Who has a houskeeper ?

[BlackSpider]

Just mentioned in another thread about saving time.

Does anybody here have a housekeeper?
Has anybody had any bad experience with one or strong reasons against hiring one?

My wife and I just had a child not long ago and both work long hours, maybe it's something we need right now.
Would make life so much easier.

How do you trust them to your whole house and life though?

 

[craigb]

kevin rudd i think!
and my wife has a slave ME!

 

[Propertunity]

Does anybody here have a housekeeper?

Yes.

Has anybody had any bad experience with one or strong reasons against hiring one?

Yes, I have one with the same last name as me. I often wake up in the morning and on turning over find her in the same bed - and snoring! She's very expensive and high maintenance. She submits her CC expenses to me each month and expects payment in full despite the purchases having nothing to do with house-keeping. I have sacked her a number of times but she just laughs in my face and takes my car out shopping again.

How do you trust them to your whole house and life though?

On a serious note - you just have to - otherwise it won't work well. It does leave you somewhat exposed though. Careful selection process and references.

 

[pennyk]

we have a live-in au pair who also does housework.... so we've taken it one step further! Its far better value than after school care fees!
Obviously, we trust them with the house/ belongings and children. To be honest though, we don't have anything of great value in the house.... I can't even think of what someone would take if they robbed us!
We've had aupairs for over 3 years now. Most stay for 5-9 months. We recruit them on the internet, and rarely meet them before they arrive. But so far, we've only had one dodgy one.
We've had cleaners as well in the past. We used an agency for that, but again, we were not so worried about what could get stolen, because we don't have that much to steal.
Pen

 

[Rolf Latham]

Like Penny we had live in nanny and Au Pairs for about 12 years now, on and off.

Have had housekeepers as well.

As always, its case by case, works out well 75 % of the time, and sometimes can be a major challenge where thre is a mismatch between the parties.

Having lived offhsore and having had live in staff "forced" on you, you do sometimes like to have your privacy.

As for trustwothiness, if you are going to trust people with your children, dont worry about your possessions !

ta
rolf

 

[Alabex]

i have done a bit of house keeping work in my time.. just for some cash onthe side. Cant say i have ever even thought of taking anything.. i mean how obvious would it be, i am the only one in the house and something goes missing you would have to be stupid.

everyone is different, but there are a lot of people who clean up for the cleaner? while it makes my job easier i dont understand why they bother, that is what they hire me for!

My boss has had a few and has had varying success with them doing a decent job. I think you need to be specific about the types of things you want done - do you want all the surfaces dusted? all the floors vacuumed and mopped or just vacummed? washing up done and put away or just washed and left in the drying rack? insides of ovens and microwaves? the list of what could be done is endless, but what do you actually want done? I am a total clean freak and end up doing more than asked for... i have a particular problem with marks on power points and around door handles so usually end up wiping over most of those

 

[pursefattener]

What are Au Pairs ?

 

[Altitude]

What are Au Pairs ?

A young foreigner who does domestic work for a family in exchange for room and board and a chance to learn the family's language.

 

[steveadl]

We have housekeepers come in once a week for cleaning, some laundry and garden upkeep. Worth every cent.

At the moment we use family, so no trust issues.

 

[Francine]

honest housekeepers.

word of mouth is always good if you get someone this way.

a few questions over the phone usually also weeds out some from the rest.

and meeting them in person maybe having a few time trial period may help.

some people use one person for cleaning and someone else for nannying and light housework, folding, dishes, ironing.

I have in my time when i used to have them had mostly very honest people but did twice have people who stole from me envelopes with money that i would not have been able to prove. one was a once off i left it around and shouldnt of and the other worked for me regularly and stole alot regularly till i wisened up. I couldnt beleive someone would do that but i guess everyone needs a rude awakening of reality some time or other.

i have heard of peole having things stolen. like in any industry most are honest and a few are not.
sometimes they do things that cost you money, break a crucial part to an appliance or wipe over the heating dials with a wet cloth and it blows the electronics and i had to pay $100- $200 for new ones

lists of what you expect, realistic expectations and a nice manner with them will go a long way.

also try to be around the first few times to help them get used to where things are. if you arent around the first times they come it makes it hard for everyone.

good luck.
Francine.

 

[angela]

I had a cleaner come for the first time today. Didn't get as much done as I expected (I used to clean a few houses when my kids were smaller and got heaps done in 2 hours), but figure it was her first time, so will see how next fortnight goes. She missed a few things like only cleaning the glass in the shower, not the tiles???? and there is still a thick layer of dust over most of my surfaces. I will write a list next time and prioritise, and detail what I want done. I'll probably go around tomorrow and finish off what she missed, which is exactly what I don't want to be doing on my weekends.

 

[burty85]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25342581-13762,00.html


This is just sooooooooooooooooooo wrong... !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sue78]

omigosh, that's disgusting!

I am looking for a housekeeper but I don't even know where to start. I don't want to go through an agency coz it's too expensive. But I can't trust anyone either. I hav eto start asking around friends for recommendations but the ones that have a cleaner live far away so probably not suitable.

Omigosh it's so hard to find someone that's willing to come and clean your house once a week, a few hours.

My friend has a cleaner come twice a week but a few occasions where we visited them, she said that her cleaner had just been over but her house was still a major tip....hmm makes me a bit hesitant. Even when we have hired cleaners through our PM for our IPs or new builds, it cost so much for a few hours of cleaning and it wasn't even that clean....$350. I still had to go over the property thoroughly.

 

[ned261]

BlackSpider - get one, it's an absolute must when you've just had a new child, as for the trust issues you should be able to find a cleaner who can do the job while you're at home (early, late, weekends etc).

Sue - try the yellowpages, and if you can't get one that'll do a good job for roughly $25/hr then there's something wrong.

 

[angela]

the one I have just had come is through an agency (aust & nz wide). Costs me $49 for the first two hours, then $17/hr if you want more hours. You can also book by the half hour after 2 hours.
They will do anything from general cleaning, to washing, ironing, clean fridge/oven, windows etc which I like, as a few of the other (more expensive) agencies specified only basic cleaning was covered in the hourly rate, and anything extra is paid by task.
I'm going to give the lady two more goes - with detailed lists, if she doesn't work out, the agency will provide a replacement.
Sue, I can PM you the agency details if you like? Or can I just post their link on here?

 

[Dazz]

We had one full-time live in Armah (sp) with us when we lived in Brunei.

I had absolutely nothing to do with her, she took 100% of her instructions from the wife. She was the best damn cleaner, gardener, baby-sitter, food preparer we had ever seen.

On her wage of $ 14 per day, she supported herself, her daughter and her elderly father. She was a qualified English teacher, but made more money being our Armah.

She begged to come back to Australia with us, because we treated her nicely, didn't beat her up or make her sleep in the pantry cupboard.

The wife took about 3 days to get used to Belle.....yet took about 3 years to get unused to her.

We don't hire domestic help in Australia cos the cleaners are grossly slack and lazy and woefully overpaid for what they do, and furthermore we can't stand the constant whinging and moaning.

It's like bringing a member of the BLF into your home. Pay more get less with Aussies.

 

[BayView]

It's like bringing a member of the BLF into your home. Pay more get less with Aussies.

I remember my Dad got a job working for the local Council when I was about 13.

My Dad was one of those guys who thought hard work was "exercise".

Within 2 weeks he was telling us he was threatened by a few of the guys on the team that he had to slow down - he was making them look bad.

He stayed there for about 1 month and chucked it in due to the terrible work ethic he was surrounded by.

On of my school mates (who was not a particularly motivated type) had a similar experience working for Telecom maintaining the lines. He lasted 3 months due to the dodgy work practices and lengths the guys used to go to to avoid work. We all thought that if he thought it was bad, it must be really bad.

What is really sad is these guys thought it was hysterical to be able to stiff their employer this way.

 

[angela]

I remember my Dad got a job working for the local Council when I was about 13.

My Dad was one of those guys who thought hard work was "exercise".

Within 2 weeks he was telling us he was threatened by a few of the guys on the team that he had to slow down - he was making them look bad

same thing happened when my husband did a short stint paving with local council.

Now, my husband isn't a 'fast' worker by any means, he is slow and methodical, but he was told he was working too fast. Lasted about 3 months as the pace was unbearably slow.

 

[Xenia]

I have a house keeper for about 8 hours a week or whatever it takes to get everything done.

She does all the washing and ironing and cleaning and changing bed sheets etc on the day that she is there. Trouble is that there are still two main jobs that need to be done every day ie loading the dishwasher (we entertain a lot and have people over for dinner at least once a week) and 10 to 14 loads of washing per week (3 children). Even those 2 jobs that Ange and I do are too much for us. I absolutely and utterly HATE housework!. I need a live in housekeeper

 

[Francine]

does anyone have a housekeeper.

xxenia if you get the huge kleenmaid washing machines and dryers it makes it alot easier. Huge amounts of washing is done in less loads and the dryer being bigger does the load much faster. 20 minutes later its all dry. and you can connect it to gas so its all cheaper. I've got more than 3 kids and its been wonderful.

I hated it when my kids started wanting to do their own washing which was silly as it really make my job easier.

I have seen families give out their washing and it comes back beautifully ironed and folded. those people complain that they dont have someone to put it away, unless they get it back on the day their cleaner comes.

My latest toy in the house is the steam mop. It did a really good job!

dishwasher emptied and filled that was always a job for my kids. EVen with cleaning help they had jobs one might of been to fill and empty the dishwasher, another child might have had to sweep the floor, my kids each had a regular job.
Francine.