I think it's hard to find a good, trustworthy house cleaner. I will only have someone that's a personal referral from someone I know. That's how I got the house cleaner I have now when I moved to my current house a few years ago and it took awhile to find her.

She is only here for about two hours (3000 sq ft) which kind of irks me when I think how much that is per hour but the overall price I pay is pretty reasonable. She does a decent job so I guess she's very efficient with her time. It's not deep cleaning but I've never had a house cleaner who did that. She has at times cleaned the french door windows going into my office and cleaned the blades of my ceiling fans. She does a great job getting cat hair off the furniture which is not a small task. There are some things she's missed but she's receptive to feedback so if I'm not satisfied with something I just let her know. I see her more now that I'm retired and she goes out of her way to ask if I'm satisfied with her service.

She does have an actual business, is incorporated, etc. so has more over head than the last woman I had who barely spoke English and required that I pay her in cash. I'd rather pay more to someone who is trying to run a legitimate business and she is a nice woman who appreciates having the work.

I had a wonderful house cleaner for about 18 years at my last house but she had to quit because of health reasons. I still miss her - she was like a member of our family and I only saw her once in a while if I hadn't left for work by the time she arrived.

Yes, you are. My home is much smaller. Usually two women come and it takes them an hour and a half.

My house is very neat to start with. I have eliminated most surface clutter throughout the years. I lift all my bath mats and empty all the garbage cans before they come.

One hour is certainly not enough time for your size home.

I have a cleaning woman for my summer cottage. It is about 1500 square feet. She charges $120 and is there about 2 hours (I think as I am not there when she is.). She does an okay job. Like many summer cottages, there is one main room and then bedrooms off of that. There are two full baths. She doesn't shift furniture to sweep or vacuum around it. It is at best a very adequate job. But to be fair, there are always some bugs and critters that come in with the sand that she deals with. And, there's the neatly folded toilet paper on the roll. I'm a sucker for that, lol. Pudge, yours sounds like she took way too many shortcuts. I'd also be disappointed.

I am happy (and sad, you’ll soon see why) to say I‘ve had *the best* housekeeper for the last 6 years, compared to all the others I’ve had over last 25+ years. She spends a full day at my house, over 8 hours for regular cleaning (3600 sq ft).

Once in a while, she organizes as she sees fit, makes decisions on matters related to but beyond housekeeping. Like going through our closets and collecting things she doesn’t see us using, gathering them and taking them to St. Vincent de Paul or Salvation Army (she asks us to check the collection to confirm we‘re Ok with giving them away and she’s usually 99% right).

She house sits when we’re traveling, keeps an eye on our son, takes care of the cats, etc. when I broke my ankle and was out of commission for 4 months, she was pretty much my personal assistant, running errands, checking on the rental properties at were being vacated, you name it.

I pay her more than she asks for and take care of her in other ways. The downside is that she can talk your head off and is a religious nut.

Now for the the sad part. After 6 years of me feeling like I have my very own personal genie, I’m having to look for someone else because she’s moving two time zones away. And with little notice. Because The Lord told her one day that she has to move to that city. She knows no one there and she’s 70 years old (a spry 70). I’m worried for her but she knows she can come back if things don’t go as she expects (I.e., the Lord tells her she’s needed back home).

I‘m afraid I’m going to into a deep funk when she leaves. But am grateful for how well she’s taken care of me. and I’m genuinely fond of her.

Don't invite her back to clean. It takes me an hour to vacuum the house, and do light mopping on the kitchen floor only! Not moving the chairs from the dining room table? Sloppy.

When you hire your next cleaning lady you need to go over everything that needs to be done.

The not moving the chairs was the end of your story for me. I may not move them when I am doing a quick sweep on my way out the door but someone I am paying?! Not acceptable!! All cob webs/bugs should be gone from behind garbages /toilet--what ever there might be. A good house cleaner does the maintenance cleaning each week plus one or two "deep cleaning" type jobs i.e. closet floors, fan dusting etc. They would have that on a rotation... Culling out "what she doesn't see us use" seems waaay above anyone's pay grade but if you were 99% in agreement then C'est La Vie!!

Nutsabout, wow your house cleaner is 70?

My cleaning lady has helpers, so all in all 3 of them(that might change-somebody is sick, or they're very busy that day and they add somebody else to their team)

the house is under 1900 sq f..they're usually done after hour and a half., hour and forty min..unless of course there are only two of them, then will take longer

I pay 120$ unless I want deep cleaning somewhere. well actually it was 110$-but they kinda came whenever, which was very tiresome, and I wanted them to come in the mornings, and in predictable way..so I, with a stupid expression of a person who never bribed anyone, said:

-Can I bribe you? I'll give you more money if you start earlier on my place..

That's it, problem of many years solved. Lol.

Yes they do move furniture (only light furniture like chairs mostly but from time to time they can move a smaller sofa for example)..

They do some strange things ..when they clean they can put shoes on the bed temporarily..or once I even saw one of them putting bucket with dirty water on the bed..inside, I boiled..but decided not to tell anything.

I don't always know who'll come with the main cleaning lady-but one of them is putting more effort, that's for sure. Downside-I need to put my things back in the order they were..she loves symmetry so she redoes alll chochkes to her liking, as if they're on parade. That's amusing. In my mind, I call her "the symmetrical girl".

Of course I prepare for them. I empty trash, I lift tings out of their way(like throws).. I don't have much clutter but if yes (like papers) I put it away. I do many things before they come. My family doesn't understand why do I do that. They think I confuse the cleaners with the house that's already clean, lol. But there was time when I was a help myself..it's a hard job, even in a tidy house.

The bedding, they change rarely, only if I ask them to specifically. It does go under the job description though, I could ask them more often if I wished to.

They never do laundry.. That'd be a special request-more money. Anything extra is extra money.

It's been quite a few years they're coming...I'm sure somebody better exists somewhere, but I grew accustomed to them, and I've no desire to switch, and meet new people.

1 hour for 1 person for 2700 sq f house sounds extremely unrealistic to me

When I was a helper, I'd stay for 6 hours in a big place. The lady of the house did give me additional stuff to do though like washing dishes and ironing and whatnot. If she had nothing to ask which rarely happenned-she'd let me go after I'd be done with cleaning itself, and took me 4-4,5 hours. I did move furniture, vacuumed rugs and all.

It's important that they are reliable, do an adequate job and you feel you can trust them.

Even though they work for a salary, I am still so thankful there are people who will do this for me!

I appreciate the input.

The 1st two Initial cleanings were "deep" cleans. Those were $150 each. Then it was $125 per visit after that. I agree, finding someone you can trust is pivitiol! She came highly recommended. Sometimes it was just her, sometimes she brought someone with her.

The only laundry she did was to put the sheets in the washer -- and dryer if she was still here when the load was finished.

Husband corrected me, while the house is 2500+ it's not much more, AND the office/craft room is NOT included in the cleaning. There's too much clutter in here, and it's where I put the dog while they're here. One of the bedrooms hasn't been used since they came last, so I left a note saying they didn't need to change the bedding in there.

An hour wasn't long enough, evidenced by lack of cleaning on the floor under the kitchen cabinets & the M&Ms found under the kitchen table. (Going to have to speak w/the grandkids about that... LOL)

We are not messy people, so really, it's not a "hard" job.

If only I had the energy that Nutsabouts cleaning person did.....

Eld, yes, she’s 70 and has more energy, mobility and stability than people a decade younger than her! We got her a Fitbit (she had been curious about it) and she called the next day around 11 am and said it was already congratulating her on making 10k steps. At 11 am and she wasn’t exercising! She’s just very active.

pudge, I know, I wish I had her energy too. She’d house sit for us and when we get back, every one of our closets are reorganized! Except for the religion part (which I just listen to with no comments), she’s delightful.

Nuts, I always think people like your 70 year old house cleaner are like that because they have always stayed physically and mentally active and that helps keep them in shape from both perspectives. My neighbor died when she was 89 and her appearance and mental and physical capabilities made me think more of someone who was maybe 70. She grew up on a farm, raised eight kids and was always digging, planting, hauling, lugging and playing golf until she died. She was also a very positive, upbeat person and I think that probably helps too.

On a non-housecleaning but related note: I was at the Minnesota State Fair this week and listened to a very lively woman talk (during the recording of a podcast) about her entries in the baking competition this year and the thousands of ribbons she's won over the years. Her 100th birthday was last week.

One person, for one hour? Light cleaning, indeed. My house is about twice the size, and I have two people, who are here about 4 hours, every two weeks. So that's 8 hours of cleaning for just under 5000 sq ft. No laundry. I bet it takes an hour just to do all the vacuuming and mopping.

If you use NextDoor, it seems like there are always people asking for housecleaner recommendations. Maybe you could find a few to talk to and see what their estimates are.

I have one person who comes every other week and is here for 3 hours. My house is 1900 sq feet and I pay her $25 hr cash. She came recommended from my sister. She does move furniture, does the floors on her hands & knees .. I don't ask her to do alundry or change the beds. When I have something specific/more detailed, I just leave her a note and she gets it done. She is by no means doing a deep clean, but it's a great help with two shedding dogs and a cat.

I can't imagine what a person would get done in just one hour?

Our housekeeper comes 3-4 hours a day three days a week (4000 square foot house). She does everything, even grocery shop for us. She also does laundry. Our house is immaculate. She even cleans the hair out of the shower drain without being asked. She's wonderful. I don't have to tell her what to do at all, she just knows everything. I found her on Craigslist.

She theoretically could do a basic clean in an hour b/c she's really fast and efficient and knows her way around.

It took a while to find her and we went through some bad ones (Ironically, the worst was the mother of our first beloved housekeeper. We adored our first housekeeper but she got a full time job with insurance benefits so recommended her mother take over. Unfortunately, her mother stole money from us and broke things!)

Hey Nuts, any chance your house cleaner is moving to Philly??? (asking for, an, ahem, friend.)

Jojoco, I wish, for your (friend’s) sake, that she’s moving to Philly, but alas, she’s not!

I have a cleaning housekeeper come in every two (this week it will be three, due to logistics) weeks.

She does all the floors and all the bathrooms. I am responsible for kitchen clean up (since I don't want to wait 2, or even one, week for kitchen clean up - though she still does the kitchen floor.

I do ALL my own laundry. Because I want to.

Every other time she comes, she does my windows and mirrors. She dusts every visit. I run the vacuum robot, but the one rug he (the robot is named "Sharkey") doesn't get well, she does.

Periodically (half a year) we do a whole house breakdown and we work together. Since I have cathedral ceilings in the kitchen, my cabinets don't go ceiling height - and that's what I mean about cleaning up there.

She and her husband have helped me move heavy items around as needed, and she puts in the new water filter whenever that's called for. Since I have bum knees, next time she's here, she will climb the ladder to replace the beeping fire alarm battery...

I am very happy with her. It was ME that wants to do my own laundry and my own food prep cleanup including sinks.

Edit: Depending on the visit, she can be here from 1 to 2.5 hours. 2100 square feet.