Cleaning services:

My roomie and I are both extremely busy anymore and by time we get home we want to crash, not clean. I was kinda thinking about maybe looking into getting some sort of cleaning service to come in. But I have a few concerns and I wanted to see if anyone here could help!
1- the cats... what do you do with yours when they are cleaning? Most of ours would hide from them but knowing Google he would want to help out.
2- are you gone and they have a key or are you home? I would feel weird both ways I think.... one way there is someone I dont really know in my house, the other I'm sitting on my bum and they are doing all the work, I would end up helping and then why am I paying them!
3- We have a small house 3 bed 2 bath trailer we really just hate mopping and cleaning bathrooms and the bigger stuff like that
4- We would really only need them like every other month or less even!
5- What tasks do they usually do? I was kind of thinking that maybe just have someone come in this spring and then this fall to deep clean the carpets, scrub the floors, scrub the bathrooms, clean windows and maybe a few other things but nothing huge. And really the bedrooms wouldnt be involved!

Would it be worth it? Or should we just do it on our own? There are a lot of ads in our local papers for people looking to clean houses either as main income or as a side income, or I could get the same girl that cleans my dads house.
I dunno just something I'm thinking about. Any imput?

We've had some ladies come and clean our house a couple of times.. they did pretty much everything but shampoo the carpet. In my opinion, it's completely worth experiencing at least once! They were in & out within an hour, leaving it looking and smelling like pure heaven. I could clean for a week and not come close to what they did! The toilet paper was even decoratively folded in the bathrooms along with the towels! We used a service that cleaned when we were home, so I just kept all of the pets with my in the den (that didn't need cleaning).

The only downside was relative to the area we live: they only spoke Spanish, so another family member had to be in sight after they had removed & threw away some decorative ribbons off of some displays we have in the kitchen. All-in-all we thought it was worth it for when we needed a deep cleaning! Stayed clean like that for a long time too!

It didn't take DH and I long to discover when we merged households, lo these many years ago, that one of the tasks that didn't bother either of us enough for it to become a priority to one of us -- and thus get done -- was the cleaning. We don't live dirty, but we do live messy -- both of us.

Long story short, we did end up arranging for cleaning. Our cleaners have keys, and come whether we are home or not. If we're home, we just stay out of their way. They're bonded and insured, and you can arrange for whatever frequency you want, and pretty much whatever services you want, from every week "just staying on top of stuff" to one time "elbow grease session" and everything in between. The only caveat is "We don't do dishes and we don't make beds".

Our house is a 3-bed, 2-bath duplex, with family room downstairs. For us, they come every second Tuesday, do the vacuuming, dusting, kitchen/bathroom floors and fixtures, inside windows, change burner pan liners on the stove, clean microwave...etc, etc. The cats make themselves scarce (as they do when there's anyone other than us in the house). $80 a visit and worth every penny.

Bottom line? Whether it's worth doing will depend on what you discover locally, but I'd say it's well worth looking into.

I work for a cleaning company.

Before I worked for them, I definitely would have hired someone to come in. But now that I do it everyday and get into such a routine, I know the best ways to get it done well and with speed. So I don't think I'd ever pay anyone to do it now.

But yeah. I clean approximately 4 houses each day. Most people are not home and either leave the door unlocked, or we have a key.
Animals stay wherever they want. Some people think they are in the way though and will crate them (Only seen this happen with dogs. cats usually hide because of the vacuum).

For me and my partner, it takes us an hour to do a regular 2-3 bedroom 2 bathroom house.
Hell, we do a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom in an hour and a half.

We dust. Vacuum floors (carpet or not), mop floors. And the other does a good scrubdown of the bathrooms and kitchen.

Some people have special requests, other just want a regular basic clean.

Wow I've never indulged in this! I think I will try it as soon as I have a job lol..I am very messy, although I am germophobic and make sure that everything is sanitized before I use it..Like if my toothbrush touches the counter i throw it away and things like that..I'm curious how often do u have people come in? I'll probably need someone every day..The thing is I don't mind cleaning once a week, I usually get things back into order after my weekly cleanings but then 2 days later it's back to chaos...until the next week when it's all in order again..

Most places won't 'clean up'. Not companies anyway. People doing it on the side or privately may. But we aren't there to clean up after people, (pick up things, etc) we are there for general housework.

If you were going to have someone come in daily, then you would want to go with someone that does it on the side/privately. Then it's cheaper. For a francise company to come in (like Molly Maid), it is more expensive.. but we are professionaly trained and use our own cleaners (green!) and equiptment.

Some places we clean are weekly, some are bi-weekly, some are monthly, and others are just occasionally. I have never done the same house twice in one week.

You have to be careful they are not using cleaners that can be toxic to your animals.
I have hired cleaners, when Im having a large gathering at my home.
I put the cats in one room, that no one can go into. I also make sure I stay home, but out of the way. I personally would not trust a stranger to make sure my cats were ok, you never know how people really feel about cats.

I also provide the cleaning supplies, so nothing is used that could harm my animals.
Use your judgment and remember that not everyone loves animals.

Re: Cleaning supplies -- the deal with our cleaner is that we leave out what supplies we want used (along with the cheque). Total control over products used.

The best thing to do is call a company and have them come out and give you a free estimate.

Things that they should do are:

clean the bathroom and all fixtures;
vacuum floors and furniture
mop floors
dust....everything, even ornaments
wipe window sills
clean the fridge as needed
clean the oven as needed
wipe counters
some will do dishes
some will do laundry
windex glass/mirrors
spot wipe walls around light switches

I pay the woman I have coming $15.00 per hour with a minimum of 3 hours. She's never hear for 3 hours though. I don't care if she gets done early, but I notice that she leaves some things undone so that she can get out in 2 hours.