Housekeeping question

[oregonpachey]

I bit the bullet and hired a housekeeper for once a month.

I have a small house - 720 square feet. I basically want the housekeeper to do the stuff I hate and/or don't have time to do (clean baseboards, dust ceiling fans, clean oven).

The company thinks it will be 7-8 hours for the first appointment and then 4 hours every month after that.

7 hours? My house isn't a pit. I don't think I have enough work for 7 hours of labor.

Is this reasonable?

[Mrs.Beagle]

That sounds way too high.

I have a 950 square feet apartment and it takes me 2 hours to deep clean the place.

[Deleted]

my housekeeper is here around 3 hours. 1500 sq ft house, 2 bd, 2.5 bath.

[honeybadger]

May 14, 2012 13:49:51 GMT -5 Mrs.Beagle said:

That sounds way too high.

Ditto.

[Pom]

Team You. I have a cottage up north and it is just under 1000 sq ft and spring cleaning (the house is closed for the winter, so with plenty of winter dirt) only takes about 4 hours.

[Deleted]

My housekeeper is here 16 hours a week, but she does laundry and things like combine the two open boxes of Rice Crispies we had in the pantry.

[clickerish]

Maybe 1st appointment because you have to explain things?

I would find that odd. We clean the house deeply every weekend and it takes between two of us two hours so I find the hour estimate high.

[victoria0993]

7 hours?? That seems like way too much time. I have a 1500 sq ft house condo and it only takes me like 3 to 4 hours to really, really deep clean it.

[ejpint]

That sounds high. We have a 2000+ sq. ft. house, and they estimated as much as 4-6 hours for the first deep cleaning, and then perhaps 2 hours for bi-weekly visits. This was with two cleaners, so for one person, obviously could about double that, but it's a lot more house to clean.

[juris11]

Way too high. Our old house was a little over 800 square feet. Our cleaning lady got there around 9 and was gone before I got home at lunch.

[FrozenSunshine]

We have 1500 SF, on 3 stories, with 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths and a mixture of hardwood and carpet. We were billed for 5 hours on our initial cleaning.

[UMaineTeach]

if she takes 7 hours (an hour per 100 sq ft!), then you get to follow her for 7 hours with a white glove and a clipboard to rattle tasks off from.

[definitelyO]

that is way to long. Our cleaner comes 4 hours every other week for a 2400 sqft house. I would say maybe 3-4 hours the first time for a deep clean - after that maybe average 3 hours a time?

[Deleted]

Our house is 795 square feet and even if I deep cleaned everything in the house, I have no idea how I would fill up seven hours. I could wash the baseboards, mop all the floors, dust everything, clean the cabinets, and shampoo the carpets in way under 7 hours.

[gt7301b]

Our house is 2000 sq feet and our housekeeper is there for 3-4 hrs.

[megs193]

I think it depends on how deeply they are cleaning your house. If they clean out the refrigerator, wipe down the baseboards, clean the blinds, clean the ceiling fans and other once a year task then I think it could be 7 hours. I live in an 1,800 sq. ft house and my cleaning ladies are here for 3 hours every 2 weeks. There are 2 of them so I would consider that 6 hours worth of cleaning. They are amazing though and they move every piece of furniture to vaccum under it, clean the windows, scrub down my son's highchair and other things I wouldn't expect them to do.

[whitepicketfence]

I agree with everyone else that 7 hours seem like overkill. Is this just one person or several? How deeply will your home be cleaned?

Our housekeeper comes every other week and is here for 2 hours. We have just under 1200 sq ft and it's just one person cleaning.

[car.ramrod]

I actually disagree only because we just bought a deep clean for my mom's house and it took them a shocking long time and they did an amazing job. They cleaned every surface in the house! They started at the ceilings wiped down all walls, pictures, baseboards, windows, blinds, curtains, tops of door frames, every surface of every knick knack, ceiling fans. It was intense. It was two girls for the entire day and my mom's house wasn't a pit. If it is that type of clean I can see it taking that long even for that size a house.

[Deleted]

Well, it takes me a long time to deep clean my house...but I don't do it very often. I can't imagine it would take 4 hours every other week.

[MadamePresident]

That seems like a long time for someone who is a professional. But it depends on what they are cleaning. Are they washing the shelves in your fridge? scrubbing the inside of the oven? I can see those types of tasks taking a while.

[wanderlustmom]

ITA, too long. Our house is 2300 square feet and no basement, four ladies clean it top to bottom in 1.5 hours. I think the max for one person for that size should be two hours.

[oregonpachey]

Thanks for all the replies. It's one person and they are doing stuff like cleaning the oven, baseboards, cleaning the shelves in the fridge, dusting every square inch, washing windows.

It sounds like that still might be too much time. If they finish early, great! If not, I will suck it up and pay the $25/hour fee.

FWIW, I work from home so I will be able to see what they are cleaning to make sure they are doing a good job.

[MixedBerryJam]

I don't think it's all that unreasonable, honestly (although i can't see your OP while I'm responding, so I may have missed a few details. But that first cleaning generally a really deep cleaning and will last longer. My first visit was all day (so, 7 hours or so, but I'm not really remembering) with TWO PEOPLE, so, 14 labor hours. The subsequent visits were one person, four hours, twice a month.

Was the estimate that ALL visits would be that long? That does seem crazylong. But for the first one only, I think it's pretty average.

ETA: My first visit included really detailed cleaning: blinds, inside fridge, fan blades. I think they even washed the curtains. It was a really deep, detailed cleaning. (It did NOT include washing the windows, which was an option.)