Anyone here use Maid/housekeeper?

[sumbride]

Date: 8/4/2006 9:02:03 PM
Author: ladykemma
my next door neighbor cleans my house and takes good are of us.

when I went back to work full time, my husband and I got into fights about sharing the chores and cooking. clearly this wasn''t working. the house stunk, and was gross and cluttered.

first I hired molly maid. Well, my house is not an office builidng and it didn''t work out.

my neighbor asked me if i needed help. she is an enterprising woman of my age and sharp as a tack. Unfortunately she has a driving phobia or she could make a mint.

she asked for an 8 hour day one day a week. I pay $150 for the 8 hour day. she cleans a 1500 sq foot house, and mops the house (i have tile throughout). she changes the litterpans too. dishes, oven, stove, after she does the routine cleaning, she washes and changes the sheets. Then she does whatever laundry needs doing, folds, and PUTS IT AWAY.

she washes windows, curtains, cleans fridge, declutters, cleans out closets, i don''t ask, it just gets done.

we have ''moments''. ''I''m having a moment'' we say to each other as we marvel at the neatly cleaned closet or pantry or fridge or underwear drawer.

she is a true english housekeeper in every sense of the word. she runs my home.

I spoke to her about getting a partner who drives and doing cleaning/personal organizing for a real business. she is considering it. she is real good with ADD people, like myself, who have a lot of clutter.

my home is clutter free now. and smells good.

edited to add: I draft my own sewing patterns on brown paper. one day she threw away a bunch of pattern pieces because she thought they were just bits of brown paper on the floor of the sewing room. Now i clearly write on the pattern pieces with a black sharpie marker. and she has has me trained to pick them up.

LadyKemma.... I wish I lived in your neighborhood! That woman sounds like a godsend!!! I have ADHD and I suspect my Fiance does as well... our 3 story townhouse is very cluttered! Plus I''m only home about 3 hours a night before bedtime so it just never gets done. My parents hired a housekeeper when I was 6 months old and my mom went to work full time for the first time in her life and she is still with them. Thirty years now! She works at my parents'' house 2 days a week, my grandmother''s house 2 days a week, and 1 day a week at my aunt''s house, so when I was a kid I was shuffled around to wherever she was because she was also my nanny and babysitter when I was older. Plus she took care of all my siblings and my cousin, and then raised my neice too! She''s a saint and still calls me her "baby". I know how to do my own laundry, but I''ve never mastered putting it away because she always did that for me... I wish I could find someone like her that I trust implicitly but I just don''t know how to start looking!

 

[ladykemma]

Date: 8/9/2006 10:52:08 AM
Author: sumbride

Date: 8/4/2006 9:02:03 PM
Author: ladykemma

LadyKemma.... I wish I lived in your neighborhood! That woman sounds like a godsend!!! I have ADHD and I suspect my Fiance does as well... our 3 story townhouse is very cluttered! Plus I''m only home about 3 hours a night before bedtime so it just never gets done. My parents hired a housekeeper when I was 6 months old and my mom went to work full time for the first time in her life and she is still with them. Thirty years now! She works at my parents'' house 2 days a week, my grandmother''s house 2 days a week, and 1 day a week at my aunt''s house, so when I was a kid I was shuffled around to wherever she was because she was also my nanny and babysitter when I was older. Plus she took care of all my siblings and my cousin, and then raised my neice too! She''s a saint and still calls me her ''baby''. I know how to do my own laundry, but I''ve never mastered putting it away because she always did that for me... I wish I could find someone like her that I trust implicitly but I just don''t know how to start looking!

I think all us ADDers needs professional organizers because that part of our brain doesn''t work very well.

cleaning is a real problem for me when i work full time. When I didn''t work full time, i kept the house rather nice, (but it''s a different approach.) i used the Messie''s Anonymous method for people with ADD.

one room a day worked for me when i was a stay at home wife, or 1/2 time worker. i knew in my little ADD brain that all i had to do on tuesday was clean the master bath. on wednesday the master bedrooom, thursday the living room, etc.

when i went back to work full time (first year of teaching) , pffft! no energy left when i got home.

my husband DOES NOT HELP, but He thinks he does. Ever watch a man vacuum?

when i was a stay at home wife, he came home from work to a relatively clean home and dinner on the table. When I came home from work, I came home to a filthy dirty house and a can of hormel chili. so no help there. (In his defense he is really good at other things, like earning lots of money, and he built most of the furniture in the house, and he keeps up with the bill paying, finances and taxes).

the house got worse and worse. finally it was seriously dirty and cluttered to the point where i was embarrassed and creativity and functioning were stifled. there comes a point where one cannot clean because of the clutter. that was where my neighbor/friend stepped in. she''s ruthless with the decluttering. when''''s the last time you used this lemon reamer? uh, i dunno. poof, gone!

now i am experienced teacher and I have energy left when I get home. and with no clutter there is no "energy drain". putting things away is a real issue for me.

my hubby is gone off shore most of the time these days and all of it is my burden. I don''t know what I would do without her. Because of her, I have purchased hours for a social life, recreation, and sewing. I know she keeps me on my ADD toes.

ADD can be a blessing and a curse. it both my greatest asset and my biggest curse.

 

[VegasAngel]

Nope, I will begin job hunting at the end of the month.

 

[Stone Hunter]

Your OP said you really wanted a chef. I''d suggest trying out Super Suppers. One just opened near me. They do all the grocery shopping and prep work and clean up at their store. You go to the store and cook the meals. You take your meals home and put them in the freezer, they do the clean up.

That gives you food already prepared for dinner each night, with a little reheating or whatever. Food plus a clean kitchen.

It''s alot like "Once a Month Cooking" which I did a long time ago. I''m going to sign up soon. They finally got their store open, I''ve been waiting.

HTH

 

[Allisonfaye]

We lived in Chicago before we moved here and I, like Deejay, had a four story townhome. MerryMaids was going to charge over $200 the first time and something lower for the regular visits (I do not recall). I said NO WAY. The services that you have heard of like that just need to pay for all the advertising, so their cost is way higher. If you can''t find someone through a referrel, which I think is best, then try the phone book. Just call a few places and see who you like. It really comes down to trial and error, unfortunately. As far as tipping, I tip the ladies who work for a service. I know they get paid a really low wage per hour so I always make sure to hand it to them directly and not the person who brings them over.

When I moved to the suburbs, I got several names from our local community message board. (We now have a 4,400 sf home.) I tried all of them before settling on a group of three women. They do an adequate job, a cut above all of the others and get $130, compared to about $80 for the marginal ones. Really, only one of the women is a great cleaner. I would take three of her all day long. The other women constantly have to be checked and their stuff needs to be redone. I don''t tip because they own the business themselves and their cost is so much higher but it all goes to them anyway.

 

[Gypsy]

Vegas. My fiance just... let them go. Our house is an older one... and at the time we had just moved in and hadn''t updated much so... I think he just thought it was all dirt from over the years. It took a while for me to get him to understand that avocado counter tops just look that way... and so does the matching linolium floor. No matter HOW much bleach, softscrub and elbow grease you throw at it (and I have a VERY liberal hand with the bleach... once the animals are locked away). Needless to way we have tile floors now... although the counter tops are still avocado... still haven''t replaced that. Have had too many things just BREAK on us in the last year and a half. New appliances, water heater... plumbing gone bad. The house was sorely neglected. Next house is gonna be new. Or at no more than 5 years old. Fixer uppers are a thing of the past. NEVER AGAIN.

 

[VegasAngel]

So, I have someone coming to clean my house this Saturday. I found an ad in the phonebook for $75/3hrs. I am really nervous about having someone I dont know come over to clean. She is going to do the living,dining,family room, kitchen and one bathroom. I dont want her in my bedrooms. We can try it once & if we like it have her come again if not I will just do it. On another note I am having my carpets cleaned Wednesday this I am excited about. My daughter will be crawling soon the carpets need to be clean.

 

[ladykemma]

quick question: is it clutter or it it dirt?

cuz if it''s clutter, you have to clean for the maid. PIA. otherwise the maid just dusts your piles

.

 

[VegasAngel]

No clutter. I mostly want someone to clean the bathroom especially the toilet. It isnt too bad, just for me bathroom cleaning is the worst. After that I want her to vacuum, dust, clean the windows......thats about it.

 

[diamondfan]

One of my cleaning girls used to make piles of all the clutter. It looked great when you walked in but then we could never find anything! I would leave things out to sort or do something with, and she would pile it all back up again, even if I told her to leave it...I think she was on some kind of autopilot!!!!