Great question.
I find it is very hard to find someone who both shows up consistently and can clean properly. Probably cuz I was trying to be cheap on the rate.
I let my wife choose the housecleaner and she took a “whatever it costs” approach and we finally found a pretty good one. So far a “10” on reliability and about a 7.5 on the cleaning.
I once had a “10” cleaner who was about a 4 on reliability. Wow did she know how to clean, if only you knew when she was gonna show up.
Anyway, we pay $80 for the day. One day every two weeks. The day includes two ladies for about 3 hours each. Our house is small – roughly 1750 sq. ft. 6 hours of work goes a long way in a small house.
They use all of our supplies and vacuum. Occasionally they will bring something special if they know they need it and we don’t have it.
We like the “forced tidying” mentioned above. It makes us keep the clutter down, and gives us a good reason to get the kids to do the same.
