Thursday, March 08, 2007

MAID FOR CLEANING... OR MADE FOR CLEANING?



I have been toying with the idea of having a cleaning service come into the house once a week to help me keep up with the house. I have to admit: I have issues with it. Not because I'm particularly picky, but mostly because I don't want people to think I'm lazy (how sad is that?). It doesn't help that my mother-in-law always asks me, "So when are you getting a maid?" Our house is approximately 4,300 sq feet so she thinks that means I need a maid.

When Kierra's annual review was done for her services, they gave us a subsidy for a cleaning services. Bascially 12 hours per month, and they will cover $16.00/hour of it. I won't go into huge detail why this is: let's just say caring for her can be extroidinary circumstances. They offer this to most families with special needs children here; this is the same program I get our respite from. Anyways back to the cleaning service.

So yesterday I interviewed a company. The gentleman seemed nice enough; he gave me his presentation and all that. I showed him the house, he made a few comments. Then he gave me his breakdown of price; to the tune of $35.00/hour! So yes that's $19.00/hour out of pocket for me. The only problem is he's saying 3 hours per week, and that quickly eats up my subsidy. I'm deliberating what I do next. I could try to find someone that is private, but then I don't know if they are bonded or anything. This company carries insurance. Part of me wants to tell dh to forget it; I can do the house myself. And I can; it just takes me a few days. Any imput out there for someone looking to let someone else do the vaccuming?

3 comments:

Lainey-Paney said...

My dad pays for me to have a housekeeper come every 2 weeks.

It's AWESOME!

I work full time.
I go to school part time.
I was spending my every waking moment working, schooling (is that a word???) or cleaning.
So, as a gift to me---he pays for my grandparents' housekeeper to also come to my house.

Now, my husband says that even if I didn't work full time, he'd pay for the service b/c it gives us a break. It gives us...more time to do fun stuff as a family.

I'm all for it.
i don't think you're lazy.

And, for those that you feel will judge you...just don't tell them. It's none of their business!

Anonymous said...

As you know from our discussions about this, I think getting a service is AWESOME. In fact, we are due to find another soon - I miss my mother's helper!

Anyway, I wanted to note that beware of private people. god FORBID the person(s) hurt themselves in your house - they can sue you. Also, you'd have a hard time getting anything that is stolen from your house back, without them having insurance and bonding. Just some thoughts.

I go back and forth STILL about doing it myself and getting someone to do it for me. We aren't failures if we have someone else do it. I hope you find the right people for you soon!

Maria said...

When we had our first house, both working full time and with no children, we had a maid service. I loved it.

Then we moved to a bigger house with a bigger mortgage, I went down to free lance part time work and we have Liv. We can no longer afford a maid service and I miss it so much.

I say, if you can afford it, do it.