Hourly rate for housecleaning. (apartment, condo, how much)

[limaman]

Hello there,
How much do you pay to get your house cleaned?
I am starting to think I am being overcharged. I pay $70 and the person spend around two hours cleaning. Is this a reasonable fee?
Thank you.

[AndreaII]

Sounds reasonable, but it depends on how much is actually getting done and how well.

I refuse to hire anyone; some of them only use paper towels and spray cleaner - everything is motel clean. And smells like a motel too. Using H2O along with soaps/cleaning agents instead of spray cleaner takes longer (rinsing, etc.). Also, we've had a little trouble with items leaving our house. One of these "professionals" would come to our house with a shopping bag filled with rags, etc., and we figured out she was leaving with some of our things in the bag - books, pairs of gloves, etc. Real nice. So, we're done hiring out cleaning. I'd rather keep the dust around a little longer and keep my things around longer too.

[omigawd]

Much as I would love someone to come in and clean up after me, I just wouldn't feel comfortable having a stranger coming in, snooping around my stuff, and (as Andrea said) most likely helping herself to it.

I used to work for an attorney and he had many Polish clients who were arrested for shoplifting. Coincidentally, they were all housekeepers. My take is that if you're going to steal from Macy*s, you'll steal from your employer, too.

[HappySpring]

The price sounds pretty good. I had someone come in every other week to clean a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath colonial and I was paying $100.00. She cleaned for about 3 to 4 hours and did a great job. She actually moved things to dust!

However, she has since moved away and I haven't had someone since. But I found out that the price ranges from $60 to $70 for a few hours. I was overpaying. She was my very first cleaning lady, had her for about 3 months, loved it so much she moved away and left me. Life has not been the same since. I'm back to cleaning my own house. Rather pocket the money.

[I_Love_LI_but]

I have an acquaintance who is so cheap she refuses to pay anyone more than $10 an hour (off the books) to clean. And when she calls someone in to clean, her place has become hellhole status so it's not just maintaining a clean, it is backbreaking work and they stay there like 5 or 6 hours! (Note: it's a small 1 BR apartment but she has it stuffed as she is a packrat.) She manages to find illegal alien types, usually from a friend of a friend. Somehow she doesn't get the same people back again. Wonder why! Could it be her incessant yapping and habit of talking people's ears off or the fact that she "helps" the housecleaner the whole time and probably gets in their way more than "helping." Or the pay. I mean lack of pay.

[ambarstone]

Originally Posted by limaman

Hello there,
How much do you pay to get your house cleaned?
I am starting to think I am being overcharged. I pay $70 and the person spend around two hours cleaning. Is this a reasonable fee?
Thank you.

___
I have a friend from Brazil that charges 100-120 for between 3-4 hours. But you can probably do better than $35/hour if you look. Honestly, I think cleaning should not cost more than $20/hour and even that is a lot...is not like they need a degree to do it. BTW: I do my own cleaning because I am too cheap to pay.

[AlexisT]

Depends. Is this $70 to a service, or directly to a cleaner? If it's a service, about right, because of the overhead. If you're paying cash (not trying to open a can of worms about the propriety of such, but people do), it should be much less.

[S.I.B.]

I pay $70 every two weeks (3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and basement). She's usually there for about 3-4 hours and does a solid (nothing spectacular) job.

[newtoli]

$20/hr per person. I am incapable of getting my house really clean. I just had a spring cleaning done and they sent 3 people and it took four hours, so it was $240. It was 100% worth it.

[nancy thereader]

$45.00 a week for a small two bedroom condo. Very trustworthy.