Young kids + dog + living in the country = house is dirty by the time I start with one end and finish up with the other.
The dog is really the worse of it. I can sweep & vacuum and 30 minutes later it still looks like a small fuzzy animal exploded on the floor. Plus muddy footprints coming in after bathroom breaks, ect. It's not a terrible amount of work..maybe 2 hours a week of pure cleaning up of the floors, and another 4 hours a month for dusting/deep cleaning/bathrooms/ect. So six hours a month. Which is just short of another full days work.
It's not hard work, but it's just...more work.
Five or six of our neighbors use the same cleaning lady. It works good this way, as she knows that if she steals from one of us, we will all drop her. She doesn't speak any English (Only Spanish) and 'could' very likely be illegal. She arrives every Monday at 8AM with her sister or daughter or who knows. I supply the cleaning supplies. When I come home for lunch around noon, they are finished. For the $100, my floors are polished, windows done, refrigerator cleaned, laundry done and folded on my bed, toilets so clean you could eat off them, baseboards wiped down, chandilier dusted, etc. etc. Home is about 2000 Sq Ft. But keep in mind, that because they come every week, it doesn't get that dirty inbetween.
So I was all about it, and my wife was not.
She said she felt like she could not keep her own house clean, lazy, etc. etc.
There are five of us, four girls and me, four bedrooms, three bathrooms.
3150 sqft of finished living space.
Its been 6 months now, my wife got over her misgivings and loves that we have the cleaner now. Every tuesday it's "does Sue come today...yes? Sweet!"
We pay $60 bi-weekly here (Maine, $20 an hour), so $120 a month. She will do the normal stuff:
Vacuum all rooms, wash down all counters and cleanup the kitchen, etc. clean all three bathroom completely. Wash the floors, etc.
Every so often (about once a month) if we put down something extra, she just does it. For example i have her wipe down all the trim around the house, baseboard, etc. or I have her wash down all the walls and doors.
We love it, with both of us being professionals at work, and with a kid in college, one in high school and the newest one in daycare...it makes life much easier.
We have a little schnauzer and she tracks in everything, but otherwise, no kids. I generally try to meet the dog at the door and wipe her legs off with a towel (esp. if it is or has been raining) and that helps cut down on what makes it to the carpet.
I can spend about 15 minutes dusting the house and it takes me about 20 minutes to vacuum (house is 2700-2800 sq ft). Cleaning bathrooms, etc. doesn't take much longer. It is those damn floors that have to be mopped that really suck.
we went with a women from mexico or columbia. She had current recommendations from some coworkers. She speaks like 10 words of english, which has cutout any small talk between us. Plus, I don't care if she is on her cellphone as I can't understand it anyways.
She is amazing.
End up costing me $70 a week. she has been here for 5 hours.
yeah $70 a week until you notice all the stuff disappearing from your house
We have two very small children and both work well past 40 hours a week.
she did an amazing job. I'm kicking myself for not doing it earlier. this is going to help so much with our marriage because staring at a dirty house can piss you off. When my wife gets home tonight, I'm going to tell her to go sit down and relax.
You have two small children that work well past 40 hours a week?! I know child labor is great and all due to the small hands, but what is it you have you children doing for 40 hours a week?