have some professional courtesy with their housekeepers: this is their profession. First, if there's something they're not doing to your satisfaction, let them know. They don't read minds, and they want to do a good job. If you still find yourself unhappy, or if they're not doing that good a job, give them the boot. There are plenty of good housekeepers out there who are looking for work: don't reward incompetence. Finally, when you find that person who is doing their job well, cleaning twice as well as the last person, don't be afraid to compensate incrementally more.

The hourly rates may sometimes seem large, but remember that this is everything for them. There is no health insurance, there is no retirement plan, no holiday pay. Also remember that inflation goes up and that people become happy and more productive when their work is rewarded. If you go 5 years without giving a raise, it's actually a 10-15% drop. How would you like it if that was your career trajectory?

I'm not saying you should be practicing charity. I'm saying that when you have an employee that is twice as productive as the standard guy in a $20/hour profession, pay them $25/hour, be generous with raises, and it'll pay back in spades.

Apt23, have you been giving small raises each year? It seems this person has worked for you for a while, and if that's the case, you are the one who should be bringing up the issue of raises and setting expectations regularly. If I worked somewhere, and I felt I deserved a raise for whatever reason (better work, inflation), being forced to bring the issue up with my employer would leave me with an unhappy taste in my mouth. It's perfectly alright not to give a raise, but be proactive about discussing it. E.g., you can say "here's your xmas bonus, I know we kicked you up $5 last year, but my pay sucked this year, so I can't do a raise this year."

Me personally, I'm like government stimulus. If the economy's tanked, I know the housekeeper has lost a client somewhere, so I crank it up because that's when she needs the extra boost. Then when things pick up, Republicans take over and say because the money is so flush, we can spend on more effective defensive anti-dust programs, so the spigots open as well. And finally, to complete the analogy, my kids lose out in the end because they're the ones who are paying for it down the line.

But then again, leaving kids money just seems like a recipe for disaster.

Ionada: Yes, I have always taken the lead with raises and encouraged her to press her other employers -- many of whom came thru me. But it has not been every year. More like every two years.

Through weird circumstances I have been homeless for 2 months. (My mother in law was dying as my lease came to an end so I never had time to look) So, I gave a big Christmas bonus -- the same bonus I gave last year plus a month of salary because I know she depends on the money and I was going to be in Miami for a month. And I have always had her work while I was on vacation or traveling --which is often. And she is now working at my temporary places -- so my friend's apts are getting an extra shine. I guess these new circumstances and all the extras I have paid for lately have made me question this raise --especially since it is the first time she has asked for it. Quite frankly I am pissed that there is no health insurance because this is someone who desperately needs it and I might be able to look at a raise more objectively except for this issue. She has been with me a long time, I do love her and I really do think you should pay through the nose for honesty. I told her today we would discuss the raise after I move in to my new apt next week. Which means I will give her the raise. But I am interested to know what the norm is per hour in Manhattan. It is less in Miami but cost of living is less.

aboutready
about 14 hours ago
ignore this person
report abuse i think to some extent the amount you should pay depends on how much time you need. if you need six or seven hours (larger apartment, lots of dusting, with laundry), it makes it more difficult for your housekeeper to pick up another cleaning job on that day. she may still do it and work a 14 hour day with transportation, but it wouldn't be pretty).
we STILL don't have a housekeeper, i do it myself and only so so, but we have a roomba!! (although since all the washing machines were not maintained at least i send the laundry out).
Truth, i may very well ask you for your housekeeper's name.

Maybe a new thread, similar to Disaster at Rushmore could be started. Disaster at Aboutready's Apartment.

My son pays $65 for a one-bedroom (814sf) apt. every two weeks. He has a wonderful person he's been using for 10 yrs. She changes his bed linens, cleans the bathroom, kitchen, vacuums, dusts. Usually takes about 2 hours since he's very clean and doesn't cook. She is also very reliable and HONEST!!!

Like other posters, I also have my housekeeper when I'm traveling/out of town (which is quite frequently), give a pretty generous Christmas bonus. I also give my housekeeper 2 weeks vacation each year (she picks the weeks, not I, so it doesn't usually work out to when I'm out of town). Anyone else know if this is fairly standard practice?

Im glad someone started this thread, I decided to let my cleaning lady go after realizing I was being ripped off and was dissatisfied anyway.

Well, it sounds like you've been quite proactive and generous over the years. At an absolute level, $24/hour is not an unreasonable amount. On the other hand, a 20% increase is large, and you give a lot of fringe benefits. Maybe ask where this is coming from, that you thought you'd been giving appropriate raises and extras that put her at a high number, and see what you can work out. She might be happy with a big raise now, but with the understanding that you won't revisit the subject for many years?

On the health insurance issue, I'm not saying it's a problem you need to solve, just something to consider with other benefits that such professions lack as a part of employment. You obviously already consider such things.

Many people that clean apts. also have regular jobs with health insurance. They just do this on their time off and off the books.

How do you guys find a cleaner? I have a studio I would like cleaned. Also, there is no doorman so do I just sit around while they clean or should I leave?

Truth, I'm interested in your Lorna's contact info!

wad- you give them a key. If you have a double lock, I suggest you lock only one on that day, and give them the one key.

I also highly recommend getting a Multi-Lock on one of the locks. The keys cannot (as far as I know) be duplicated without the little card that comes with it.

Guys, thank you for all the great comments! I was actually asking on behalf of someone I know. She is actually my babysitter but also did a fantastic job with housekeeping. Our apartment was always clean, she often prepared meals for us, and the baby was always well taken care of. We have to now reduce her hours because I am working less and can not afford to keep her full time, so now I am trying to help her maintain her income (she also worked part time for another family who wanted to change her hours, which she could not accomodate).

ph41 - for my nanny/babysitter, when we travelled, I still paid a good portion of her salary if we were away. She had another pt job, so she didn't lose out too much and then had time off to do errands, etc. We did not discuss this when we hired her, but I did not think it was fair to not pay her at all.

I prefer to use a service both because they are insured and to avoid running afoul of the tax laws. (In my understanding, if you pay an individual cleaner more than $1700 a year, you should technically be paying payroll taxes for them.) I've had good luck with Zen Home Cleaning in the past -- not using a housecleaner right now but plan to resume in a few months. They're a bit more expensive than some of the other services, but do a good job, use nontoxic cleaning projects, and seem to treat their cleaners well. And usually you'll have the same cleaner for months at a time, so the individual gets to know your preferences -- it's not a different person each time.

"I think people should have some professional courtesy with their housekeepers: this is their profession."

ABSOLUTELY. Do not feel the need to get involved in their personal lives. Don't loan them money. Don't be their "friend". Don't let them graze out of your refrigerator.

Do you do any of this crap with YOUR boss?

***

"The hourly rates may sometimes seem large, but remember that this is everything for them. There is no health insurance, there is no retirement plan, no holiday pay. Also remember that inflation goes up and that people become happy and more productive when their work is rewarded. If you go 5 years without giving a raise, it's actually a 10-15% drop. How would you like it if that was your career trajectory? I'm not saying you should be practicing charity. I'm saying that when you have an employee that is twice as productive as the standard guy in a $20/hour profession, pay them $25/hour, be generous with raises, and it'll pay back in spades."

The bottom line is, you get what you pay for.

I pay 80 with laundry.. i have a washer/dryer in apt

for a 1bdrm

"ABSOLUTELY. Do not feel the need to get involved in their personal lives. Don't loan them money. Don't be their "friend". Don't let them graze out of your refrigerator.

Do you do any of this crap with YOUR boss?"

Hmmm. People often have outside-of-work friendly relationships with their bosses. Companies do seem to loan money to favored employees when the need arises (e.g., GS had a small program to do so recently). Finally, giving employees "free" food is a well-known technique for achieving large amounts of loyalty / employee satisfacion for little money.

Hell, my boss and I are very fond of grazing off of free food that may be lying around the company after some meeting. It's a bonding activity we engage in, you know, to be friendly and have some fun. He's also been known to lend me $20 when we were grabbing lunch and I didn't have cash on me at the moment.

So you're a housekeeper too?

i use a service www.u-rang.com they offer everything dry cleaning, wash and fold laundry service and maid service. excellent all around. But you have to specific on how you want your house cleaned and what you want. They usually clean my place in a bout 5 hours 1000 sq. ft. apt. I provide my own cleaning supplies.

"So you're a housekeeper too?"

LOL.

To ecenon. and anybody else interested in Lorna: Post an e-mail of your choice, and I will have her contact you. When I give her a Holiday tip, she's so grateful! She works very hard at cleaning, and she is so pleasant. I wish she could be my full time housekeeper, but I'm not in town often enough to need one.

One time I was away for months, and she came in to clean when I got back. She cleaned for 6 hours straight, no breaks. I was home with a broken toe, so I know. I asked her what she wanted to eat, when I ordered out for food delivery. She thanked me, and told me that she ate, before she got there.

She has email too? ccpoochy@hotmail.com

truth, your e-mail was forwarded to me. tomorrow! i think we must meet. liz and i are up for a road trip.

by tomorrow, i meant response. not meet. hopefully obviously.

Econo: I'm going to call her. That's how I contact her. I'm sure she can e-mail you, somehow; or I will, for her. She's got some availability these days, she had a housekeeper/nanny job; but the mom isn't working anymore.

Aboutready: Looking forward to hearing from you. Roadtrip up to Woodstock, in the spring with Liz!