Soooo I hired a cleaning lady to come tonight and now I am nervous.... LOL or slightly embarassed! I don't know someone comming into my own home to clean! EEK! This was my mothers day gift, sounded good at them time, now I am freaking! Have any of you done this? If so what did you have her do? My daycare is in my home, not a seperate area!! We talked about what she will do and she asked for me to leave a list on the counter, ahhh I don't know, she will be here at 5pm, right after I close daycare!! Tell me this is good, very, very good and I deserve this! I don't know why all of a sudden I am getting cold feet for this.....

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when I have my cleaning \lady come I only have her clean areas where i dont keep personal expensive things and also have her clean things that I don't get to clean as often as I would like.
example:.
stove insiode and out
microwave inside and out
wipe down cabinets
clean showers
I have high celings so I have her dust the cob webs if any
basically I have her clean things that take a lot of effort or I don't like doing myself....lol

i never allow for her to go in my office or my bedrooms

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Kitchen, bathrooms, baseboards, and windows, absolutely. SO jealous.

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I have the cleaning lady do everything! I go around and tidy up and put things away and she does the actual cleaning (example, I pick up the dirty towels and throw them in the wash, she scrubs the bathroom).

you TOTALLY deserve this! It's a great feeling when my house is spotless, and an even better feeling when I am not exhausted from doing it myself

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If you don't want to use your gift, I'd gladly take it off your hands!

I have a stove that needs cleaned, fronts of cupboards could use a good scrubbing, and a good scrubbing of the floor (good ol' on your hands and knees style) would be great!

Any offers?!

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I loved having a cleaning lady. I wish it was in the budget again.

I had them (4 ladies) do all of the heavy cleaning - 7 ceiling fans, 3 bathrooms, dust all 5 bedrooms and blinds, sweep, vacuum, and mop all floors, bleach kitchen counters, scrub stove and microwave. The kids and I would leave when they showed up and come home when it was all done.

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We've had a cleaning ladies (several) over the years. They clean 4 at a time. Never had anything taken but have had things broken. Best to use someone from word of mouth. Once you find someone that does what they are supposed to do, they are VERY helpful and needed.

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I've never had one, but my mom has. She's funny- She always makes sure her dishes are done, because she says she doesn't want the person cleaning her toilets washing her dishes.

I can understand cold feet, it's like a guilt-slash-violated feeling when someone else is cleaning your mess. My MIL used to start up when she came over to visit the kids, I finally told the hubs to ask her to stop. I couldn't hack it.

But PAID help....YOU DESERVE IT!

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My cleaning lady was here yesterday. I LOVE it. I go around tidying, doing the laundry etc and de-cluttering, she follows and cleans

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I LOVE my cleaning lady and can't imagine not having her! We have daycare all over our home as well, and she cleans everything. She does bathrooms, dusting, sweeping/mopping, vaccuuming, mirrors, baseboards, all that stuff. I was like you at first, kind of embarassed and felt lazy, but once I started it, it's the best money I spend! I LOVE it and it de-stresses me so much! I hope you loved it - and you DO deserve it!

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We love our Miss Rosie!! She comes every other Saturday and it's amazing!! We leave and do a family activity and 4 hours later the house looks amazing.

My girls love her and we love her too! And she's very affordable...$60/visit and she does EVERYTHING!

I pick up before she comes so she can really focus on the deeper cleaning. She'll be here Saturday...can't wait!!

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I am amazed at how many people actually use a cleaning lady! I always joke about hiring someone but I don't. I have never had any help with my home. I only have a 3 bedroom home but I would love to have it cleaned by someone else just once. How much does everyone pay if u don't mind sharing? I always assumed it would be too much.

I also just feel bad asking someone else to do my work and clean my toilets so I would probably do the toilets and dishes myself (no dishwasher here) I would have loved some help with the spring cleaning of the curtains and blinds wiping down walls etc. I still have a few rugs to scrub do they do that? What all do the ladies do?

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I think for wages it depends a lot on where you live - kind of like the amount we all get paid for childcare. But here in the midwest, I pay $15/hour. I said in my earlier post mostly what she does, but she will do anything I ask her to do. That is what I want done the most, those darn repetitive basics!

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When I worked out of the home we had a major cleaning company come once a month to do the heavy cleaning. When the first started they did a HUGE cleaning, like for 5 hours. That was over $300, but then we paid $80 a month for them to come in and clean for 2 hours. They did bathrooms, dusting of all rooms, floors, kitchen, baseboards, blinds and shampoo'd the carpet in the living room if it needed it. When I got home from work on those days it was the greatest feeling.

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NO cleaning here except for the kitchen.

I've always hired out cleaning my entire adult life.

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I have never "had" a cleaning lady, but I have "been" the cleaning lady! I cleaned homes for a business when my kids were in school.

Just a few tips from the other side. Remember she is there to clean, NOT to do your daily "chores" or your childrens daily "chores".

What I mean by this is:

Have your "stuff" picked up. Don't let your kids leave toys all over the den or their bedrooms.

Don't leave a weeks worth of Dishes in the sink and on the counter.

Don't leave jewelry out on the nightstand, dresser etc. We don't want to be responsible for it.

Put your stuff up in the bathroom, so she "can" clean the counter and shower.

Leave a resonable list. Don't leave a 12 hour list of work to be done in 4 hours.

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I have cleaned homes as well, and agree with the list above. I'd also like to add: A cleaning lady and a house keeper are two different things. If you want your cleaning lady to fold your underwear, you need to pay more for that.

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Well the cleaning lady was a success! She got here and went to town! I took my kids to T ball and then returned to tuck them in! She finished up that part of the house and I was able to tuck them in decently and to my luck they were cooperative, with someone in the house at bedtime and went right to bed! I had some one on one time with the baby while she finished cleaning and I am SOOOO happy that I had it done! No cleaning for me this weekend!! Just that dreadfull never ending pile of laundry, but if that is all I have to do, so be it! Wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be! She came in knew what she was doing, made me feel comfortable and it wasn't as awkward as I thought it was going to be!! Yeah, love the smell of a clean house! Daycare is here today and of course toys are everywhere, but at least I know under all these toys it is clean!!

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Can you write this off come tax time?

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Yep! After getting zero help from my family with cleaning, I hired someone to come once a week to deep clean for me. She does bathrooms one week (I have 4 bathrooms, so it takes a while) and dusting and floors the next. Now it doesn't take her as long to do these things since she got them really good, and I maintain them, so they she can throw in things like cleaning the tops of my cupboards, scrub cupboards and counters, whatever I need done. It is the best present I could give myself! I have enough to do in the evenings, I don't need to do house work for 3 or more hours (which I was doing) every evening, and then 4 or more hours on Sundays. It has given me a lot more freedom! Totally worth the $40 a week! You TOTALLY deserve it!!!

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