We have a 1600 sq ft home and I have a cleaning lady that comes every other week for 2.5 hours. I pay her $20/hr to clean our kitchen, living room, den and two bathrooms. this includes sweeping and mopping the floors (no carpet other than one hallway) and then basic cleaning in the bathrooms. she is a new cleaning lady (had the other girl for years but she took a "formal" job) and she left me a note today saying that 2.5 hours is NOT enough time to do this cleaning. My estimate is it's less than 1000 sq ft since I NEVER have her clean the kids room or our bedroom. I'm a tad annoyed but wanted to get other opinions first - do you think this is an excessive amount of cleaning for 2.5 hours? Mind you - she does nothing above the basic sweep, mop, wipe up counters - thanks.
Thoughts?
Thanks everyone. I'm not super happy with the work she does - the first few times she was done early - the past few weeks she's gotten very sloppy. I came home the day she cleaned and literally found tootsie roll wrappers behind my couch (and not UNDER the couch but right next to it - in plain site!!!) and my bathroom floor wasn't even mopped - there were toothpaste gobs! Another time I came back and the table in our den/playroom had goop all over the top of it - she didn't wipe it down! She NEVER dusts or wipes baseboards - and I don't normally complain cause I'm happy and forever grateful we can afford to have anyone come and clean at all - but if she's going to do a crappy job - well what's the point? I can do my own half assed cleaning and not pay $100 a month for it. LOLl
I think that you should go to a service like Merry Maids or equivalent and see what their prices. I have no idea if this is a good price or not. My cleaning lady absolutely sucks...she can't seem to finish anything. Sadly, the cleaning lady is me. I aspire to be able to hire someone to come in and clean for me...
I would not pay her per hour. What works for one cleaning lady won't for another. And some are faster than others!! That doesn't mean that she can be slow and get paid more either!! Sit down with her, and come up with a flat rate, and what you want her to do for that flat rate. Then she can take all the time she wants!!
This is a great price and I would expect a little longer time than 2.5 hours for a 1600 ft home with one person. You will pay much more than that with the chains unfortunately. I pay more than $50 every other week.
I've had cleaning ladies in the past but have never paid by the hour, but by the day. Each time she comes she gets a set dollar amount, no matter how long it takes her to do it. For my 1600 square foot home outside the Washington DC area I paid $75 biweekly. This did include the whole house. Then we lived in western NY for awhile where the cost of living is ridiculously cheap. We paid out cleaning lady $60 for a 3200 square foot house! Sadly, we moved back to the DC area and no longer afford a cleaning lady :( I think what you're paying her is just fine. Maybe it would go over better if you just said "I'm willing to pay xyz each time you come" instead of an hourly thing. Sometimes my cleaning people brought a friend with them to help out and they were done in a little over an hour. Didn't matter to me as long as the job got done!
IMO I dont think it is enough time, to do two bathrooms and do a good job it is about an hour, maybe a little more...then to dust and vaccum everything and do it right...maybe you can sit down with her and come up with a flat fee you are willing to pay and she can come up with a time allotment to do it on that is more comfortable for her.
I have 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, eat in kitchen area, kitchen, formal living room/dining room, family room...3K SQFT...I don't have them clean (when we had a cleaning crew come in) the den (one bedroom) and the guest room...it takes a team of 3 about 3 hours to clean.
if she is actually doing the baseboards, closing doors and cleaning behind the door (I had one company that didn't do that) or vacuum/sweep under the beds - then yeah, she might need more time...do you like the job she did? were things cleaned? were the appliances in the kitchen moved and cleaned behind? was the toaster cleaned out? for me? it's all those little things...
if she doesn't go "above and beyond" then you might need to find another person to come in and clean..
I'm in agreement with the other mothers and just say you will pay her "X" amount for what you want. That way if it does take her longer, she already knows how much she's getting paid, so she can either take the job or find another house to clean. Sort of sounds like she just wants to make more money.
My mother and I clean empty houses (rental properties), on an average we charge $20.00/hour, but there has been times we've been there for 10 hours, detail cleaning, ugly messes, and only charge $180.00 for the two of us.
See what you can get done in 2.5 hours at the standard of cleanliness you are desiring and this may give you a base.
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I dont know how big our house is, we have 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen. Bedrooms and living room are carpet the rest is hard wood. Our cleaning lady is here for about 4.5 hours
