apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Don't feel weird about hiring a housekeeper. It was fairly common practice not so many decades ago.

And in this economy with so many people discontinuing their housekeeping service because of the cost, you can be sure that there are plenty of people out there who would be glad to have you as a client.

Check out Angie's List, Craig's List, and the yellow pages.

I used to clean a lady's house when I was a teenager....but these days you can't find a teenager who will lift a finger, lol

I'm not in Boston, but I've had cleaning people in Texas, Florida and now in DC. If you're nervous, I'd recommend hiring from a national firm like Merry Maids. $30 is ridiculously low though, I pay about $100 every two weeks for 1300 SF. The lowest I ever paid was $50 more than 10 years ago.

It's worth every penny though.

I have heard too many bad stories about individual cleaners, even those with good references...my mother in law had a $1000 necklace stolen recently. I stick with national or regional chains and haven't had a problem.

I've used The Maids to have my tiny studio apartment cleaned.
I highly recommend using a firm, as they are usually insured and have done all the background checking of their cleaners for you.

"but these days you can't find a teenager who will lift a finger, lol"

sad but true, 20 years ago I would work one or two part time jobs and still do yard work. And I was cheap and good at it too. If you do get a teenager these days expect to pay a lot for a crappy half ass job.

I was in the exact same place last year. My husband and I don't have much time (or energy) for cleaning during the week and then half our weekend was being spent dusting, sweeping, and scrubbing. I felt like I never sat down. It is a luxury-—my parents never had a housekeeper (or, I should mention, a particularly clean house) when I was growing up-—but 7 months ago we started having someone come every other week to clean. I have to say, it’s been a life changer-—I still do light cleaning between visits but it doesn’t consume my day.

We found our housekeeper based on recommendations from friends. And I have no idea what rates are like in Boston, but in NYC it’s $100 for my 1,000 sf apartment.

PS. In addition to saving your sanity it will be good for your relationship! My husband would innocently say things like, "Wow, we really need to clean the bathroom!" but always managed to avoid doing it himself. It drove me nuts!

best gift i ever gave myself. turned my weekends back into weekends.

We're in Cambridge, and we have a fantastic couple who comes to clean for us. We've used them for nine years, and I can't recommend them more highly. They do such a great job, are very trustworthy, and couldn't be nicer! For our 700 sq. foot one bedroom, we give them $60 (I don't remember if that's what they asked for or if that's just what I offered). They're worth every penny in the fights saved b/t me and my husband about who's going to do the cleaning!

Call Marcio at 617-688-1435. Tell him Amanda sent you.

I recommend it massively. I'm in a small flat and have someone come for 2 hours every other week. Just that time alone is enough time for a good vaccuum and bathroom/kitchen clean. It's brilliant.

You should certainly find an agency and make sure they pay the Social Security or you will be responsible for that...or at least be aware you are responsible for that come tax time.

I'd go on angie's list and look for recommendations.

I'd try to find an independent housecleaner with good recommendations (be sure to follow through and call those who have used him/her recently or currently) rather than go with a chain. Reading Nickel and Dimed was an eye-opener in terms of how workers for some of these maid services are exploited and how corners are cut in order to get to as many houses as possible.

Please try to find an independent person, such as the recommendation above. Merry Maids or other such firms will do an adequate job, but the person doing the work gets a small fraction of the cost. If you hire someone directly, all of the money goes to them, and you establish a personal relationship.

I am a bit of a slob, and have someone come once a month, it should probably be more, but it forces me to get my place clean, which would probably not happen otherwise. Well worth the money.

too bad you're in boston --NYBRITE cleaning services are the best! professional cleaning service with affordable prices.

I worked for Merry Maids when I was in college. I hired a cleaning lady a few years ago, and found she didn't clean as well as I did. I found the cleaning Merry Maids expected was up to my standards, and I was very happy (not merry, but happy) working for them.

They do a thorough screening, pay a decent wage, and take out taxes, etc.

You'll be a lot safer with a national chain or a small local company -- if something is broken or stolen, they are bonded and responsible for it. Plus hiring a company (big or small) keeps it legal in case you ever decide to run for office or something. Or if you just decide in good conscience that you wouldn't accept $10.00 an hour with no benefits for cleaning your own house, so why should someone else.

There's some good info on the Merry Maids site. I'd never looked into that before, but I might consider it myself for an occasional assist.

This page mentions important tax implications if you hire just anyone:
http://www.merrymaids.com/services/faq.php

And this page, on the right side gives a very rough estimate on prices:
https://secure.merrymaids.com/corp/giftcards/

It might even be a great learning experience to watch what they do, in what order, using what products.

Sometimes I'm at a complete loss as to where to start. Or in what order to do things.

And it looks like it could be totally customized, or have various "one-time" things done. Like having them do a wall washing. Or do a top-to-bottom cleaning of a room and then just do light housecleaning from then on.

I agree with the poster above re: pricing. $30 per visit in nuts.
I'm in NJ and I pay $75 every 2 weeks- I have a larger house but even when I was in a brooklyn apartment, it would never be less than $50 for a decent job.

I'd also say use a service. And also, there's nothing wrong with having someone organize and maintain our homes. People use help organizing and maintaining every other area of their lives, why not the place they live?
frankly, I think it's some of the least expensive therapy you can get.

I second/third the comment about not hiring from an agency. I used a MerryMaids competitor for a few months, until I found out that I was paying them $100, and they were paying their cleaners $10. It was ridiculous.

With Marcio and Sonya (our current cleaners), I know every dime I'm giving them is going toward them and their ridiculously cute kids.

We pay $70 for our small two bedroom apartment and it includes laundry. We do this every other week, on the off weeks it's just laundry and it's $20 for that. The person who does this for us is also our childcare person, but she cleans on a morning when she is not looking after our child and we pay her separately for this. I totally trust her so never have those issues. Before her we had the porter from my building do it (she cleans for others too). I totally recommend having a cleaning person. It is some of the best money I have ever spent and absolutely is worth it in terms of the time and stress it saves me.

Do you live in a building with a property manager? You could ask them for a reference. Maybe the person (or company) that cleans your common spaces could take care of your apartment.

I would just ask your neighbors for a recommendation - that's how I found our crew. We pay $85 per visit for a 1000 square foot apartment in the South End. They come 2 times per month. They wash the hardwood floors, clean 2 bathrooms, clean every inch of the kitchen, dust, vacuum the dog fur off the furniture, change the sheets... all in all it's about a 2-3 hour job. It's SOOOO lovely coming home to a clean house on a Friday night!

I second the poster above who recommended reading Nickel and Dimed before making your decision.

Yeah, independents aren't bonded -- but unless things have changed since Eirenreich wrote that book, the lion's share of the money you pay the chains go to the chains -- and very little goes to the people slaving away cleaning your place.

And if you wanted to just go on self-interest, again based on that book, it sounds like the chains take an approach that focuses on the appearance of cleanliness rather than actual cleanliness (i.e., they don't use much hot water and detergent).

Tafe-
Your people sunds great! Would you be willing to pass their name along? Like the poster, I am looking for a cleaning service in Boston as well.

*sound*

Any recommendations on a cleaning crew for Bellevue,WA? We recently relocated from LA and the person I miss the most is my cleaning lady....I think the $30/visit is really low. I was paying 65 every 2 weeks for a 800 sf apartment- but bless her heart she made it shine

I'm in Toronto and pay 100 bucks for about 6 hours of cleaning once every 2 weeks. My house is about 1500 sq feet (the part that gets cleaned which doesn't include the top floor studio or basement).

I was a house cleaner for years Boston and even 20 years ago $30 was not a fee I would consider. I would think that now you should expect $60 . I have a few pieces of advice: Hire an independent not a service - they don't pay their cleaners enough and with no benefits it is practically slave labor. Find an independent through local bulletin boards or craigslist or post a job listing at the schools. Ask around - chances are you just don't know your friends have house cleaners. Don't get hung up on "hourly wage". It costs what it costs and you pay what it costs if it takes two hours or three - if you think it's worth it then pay it, if you don't then don't. Lastly remember that these people are people, not automatons; they are fallible and sometimes make mistakes or miss something and you should never ask them to clean something you wouldn't clean yourself. good luck.

I pay $40 every other week for a two bedroom, one bath apartment. in my area (non DC metro virginia) there is usually a minimum charge dependent on the number of bathrooms and the size of the kitchen (since those are the areas that take the most time ).

I love having a housecleaner. I would be willing to give up my cable before I give up the cleaner. the amount of time that I save is worth it to me--as someone else said, my weekends are mine again.

there is nothing as wonderful as coming home from work to find that your place is nice and clean.

Hiring someone for basic (or intense) cleaning is a great idea, if you can afford it. My family has used the same woman for years and she is absolutely excellent -- saved us a lot of headaches, especially because she's way more detail oriented than any of us would ever be (she cleans windows, lightbulbs, the fridge, anywhere we direct her). We're just south of Boston but you could probably get her up to the city. If you want her information, send me a note at meghan dot reilly at hotmail dot com.

I hired some cleaners for awhile, when I was busy at work and stressed and tired (from a nasty sinus infection, it turned out).

I didn't really need cleaning so much as I needed someone to change the bed, wash the whites and then fold and put them away (along with any other laundry I'd done during the week). I like doing laundry, but hate putting it away. Go figure.

They did an alright job. Sometimes they miss stuff, and once they went off and left my front door unlocked and slightly ajar all day! I was always worried they'd accidentally let my cat out.

One thing I noticed with cleaners - they do a great job at first, but then the quality slowly starts to slide . . .

Definitely hire independent over something like merry maids and I agree about suggesting reading Nickle and Dimed.

I wanted to just add that I've had some friends and relatives who worked as as cleaners and they have some really heartbreaking stories about how they were mistreated in other people's homes. A friend told me about how she was scrubbing a bathtub when the man she was hired by came in with his wife and said "Look what I got you! Happy Birthday, honey!" as if she was an object to be bought and sold - she said she finished the job and cried all the way home and never went back. Another thing that happens is they began overloading her with more and more tasks but did not compensate her for the extra work they expected her to do. So basically, please be conscious of how you are treating people you have hired to do your dirty work as they are PEOPLE.