NGPR: Do you use a cleaning service?

[chicago]

We have used a cleaning service for 6+ years where we currently live.  They come once a month and we pay them $83/visit. 

Now we are moving to a larger place (1700 sq ft vs 1200) with mostly wood floors.  I was hoping we could up it to twice a month because of the baby and I was budgeting for $170/month, but it turns out that it will likely be $130/visit.   I definitely didn't expect it to go up so much and the place doesn't really seem that much bigger to me, plus we will have some unused space.  

Do you use a service?  How often do they come and what do you pay?

[formerlyak]

We have a service that comes every other week. Our house is 1500 sq ft and we are in LA (so high cost of living area like you I am guessing based on your screen name). We pay $80 for each visit.

[CrazyLucky]

We have a cleaning lady. She cleans our 4BR, 2 BA house twice a month for $85/visit. We live in a LCOL. If you do the math and do it strictly by percentage, the cost should be $118/visit. Even if the place doesn't seem bigger to you, it IS 42% bigger, and they should be paid more. But, since you are increasing the frequency as well, I would think you'd get a break there. Either negotiate with them or get a few other people to come and give you quotes.

[chicago]

Jan 7, 2014 13:22:08 GMT -5 CrazyLucky said:

If you do the math and do it strictly by percentage, the cost should be $118/visit. Even if the place doesn't seem bigger to you, it IS 42% bigger, and they should be paid more.

I'm with you here and I don't mind paying more.  Our first place when we started using them was 1500 square feet and they still charged the same price as the 1200 foot place.  I expected it to go up a bit, maybe to $100/cleaning, but I was surprised that it will go up that much.  I sent out emails to some other companies in the area to see if we can get estimates.  

[lulu21]

Not much help but we plan on getting someone to deep clean once a month. But I don't know the price.

[Cricket0619]

We don't currently have one, but I am considering it. I am waiting to get a qoute from a service today for a deep cleaning before the baby comes. They have a team come in and do it, so I'm sure it won't be very cheap, but i think it will be worth it. think a lady that I might go with if we decide to do once a month will be $85.

[pinotgrig]

Yes. They come every other week and it alternates between $110 and $135 a visit (the more expensive visit includes deeper cleaning and things like changing sheets, but they only do that every other time).

Our house is about 2600 SF and we have 3br/2.5 ba.

[Cheesecake]

Could you only get them to do parts of the house and occasional extras?

I'm asking mine to do some basic things every time (vacuum kitchen, living room, our and baby's bedroom, clean toilets, quick clean bathroom) that takes about 2 hrs, the remaining hour I ask something different each time, deep clean something, wash windows, mop/steam everywhere, stuff like that.
I just hire her for 3 hours instead of x amount of cleaning. It works well for us.

Sent from my Xperia Z, please don't mind typos!

[VillainV]

We have a cleaner who comes in every other week for three hours. We pay 9 pounds an hour (about $15), so $90 per month. We have her mostly focus on heavy duty cleaning in the kitchens and bathrooms, then spends the rest of the time doing whatever needs to be done (usually dusting and vacuuming, and she'll alternate doing the windows, baseboards, etc). Coming every other week, we obviously need to do some cleaning in between her visits. We wipe down surfaces, and try to keep things relatively clean so that she can focus on doing the stuff we really don't like doing (bathrooms, windows, etc).

Is there any way you can contract for a set amount of time (or specify exactly what you do and do not want cleaned) instead of just asking them to clean the whole house top-to-bottom?

[shelbyann]

We have a service that comes once a month to deep clean bathrooms, kitchen, mop the floors, do the windows, etc. Our house is 3 bedrooms, 3500 SF and a huge pain in the ass to clean. When I used to do it myself, it would take me two full days. We have a very open floor plan with mostly hardwood floors and the house is tall and narrow, with four stories of floating staircases running up the middle...the stairs alone are a major project. And we have an abnormally high number of bathrooms (3 full and 2 half). We pay $170 per session...it is worth every penny to me to not have to deal with the deep cleaning of all of that. Obviously we do things like sweep floors, vacuum, dust, and change linens ourselves on a more regular basis.

I agree with the suggesting of asking for a set amount of time, or only have them do a partial clean every other time, especially if there are entire rooms or areas that you aren't using.

[marie3246]

We are looking at getting one, the services around us are super expensive 200/time and we don't live in a high end area. I found some individuals that would do it for 60-75 a time, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet.

[sonrisa]

Jan 7, 2014 13:22:08 GMT -5 CrazyLucky said:

We have a cleaning lady. She cleans our 4BR, 2 BA house twice a month for $85/visit. We live in a LCOL. If you do the math and do it strictly by percentage, the cost should be $118/visit. Even if the place doesn't seem bigger to you, it IS 42% bigger, and they should be paid more.  

The only thing that changes with square footage alone is vacuming/floor mopping. If the number of bathrooms go up that would be a factor. But if it the same number of beds, ovens, stoves, bathrooms, etc. I wouldn't expect a straight percentile increase. We don't pay half what my mom does just because we are in a much smaller house (same cleaning ladies). 

I will say that adding a baby adds to the cleaning needed. We are increasing what we pay and the frequency with this kid.

[SJ]

Yes. We pay $90 for our 2BR/1BA condo. Right now they come every month.

I would like to increase that to at least 2x/month after baby comes, but we will be moving to a bigger place and I'm also a little afraid of the increase in price.

[mannah]

We live outside of Boston and have our town house cleaned every other week. It's 2 beds 2 baths and just under 1200 sq. feet. We pay $125 per cleaning. When I was getting estimates for it, they were around $100-125 and they were all word of mouth, individual people that I met with. If you go with a private individual versus an insured licensed company, you might be able to get a less expensive rate. I would love to have my cleaning person come every week but no matter how I try, I just can't justify that. Good luck!

[mannah]

Because it's just my H and me (until June) and we are just too lazy and hate cleaning!