I've cleaned house for a good long while, and I'm ready to let someone else do it for me
Martel and I are interested in hiring someone to come clean our house for 2-3 hours a week, and were wondering about the way to go about doing it.
I am VERY exact about how I like the house to be cleaned. I'm not the cleaning nazi I used to be, but I still have pretty high standards. The two avenues that are open to us are 1) Hire someone from an already established cleaning service and 2) Hire a college student.
I like option #2. Personally, all the cleaning services I've ever seen are either too expensive, don't pay their workers enough, don't train their workers well, or are generally lackluster in their performance. Also, what college student wouldn't want to make an extra $35 a week? I feel that, by hiring a college student, we would be getting someone closer to us in age and mindset, and it would be easier to motivate them to do a really good job (them knowing that if they impress us we would reward them in the form of tips, food, etc).
We were thinking of paying somewhere in the $12-15/hr range and have them come for two to three hours each week; cleaning to be- vaccuming carpet, sweep/mop kitchen/bathroom, scrub shower and shower curtain, scrub toilet, clean bathroom sink/counter, empty/fill dishwasher, clean counters and stovetop, dust, empty trash/take all trash to dumpster, wash towels and washcloths. They wouldn't be cleaning our bedroom or washing our clothes (too personal). Our apartment, without the bedroom, is about 700 square feet or so. We'd provide all cleaning supplies- vaccum, mop, cleaners, gloves, that kinda thing.
We've never done anything like this before, and are wondering the best way to go about doing it. Are there any legal issues with this, or is it OK for us to just say "sure we'll hire you" and hand over the money every week? We would always have one of us at home while they were there so we wouldn't be concerned about them stealing or about doing a crappy job and leaving. Have any of you ever hired someone you didn't initially know to clean/paint/nanny your house/car/baby/whatever? Any advice would be appreciated!