Do you have a housekeeper??

[Irish Luck]

As a fulltime working mother, I often find that come the weekends the housework is one of the last things on my mind. I would much rather spend that precious time with my children. I have contacted 3 companies today to do a quote for me for cleaning the bathroom/kitchen and dusting and vaccuming the house.

Does anyone else use a housecleaner, or do you just make do??

This is something I have been tossing around for along time. I talked with my MIL today and decided that this was a treat I would allow my family.
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[Dennis]

We have someone come every other week to clean. We'd really like to have them come every week but we can't afford it.

Dennis

[Shanna]

Nope... if it gets cleaned, it gets cleaned by me :dunno:

[Trish]

I used to have one, but got rid of her when I went on maternity leave. Now that I'm back to work I'm seriously thinking of getting one, again.

[chefkath]

*sigh* It is such a nice thing to think about, but it's just not something we'd ever choose to spend money on. Since I work nights, I do most of the cleaning during the day - and then Shawn does some on weekends while I'm at work.

[bunybomb]

When I went back to work full time, I got a housekeeper. I don't (and either does my DH) want to spend the precious weekend time cleaning the house. Mine comes EOW and I pay $60.00. That is a very good rate and the best I found after calling at least 10 services.

[gulp!]

We have someone come every other week to clean. We'd really like to have them come every week but we can't afford it.

Dennis
Ditto! There's no way I'm spending what little spare time I have at home on scrubbing toilets.

[Brooke]

No, we don't have one. It would be nice, and we've thought about it. I think Darren even called one service but then didn't call back. So we dropped it.

[AmyJ]

We will be starting October 1st and I can't wait!! :)

They will come EOW--we'd love to do it every week but can't swing that right now. 2 or 3 people will come each time and we will pay $89 per week. It's a little high, but my husband wanted a company over an individual to start and that's hard to find in our area. We'll pay $130.00 for the first initial deep clean to get everything to their standards. I am so glad to not have to do it anymore, that the cost does notbother me.....too much :lol:

[Joan]

We just got one a few months ago. Like others have said, we were tired of spending hours every weekend cleaning the house. We have a married couple come EOW, they clean 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room and den. We pay $65.00.

[Alyssa]

No...we keep thinking about it though. I am a night owl and try to clean then. And Joe's good at keeping up, though less so during hockey season. (Reffing, not watching!) What bothers me more is organizational issues (ala the back of my basement) and a housekeeper isn't going to help that. :sad:

[kim]

i called for quotes a little over a year ago, but then we bought the van and that pretty much ate up my housekeeper money.
i could use a good deep clean about once a month...otherwise i'm not to picky about living in a mess :lol:

[Martian Lullaby]

Don't I wish! Most of our fights are about housework. :rolleyes:

[bunkie68]

Oh, I wish. I'd be happy to have someone come once a month, but right now it just isn't financially feasible.

[sarahgrace]

We have had the same woman for the past 4yrs. When I was a pastry chef and working mega-hours, I did not want to spend what little time I had off cleaning. When I switched careers and had a more sane schedule, we kept her on. She comes for 2 1/2 hrs a week and does bathrooms, mopping, etc. It is a luxury for me, even though DH is very good about helping around the house, I tend to be alot more anal about standards of clean. Before our housecleaner we would argue about what constituted a clean bathroom. I would spend my whole day off cleaning and I didn't think it was fair because I worked just as hard as he did (we were both chef's at the time) and yet I was spending my free time in cleaning mode. When he did it, I didn't think it was up to par. So we hired Etta, and now everybody is happy:victory:

[Bonnie]

I had one once a month when it was just Caroline... , but she had a baby, and I never got a new one... but our nanny with Caroline was a total perfectionist and would clean for me every day during Caroline's naps... since we just moved, I am starting up again with a housekeeper, but I'll have her come every other week now... I would do it once a week if money were no object... I am a total clean freak, very very anal about cleaning, and I do not have the time to do things the way I want them done, so I will very happily pay someone else to do it. Plus, the nanny we have now is just not a cleaner at all! In fact, I often find myself picking up after her!! But the kids love her, so that's the most important thing, but I digress...