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The "do you iron your sheets" thread got me thinking about this, because a few women mentioned their "cleaning ladies" do this for them, or their mom's did growing up. How many of you have a maid or other household help? We are a young couple and can't afford it, but I don't know that we ever will. It just seems like a waste of money! And there's some socioeconomic/racial inequality involved with the dynamics of most "help" relationships that I would be uncomfortable with. Then again, who knows how I will feel about it when we have a larger house and a few kids!
I grew up with maids doing everything, and it just makes me squeamish. I never know how to interact in that relationship; I try to treat everyone like an equal and so it's tough to think of hearing about someone's day, someone's life, and then saying "also, please clean my undies." I suppose I would be happy to hire child care if I needed it to continue my job, but having been in that field myself, I would always try to treat people like a childcare professional and not a servant. I would never ask a nanny to clean.
I might reach out for help if I have a burden like my own illness or the illness of a family member and the house is getting to be a serious disaster-zone that is truly, truly impacting others' lives. Other than that, I think I'm going to try to lock it down myself. It gives me pride to have grown up taken care of and now be able to take care of it all myself.
...also, ironing sheets. Hee hee. Pigs will fly before I do that kind of nonsense.
Sorry, never.
We're kinda clean freaks so I would never trust anybody else besides us to do a good enough job. But I'm weird, I actually like laundry! I have to seperate whites, colors and delicates.
And frankly I just don't want a stranger in my home!
We've had cleaning ladies in the past--I had one when I was younger and lived at home, and DH and I had one when we first moved in together. We don't have one now, but I desperately want one and keep telling myself that I"m going to hire one. I just hate hate hate having to clean the apartment almost daily in order to keep it neat and clean, and I'm willing to pay someone to do it for me. If we don't get one if the next year or so, I am FOR SURE hiring one when we have kids--I imagine I'll have my hands full.
We have a maid that comes every other Friday to do a full scrubbing. I could not live without her. She has been cleaning for my husband for about 6 years now. I never have to scrub floors, clean the bathrooms, and twice a month I come home to a house where everything that has been taken out, but not put back, has been returned to the proper place. It's amazing!
I would be lying if I said I didn't look down on people who have maids. Mostly because we are latino and we have always been the maids lol. But in all honestly, if I had money, forget cleaning myself, I would SO hire a maid. So really, I just look down on them cause I am jealous lol
I am one of those people who like things exactly where I put it so there is no way I could ever let someone else clean my house.. I notice if a picture or something is barely moved! lol Now when me & my old roommate moved out of our apartment we hired someone to clean it then but that was just because it seemed easier. I feel to that unless you have a super huge house or a handful of kids then there is always time to work in cleaning.. My house stays "picked up" but then every weekend I dust, mop, etc.
I actually was in a class once in college where a girl mentioned to the entire class, "but doesn't everyone have maids?" I honestly think she was serious!
I would LOVE to have a housekeeper who came in every week or two even if just to do the bathrooms, kitchen, and annoying things like the baseboards (which I always forget about). Every now and then a housekeeping Groupon comes up, I think I'll buy it next time... I always worry though about how to know who/what service will be good and whether or not I can trust that person in my house (not that we have a ton of valuable stuff). I also think I'd feel weird doing work or whatever in my house while someone cleaned around me.
It is definitely on my list for the next couple years when finances aren't as tight. I would love someone to come in once a week or every other week to do the heavy cleaning. I think it would be totally worth the money to me. Once I have kids I might considering hiring someone more permanently depending on what I want to do with work. If I work full time and have more than one child I think it really wouldn't cost much (if any) more to just hire a nanny/housekeeper and I'd be happier with that than daycare.
right now we don't have a maid and thats fine since our house is small and very manageable. in the future i don't really see us having one either, even after kids. i have a weird thing about strangers in my house, and not knowing if you could trust them, etc so i think we'd opt not to have a maid.
When i was fresh out of college and sharing a five bedroom Town house in the City we had a cleaning lady. She came in while we were out. I love that woman... truly love her. she would do all the the cleaning, cause god knows we were too busy/lazy/not doing more then someone else in the house. It cut down on alot of arguments.
She made your bed put laundry away, did dishes, vaccuumed and dusted. She was there all day, one day every two weeks, for 250.00. I would love for someone to do that for me now. I wouldn't want to sit there while she cleaned and did it all tho, that would be weird. On the other hand my SIL HAD one that came in, and SIL cleaned right along side the woman, then my brother pointed out the idiocy of paying for her to have a partner.... lol so now HE helps.
I would never have a housekeeper because I am one of those crazy people who actually ENJOY cleaning my own house. I spend hours every week cleaning my 1000 sq. ft. apartment.
I've worked as a custodian and a house cleaning lady. Cleaning just my own house, with the help of my husband/future children, will be absolutely no problem. Besides, I enjoy cleaning. It's healthy work. :)
I don't and have never had a housekeeper, but I cannot wait for the day I do! My husband and I would like to get one when we purchase our first home. I see it as insurance on our investment. Sure, people can make time to clean, but with the limited "free time" we have together, it sucks to spend that time cleaning. I have many friends who have someone come in every 2 or 3 weeks, and they love it - clean house, less arguments, more quality time! I could not care less if my chair is angled the right way if that means someone else has swept under it!
When I have the money I WILL hire someone to come every week to do a full scrubbing. I do it now with the hubby and it takes us 2 hours every Sunday. If I could get those 2 hours back it would make our weekend SOOOOO much more enjoyable.
We would still pick-up and keep everything in it's place just want someone else to do the vacuuming, bathrooms etc.
We have a guy who cleans our house every other week. With two dogs and two cats, you would be amazed at how dusty and dirty our house gets. We pay $100 every time he comes, and it is completely worth it! I don't have to spend a day every weekend or week cleaning, and I don't get frustrated that I do the bulk of the cleaning. Best thing we have done for our relationship in terms of living together. I highly recommend it!!
AhahahHAHAHAHhahaHAHA
I wish I had a housekeeper.
We live way below our means to feed our travel wanderlust/budget.
Never had one but in the future I would love one, especially when we have kids. Right now I clean on the weekends for an hour or so but I imagine with kids it could be tough having time to do it. I don't mind cleaning but I hate hate hate laundry.
Growing up we'd have someone come in for a day every other week. I'm sure my mom loved it.
When I went down to Chile I lived with a family who had a housekeeper come in every day to do the cooking, cleaning and laundry. I was SUPER uncomfortable and couldn't ask or leave her anything to do (like my laundry or dishes). Finally it was explained to me that it's basically a social obligation to hire people to do your house and yard work if you have the money. It creates so many jobs and you're considered selfish if you don't! That definitely changed my view. I still couldn't have someone come in every day to do that much but I could definitely deal with a scrubbing every one or two weeks!
Unfortunately, that is NOT in the budget. Especially since I'm working from home and the hours are mostly part-time.
Our nanny does light housework (laundry, dishes, vaccuuming, etc...) and it's awesome! Not quite the same as a housekeeper, but I don't mind giving her stuff to do since Addie sleeps like 4 or so hours a day anyway. She gets our housework done and still has time to watch movies/tv, read, whatever, so I don't think she minds either.
I opened the thread to see what on earth "household help" meant. I think that means no, lol!
We just 'hired' my mom to come and do a deep clean every two weeks. She had to quit her retail job in June to take care of my grandmother, but my grandmother recovered and now my mom is really, really bored. We pay her, though it is definitely a discounted rate compared to what we would have to pay someone who is a full time housekeeper. She actually admitted to me that she would have done it for free just to give her something to do! She used to clean houses with my aunt a few years ago, and she has really high standards for what is clean. I laughed at her the other day because she called to apologize that she couldn't reach my ceiling fan to dust it. I was like, Mom I don't even notice it so really it is ok. Unfortunately when she decides to go back to a retail job she probably won't be able to do it anymore and then I'll have to again get over my deep hatred for cleaning.
Right now we don't have a housekeeper but we have talked about getting someone to come in about once a week when the baby comes, at least for the first few months. I definitely view it as a luxery and for the time being rather spend that money on going out or other things, and just do the cleaning myself.
A few members of my family have housekeepers and we use to have one when I was younger. As much as I would love one right now, our condo is more than manageable for us to keep clean. However, in the future when we have a larger house, we will probably get one. There are just some things that I would prefer to pay someone to do, like clean the toilets. I hate cleaning the toilets!
I hate to clean. My fiance hates to clean. Therefore, we hire someone to do it for us :)
Some people think we are ridiculous since we don't have a huge apartment and we don't have kids, but whatever.
I can't wait to hire one. We're in transistion right now so living in a smaller place that isn't going to be improved much by a housekeeper anyway. But as soon as we move we're hiring one. It's so worth it in my opinion and it is good for the economy as well. At least I tell myself that!
@bakerella: Oh I agree, I HATE "deep" cleaning!!
I never had a housekeeper growing up, maybe one day we will. Just to do some of the time consuming stuff.
We have talked about having a person come once a month to do the serious stuff - floors, bathrooms, surface cleaning, etc. We can generally pick up after ourselves but it is a real bitch to do that other stuff. We live in a 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment so it wouldn't take the cleaning person as long as it would something like a house. Plus we are both lazy :)
Man oh man, if I could, I would. I live alone right now and sometimes I work crazy crazy hours so it's imperative I clean up myself at least one weekend day and it drives me crazy. Now, if/when we have kids and I can afford it, I will get one. I don't really have any hangups about having household help. I grew up in a third world country and most people had one. I'm talking folks Americans would consider 'poor/working class' and folks were able to afford it because everyone was so desperately poor that if you could actually get one, it was a good thing because now they could have a job too.
I hate cleaning. But FI and I both decided why pay for something when you can do it yourself. It seems like a waste of money, especially when we have the time and ability to do it ourselves. I just hate it haha.
I dream of the day that we can get one. But I think it's my hatred of dishes that really fuels that desire. I wish I could pay a neighborhood kid to come do dishes even while I'm in school and living in a rinky-dink apartment! Haha! Hopefully FI is a dishes man, because I'm cool with the laundry!
we JUST hired a cleaning lady to come in every second week and I love her more than anything. DH and I are DINK's, we work like crazy and have two silly dogs that make a mess of my life! It's just nice to have someone come in and scub the bathrooms, and do the floors and clean the windows and mirrors. It's been great for our relationship (we're not bickering about cleaning) and it actually motivates us to pick up after ourselves all the time too. Knowing that she is coming means we have to get the clothes off the floor and the bed made etc.
I WISH! I hate cleaning and actually thought about hiring someone once a month to do the deep cleaning. It is hard to have a balanced life style when you work over 50hrs a week, cook dinner every night, try to have a social life, and to clean on top of that...it gets crazy!
What we do now:
Hiring someone to clean our house saved my marriage. Okay, that's dramatic, but neither my husband or I likes to clean and we both work stressful jobs, but we are also both neat freaks. It just got to the point where we were fighting over whose turn it was to scrub the shower and mop the floors and it wasn't worth the stress on our relationship. Paying someone to come scrub the house every two weeks is worth every penny. We just pay for general cleaning - kitchen, bathrooms, floors, dusting, etc. but we do our own laundry and such.
What we will do when we have kids:
Employing someone/a daycare center to help care for our kids will be a reality for us at some point. Although I have tremendous respect for my friends who are SAHMs, I have always know it wasn't for me - I need a lot of professional stimulation and our mortgage payment needs my paycheck.
In my dreams:
I would have a personl masseuse. Like, for every day. :o)
Growing up there was always someone.
When my sister and I were little, we had a live in nanny. Once we got older, my parents had a housekeeper that came at least once (maybe twice) a week. She'd also take care of the house/dogs when we went on vacation.
Currently FI and I have someone come to scrub the kitchen, bathroom, and living room once ever 2 months or so.
I'd really like to have someone come once a week or once every 2 weeks. It's so hard to keep the place clean with a cat that sheds like crazy. We run the Roomba every day, but that just barely keeps the dust bunnies under control!
I was born and raised in Southeast Asia where it was common to have multiple helpers and drivers per family. Even though my Mom hired live-in helpers for the family, she always assigned the kids with household chores (i.e., making the bed, putting away dirty clothes, washing non-meal time dishes, maintaining the bathroom, etc.). It was nice to have helpers growing up, and back then I really didn't know the difference as I considered the helpers our playmates. And because there was always an adult in the house, my parents would often leave on trips without the kids for days at a time so I also considered the helpers our pseudo parents. When the kids got older my Mom trained us to "manage" the helpers. That meant checking in on their work, providing them with a weekly menu and grocery list, handling the cash for groceries, etc.
When our family emigrated to the United States, it was an easy transition for us since we had never been reliant on the helpers anyway. Now that I am grown and keeping my own house, I handle things myself. I have in the past hired maids to come in once a month to clean but learned they don't do as good a job that I do. Very seldom I still hire their services when I am too busy.
If I ever moved back to my home country I would probably do the same as my Mom did with our helpers, with the exception of leaving without the kids for days at a time. But while living in the U.S. I don't think I will ever have the need to hire helpers on a full-time basis.
Never had anyone growing up, but my mom was a SAHM. We've talked about getting one once I find a full-time job again to avoid relationship stress. It drives me nuts that my boyfriend does not see the mess and has to be told when do things, including fairly obvious things like taking out the trash. He used to use a laundry basket system (2 clean, 1 dirty) along with piles and piles on furniture rather than fold laundry and put it away until I moved in. So either I'm resentful I'm doing 95% of the work or he's bugged he's forced to clean more than he thinks is strictly necessary. (Keeping in mind this is someone that eats take out to avoid dishes and cooking, that means practically everything.) I really hope we stick to our guns and do actually hire someone. It's nice when you can throw money at a problem and make it go away. :)
My parents have had one ever since my mom went back to work when I was 5 or so. She comes every other week and cleans all the bathrooms and mops and vacuums. I would definitely love to have one in a few years. I hate cleaning the bathroom!
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