Does anyone have a paid home cleaning service?

Realtime,

$50 an hour is really out of line, even if they would give massages, water the plants, walk the dog and cook a 5 course meal! I think you're right that there's collusion involved and were wise to alert Angie's List.

I think that List, which started as a good idea, has grown to be something respected but does have limitations. Last year one of the contractors who posed on a DIY forum wrote that he was unable to undertake a project b/c of physical limitations, hired someone recommended on Angie's List, and found the services to be unacceptable. I don't remember all the issues as they were technical, ones a contractor would know. I vaguely remember there were some code violations involved.

And last year I saw a plumber's truck with a big Angie's List endorsement on the van. I had hired them some years ago and found them to be very unprofessional. One guy using a reciprocal saw hit something and blew a fuse which ruined my phone/answering machine. He never offered to pay for a replacement phone. Another one working in the kitchen complained repeatedly about the difficulty of replacing a particular brand of faucet. I never used them again.

I think it must be really difficult to undertake such a massive endeavor of validating people only by customer experience, but I've never relied on Angie's list since then.

FF,

I was shocked as well. That might just be a state by state requirement too. The issue raised by your father's insurance company is exactly what I've encountered.

I think it might be because, if someone comes to visit you, they're there just for nonwork related purposes. But if you ask someone to come to perform services, they're there specifically for that purpose, for a commercial purpose, and not for a social purpose. They're performing on property maintained by you and have a reasonable expectation (love those legal phrases!) of a reasonably safe work environment, to which I think they're entitled.

I recall that years ago there was a distinction between guests and invitees in terms of property liability but don't know what the issues are now.

Still, $750 a year is $62.50 a month and $1,000 a year is $83.33 a month, and for that I could get a few extra hours of work through an agency.

The liability issue scares me as well. I know that some people will sue for anything. And the issue of vetting an individual is time consuming.

After reading the posts here as well as considering some very wise private advice, I've decided to stick with an agency.

Thanks for the latest posts; your suggestions and advice are all very much appreciated.

I did decide last week after talking with some experts that we won't hire someone directly because of the potential liability issues. It will only be through an agency that handles deductions, has worker's comp and other required employee coverages. It's just too much financial exposure to take a chance hiring someone and be responsible for any injuries that might be sustained.

I'll post again when we've found an agency we like, and generally what the financial terms are, just to help anyone else who might be in a similar situation.

Thanks again to all of you for your suggestions.

I don't know any professional cleaning service that charges by the hour. Maybe they're out there, but not in my suburban Chicago area.

Tom pays for our cleaning service, so I had to ask him, and I'm amazed it's not more. $75 a time for about 2-1/2 hours. That gets our 1100 sq ft 3-bedroom two bath one-story no-family room immaculately cleaned. They come twice a month. I should say "she" comes. She puts her head down, never stops. One of my favorite people. I give her $200 at Christmas and a bouquet of flowers probably twice a year. She's fabulous.

Mom had a lady who came twice a month for two hours for a whopping $28 a month thru her township's senior services. She didn't clean all that well, but keep mom good company.

Re: stuffing stuff away in drawers

Cleaners are only human, you know, and often clients expect that their 2000 square foot home can be made spotless in 3 hours, despite the fact that there is clutter everywhere, they have multiple pets, hard water and glass bathroom doors and the cleaning supplies such as vacuums (if provided by the homeowner) are missing or don't work properly. I always made it clear to my customers...I don't do clutter. Yes, I'll attempt to tidy up that stack of papers or bring those dirty dishes into the kitchen, but don't expect me to go beyond that. It takes years of working with someone to figure out their preferences regarding exactly what needs to be saved/tossed, and where all their miscellaneous items should be stashed.
And one other thing, please, please put all your precious keepsakes and easily breakable items away, both for your own sake and that of the cleaners!

Good point CWillie. What we take for granted isn't obvious to others. And things we want out and close to us may seem like clutter to someone else.

If I do go with an agency, I'll raise the issue of an ongoing relationship so that we can both get to know each other.

I've noticed this is a problem with home care; same agency this time but an entirely different group of people, younger and judging from responses less experience with an older person. I wouldn't have thought I needed to raise the issue of age and age related habits, but I guess I do.

After reading all the posts, I think I'm going to draft a fairly specific work list so we're all "on the same page." (I wish whoever invents these catchy phrases would find a new one. The "same page" one has been around for over a dozen years. )

GardenArtist, wow I never knew about needing extra homeowner's insurance if one has an independent contractor working on a regular basis in the home until this week. That is good to know. I had figured my umbrella policy would work, but apparently not for workers.

In fact yesterday when my sig other took over my Dad's over-due car insurance bill to pay to the Insurance company, he had mentioned that my Dad has caregivers in the house, and sure enough the Insurance person asked if my Dad had a workman's comp policy. Turns out he didn't need it because the Caregivers are from an Agency that has their own workman's comp for their employees. Whew.

I would love to have a cleaning service come in, but the prices can be high...my husband & I are caregivers to my Mom with early-stage Alzheimers, & he works nights, I have a bad back...he is the kind if person who doesn't want strange people in our home, touching all our things, so that makes it hard...he is a huge help with all facets of our lives, but with my Mom needing care & needing to be watched like a toddler, we don't get to the chores regularly...I'm a bit of a neatnik, he's clutter-blind, so it's a dilemma I live with constantly.

Gramzie, I can understand your husband's concerns. That's one of the reasons I intend to furnish masks and gloves for use. You never know what kind of environment the workers have had to work in before coming to your house.

My only other comment is think, "would i work for 10.00 an hour". Why is it people believe those who do manual labor are worth so much less? It fries me to hear people say I only want to pay 10.00 an hour, its the same with caregiving you want good help trustworthy, reliable and you want to pay them less then they could make at McDonalds. You get what you pay for. As for companies just remember you may have different people each week, they work for minimum wage ( company gets rest) and if you are not a smoker make sure you request only nonsmokers. Bad experience when workers left coats on furniture, it reeked of smoke. If hiring indep, you can tell them up front you will 1099 them that way you know they pay taxes. If they do they are paying social sec taxes which will benefit in long run as you mentioned. Hope you find the right balance for you and dad. I cleaned houses for years as indep, loved my clients.

Send: Good post...you just never know. Because my mom was such a social person, she didn't care that she was being cheated!