Hi there, I'm Angela Brown and this is Ask a House Cleaner.
This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question
and I get to help you find an answer.
Today's question comes from a woman who wants to know "How does maid service work?
I'm thinking about hiring a maid.
I think it's a pretty good idea but I don't really even know how it works.
Am I supposed to tip them?
How much money does it cost?
And what does it include?"
That's a great question because a lot of people are new to hire a maid or a house cleaner.
So, the very first thing I want to mention is why are you hiring
a house cleaner or maid service?
There are lots of people that know how to clean their own houses but if you're deciding
that you want to hire a maid why is that?
And your why needs to be very clear because if you just think somebody's going to come
in and clean your house and boom!
You're not going to have to do anything anymore, then we need to have a conversation.
So here is that conversation.
When you hire a maid what you're doing is you're replacing your time.
You're outsourcing some of your personal time that you would be cleaning your house
to someone else.
So that it allows you to spend more time with your family, or more time on your business.
Or more time on your hobbies, or doing things that you want to do.
So first of all, what is that thing you want to do that you're going to do when the maid
or the house cleaner comes?
Because if you don't have a very strong why, when they come and give you a price you're
going to freak out.
And you're going to go "Wow, that's a whole lot of money.
I'm not doing that."
But if you decided this is a time for you to outsource something, why?
So, once you have your why in place it becomes very clear that this is more important and
it's worth more of my time and energy than cleaning house.
So, once you have your why in place, then it's time to start calling.
Now where do you go to call for a maid?
There are lots of different places but one of them is Facebook.
If you belong to a neighborhood Facebook group…
I know that my neighborhood has a Facebook group it's only for the people in my neighborhood.
So, I could jump on there and say "Hey who knows someone in this neighborhood they could
come clean my house?"
And you will get recommendations from house cleaning customers that live in your neighborhood.
And these are people that are currently working for them.
"Hey, we have someone come over to our house and she does this, this, this, and this and
you can get a feel even before you make your first phone call.
You can get a feel for how that house cleaner works.
Now, here's the catch.
Every house cleaner and every maid service operates a little bit differently.
There are a variety of different services that are available.
But you're hiring a human.
And there are certain humans that because they have a bad back, or they have bad knees,
they're not going to get down on the floor and hand scrub your floor.
And so, if that's what you're looking for, you need to be aware that
not all services work alike.
So, what you want to make sure of "Is the service that I'm calling a good fit for me?"
But how do you know that?
You don't know that unless you've clarified what you need.
Having said that, you need to sit down, and you need to get a pen and paper and you need
to go through every room of your house.
"Is this important to me?"
Is it important that this china cabinet be dusted every other week?
If it's not important and you say "Nah, it really only needs it once a year."
Don't pay a cleaning service to come clean that every week, or every other week.
Decide what chores you can put off to the back burner and only do once a year
during deep cleaning.
And cleaning the inside of a china cabinet might be one of those things.
So, if there aren't things that you need done every week don't pay someone else to do it
because it is expensive.
And then you have to figure out "What is important to me?
Do I want all of my baseboards dusted every two weeks?"
Because if that's really important to you that needs to be on your request list.
So, make a whole list of things that are important to you.
And here's a tip: When you hire a maid and the maid comes over they're going to give
you a free estimate.
And they're going to walk through your house and they're going to give you ideas of the
types of cleaning they provide.
Don't give them your list, okay?
Don't tell them what's important to you yet.
If they walk in and you have this list of 107 things that you want done in your house
you're going to freak them out.
And they're going to go running for the hills.
They're going to say "Whoa, this woman has way too high of expectations."
But as they go through your house they're going to tell you all the things they do and
you can just cross them off on your list as you go.
That way you go; "Oh yeah, she does do the baseboards.
Yay!
And she cleans blinds.
Yay!
And she does bathroom vanities.
Yay!
And she empties the trash.
Yay!
And you can mark those things off your list as you go.
Now some house cleaners… and I really recommend that they do this, not all of them do, but
some of them do, they have a worksheet.
That says all the things that they do.
And they already have made their own list.
And so, they'll give you a copy of that list and you go "Wow those are all the same things
on my list, we're a perfect fit for each other."
And if there's something on your list it's really important that that house cleaner doesn't
offer, you can just ask them.
"Hey, is this something that you clean?
Do you clean the inside of medicine cabinets?
And they might say "no, but I would do it for an extra $10,"
or whatever their price is.
And so, it can all be negotiated.
So, if there's something that you want done it can be negotiated.
So, you can say "well, I would like the insides of my windows clean."
and the house cleaner might say "I don't do windows.
But if I do, it would be an extra $10 per pane or whatever it is.
And then you can say "Whoa, that's just too much money I'm not going to do that."
And then decide not to do that.
Or you can decide to hire a window washing company that actually does that for a living.
And they could probably give you a discounted price on all of the windows in your house,
both sides of the windows, and the second floor as well.
So, you might have to negotiate not just with the maid but with another company altogether.
So, once you've determine what the services are that are important to you,
what do you pay them?
It's going to come down to your budget.
What are you willing to pay?
Because the average going rate across the country and I'm speaking of the United States,
is about $25 to $45 an hour.
It's as low as $25 and it is as high as $45.
Some house cleaners offer special projects and organizing, and other things and that
will go as high as $60 an hour.
So the average is about $25 to $45 somewhere in $30-$35 that's a normal range
that's what you can expect to pay.
Having said that there are a lot of house cleaners that don't work by the hour they
work by the job, so when they come in and they look at your house they're guessing based
on their experience and they know how fast they work.
They're going to bid your job by the job not the hour.
And so, they'll say "hey, I can do your whole entire house for x amount of dollars."
And then you have to break down in your head is it worth that price to me?
To go over and to be able to do this particular hobby that I was going to do in exchange of
doing my own house cleaning?
And so, if you're… let's say that the housecleaning the price they give you is $300.
We'll just use that as an example.
Is the little project that you're going to do over here worth $300
every two weeks to you?
For you to stop and be able to do that if you're starting your own online business and
it means you have to take time to create these products.
It's totally worth it.
You're going to get your money back.
Because you started a small online business and you have this hobby, you can tax deduct
your house cleaning because you work out of your house, right?
So, there are benefits to hiring a house cleaner if you do work out of your house.
But it's going to determine what the special project is.
Your reason why?
What is the reason why?
And is it worth the money you're going to spend?
A lot of house cleaners come away and they're frustrated.
They're like "the person wants their house clean, but they're not
willing to pay the money."
So you have to decide in your head "what is the figure that I'm willing to pay?"
So, if you haven't hired anybody yet nobody's come over to give you a bid estimate and you
say I'm willing to pay up to $300.
When the house cleaner comes in they give you a price of $425 you can say;
"I'm sorry, I can't do that my budget is only $300."
And then you can negotiate again.
"I would love for you to have the business.
You seem like a nice person.
I would love for you to come clean my house.
What can we knock off this regular list that you do to get it back down to $300?
Because I cannot pay a penny more than $300."
And you'll find it a lot of house cleaners are willing to work with you but you can't
expect them to do everything on your list if the price is not compatible with the price
that the house cleaner or the maid is offering.
Okay and then what do you tip them.
You do tip them.
Yes.
House cleaners and maids love tips.
They are just like any other business owner that are working for money.
And they love extra money when you're able to give it to them.
So if your budget is $300 and they say we can do this for $235 now you have a little
window where you can add extra tips in in order to boost their incentive
for doing an excellent job.
And I'll tell you a secret if you're going to hire a house cleaner and you regularly
give them tips.
They will jump through hoops to try to please you and to try to give you a lovely experience
every single time.
Because I'll tell you what, a lot of house cleaners are motivated by money.
And so, if you have extra window you're willing to go as high as $300, be generous.
Don't be skimpy, be generous.
Because for the same $300 you can get exactly what you're paying for and you can give a
little something else.
So, make it worth the house cleaner or the maids time.
And then the next thing that I might recommend to you as you're hiring a house cleaner,
is once you have given them your list.
And this is not give the list up front, but this is the negotiated list
that you've agreed to.
Once you've given them that list, trust that they know how to do their job.
And then back off.
You do not want to micromanage these people.
Because like I said these are humans.
They work off inspiration.
They work off the tips that you give them.
So, if you want something cleaned that maybe they skipped…
Let's say that you want extra attention in your bathroom.
Then you can give them a tip and say "Thank you so much for the amazing job you do.
I know that you always work to your very best.
And I really appreciate it when you focus on my bathroom.
That means the world to me."
They're going to go "Oh, the bathroom?
Wow, that's a hot-button?
Well, I will, I'll focus extra time on the bathroom.
And you can say it in such a way that it's so pleasant "I really appreciate it when
you do, thank you so much.
Here's a tip."
They're going to jump through hoops next time to make sure that your bathroom has extra
care and attention.
Because that is a hot-button to you and they want to please you.
And so, it's a relationship not where your nagging, and where they go home hating you.
But where you gave them a tip.
And you are encouraging, and you appreciate them, and you acknowledge what they've done
that's correct.
They're going to jump through hoops to try to make it better for you next time.
So should you hire a house cleaner?
Yeah go ahead.
Life is short.
There's so many things you could be doing with your time because you're not going to
get the time back.
You can always earn more money, but you're never going to get that time back.
If that's time that allows you to spend with your spouse, or time with your kids, or time
on a hobby, or just time off for you, it's totally worth it.
So, hire a house cleaner. Just jump out there on a limb and do it.
And enjoy the process.
Alrighty, so that's my tip for today.
And until we meet again leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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