Recently my mother called me to tell me she has a girl-friend who is in need of having cleaning done at her house.If we mesh well,she would like me to come on a regular basis and help her get organized and clean about once a week.Also,if she likes my work she will recomend me to her girl-friends as well.I need the extra cash,but I dont know how to give her an estimate.Im meeting her tomarrow and I want to sound like I know what Im doing!!!
Thank you for all the great advice about for the cleaning job.When I got there The house was empty(she is away for a week)The place was absolutely trashed!!!!! I mean all hardwood floors,sticky and piles of hair balls(cat)I walk into the kitchen and ALL the cabinets are white......But...have not been even wiped for "years"there were dishes,pans,vases(old flower water included)from counter to counter..I opened the fridge(then closed it)......Needless to say,and due to the fact she is experiencing a bad depression,Im being understanding and helping out...However,It took me Five hours to the vestibule,living room and half the kitchen...keep in mind,the house is alllllllll hardwood floor and I was washes walls and High windows ect.....What do I say when she returns?She left me a check for $70 and (to me)that was not enough,she said "unkept"not "unlivable"I am not making jokes or being mean,Im serious.Ive yet to do the rest of the kitchen,bathroom and upstairs,what do I say???????she left me a letter and it asked me to "dust" the back sliding glass door track...the door opens just fine..it just bothers her..????what?????does she see what I see???So,we might not see eye to eye here.There was rotted food on the counter,so rotted the counter was black with a napkin on top that said"do not touch,for the birds"IDK ladies...What would you do????? Thank you for all your advice.Its so funny I used to google alot and now when I want to know something I go right to mammapedia!!!!!!! To the one answer I recieved,I have no issue with being paid 70$,but 2 1/2 rooms should not take 5hrs. The more work the better,I just dont want to be taken advantage of and I want to be fair as well.but just the same,thank you for taking your time to answer me :)
Call around as if you're looking for the same service and price shopping. Like daycare, house cleaning is REALLY variable by region.
For a consult, free of charge. Once you have looked at the home and what needs to be done, a full first time deep cleaning is typically 80 and takes twice as long as weekly/bi weekly upkeep. If you are coming in weekly I would charge 30, bi weekly 40, once a month 50.
Organizing I would charge seperately as it is a different service, again I would do the consult free of charge. I would charge by the room, 20-40/room you supply tools. A craft room, kitchen/dinning would be 40 range and a bathroom/kid's room closer to 20 range, again depending on the room. The more work the higher the cost. During the consult I would bring a catalog of your choice store "The Container Store," Ikea," etc. to help the client decide what kinds of storage items are needed/liked and I would offer to go shopping with to get the items, free of charge. So if you are organizing the following rooms: 3kids rooms, Master, Craft/Bonus, Living, Kitchen, 2bath I would think the price would be: around 200 plus items. She would be paying for your time/work of actually organizing. Things I would expect you to have are: lable makers, lables, markers, ideas book, pictures of projects before/after.
So if I were to sign on for your services and you were going to do the deep cleaning and organizing on day one - BIG UNDERTAKING imo I would expect to pay you 280, plus cost of items needed to accomplish goal. I hope this helps.
Make sure you list everything you will be expected to clean. A friend of mine does this for a living and 1 potential client expected sheets to be changed and washed, mattresses to be flipped every week, all windows to be washed weekly, in additional to the regular stuff and of course wanted it done in 4 hrs when it would take at least 7-8. Friend passed on that one.
I pay $27 an hour though most places charge a flat fee depending on house size, etc.
I wouldn't charge less than $50 a visit!
Good luck
$50 - 100 a visit depending on the amount of work to be done.
Check into how professional services charge for this kind of stuff. I know it would be priceless to me. Set your rate and stick to it. If you are going to be going into business doing this perhaps you can give her some kind of discounted rate or rebate based on other clients you acquire through her as a contact.
I know I paid my neice $100.00 for 4 hours of her time. She was only 17 at the time. Her gift is amazing. She can come into any room. Organize it, rearrange it, and clean it making you feel like you come into a brand new space without throwing away anything but true trash or garbage. Again it's a gift. She did two rooms but they were so far beyond help that even I needed help getting it done.
Understand what is required of you and get paid for your services.
You can charge by the hour or by the house. If it's a large home but nicely picked up and maintained an you know you can clean it in 5 hours $50 should be about right --- however if the home is messy and no one picks up and it will take longer charge more.
I cleaned houses several years ago and one house was a 3 bdrm ranch with 2 baths and one time it took about 7 hours to clean. It was a hell hole mess. Food stuck on the kitchen table, kids toys all over the place ect. Another home was always nicely picked up but it was a 3 bdrm 5 bath with a finished basement colonial and that took an average of 5 hours to clean. so it depends upon the house. I charged $10/hour.
We pay $90 for 4 hours by one person every other week. It gets the basics done, only. Floors, kitchen, bathrooms. No windows, baseboards, laundry, sheets changed, no fridge cleanout, ...
You want to charge enough so that it's worth your time, and it depends on how big the house is, how many baths, how dirty is it etc. All these are factors. Not to mention what she really expects you to do. Like washing windows? I know a few house cleaners and they dont do windows because it is so much work.
You can call a few house cleaning business and see how much they are charging and sort of base it off of that.
Determine what is fair in your area. Look at Craig's List or similar where people might post independent cleaning services. We pay our cleaning lady $100 every other week, and the first cleaning was $150. We have 4 main rooms she cleans, 4 bedrooms (if the kids have not left a disaster), and 3 bathrooms. She does not do laundry or dishes but will change sheets. I'd consider it a basic cleaning. I clean my own baseboards when I want to. She is here about 4-4.5 hours. We provide most of her cleaning supplies as well (the Windex, PineSol, etc.). Consider that when you price yourself. You can couch it as "I will use your preferred products in your home as you supply them." so if one family likes organics and another wants to nuke everything, you aren't worrying about who likes what.
Find out what she would want in a cleaning because if she thinks a cleaning includes baseboards and you do not, it will not go well. Make a list.
I would consider organizing a different service and charge for organizing materials.
im really not sure but i think it would help if u had an idea of what exactly she needed you to do... id ask your mom before you meet her what she is expecting.. i mean it could just be light cleaning and she really just doesnt have time to do it or her house could be a total disaster.. id see if u can find that out first it will help with estimating how much you should charge.. id just start googleing to see how much maids in your area charge
When I cleaned houses, I charged $60 for up to four hours. I swept, mopped, vacumed, wiped down cabinets, counters, scrubbed toilet and bathtubs, dusted and wiped walls. Anything beyond that was an extra $20/hr.
We have a mother daughter team come to our house every two weeks. We pay them $135.00. We have a 3200 sq foot. 4 bedroom 3 1/2 half bath.They do everything except laundry, make beds and dishes. They do a very great job. They are here about 5-6 hours so. I think if you charge about $10.00 hour that would be right around the range.
My FIL paid a woman who had been cleaning houses for years $20 per hour and expected her to do everything in 2 hours.
He has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 living areas, a study, and the kitchen. She worked at a slow run the whole 2 hours she was there. It takes my hubby almost an hour to vacuum the whole house. While he does that I change the sheets, make the beds, clean the bathrooms and kitchen down to washing or steaming stuff off the fronts of the cabinets with the Shark Steam Mop.
I think if you work steady but slower then your price should be lower. I think the first time someone comes the price should be total, for how ever long it takes.
I would decide if you want to clean by the hour or by the room. Maybe even leave that up to the people.
I agree, though, call around and settle where you think is fair.
Personally, I like the Price per room as a consumer. I'd charge more for boys bathrooms, though _lol!
My cousin gets $50 for about a half day.
Give a price for cleaning. Don't get sucked into organizing as part of your cleaning. It will be hard to "organize" someone elses space. waht works for you may not work for her. Ask her up front where she wants things put and also does she want deep cleaning or regular stuff. regular would be bathrooms, vacuuming, kitchen, floors etc. deep would be removing everything off of shelves and dusting under, behind etc. it makes a difference in the amount of time. I have a lady who cleans for me. we do regular each time and about every 4th time she does deep stuff. and pulls the stuff off the bookcases and cleans behind etc. I don't need that done each week.
I pay my lady $25 an hour. it takes 6 hours for the regular stuff. she does the following each regular time
2 full bathrooms (sinks, toilets, showers, floors, mirrors)
1 1/2 bath (sink, toilet, mirror, floor)
vacuums 4 bedrooms and hallway
makes up master bedroom with cleans sheets)
kitchen (wipes down appliances, cabinet fronts, sinks and floor)
living room and family room (basic dusting and floors)
dining room and formal living room (basic dusting and floors)
it takes about 6 hours for the above. so $150 this is with me having already picked up and put away all clutter. I don't want to pay for clutter to be picked up and moved and or dusted lol.
call a few cleaning services in your area and ask what their average price is to get an idea, then I would.go a little below that.
So I pay someone $70 to clean. She comes every 3 weeks and it takes her about 2 1/2 hours. This includes cleaning 2 full baths, vaccuming and dusting 3 bedrooms and a living room and cleaning the kitchen (cleaning glass cook top stove, microwave, sink, counter tops and mopping. She did charge me more the first time to do a "good clean" and then the maintenance was cheaper. I always have everything picked up before she comes.
