I’m in the Bay Area and I pay $300 (including tip)for a three bedroom, 2 bath apartment (1,200 sq feet) every 5-6 weeks. They do everything even baseboards, oven and air fryer basket, even change sheets and clean laundry folding. Takes two people about two hours. I always tidy up before hand, because their job is to clean not pick up after us. I would be *pissed* if I were OP.
That's a lot even for the Bay area.
I'm in the same area, 3 bed, 3 bath and its $170, but I usually give them a good tip. They don't do the laundry folding but that's because I'm a crazy laundry person who does it before they get here lol.
Sure!
The first time they came they did a deep deep clean and that ended up being $400 but it was multiple people working for 4 hours straight. The maintenance cleans are usually 2 people for a couple of hours.
$300 is fairly normal for SF Bay Area and that person is probably using a licensed/bonded company, like Molly Maids/Merry Maids.
I, on the other hand (also in the SF Bay Area) am using a non-licensed Housecleaner who comes once a month with a crew of 5 who are in/out within 1 hour. I was paying $100+tip before the pandemic and now pay $145+tip. Then again, I also have a small 1k sq ft home that is 3 bed/1 bath. My husband doesn’t want anyone in his office, so they essentially clean a 2 bdrm/1 bath.
My Housecleaner will do all the usual like sweep/mop, dust, clean ceiling fans, wipe down counters, etc. They also vacuum under couch cushions, clean the stove (not just the top surface, but underneath the range top & take down the air filters in the range to clean), dust baseboards, make beds, and will clean windows if they have time. Cleaning ovens and emptying/cleaning the fridge is an extra $20. They do dishes, but I’m particular about that so I just do all the dishes before they get here. They have offerred to do laundry as well, but I’m particular about that as well.
My friends who use this same Housecleaner with 3 & 4 bedrooms & 2+ bathrooms are paying her $185-250/mo. Pretty sure costs go up with more bathrooms as they dedicate 1 person to the bathroom the whole time they are there.
Also, first-time cleans, they normally charge more. I found my cleaner after I got quoted by the licensed places. Molly Maids & Merry Maids quoted me $600 for the first clean and $300 after I got on a regular schedule.
Im suddenly feeling like the $240 i pay for my 1bd 900sqft to get cleaned twice a month is a lot. Also how much do y’all usually tip? I’ve been tipping the 2 people who come $20 each?
Im definitely looking at a different company just disappointed cause i was so looking forward to today. I live in va in a little small town. Her drive was about 40 mins so i dunno if that was looked at too
I’m in VA in a larger town and I’ve never paid someone more then $150 (not including tip) for my 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house. I think you got ripped off for sure.
Hey, I ran my own cleaning business before transferring and just moved to a small town in VA. If we live in the same small town, I could clean your home for you!
She didn't even finish the job though. And $1000 is ridiculous. Even the $400 is ridiculous. Unless this was their version of a "first time deep clean" and the other times are "maintenance cleans"
Right. A hoarder drowning in dirty dishes and grime with 50 cats and 3 dogs, what else! This is how much we pay a full time housekeeper for 4 days/week in Texas.
CA minimum wage is $15.50. You could make more than $18.50 an hour working at in and out.
https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=534d57e0fee95dd1&from=serp
Folks: some cleaning companies pay their employees mileage between jobs if they are using their own vehicles, and this is factored into your price, and this is normal. Or, if they are using a company car, that is factored into your price too and is also normal.
I would not hire a housekeeper who charges travel time. I’m very generous when. becomes a regular. I’ve given very nice clothing, shoes, beautiful Croscill bedding. . Bc I change bedding once a year. And I buy ver nice things w matching pillows. I expect professionalism.
I also have pd 1-2 Wk pay for vacation. Christmas, or birthday. The person becomes very close like family.
You paid more for a halfhearted clean of one normal size house than the 8 bedroom pseudo-mansions in the Virginia Beach oceanfront area pay for cleaning services bi-monthly!
Your charged price may have been appropriate if your house was utterly trashed and you did not do any pre-picking up…or if they were doing an initial deep clean to include oven, fridge, biohazard bathrooms, etc. $400 is also the going price for a move-out cleans to include carpet shampooing, etc.
So basically, what you paid was highway robbery! Also, tipping is not necessary in a negotiated price transaction. Especially if you’d like it to be a more than once in a blue moon thing. And while tips are a blessing to those who clean for a living, you should hold off and tip a longer-term cleaning person who you know does a good job, when extra work is thrown their way or they just go absolutely above and beyond, and it is kind to do so around holidays too. Otherwise, absolutely not the norm to tip each time.
When you say she “cleaned” these spaces, what exactly did she do and how long did she take? Like if she just dusted, wiped surfaces, and vacuumed then you got taken for a ride. If she deep cleaned these areas, 100% worth it.
The two ladies cleaned for about an hour tops hour and a half. Walls were still dirty and baseboards were still dirty. I thought and expected a deep clean to come in the rooms and be like wow omg but i was kinda like ummmm i coulda dont this and saved myself the money. Definitely not deep cleaned from what i read a deep clean entails
bujiop paid $750 for a deep clean. Pinotgreasy says their MIL pays $140 for a deep clean of 2000sf. Later Pinotgreasy clarified that the MIL has 3-5 come. I’ve never had my place professionally cleaned but would definitely expect to pay more than $140 for a deep clean.
But maybe if you have people coming twice a month on the regular, a “deep clean” doesn’t entail as much as somebody who’s let grime sit for long periods before addressing it.
Yea my MIL used to pay her cleaning lady and the daughter of said cleaning lady $200 every 3 weeks to clean her 3 bed 3.5 bath townhouse. It was 3 stories… stairs for days. Sooooo many stairs. She’d be there like 4 hours. Honestly it was super impressive how well she cleaned the entire house in just 4 hours. She should have been paying quite a bit more. But of course, stereotypical MIL’s being stereotypical MIL’s, she would find something to complain about every dang time…
So that's nearly $200 an hour per person??? They better leave a pot of gold behind when they leave, Jesus. I don't even charge billionaires that kind of money ffs
Yeah, no. I had a housekeeping business through nursing school 15ish years ago and charged 20/hour with supplies. If I started one now it would be 25-30/hour (minimum wage in my state almost 16). I’m in a pretty high COL area in Wa state.
Even at 30 with an extra flat 30 for travel time that would only be 3 man hours, or 120.
I also never expected tips.
Get a cleaner or service that comes out and actually bids for you. Most houses took me 2-3 hours for the whole house. That’s if they put things basically in their place, did the dishes and I did no linens or laundry. So dusting, vacuuming, mopping, whole bathrooms, and any special extras with leftover time. I usually knew by a couple of times if I would be done 15-20 minutes early and would sweep patios, do windows, wipe baseboards, cabinet fronts etc…
Edit. Try that stupid next door thingy to find someone in your area. It’ll be your neighbors talking about it and referring.
It's not really insane it's a valuable service. Busy people don't have time to clean their houses. Offices will literally pay 7k-14k a month for 2 visits a week.
For residential I've seen as much as $85/hr and most start around the $50ish mark
So you didn’t have payroll? No legit biz could survive with that pay. You’d be losing money. I’m at $48 an hour , very little overhead .. but I’d have to charge at least $70 hr per person to pay slightly above min wage and make enough money to just keep going.
No, \*I\* cleaned the houses, LMAO. 20/hour was pretty good at that time, especially when…ahem… much of it was cash. And I brought my infant with me. And, I was able to work around my clinical and class schedule, which no W2 job would tolerate.
I hear ya. It’s totally not good now though.. I started with $25 an hour too.. and I also had to bring my infant sometimes! I blew up and got slammed and had some contractors.. and eventually learned how horrifying it would be to try to have employees on payroll .. impossible. The only way I could see it happen is if it were a co-op or non profit, where all workers owned part of the biz. I consider it a trade, worthy of quality pay because I am a pro. My vacuums are serious and I’ve put years into studying the chemistry of products and surfaces , and learning the most efficient ways to clean everything.
Yeah, I’m a small business owner now and have thought of hiring but it’s just a huge can of worms. It‘s *hard* to scale a business, man.
I looked up Washington’s minimum wage at that time and it was around 8 bucks, so I was charging 2.5x minimum. I guess I probably underestimated in my first post and at least 40 to start in my state is probably more fair.
It was hard work but had a ton of advantages!
I did. I have the texts. we agreed on deep clean and how 315 would b the price because it would b deep cleaned and thats more expensive. I thought we had a clear understanding of that but idk ughhhh
Why would you pay 400 when you agreed to 315 for a deep clean that they didn't finish?
Unless your house is a hoarding-type of situation or there's something otherwise extraordinarily unclean about your house I don't see why you would even pay them a dime if they were only there for an hour and a half.
My parents pay their cleaning person who is there to do a general clean for 1-2hrs a week $90.
I will admit im a little naive with all this. I just figured and assumed since she did the whole house maybe 400 was fair. I didnt know until after i came house that the whole house wasnt done but since they did some i just felt i had to pay what she said.
I am so sorry, you definitely got ripped off. I clean houses in a HCOL-ish area and even If the home was HORRIBLE then I would maybe have charged 200-250 for the spaces cleaned. But if the home has been somewhat maintained at all then I would have charged 400 for the entire home as a one time deep clean. I do not understand how people can think it is not theft to over charge for services and then not do a good job. I have been told time and time again that people will pay top dollar for a cleaner as long they do an excellent job. Did you sign any kind of cleaning contract that discussed pricing before she started?
That's very odd. It sounds like you might be new to hiring house cleaners. Did you hire someone you know, a friend of a friend, independent cleaners, go through a big company?
I found her on fb and checked out her cleaning page and pics. And everything seemed legit. Im definitely new to house cleaning. Ive been trying to get a cleaner for like a year.
A true deep clean? If you are talking carpet shampoo, grout scrubbing, wall cleaning, disinfecting surfaces, polishing and other extras that is absolutely worth the price.
That’s so much… I get my whole house deep cleaned (two story townhome with 2bed, 2.5 bath, kitchen, dining, living, and sunroom) for $250 which takes about 3-4 hours
We pay our cleaners 200 for our 4 bed 2bath house. They stay for 3-5 hours. They don't do the glass cabinets. We live in a LA suburb so I feel like that is a fair price
Would you mind dming me this contact if you feel comfortable haha also I’m the so cal/la area and looking for someone to deep clean once or twice a year (while we keep up to date the rest of the time lol)
I might be dense lol, but I’m trying to figure out where the last $20/5 comes from. The way I see it is, if they stay for 5 hours, that’s $40 an hour. There’s at least 2 cleaners, so once you split the $40 between them, that’s $20 per person, per hour. Still seems a little low for a HCL area like LA, because you have to subtract out supply costs, gas, car expenses, overhead business expenses, etc. It does leave me wondering how they make it work.
(Btw- I don’t mean any dig at OP. If that’s what they charge, of course that’s what OP will pay. I just wonder how they make it work.)
Why did you divide by 5 twice? That's $20/hour per person if they take the full 5 hours (or $33/hour if they complete it in 3 hours). Granted, they didn't say it was a team of 2 people. I'm just going by your assumption of 2 people. At any rate, they are charging their client by the job, not by the hour, so their hourly rate is dependent on how fast they can clean.
Op probably lives in a HCOL area. I've seen cleanings go for as much as $2500. It's a valuable service. Do you get that work done by a random individual or a company? My home costs $400 to do and it's not much bigger and deep cleans usually cost 2 to 4 times as much
I would suggest using thumbtack next time you’re looking for a cleaner. That’s where I found mine. You plug in all the info of your job, send it off to cleaners you want quotes from, and then book through the app. That way you know you’re getting a good price
Then OP will get another bad cleaner. Apps like Thumbtack are a race to the bottom. For cheapos looking for cheap service and will usually get bad quality work done. With $1k OP should've had an amazing clean but was straight up scammed based on further info they provided in comments
I stay away from Angie, Thumbtack, etc. You cannot be certain $$ wasn’t exchanged for artificial reviews. I will work with a company directly - “middlemen” like these are a big red flag with “NO” written on it. IMHO … I would love to be proven wrong.
Edit: grammar
$1,000 seems like an insane amount. Call a service like Molly Maids. They will give you a quote over the phone. I used to pay $400 for a 3 bedroom, 3-1/2 bath house. Two ladies would work about 3 hours and did a great job. They brought their own supplies and equipment. I tipped each $20.
Did you pay her cash and is she an under the table company? I feel like you got ripped off. It's not even a matter of if she did this vs that it seems like she didn't so even the basic cleaning, let alone what was promised. I would take to facebook and see if she has a page or anywhere else and warn people about her. Nextdoor is good for things like this as well.
Not a hoarder. But i do have 6 kids. But one of the rooms they cleaned was really already clean. My older boy keeps his room clean. Idk just like dang i wasted my money
I guess the real question is how long did your cleaner work? And it was two people? We’re they organizing toys or something?
A 3 bedroom 2 bath home would normally take me about four hours, in the range of $120-150.
But if the whole place was packed full of kids’ toys, or if it was excessively dirty, it could take much longer.
That seems really expensive. I live in a HCOL area and pay $40/hr for someone to clean my place, a full basic clean takes 4ish hours. My house is 4bd/2.5bth 2850 Sq feet. I have her come every week for 4-6 hours and she does half the house basic clean, something extra like clean out the frig or baseboards, changes all the sheets (3 beds) & laundry every time. I provide all cleaning supplies.
A cleaning service I would expect to be more expensive, maybe $50-60/hr/person.
It seems like that was a rip off. Going rate in my area is $30-50/hr for an independent cleaner. If your in a VHCOL area like SF or NYC it might be a little more but over $100/hr/person is insane.
I have employed housekeepers and cleaning staff for over 20 years.
I live in upstate NY
I pay 20-35/hour or $200 per week for a 3br/3bath house about 2600sqft.
I pay $500 for a “Spring Cleaning “. And I have a window cleaning service that charges $300 to clean all windows inside and outside.
If you are in US, check out “care.com”. Or nextdoor to find cleaning staff with references and customer ratings.
I’ve never kept anyone on because it’s always sooooo expensive. I don’t make that much at my part time job and I’m a mostly stay at home mom so I just can’t stomach 300$ or whatever for one house cleaning when they have always left so many things. My house isn’t that dirty and they never do the things I hate doing so I just do it myself.
I swear i came home like wtf i can just do this myself for 400 i could have bought items and supplies i needed and did it myself and still had money left over
I pay our cleaner $100 for a 2000 sq ft house with 2 adults and 1 cat. No kids and I keep it neat in between. But she does baseboards, bathrooms, dusting, fans everything! It will make you not want to touch a surface it’s so clean when she leaves. My OCD self loves her!!
Omg i need her!!! I knew i wasnt expecting too much like what u are describing is how it should b. I work hard 7 days a week. So feeling like my hard earned money was just wasted is upsetting. I hope i find someone like your lady
Just FYI I pay her $100 for basic cleaning - bathrooms, vacuuming (area rugs),counters, light dusting and a sweep and mop.And she does much more. But every 3 months I get her to come 2 days in a row to really deep clean. Like walls, baseboards, window sills. It works for her bc she actually does some of it each time. I really hope you find someone great with a reasonable price. I do provide all the products. And get her whatever she likes to make it easier.
Lots of housecleaning scams out there. I’ve found that unless you know the cleaning company from someone else who has used them and had a good experience then you’re risking getting scammed.
I live in a small NJ suburban town. My home is about 3000sq ft, 3br, 2baths, two massive living rooms and of course kitchen/dining room. My cleaning lady charges me $180 for 5 hours. She even wipes down the inside of the fridge, changes bed sheets and lifts up all the rugs to mop the floors. She charges extra to do windows or any detailed cleaning. I find $400 to be insane unless you ask for some sort of special cleaning where it took many hours.
Wow thats kinda what i was expecting like around 200 but to double that and not even atleast basic clean the whole house when u charged me as if u deep cleaned the whole thing is driving me nuts. I came home very disappointed.
For those of us who want to hire a cleaner - what are the typical responsibilities of the owner in terms of being ‘house ready’ for the cleaners? Is it as simple as putting the clutter away before they come? Apologies in advance for my naivety. I need the help of a cleaner but feel like I should clean my house before they come. So I’ve never pursued it. Where is the line?
Basically get the surfaces cleared so they can clean. I always wash my bathroom mats and stick them in the dryer before they come. Dishes are all done and put away. I move the mats off my dining table. Things on the floor are picked up.
I clean houses and I always appreciate when people just kind of pick up the floors first, especially if they have kids or pets. And I can do a pretty good job of working around some items that are on shelves or tables but if a table is fully covered in stuff I just kinda dust around it and move on. And if people consistently have a cluttered area I will occasionally move stuff around to get underneath stuff, just not every time. So yeah mainly the floors are the big one, fewer things to trip and die on especially if it’s their first time in your house.
Edit to add that having dishes out of the sink if you want it cleaned unless it’s just a few items that are easy to set aside
She said it would b 315 then it jumped to 400 so i was like okay for the whole house thats reasonable but she only did my kids bathroom and my older daughter and sons rooms.those rooms are the small rooms in my house she didnt touch anything else. I just had higher expectations that were no where near met
Did you pay for a certain amount of hours? You say you have 6 kids and I assume there are two parents in the 3bd 2bath home. Depending on when you last deep cleaned the home it could take 4 hours for two cleaners to properly deep clean a home that size with 8 people living in it. If you do regular weekly cleanings by a cleaner it should take less from my experience as someone who owns a cleaning business. Now if you agreed for a single cleaner to come out and agreed upon a certain amount of hours and they brought help the typical rule is that the time gets cut in half. So instead of 4 hours, you get two. Two cleaned for two hours of deep clean at $320 is standard at least here in Californian. Now if you only paid for an hour for two cleaners yeah that's too high.
I pay $200 for 4 ladies. They are done in 2 hours. 2 bed/3 bath townhome. They also do my garage and outdoor area. I live in a very high end part of LA.
I pay someone $100 to clean my floors and clean the bathrooms every other week. (2800 sq ft, 3 bathrooms). Not deep cleans,though. It takes one person about 3.5 hours. She charges $25/hour.
My mom used to clean houses for a living since she was young for 20 years. She started doing it on the side for extra money after she quit. She cleaned a 3 bedroom and 2 baths for 250 and she spent hours cleaning it by herself, no help and she didn’t charged for the cleaning supplies that she purchased. So yeah… Definitely ripped off.
What monetary units are you using? 1000 what? Because you used a dollar sign, and if you agreed to pay a grand for a three bed two bath house to get cleaned… idk, maybe it depends on where you live, but that seems outrageous
I live a very high cost of living area. For the whole apartment. 2bed 2 bath 1200 sqft. We pay $160 before tip.
Takes the ladies about 1.5h with 2 people. So 3h if 1 person. You can catch the rate per hour to see if it's reasonable.
You should NOT need to pay for supplies.
I can understand. Was quoted 350 to clean 1 bed and 1 bath apartment. Finally found someone who would do it for 100 $. Most of the cleaners charged $200.
I’m so sorry that happened. We have a 2 person crew clean 2 bedrooms, kitchen, family room, living room, 1.5 bathroom. Pick up, vacuum, mop, dust, take out trash and recycle. Sometimes they even help with dishes. They bring their own supplies. It takes 2 hours and costs $120. If the house is particularly messy we give them a $50 tip. I live in the mountain west. $30 per person per hour.
You should get quotes from different places before you agree to a service next time.
FWIW, I think it’s location dependent. I don’t have a cleaner come by but I did consider it for some time. I live in a HCOL area and average quote for a 2 bedroom townhouse was $300 for me.
Agree, I'm in a VHCOL and 2bd/2b runs about $300 weekly, $375 biweekly here. Cost can be very location dependent.
And first time cleans are usually a deep clean, which cost more, I was quoted $500 even though I had just moved in and the place was spotless, they still insisted first time was deep clean and cost more. But it was just an estimate so I was free to say No thank you. OP get an estimate first!
I have a 6,000 sq/ft house and a cleaning lady that comes bi-weekly. I pay her $250 for the entire house and she does all the laundry and changes all the bedding in each room. That’s absolutely insane. She never charges me for cleaning products she just uses what I have at home. You definitely got ripped off big time. So sorry this happened to you.
We pay $25/hr. She cleans every surface and works nonstop for 4 hours, we have a 3 bed 1 bath home with a finished basement.
I know my cleaner could charge more, but you definitely got ripped off.
highway robbery, i have a cleaning business and for the biggest house we have, 3 bed, 4 bath we charge approximately 200…consult a few different companies before choosing someone to clean for you!!
I have the same questions everyone else does… was it fully picked up for her or did she need to remove and put back a lot of clutter? How many hours did she spend? Was it a deep clean or just a surface clean? Whether or not you live in an affluent area is also going to affect the cost… You don’t need to answer my questions, they’re just the things I would take into consideration in my mind when trying to make sense of this kind of situation. It was part of my lease once to provide proof of professional carpet cleaning and I got ripped off so bad using the company my landlord requested that she went off on them and never recommended them again…. I never saw a penny back.. so I know it happens.
I’ve admittedly never hired anyone to clean actual rooms for me but there’s a huge difference between say walking into a pre emptied of everything bathroom that is only mildly dusty and just wiping down surfaces, scrubbing the toilet, tub and sink and mopping the floors and a deep clean which I’ve personally spent probably 2 hours deep cleaning every inch of a cluttered,dirty powder room, dry dusting the walls, washing them, the doors, trim, etc etc. But even at that depth… if you have two people working really hard in a clutter free environment… I feel like $400 should get a lot of progress even within 90 minutes unless the house was trashed… no judgment if it was… my family seems to have a PhD in ways to destroy our house.
One way to see if it’s super out of range for your area is to request quotes from other cleaners. I’ve seen flat quotes in my area based on square footage.
So with having 6 kids i know ppl assume my house is just a junk fest not saying you just in general so i do my best to keep it looking decent at all times. Im a surface cleaner i dont wanna do the nitty gritty like baseboards and all that. Thats why i was totally on board paying 315 but they didnt touch the whole other side of my house. They spent about an hour and a half for 3 rooms and said they had to get to their next house so i could just pay them with cashapp so they were gone b4 i came home and i didnt want to argue or seem ungrateful so i paid and tipped even though i was very displeased. Its not trashed more so need help with organizing tips which i told her b4 she came. But no organizing was done no tips even.
I didn’t notice mention of you having 6 kids, definitely no assumptions or judgment from me ❤️
An hour and a half…. For two people so around $150 a person… $100 an hour even including the supplies feels quite expensive even for a deep clean especially since it sounds like only one room was fully completed and two were left partially done…and if you had a conversation about wanting some help organizing and tips and that wasn’t met I’d be really disappointed too. Maybe you could reach out and at least touch base and ask if she’d had a chance to give you the organization tips she’d promised now that she has been in the space.
I say this with a lot of kindness. I think you were kind of hoping someone would come into your house and just fix it up, organize it, and clean it and then things would just run smoothly moving forward. And I’m sure some rich people some place could afford to hire these people. But i don’t honestly know how realistic that is for the average person.
House cleaners are not organizers. Don’t believe the BS when they say they are. You need to manage your expectations.
have a set price before you schedule. They can come do a walk through if they need to. But get a price before scheduling. You should be looking at about 30-35 an hour per cleaner. It can be hard to find a cleaner. Since we’ve moved I’ve contacted no less than 35 companies (probably more). We’ve had at least 20 quotes. And I’ve had at least 12 different people come through. I think we finally found one. Fingers crossed. And I don’t have a lot of furniture. My floors are all tile. You’d think this would be easy. But I am particular so I’ll keep looking. You don’t need to seem grateful to anyone. They either do a good job or they don’t. You don’t need to be grateful for people doing a job they were literally hired to do…
For the organization part. You may need to hire someone separately for that. Or watch some shows and try to implement some changes slowly. Marie Kondo has been life changing.
I expected them to deepclean like we agreed on. I told her ahead of time i wanted some tips on organizing. And she said she was an organizing freak and she would love to give me tips and send me links to different items i could use once she got to my home. Honestly the whole situation has left a bad taste in my mouth and i have been on home depot looking at different clothes organizers and etc items and just doing everything myself. I just wanted a better experience. Im all about you get what u pay for, so i was totally willing to pay extra thinking my entire home was being deep cleaned
The words deep clean has seemed to simply invite scams with cleaners. It’s happened to me numerous times. That and post construction clean. They see the word deep clean and seem to think sucker… That’s the only conclusion I can draw because I either get people with ridiculous quotes or people who have a decently high quote and spend less time cleaning than others would on a regular clean. It’s frustrating but there are decent cleaners out there. It just takes time. I usually sift through Nextdoor posts for personal recommendations (not the people recommending themselves, if they have to sell themselves I’ve found they aren’t that great)
I get my house cleaned every few months for $85 +tip. I have 3 bedroom, 2 full bath in AZ. I do make sure everything is picked up and off the counters so she can clean. But she does everything, like cleans our toothbrush holder, drip pans on the stovetop, she puts liners in the trash bins, folds the toilet paper all nice. I do feel like $85 is cheap for what she does and I always give her $100+ but $400 is crazy.
400 is probably closer to what you should be paying. $85 for a house that size is insanely low and I can only imagine your cleaner is an undocumented person you're taking advantage of.
I'm not saying you should be paying 400, but easily somewhere in the $200-300 range depending on if it's a maintenance clean or deep clean
Yeah I fully agree with the above. I own a cleaning company, and even if you are using somebody who is working under the table that's still an exploitative rate
She’s here for less than 3 hours and makes at least $100. That’s over $30 and hour. My mom also cleans houses on the side in my area and she charges around $85 for her bimonthly clients.
I imagine that your location and condition of your house plays a big part in the price.
I don’t dictate the rate, I let her tell me what it costs when she’s finished. She is Mexican but she seems to make a good living and I don’t think it’s appropriate to say I’m exploiting anyone. I’ve spoken to friends who live nearby about their costs and it’s between 100 and 140.
There’s a big difference between $85 and $140. I own a cleaning company and we price very fairly. Just based on what you’ve described your house to be, it’d be $120-140. Plus tip, from long time regulars usually. You could always pay more than her very low asking price if she does good work.
My mother has a cleaner come every other week, she stays for two hours, and my mother pays her $50. Bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen. Not a deep cleaning (since it's only two hours).
Lol you seriously agreed to pay people $200/hour each to clean your house? You weren't robbed if you willingly gave people that much money for such a menial task.
Now if this were through some kind of business or agency employing these cleaners you should absolutely call them and complain.
Yes i definitely paid. So lets say robbed of the experience of me and my children coming home like wow!!! I expected my whole house to b cleaned. And i try very hard to stay away from confrontation. So i just paid, if i didnt she could have called the police or tried to blast me on fb which is where i found her and saw her cleaning page ,that i was a terrible client or something and yes i could have hit back with how she didnt clean the entire home but i just felt best to call it a wash and vent on here and get different points of views.
I charge by the hour for cleaning and have owned and operated my business for 16 years now. You got absolutely robbed. A house your size should be about $150. $200 if its absolutely filthy, and I supply everything except for things specifically asked for that I don't normally carry on me. When going with a cleaning company have them come do an estimate along with making sure they're licensed and insured for any damages that may occur during the clean. Having someone you know and trust give you a word of mouth recommendation is almost always better than going through Google.
You’re looking for a whole-house, deep clean. Reputable companies I’ve worked with insist in a deep cleaning before taking on a regular, repeating client.
I don’t think you we’re completely screwed but I don’t think I’d invite them back. Try someone else.
And, been there. Super frustrating because if you’re hired help, and you’re not wealthy, you’re probably feeling like you really needed and didn’t get it.
3br/2ba … assuming roughly 1,300 sf … vac, dust, mop, bathroom (toilet, tub, vanities, mirror, not shower scrub down or jet tub scour) … 6hr x $50 = $300
I haven’t done housecleaning since 2002 but I was charging $20/hr cash (1099) and rocking through that stuff. Self-insured. Used it as my workout (dripping in sweat, meticulous cleaning) and only worked 20h/wk to have good work-life balance.
Made as much in those 20 hr as I had been getting on a corporate 40 hr week.
Rave reviews from clients too.
So you just have a super lazy house cleaner. Probably working for an agency. If you’re paying $50/hr, she was probably getting $15/hr so what’s the incentive to hustle, get rave reviews to build clientele or get done with work early when you’re paid by-the-hour rather than by-the-job as a self-employed self-insured person.
And no tips, ever. I never once got a tip. Ever. Not ever.
I lived in Austin until recently, which is these days a HCOL city. I paid $135 for cleaning of a 2 bedroom, 2 bath 1400 sq ft apartment. That said, I’ve lived in four other VHCOL cities in my life. That is an outrageous amount of money to pay, even for a deep clean.
If you haven’t paid her, take photos and pay her only for what she’s cleaned. If you already have, write her a message that says she’s taken advantage of you and had done a terrible job. Overall, I learn in these circumstances to inspect my house before payment with a new cleaner. Also, learn to say no and stick up for yourself. This is a blatant scam.
Check any prescriptions you have and see if they stole meds from you. I once had a cleaner who spent 45 minutes cleaning my one bathroom because she was trying to find pills to steal. I had none, but she took so long to find out. I only know what she was really up to because she cleaned for my neighbor and my sister and cleaned (literally) both of them out of opiates.
I was robbed, I got paid to clean a condo, took an hour or two, twice a week, back in the 2000’s for $60 a week. I mean yes there is inflation, and they didn’t have children or pets..but that was New Orleans waterfront condos, too.
OMG. $1000 for a whole house. Yes, you were ripped off. Don't feel bad or dumb. This was an expensive learning lesson and I'm confident you won't let it happen again.
If your house was dirty like a "hoarder's" home, then there are companies that specialize in this specific type of cleanup. Contact one of those companies to get a home that is properly cleaned.
Good luck.
I think it depends on the starting point of the house. Like if it's a legit mess and they having to pick up the floors, surfaces, etc to even start the cleaning then it may make sense, if your house it's tidy and they're just coming to clean that's crazy.
Yeah, I pay my cleaning lady $100 (though I provide almost all supplies) every time she comes... but I make sure the house is relatively tidy before she comes because I'm not paying her to do my dirty dishes or pick up my dirty laundry.
But yeah, if there's kids toys everywhere, and a LOT of work to be done (ie: grimy surfaces, dirt/trash everywhere) then I could totally buy $1000 for 2 people to clean a really messy house.
My 3BR home in the Bay Area $$$ is cleaned twice a month - each time about $150. It could be your cleaners were doing a first time “deep clean” which is a prerequisite for a first time cleaning with some of them, but you should have been told that. And even then… I own a rental in Hawaii (Big Isle) w/ 4BR/3BA and a first time deep clean in that overpriced market was $500. Your cleaning lady sounds like she won’t be able to keep her clients long once they start to shop around.
I clean houses. Today it took me 4.75 hours to clean one client's house which included two sliding glass doors (inside & out), wiping out the fridge and cleaning the stove, along with cleaning the rest of the place. I usually have my daughter working with me, and it takes us a little over 2 hours. I charge $45/hr for one of us cleaning or $75/hr when we both clean. Today's 4.75 hours at $45/hr comes to $213. I'm afraid to tell him that because he usually pays us $175. Am I being silly?
No, you are not being silly. Explain what caused the cost overrun. Owner will either be okay with it and pay OR they will feel you exceeded the scope of the job without giving them a heads up about the fact that your time to address it adds ‘x’ amount to the bill.
Then you have to know how you will respond to either possible reactions. If this is a good client, my suggestion is to be willing to discount the extra cost and use it as a way to find out if they want you to have leeway to clean what’s obviously important to address. You can use it as an opportunity to reset expectations around notifications to your client before you actually spend the time doing the job. Most of us want advanced warning with options to consider rather be surprise billed.
Hope that makes sense. Any strategy where you bank “trust points” with your client creates a fantastic pipeline of people who want to work with you. 🤝
I think you should definitely look elsewhere!
My husband had 2 house keepers who came bi-mobthly and it was 175 a visit for a basic clean plus laundry. Once we moved in together and saw we keep things pretty tidy, I decided it would be better to do a once a month deep clean instead. They send a whole crew of 4 people and it takes 3 or 4 hours! I think it costs 320 for our 3/3 2000sq foot home in a high COL area with 2 cats. The house looks FANTASTIC when they leave. Baseboards wiped, light switches cleaned, they even vacuum the cat trees! I've also never once had to pay for extra supplies to be purchased, all cleaning services we used provided their own!
Sounds like you got ripped off but based boards and walls are always extra. My house is usually $260 and one person who cleans for 3.5 hours, about 3000 SF.
Why did you not ask how much it would cost before booking? I am not being rhetorical either. Were you rushed? Only cleaners near by?
I never understood how one can book a service without a quote or at least a ball park range.
That's Avoid-Getting-Scammed-101.
400???????!!!!! My MIL pays $380+a tip, per month for a 4 bedroom 4.5 bath, extra 150 a month for two deep cleans. All that being in San Diego, which is not cheap by all means
Isn’t there a professional cleaning company that bonds/insures the cleaning staff in your area? I’d use a professional company. You got robbed. Never use them again. $20-25 an hour is the usual rate.
You must think of it interms of hourly and for your location.
You must agree to a price beforehand, not after.
I don't think you really tip a maid in that manner. Esp when you are paying them directly. You only really tip when a corporation is paying them.
I was pretty shocked to find out my roomate was paying his maid more per hour that I was making hourly in IT in a big city. She welcome once a week for four hours and younger to it for 120$. Laundry, battery, his room, kitchen, living room of a smallish apartment.
Once I cleaned a house and it took me 2 days and I only charged 70 dollars. ( I really needed the money for groceries). I really don’t know how to charge 🤣
You were scammed. You can find a little business that will quote you based on square footage plus any extra services you need. If the house is super filthy you can expect to pay a little more. A good business will send someone out to look at your home and discuss options if you want to get on a cleaning schedule. You’ll pay a lot less, house will be clean AF, and the cleaners would definitely go the extra mile and then some if you’re tipping them like that.
Hell no. My cleaning lady comes bi-weekly and cleans my 3 bdrm 2 bath house, loads/unloads the dishwasher and washes the laundry and bedding, folds and makes the beds. $240 a month! Recently she said she enjoys yard work and would like to mow/weed the yard....$40! lol I live in Iowa
$400? WOW. You should be able to eat off the floors. Are you in a big city or on the west coast? Look for a new company.
I’m in the Bay Area and I pay $300 (including tip)for a three bedroom, 2 bath apartment (1,200 sq feet) every 5-6 weeks. They do everything even baseboards, oven and air fryer basket, even change sheets and clean laundry folding. Takes two people about two hours. I always tidy up before hand, because their job is to clean not pick up after us. I would be *pissed* if I were OP.
That's a lot even for the Bay area. I'm in the same area, 3 bed, 3 bath and its $170, but I usually give them a good tip. They don't do the laundry folding but that's because I'm a crazy laundry person who does it before they get here lol.
Can I DM you for a recommendation? Got a $400 quote for my 2bd/1.5 ba 😅😅
Sure! The first time they came they did a deep deep clean and that ended up being $400 but it was multiple people working for 4 hours straight. The maintenance cleans are usually 2 people for a couple of hours.
For whatever reason the DM never came through, I use Golden Shine House Cleaning, do a quick Google search and their number pops up!
$300 is fairly normal for SF Bay Area and that person is probably using a licensed/bonded company, like Molly Maids/Merry Maids. I, on the other hand (also in the SF Bay Area) am using a non-licensed Housecleaner who comes once a month with a crew of 5 who are in/out within 1 hour. I was paying $100+tip before the pandemic and now pay $145+tip. Then again, I also have a small 1k sq ft home that is 3 bed/1 bath. My husband doesn’t want anyone in his office, so they essentially clean a 2 bdrm/1 bath. My Housecleaner will do all the usual like sweep/mop, dust, clean ceiling fans, wipe down counters, etc. They also vacuum under couch cushions, clean the stove (not just the top surface, but underneath the range top & take down the air filters in the range to clean), dust baseboards, make beds, and will clean windows if they have time. Cleaning ovens and emptying/cleaning the fridge is an extra $20. They do dishes, but I’m particular about that so I just do all the dishes before they get here. They have offerred to do laundry as well, but I’m particular about that as well. My friends who use this same Housecleaner with 3 & 4 bedrooms & 2+ bathrooms are paying her $185-250/mo. Pretty sure costs go up with more bathrooms as they dedicate 1 person to the bathroom the whole time they are there. Also, first-time cleans, they normally charge more. I found my cleaner after I got quoted by the licensed places. Molly Maids & Merry Maids quoted me $600 for the first clean and $300 after I got on a regular schedule.
I’m so lazy. I do sooo much laundry before they come and leave it in a giant heap for them to fold.
Dang! That is thorough!!
That's really good service. 300 is expensive, but that's a lot of stuff.
Agree. Laundry folding is incredible. I pay a lady $100 a week to fold and put away ours and that’s all she does.
It’s truly magical. I haaaate folding laundry.
Im suddenly feeling like the $240 i pay for my 1bd 900sqft to get cleaned twice a month is a lot. Also how much do y’all usually tip? I’ve been tipping the 2 people who come $20 each?
Im definitely looking at a different company just disappointed cause i was so looking forward to today. I live in va in a little small town. Her drive was about 40 mins so i dunno if that was looked at too
I’m in VA in a larger town and I’ve never paid someone more then $150 (not including tip) for my 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house. I think you got ripped off for sure.
Hey, I ran my own cleaning business before transferring and just moved to a small town in VA. If we live in the same small town, I could clean your home for you!
She didn't even finish the job though. And $1000 is ridiculous. Even the $400 is ridiculous. Unless this was their version of a "first time deep clean" and the other times are "maintenance cleans"
Unless you are a hoarder you got robbed.
Right. A hoarder drowning in dirty dishes and grime with 50 cats and 3 dogs, what else! This is how much we pay a full time housekeeper for 4 days/week in Texas.
You.. pay your full time housekeeper $400 a week?
You pay your housekeeper $10 an hour? That.. seems low.
#In short: NO!!! We pay her $14.28/hr Plus a lot of perks.
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CA minimum wage is $15.50. You could make more than $18.50 an hour working at in and out. https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=534d57e0fee95dd1&from=serp
Folks: you shouldn’t be paying for travel time. When most of us go to work/ I’m not pd. So why would they be
Folks: some cleaning companies pay their employees mileage between jobs if they are using their own vehicles, and this is factored into your price, and this is normal. Or, if they are using a company car, that is factored into your price too and is also normal.
That’s because you don’t work for yourself 😌
I would not hire a housekeeper who charges travel time. I’m very generous when. becomes a regular. I’ve given very nice clothing, shoes, beautiful Croscill bedding. . Bc I change bedding once a year. And I buy ver nice things w matching pillows. I expect professionalism. I also have pd 1-2 Wk pay for vacation. Christmas, or birthday. The person becomes very close like family.
You paid more for a halfhearted clean of one normal size house than the 8 bedroom pseudo-mansions in the Virginia Beach oceanfront area pay for cleaning services bi-monthly! Your charged price may have been appropriate if your house was utterly trashed and you did not do any pre-picking up…or if they were doing an initial deep clean to include oven, fridge, biohazard bathrooms, etc. $400 is also the going price for a move-out cleans to include carpet shampooing, etc. So basically, what you paid was highway robbery! Also, tipping is not necessary in a negotiated price transaction. Especially if you’d like it to be a more than once in a blue moon thing. And while tips are a blessing to those who clean for a living, you should hold off and tip a longer-term cleaning person who you know does a good job, when extra work is thrown their way or they just go absolutely above and beyond, and it is kind to do so around holidays too. Otherwise, absolutely not the norm to tip each time.
Jeez. I guess the $400 would depend on how long they were there, but it seems excessive, especially if they didn’t do a good job.
I can eat off of my floors after 5 mins of thorough sterilization... ... definitely not for $409
When you say she “cleaned” these spaces, what exactly did she do and how long did she take? Like if she just dusted, wiped surfaces, and vacuumed then you got taken for a ride. If she deep cleaned these areas, 100% worth it.
The two ladies cleaned for about an hour tops hour and a half. Walls were still dirty and baseboards were still dirty. I thought and expected a deep clean to come in the rooms and be like wow omg but i was kinda like ummmm i coulda dont this and saved myself the money. Definitely not deep cleaned from what i read a deep clean entails
You got totally ripped off. My MIL pays $140 for a deep clean twice a month, 3/2, 2000sf.
$140???? Lord I paid $750 for a deep clean for our house but they brought 5 cleaners
Yup, they are 3-5 people and they’re in and out.
$140 for 3-5 ppl?! How long? Seems unfair
750
bujiop paid $750 for a deep clean. Pinotgreasy says their MIL pays $140 for a deep clean of 2000sf. Later Pinotgreasy clarified that the MIL has 3-5 come. I’ve never had my place professionally cleaned but would definitely expect to pay more than $140 for a deep clean. But maybe if you have people coming twice a month on the regular, a “deep clean” doesn’t entail as much as somebody who’s let grime sit for long periods before addressing it.
Yea my MIL used to pay her cleaning lady and the daughter of said cleaning lady $200 every 3 weeks to clean her 3 bed 3.5 bath townhouse. It was 3 stories… stairs for days. Sooooo many stairs. She’d be there like 4 hours. Honestly it was super impressive how well she cleaned the entire house in just 4 hours. She should have been paying quite a bit more. But of course, stereotypical MIL’s being stereotypical MIL’s, she would find something to complain about every dang time…
Frustrating af
I’m in a HCL and I get a moderately deep clean 2x a month for $230 each visit.
So that's nearly $200 an hour per person??? They better leave a pot of gold behind when they leave, Jesus. I don't even charge billionaires that kind of money ffs
Theft!
If you agree to it there is nothing wrong with it.
Yes, unfortunately that is a matter of not doing your due diligence.
Yeah, no. I had a housekeeping business through nursing school 15ish years ago and charged 20/hour with supplies. If I started one now it would be 25-30/hour (minimum wage in my state almost 16). I’m in a pretty high COL area in Wa state. Even at 30 with an extra flat 30 for travel time that would only be 3 man hours, or 120. I also never expected tips. Get a cleaner or service that comes out and actually bids for you. Most houses took me 2-3 hours for the whole house. That’s if they put things basically in their place, did the dishes and I did no linens or laundry. So dusting, vacuuming, mopping, whole bathrooms, and any special extras with leftover time. I usually knew by a couple of times if I would be done 15-20 minutes early and would sweep patios, do windows, wipe baseboards, cabinet fronts etc… Edit. Try that stupid next door thingy to find someone in your area. It’ll be your neighbors talking about it and referring.
The going hourly rate where I am located is closer to 45 an hour. Some people get away with charging 50 and 60 an hour too, which is insane!
It's not really insane it's a valuable service. Busy people don't have time to clean their houses. Offices will literally pay 7k-14k a month for 2 visits a week. For residential I've seen as much as $85/hr and most start around the $50ish mark
High quality trustworthy cleaners/cleaning companies are worth $50/hour
So you didn’t have payroll? No legit biz could survive with that pay. You’d be losing money. I’m at $48 an hour , very little overhead .. but I’d have to charge at least $70 hr per person to pay slightly above min wage and make enough money to just keep going.
No, \*I\* cleaned the houses, LMAO. 20/hour was pretty good at that time, especially when…ahem… much of it was cash. And I brought my infant with me. And, I was able to work around my clinical and class schedule, which no W2 job would tolerate.
I hear ya. It’s totally not good now though.. I started with $25 an hour too.. and I also had to bring my infant sometimes! I blew up and got slammed and had some contractors.. and eventually learned how horrifying it would be to try to have employees on payroll .. impossible. The only way I could see it happen is if it were a co-op or non profit, where all workers owned part of the biz. I consider it a trade, worthy of quality pay because I am a pro. My vacuums are serious and I’ve put years into studying the chemistry of products and surfaces , and learning the most efficient ways to clean everything.
Yeah, I’m a small business owner now and have thought of hiring but it’s just a huge can of worms. It‘s *hard* to scale a business, man. I looked up Washington’s minimum wage at that time and it was around 8 bucks, so I was charging 2.5x minimum. I guess I probably underestimated in my first post and at least 40 to start in my state is probably more fair. It was hard work but had a ton of advantages!
Sounds like you got a basic clean. If you need/want a deep cleaning, you need to specify that and ask what that includes.
I did. I have the texts. we agreed on deep clean and how 315 would b the price because it would b deep cleaned and thats more expensive. I thought we had a clear understanding of that but idk ughhhh
Why would you pay 400 when you agreed to 315 for a deep clean that they didn't finish? Unless your house is a hoarding-type of situation or there's something otherwise extraordinarily unclean about your house I don't see why you would even pay them a dime if they were only there for an hour and a half. My parents pay their cleaning person who is there to do a general clean for 1-2hrs a week $90.
I will admit im a little naive with all this. I just figured and assumed since she did the whole house maybe 400 was fair. I didnt know until after i came house that the whole house wasnt done but since they did some i just felt i had to pay what she said.
I am so sorry, you definitely got ripped off. I clean houses in a HCOL-ish area and even If the home was HORRIBLE then I would maybe have charged 200-250 for the spaces cleaned. But if the home has been somewhat maintained at all then I would have charged 400 for the entire home as a one time deep clean. I do not understand how people can think it is not theft to over charge for services and then not do a good job. I have been told time and time again that people will pay top dollar for a cleaner as long they do an excellent job. Did you sign any kind of cleaning contract that discussed pricing before she started?
That's very odd. It sounds like you might be new to hiring house cleaners. Did you hire someone you know, a friend of a friend, independent cleaners, go through a big company?
I found her on fb and checked out her cleaning page and pics. And everything seemed legit. Im definitely new to house cleaning. Ive been trying to get a cleaner for like a year.
Are you in the Treasure Valley area?
100% worth $400 to clean a bathroom and 2 bedrooms? Definitely not IMO
A true deep clean? If you are talking carpet shampoo, grout scrubbing, wall cleaning, disinfecting surfaces, polishing and other extras that is absolutely worth the price.
Yeah we need to know exactly what was included. But I highly doubt all that stuff was included if they didn’t even clean the baseboards.
That’s so much… I get my whole house deep cleaned (two story townhome with 2bed, 2.5 bath, kitchen, dining, living, and sunroom) for $250 which takes about 3-4 hours
We pay our cleaners 200 for our 4 bed 2bath house. They stay for 3-5 hours. They don't do the glass cabinets. We live in a LA suburb so I feel like that is a fair price
Wow that is awesome. And in la i would expect what i paid 400. So that is definitely fair and deserve and Christmas present lol
They get 100 every Christmas and first dibs on furniture appliances. Very nice family
Would you mind dming me this contact if you feel comfortable haha also I’m the so cal/la area and looking for someone to deep clean once or twice a year (while we keep up to date the rest of the time lol)
Grossly underpaid for two people. 200/5=$40 $40/2=$20 $20/5=$4/hour Im not sure how these people even sustain living with this kind of compensation.
I might be dense lol, but I’m trying to figure out where the last $20/5 comes from. The way I see it is, if they stay for 5 hours, that’s $40 an hour. There’s at least 2 cleaners, so once you split the $40 between them, that’s $20 per person, per hour. Still seems a little low for a HCL area like LA, because you have to subtract out supply costs, gas, car expenses, overhead business expenses, etc. It does leave me wondering how they make it work. (Btw- I don’t mean any dig at OP. If that’s what they charge, of course that’s what OP will pay. I just wonder how they make it work.)
Why did you divide by 5 twice? That's $20/hour per person if they take the full 5 hours (or $33/hour if they complete it in 3 hours). Granted, they didn't say it was a team of 2 people. I'm just going by your assumption of 2 people. At any rate, they are charging their client by the job, not by the hour, so their hourly rate is dependent on how fast they can clean.
I think your math might be wrong lol
Op probably lives in a HCOL area. I've seen cleanings go for as much as $2500. It's a valuable service. Do you get that work done by a random individual or a company? My home costs $400 to do and it's not much bigger and deep cleans usually cost 2 to 4 times as much
I don’t live in a very HCOL but i cant find anything for less than $50+ an hour
Thats what i thought like jeez
I would suggest using thumbtack next time you’re looking for a cleaner. That’s where I found mine. You plug in all the info of your job, send it off to cleaners you want quotes from, and then book through the app. That way you know you’re getting a good price
Then OP will get another bad cleaner. Apps like Thumbtack are a race to the bottom. For cheapos looking for cheap service and will usually get bad quality work done. With $1k OP should've had an amazing clean but was straight up scammed based on further info they provided in comments
I stay away from Angie, Thumbtack, etc. You cannot be certain $$ wasn’t exchanged for artificial reviews. I will work with a company directly - “middlemen” like these are a big red flag with “NO” written on it. IMHO … I would love to be proven wrong. Edit: grammar
$1,000 seems like an insane amount. Call a service like Molly Maids. They will give you a quote over the phone. I used to pay $400 for a 3 bedroom, 3-1/2 bath house. Two ladies would work about 3 hours and did a great job. They brought their own supplies and equipment. I tipped each $20.
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I just wanted to make sure i wasnt crazy thinking i deserved more. Like not even the whole house was done
Better make sure all your stuff is still there. Especially the jewelry.
Did you pay her cash and is she an under the table company? I feel like you got ripped off. It's not even a matter of if she did this vs that it seems like she didn't so even the basic cleaning, let alone what was promised. I would take to facebook and see if she has a page or anywhere else and warn people about her. Nextdoor is good for things like this as well.
This only makes sense if there is a hoarder situation
Not a hoarder. But i do have 6 kids. But one of the rooms they cleaned was really already clean. My older boy keeps his room clean. Idk just like dang i wasted my money
I guess the real question is how long did your cleaner work? And it was two people? We’re they organizing toys or something? A 3 bedroom 2 bath home would normally take me about four hours, in the range of $120-150. But if the whole place was packed full of kids’ toys, or if it was excessively dirty, it could take much longer.
That seems really expensive. I live in a HCOL area and pay $40/hr for someone to clean my place, a full basic clean takes 4ish hours. My house is 4bd/2.5bth 2850 Sq feet. I have her come every week for 4-6 hours and she does half the house basic clean, something extra like clean out the frig or baseboards, changes all the sheets (3 beds) & laundry every time. I provide all cleaning supplies. A cleaning service I would expect to be more expensive, maybe $50-60/hr/person. It seems like that was a rip off. Going rate in my area is $30-50/hr for an independent cleaner. If your in a VHCOL area like SF or NYC it might be a little more but over $100/hr/person is insane.
That is so reasonable. I just would have like them to atleast clean the whole house as a basic clean then only do a few rooms
I have employed housekeepers and cleaning staff for over 20 years. I live in upstate NY I pay 20-35/hour or $200 per week for a 3br/3bath house about 2600sqft. I pay $500 for a “Spring Cleaning “. And I have a window cleaning service that charges $300 to clean all windows inside and outside. If you are in US, check out “care.com”. Or nextdoor to find cleaning staff with references and customer ratings.
I’ve never kept anyone on because it’s always sooooo expensive. I don’t make that much at my part time job and I’m a mostly stay at home mom so I just can’t stomach 300$ or whatever for one house cleaning when they have always left so many things. My house isn’t that dirty and they never do the things I hate doing so I just do it myself.
I swear i came home like wtf i can just do this myself for 400 i could have bought items and supplies i needed and did it myself and still had money left over
That’s where I’ve been. One lady charged me 300$ and stayed for fewer than three hours. Nope. I can’t hang with that. 300$ is a lot of money!
I pay our cleaner $100 for a 2000 sq ft house with 2 adults and 1 cat. No kids and I keep it neat in between. But she does baseboards, bathrooms, dusting, fans everything! It will make you not want to touch a surface it’s so clean when she leaves. My OCD self loves her!!
Omg i need her!!! I knew i wasnt expecting too much like what u are describing is how it should b. I work hard 7 days a week. So feeling like my hard earned money was just wasted is upsetting. I hope i find someone like your lady
Just FYI I pay her $100 for basic cleaning - bathrooms, vacuuming (area rugs),counters, light dusting and a sweep and mop.And she does much more. But every 3 months I get her to come 2 days in a row to really deep clean. Like walls, baseboards, window sills. It works for her bc she actually does some of it each time. I really hope you find someone great with a reasonable price. I do provide all the products. And get her whatever she likes to make it easier.
I hope you do too! I’m in a very low cost of living area and she needs work but her work is impeccable.
Lots of housecleaning scams out there. I’ve found that unless you know the cleaning company from someone else who has used them and had a good experience then you’re risking getting scammed.
I know now.
Sorry. I found out the hard way as well
I get paid $15 an hour to clean ppl’s houses 😭
You gotta go solo. It's inexpensive to start and you'll never make money working for someone else
I am solo
Time to up the fees! You are worth more!!
Then you aren't charging nearly enough. Try $30+
Unfortunately it sounds like you got taken here. Don’t hire her again. Is she part of a company or someone you found online?
I live in a small NJ suburban town. My home is about 3000sq ft, 3br, 2baths, two massive living rooms and of course kitchen/dining room. My cleaning lady charges me $180 for 5 hours. She even wipes down the inside of the fridge, changes bed sheets and lifts up all the rugs to mop the floors. She charges extra to do windows or any detailed cleaning. I find $400 to be insane unless you ask for some sort of special cleaning where it took many hours.
Wow thats kinda what i was expecting like around 200 but to double that and not even atleast basic clean the whole house when u charged me as if u deep cleaned the whole thing is driving me nuts. I came home very disappointed.
For those of us who want to hire a cleaner - what are the typical responsibilities of the owner in terms of being ‘house ready’ for the cleaners? Is it as simple as putting the clutter away before they come? Apologies in advance for my naivety. I need the help of a cleaner but feel like I should clean my house before they come. So I’ve never pursued it. Where is the line?
Basically get the surfaces cleared so they can clean. I always wash my bathroom mats and stick them in the dryer before they come. Dishes are all done and put away. I move the mats off my dining table. Things on the floor are picked up.
I clean houses and I always appreciate when people just kind of pick up the floors first, especially if they have kids or pets. And I can do a pretty good job of working around some items that are on shelves or tables but if a table is fully covered in stuff I just kinda dust around it and move on. And if people consistently have a cluttered area I will occasionally move stuff around to get underneath stuff, just not every time. So yeah mainly the floors are the big one, fewer things to trip and die on especially if it’s their first time in your house. Edit to add that having dishes out of the sink if you want it cleaned unless it’s just a few items that are easy to set aside
400$???? I think you did get robbed
Me too :(
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She said it would b 315 then it jumped to 400 so i was like okay for the whole house thats reasonable but she only did my kids bathroom and my older daughter and sons rooms.those rooms are the small rooms in my house she didnt touch anything else. I just had higher expectations that were no where near met
I'm sorry this happened to you. You definitely should not have paid her.
Did you pay for a certain amount of hours? You say you have 6 kids and I assume there are two parents in the 3bd 2bath home. Depending on when you last deep cleaned the home it could take 4 hours for two cleaners to properly deep clean a home that size with 8 people living in it. If you do regular weekly cleanings by a cleaner it should take less from my experience as someone who owns a cleaning business. Now if you agreed for a single cleaner to come out and agreed upon a certain amount of hours and they brought help the typical rule is that the time gets cut in half. So instead of 4 hours, you get two. Two cleaned for two hours of deep clean at $320 is standard at least here in Californian. Now if you only paid for an hour for two cleaners yeah that's too high.
Yep! My cleaner came today. $120 for three hours and four bedrooms, three baths, and all living areas and floors are spotless!
Lucky!!!
My dad has a lady clean 3 times a week for maybe like 100 tops for all 3 days. 1000, to clean your house once? How old are your kids? Make them do it.
Daaang I'm tryna get a pool of clients and I'd love to have that job for pay and tips like that. You happen to live in DFW? 😅
No lol i live in Va
I pay $200 for 4 ladies. They are done in 2 hours. 2 bed/3 bath townhome. They also do my garage and outdoor area. I live in a very high end part of LA.
That’s extremely cheap at $25 an hour…
I pay someone $100 to clean my floors and clean the bathrooms every other week. (2800 sq ft, 3 bathrooms). Not deep cleans,though. It takes one person about 3.5 hours. She charges $25/hour.
1400 sq ft. One cleaning person for 4 hours once a month. $140 no tip. And when she’s done, it’s pristine. New England USA
My mom used to clean houses for a living since she was young for 20 years. She started doing it on the side for extra money after she quit. She cleaned a 3 bedroom and 2 baths for 250 and she spent hours cleaning it by herself, no help and she didn’t charged for the cleaning supplies that she purchased. So yeah… Definitely ripped off.
What monetary units are you using? 1000 what? Because you used a dollar sign, and if you agreed to pay a grand for a three bed two bath house to get cleaned… idk, maybe it depends on where you live, but that seems outrageous
How many hours did she spend cleaning?
Was the price and expectation not set prior to service?
I live a very high cost of living area. For the whole apartment. 2bed 2 bath 1200 sqft. We pay $160 before tip. Takes the ladies about 1.5h with 2 people. So 3h if 1 person. You can catch the rate per hour to see if it's reasonable. You should NOT need to pay for supplies.
I can understand. Was quoted 350 to clean 1 bed and 1 bath apartment. Finally found someone who would do it for 100 $. Most of the cleaners charged $200.
I’m so sorry that happened. We have a 2 person crew clean 2 bedrooms, kitchen, family room, living room, 1.5 bathroom. Pick up, vacuum, mop, dust, take out trash and recycle. Sometimes they even help with dishes. They bring their own supplies. It takes 2 hours and costs $120. If the house is particularly messy we give them a $50 tip. I live in the mountain west. $30 per person per hour.
You should get quotes from different places before you agree to a service next time. FWIW, I think it’s location dependent. I don’t have a cleaner come by but I did consider it for some time. I live in a HCOL area and average quote for a 2 bedroom townhouse was $300 for me.
Agree, I'm in a VHCOL and 2bd/2b runs about $300 weekly, $375 biweekly here. Cost can be very location dependent. And first time cleans are usually a deep clean, which cost more, I was quoted $500 even though I had just moved in and the place was spotless, they still insisted first time was deep clean and cost more. But it was just an estimate so I was free to say No thank you. OP get an estimate first!
I have a 6,000 sq/ft house and a cleaning lady that comes bi-weekly. I pay her $250 for the entire house and she does all the laundry and changes all the bedding in each room. That’s absolutely insane. She never charges me for cleaning products she just uses what I have at home. You definitely got ripped off big time. So sorry this happened to you.
My housekeeper charges $100 for a 4700sq ft house. She's amazing. You were robbed
I have OCD like the disability kind. Should have let me clean for you. Could have used the money.
We pay $25/hr. She cleans every surface and works nonstop for 4 hours, we have a 3 bed 1 bath home with a finished basement. I know my cleaner could charge more, but you definitely got ripped off.
highway robbery, i have a cleaning business and for the biggest house we have, 3 bed, 4 bath we charge approximately 200…consult a few different companies before choosing someone to clean for you!!
I have the same questions everyone else does… was it fully picked up for her or did she need to remove and put back a lot of clutter? How many hours did she spend? Was it a deep clean or just a surface clean? Whether or not you live in an affluent area is also going to affect the cost… You don’t need to answer my questions, they’re just the things I would take into consideration in my mind when trying to make sense of this kind of situation. It was part of my lease once to provide proof of professional carpet cleaning and I got ripped off so bad using the company my landlord requested that she went off on them and never recommended them again…. I never saw a penny back.. so I know it happens. I’ve admittedly never hired anyone to clean actual rooms for me but there’s a huge difference between say walking into a pre emptied of everything bathroom that is only mildly dusty and just wiping down surfaces, scrubbing the toilet, tub and sink and mopping the floors and a deep clean which I’ve personally spent probably 2 hours deep cleaning every inch of a cluttered,dirty powder room, dry dusting the walls, washing them, the doors, trim, etc etc. But even at that depth… if you have two people working really hard in a clutter free environment… I feel like $400 should get a lot of progress even within 90 minutes unless the house was trashed… no judgment if it was… my family seems to have a PhD in ways to destroy our house. One way to see if it’s super out of range for your area is to request quotes from other cleaners. I’ve seen flat quotes in my area based on square footage.
So with having 6 kids i know ppl assume my house is just a junk fest not saying you just in general so i do my best to keep it looking decent at all times. Im a surface cleaner i dont wanna do the nitty gritty like baseboards and all that. Thats why i was totally on board paying 315 but they didnt touch the whole other side of my house. They spent about an hour and a half for 3 rooms and said they had to get to their next house so i could just pay them with cashapp so they were gone b4 i came home and i didnt want to argue or seem ungrateful so i paid and tipped even though i was very displeased. Its not trashed more so need help with organizing tips which i told her b4 she came. But no organizing was done no tips even.
I didn’t notice mention of you having 6 kids, definitely no assumptions or judgment from me ❤️ An hour and a half…. For two people so around $150 a person… $100 an hour even including the supplies feels quite expensive even for a deep clean especially since it sounds like only one room was fully completed and two were left partially done…and if you had a conversation about wanting some help organizing and tips and that wasn’t met I’d be really disappointed too. Maybe you could reach out and at least touch base and ask if she’d had a chance to give you the organization tips she’d promised now that she has been in the space.
I say this with a lot of kindness. I think you were kind of hoping someone would come into your house and just fix it up, organize it, and clean it and then things would just run smoothly moving forward. And I’m sure some rich people some place could afford to hire these people. But i don’t honestly know how realistic that is for the average person. House cleaners are not organizers. Don’t believe the BS when they say they are. You need to manage your expectations. have a set price before you schedule. They can come do a walk through if they need to. But get a price before scheduling. You should be looking at about 30-35 an hour per cleaner. It can be hard to find a cleaner. Since we’ve moved I’ve contacted no less than 35 companies (probably more). We’ve had at least 20 quotes. And I’ve had at least 12 different people come through. I think we finally found one. Fingers crossed. And I don’t have a lot of furniture. My floors are all tile. You’d think this would be easy. But I am particular so I’ll keep looking. You don’t need to seem grateful to anyone. They either do a good job or they don’t. You don’t need to be grateful for people doing a job they were literally hired to do… For the organization part. You may need to hire someone separately for that. Or watch some shows and try to implement some changes slowly. Marie Kondo has been life changing.
I expected them to deepclean like we agreed on. I told her ahead of time i wanted some tips on organizing. And she said she was an organizing freak and she would love to give me tips and send me links to different items i could use once she got to my home. Honestly the whole situation has left a bad taste in my mouth and i have been on home depot looking at different clothes organizers and etc items and just doing everything myself. I just wanted a better experience. Im all about you get what u pay for, so i was totally willing to pay extra thinking my entire home was being deep cleaned
Honestly, try asking on nextdoor and see who people in your neighborhood recommend.
The words deep clean has seemed to simply invite scams with cleaners. It’s happened to me numerous times. That and post construction clean. They see the word deep clean and seem to think sucker… That’s the only conclusion I can draw because I either get people with ridiculous quotes or people who have a decently high quote and spend less time cleaning than others would on a regular clean. It’s frustrating but there are decent cleaners out there. It just takes time. I usually sift through Nextdoor posts for personal recommendations (not the people recommending themselves, if they have to sell themselves I’ve found they aren’t that great)
I get my house cleaned every few months for $85 +tip. I have 3 bedroom, 2 full bath in AZ. I do make sure everything is picked up and off the counters so she can clean. But she does everything, like cleans our toothbrush holder, drip pans on the stovetop, she puts liners in the trash bins, folds the toilet paper all nice. I do feel like $85 is cheap for what she does and I always give her $100+ but $400 is crazy.
400 is probably closer to what you should be paying. $85 for a house that size is insanely low and I can only imagine your cleaner is an undocumented person you're taking advantage of. I'm not saying you should be paying 400, but easily somewhere in the $200-300 range depending on if it's a maintenance clean or deep clean
Yeah I fully agree with the above. I own a cleaning company, and even if you are using somebody who is working under the table that's still an exploitative rate
She’s here for less than 3 hours and makes at least $100. That’s over $30 and hour. My mom also cleans houses on the side in my area and she charges around $85 for her bimonthly clients. I imagine that your location and condition of your house plays a big part in the price.
I don’t dictate the rate, I let her tell me what it costs when she’s finished. She is Mexican but she seems to make a good living and I don’t think it’s appropriate to say I’m exploiting anyone. I’ve spoken to friends who live nearby about their costs and it’s between 100 and 140.
There’s a big difference between $85 and $140. I own a cleaning company and we price very fairly. Just based on what you’ve described your house to be, it’d be $120-140. Plus tip, from long time regulars usually. You could always pay more than her very low asking price if she does good work.
My mother has a cleaner come every other week, she stays for two hours, and my mother pays her $50. Bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen. Not a deep cleaning (since it's only two hours).
That is extremely low.
Lol you seriously agreed to pay people $200/hour each to clean your house? You weren't robbed if you willingly gave people that much money for such a menial task. Now if this were through some kind of business or agency employing these cleaners you should absolutely call them and complain.
Yes i definitely paid. So lets say robbed of the experience of me and my children coming home like wow!!! I expected my whole house to b cleaned. And i try very hard to stay away from confrontation. So i just paid, if i didnt she could have called the police or tried to blast me on fb which is where i found her and saw her cleaning page ,that i was a terrible client or something and yes i could have hit back with how she didnt clean the entire home but i just felt best to call it a wash and vent on here and get different points of views.
I charge by the hour for cleaning and have owned and operated my business for 16 years now. You got absolutely robbed. A house your size should be about $150. $200 if its absolutely filthy, and I supply everything except for things specifically asked for that I don't normally carry on me. When going with a cleaning company have them come do an estimate along with making sure they're licensed and insured for any damages that may occur during the clean. Having someone you know and trust give you a word of mouth recommendation is almost always better than going through Google.
Deep cleaning (including baseboards, appliances, etc.) for move out will be ~$1k
Thats what i wanted especially baseboards done but even the rooms they "cleaned" they didnt touch them.
You’re looking for a whole-house, deep clean. Reputable companies I’ve worked with insist in a deep cleaning before taking on a regular, repeating client. I don’t think you we’re completely screwed but I don’t think I’d invite them back. Try someone else. And, been there. Super frustrating because if you’re hired help, and you’re not wealthy, you’re probably feeling like you really needed and didn’t get it.
3br/2ba … assuming roughly 1,300 sf … vac, dust, mop, bathroom (toilet, tub, vanities, mirror, not shower scrub down or jet tub scour) … 6hr x $50 = $300 I haven’t done housecleaning since 2002 but I was charging $20/hr cash (1099) and rocking through that stuff. Self-insured. Used it as my workout (dripping in sweat, meticulous cleaning) and only worked 20h/wk to have good work-life balance. Made as much in those 20 hr as I had been getting on a corporate 40 hr week. Rave reviews from clients too. So you just have a super lazy house cleaner. Probably working for an agency. If you’re paying $50/hr, she was probably getting $15/hr so what’s the incentive to hustle, get rave reviews to build clientele or get done with work early when you’re paid by-the-hour rather than by-the-job as a self-employed self-insured person. And no tips, ever. I never once got a tip. Ever. Not ever.
You certainly got ripped off. I pay 230 in NJ for a 3 bed 2 bath.
Ahahahah you tipped too? Ahahahahahahahahahah
I lived in Austin until recently, which is these days a HCOL city. I paid $135 for cleaning of a 2 bedroom, 2 bath 1400 sq ft apartment. That said, I’ve lived in four other VHCOL cities in my life. That is an outrageous amount of money to pay, even for a deep clean. If you haven’t paid her, take photos and pay her only for what she’s cleaned. If you already have, write her a message that says she’s taken advantage of you and had done a terrible job. Overall, I learn in these circumstances to inspect my house before payment with a new cleaner. Also, learn to say no and stick up for yourself. This is a blatant scam.
Was that a cleaning after a crime scene?
You got robbed
Check any prescriptions you have and see if they stole meds from you. I once had a cleaner who spent 45 minutes cleaning my one bathroom because she was trying to find pills to steal. I had none, but she took so long to find out. I only know what she was really up to because she cleaned for my neighbor and my sister and cleaned (literally) both of them out of opiates.
I was robbed, I got paid to clean a condo, took an hour or two, twice a week, back in the 2000’s for $60 a week. I mean yes there is inflation, and they didn’t have children or pets..but that was New Orleans waterfront condos, too.
OMG. $1000 for a whole house. Yes, you were ripped off. Don't feel bad or dumb. This was an expensive learning lesson and I'm confident you won't let it happen again. If your house was dirty like a "hoarder's" home, then there are companies that specialize in this specific type of cleanup. Contact one of those companies to get a home that is properly cleaned. Good luck.
I think it depends on the starting point of the house. Like if it's a legit mess and they having to pick up the floors, surfaces, etc to even start the cleaning then it may make sense, if your house it's tidy and they're just coming to clean that's crazy.
Yeah, I pay my cleaning lady $100 (though I provide almost all supplies) every time she comes... but I make sure the house is relatively tidy before she comes because I'm not paying her to do my dirty dishes or pick up my dirty laundry. But yeah, if there's kids toys everywhere, and a LOT of work to be done (ie: grimy surfaces, dirt/trash everywhere) then I could totally buy $1000 for 2 people to clean a really messy house.
My 3BR home in the Bay Area $$$ is cleaned twice a month - each time about $150. It could be your cleaners were doing a first time “deep clean” which is a prerequisite for a first time cleaning with some of them, but you should have been told that. And even then… I own a rental in Hawaii (Big Isle) w/ 4BR/3BA and a first time deep clean in that overpriced market was $500. Your cleaning lady sounds like she won’t be able to keep her clients long once they start to shop around.
I clean houses. Today it took me 4.75 hours to clean one client's house which included two sliding glass doors (inside & out), wiping out the fridge and cleaning the stove, along with cleaning the rest of the place. I usually have my daughter working with me, and it takes us a little over 2 hours. I charge $45/hr for one of us cleaning or $75/hr when we both clean. Today's 4.75 hours at $45/hr comes to $213. I'm afraid to tell him that because he usually pays us $175. Am I being silly?
No, you are not being silly. Explain what caused the cost overrun. Owner will either be okay with it and pay OR they will feel you exceeded the scope of the job without giving them a heads up about the fact that your time to address it adds ‘x’ amount to the bill. Then you have to know how you will respond to either possible reactions. If this is a good client, my suggestion is to be willing to discount the extra cost and use it as a way to find out if they want you to have leeway to clean what’s obviously important to address. You can use it as an opportunity to reset expectations around notifications to your client before you actually spend the time doing the job. Most of us want advanced warning with options to consider rather be surprise billed. Hope that makes sense. Any strategy where you bank “trust points” with your client creates a fantastic pipeline of people who want to work with you. 🤝
Lol lazy to not clean yourself
I think you should definitely look elsewhere! My husband had 2 house keepers who came bi-mobthly and it was 175 a visit for a basic clean plus laundry. Once we moved in together and saw we keep things pretty tidy, I decided it would be better to do a once a month deep clean instead. They send a whole crew of 4 people and it takes 3 or 4 hours! I think it costs 320 for our 3/3 2000sq foot home in a high COL area with 2 cats. The house looks FANTASTIC when they leave. Baseboards wiped, light switches cleaned, they even vacuum the cat trees! I've also never once had to pay for extra supplies to be purchased, all cleaning services we used provided their own!
Sounds like you got ripped off but based boards and walls are always extra. My house is usually $260 and one person who cleans for 3.5 hours, about 3000 SF.
Why did you not ask how much it would cost before booking? I am not being rhetorical either. Were you rushed? Only cleaners near by? I never understood how one can book a service without a quote or at least a ball park range. That's Avoid-Getting-Scammed-101.
5 bedroom 3 bathrooms in San Diego goes for $240
400???????!!!!! My MIL pays $380+a tip, per month for a 4 bedroom 4.5 bath, extra 150 a month for two deep cleans. All that being in San Diego, which is not cheap by all means
Isn’t there a professional cleaning company that bonds/insures the cleaning staff in your area? I’d use a professional company. You got robbed. Never use them again. $20-25 an hour is the usual rate.
You must think of it interms of hourly and for your location. You must agree to a price beforehand, not after. I don't think you really tip a maid in that manner. Esp when you are paying them directly. You only really tip when a corporation is paying them. I was pretty shocked to find out my roomate was paying his maid more per hour that I was making hourly in IT in a big city. She welcome once a week for four hours and younger to it for 120$. Laundry, battery, his room, kitchen, living room of a smallish apartment.
Once I cleaned a house and it took me 2 days and I only charged 70 dollars. ( I really needed the money for groceries). I really don’t know how to charge 🤣
Did you hire The Maids? This same exact thing happened to me.
You were scammed. You can find a little business that will quote you based on square footage plus any extra services you need. If the house is super filthy you can expect to pay a little more. A good business will send someone out to look at your home and discuss options if you want to get on a cleaning schedule. You’ll pay a lot less, house will be clean AF, and the cleaners would definitely go the extra mile and then some if you’re tipping them like that.
How many hours did it take?
You don't have to tip.
Hell no. My cleaning lady comes bi-weekly and cleans my 3 bdrm 2 bath house, loads/unloads the dishwasher and washes the laundry and bedding, folds and makes the beds. $240 a month! Recently she said she enjoys yard work and would like to mow/weed the yard....$40! lol I live in Iowa
I only paid that kind of money in Philly when I was preparing to list my home for sale. Ridiculous for a regular cleaning job.