Does anyone have a housekeeper?

[Reubenshat]

I’m looking at getting a house keeper. What do you expect of them and how much do you pay of you mind me asking. I’m ok the North west. It’s not a massive house. Just four bed.

I’ve two kids, very busy with my business and the house is getting on top of me.

Thanks

In the north west**

I only have a cleaner but she also irons and changed bedding. In addition, a housekeeper could do things like the laundry, cooking, washing up, grocery shopping or running errands such as dry cleaner’s or sending parcels etc.

It’s really up to you but just needs to be agreed from the start.

With regards to pay, I’m not really sure. I think in London, full-time housekeepers tend to be on 30k per annum.

I don't have one so can't comment on salary. If I did, though (not that I spend time fantasising about it! 😀) I would be looking for cleaning, ironing, monthly rota of deep clean jobs, bedding change, laundry, receive and put away online grocery shop, small errands eg dry cleaning and sending parcels, sewing on kids name labels, kids packed lunches.

Thanks for the input. I was expecting near 30k

Wasn’t sure if they would do cleaning too!

I would expect around £30k, maybe more.
I'd have a think about what you would find useful. For me it would be cleaning, ironing, laundry, organise/tidy, make beds. I wouldn't expect walking the dog and only making occasional dinners. I quite like doing the food shop too.

We have a nanny housekeeper and pay the equivalent of £12 net per hour (London).

She does all the cleaning, laundry, changes beds, vacuums, cooks for the kids, adds things to the shopping list when we’re running low, goes to the local shops when I ask her to, tidies generally. It’s great because as well as doing the practical work she does the planning/thinking about what needs to be done so it relieves the mental load as well.

that seems cheap for London. is she v young/inexperienced.?

I have help but our arrangement is that she provides a service to me, rather than me employing her. I am very lucky in that she is extremely flexible and will do just about anything .. but I am very careful how I ask her So if I ask if she'll get the suitcases down from the loft, empty all of the glasses from a cupboard & clean it, move stuff from here to there, etc, she will invariably do it.

I pay £15 per hour and it's flexible how many hours she works. So If I ask her to do more than 12 hours in a given week she will; at the same time she will just tell me a week or so before when she needs to take time off. (Which I'm guessing you might be less keen on - you might need to know in advance, I mean.)
I think you need to need to be absolutely clear at the outset that you need someone flexible as far as tasks go, and that you are very fair and will not make unreasonable requests. You need to ask whether the candidate - if you are working on an employee/employer basis - is willing to be open-minded about anything you ask (regarding making family life run more smoother).

If I'm ever not sure about work-load I think about how long it would take me to do a given task. I have a good idea how long it would take me to clean the bathroom, for example.
I think you are correct about £30k - if I was paying for 35 hours it would be £27,500

"family life run more smoother" tis a pity she doesn't give grammar lessons too.

I would
Love a housekeeper!!! I always say I
Don’t need a cleaner I need a housekeeper tomorrow

Live-in vs Live-out makes a big difference in salary. You can ask for them to do anything (within reason!). Some do all the cleaning and tidying while some do meal prep or dog walks etc. Just be very clear in the job spec so you get the right person.

I can't comment on pay as it was a long time ago, but I was a nanny/house keeper. I did everything, got the kids up took them to school. The only difference between being a stay at home mum and a house keeper is that I got the weekends off. I meal planned, cooked, cleaned, shopped. You just need to negotiate when you employ someone.

Twelve pound an hour seems way too cheap.

In my dreams I would so have one!

PP said £12p/h nett for her nanny/housekeeper which works out at 40k a year salary assuming a 50h week.

For a housekeeping role with no nannying, I think even £12p/h gross is fine. With holiday pay and pension it works out much better for someone than being a self employed cleaner or working in a hotel or shop etc.

I’m a housekeeper. Do u have any questions I can answer.

£12-£15 per hour in the North West. Cleaning, laundry, ironing, errands, food shopping away, school runs, dog walking, bins out etc.

I’m not in the UK so sharing the salary is a bit pointless.

When I hired our housekeeper I basically told her to run the house like it’s hers. She comes in the morning and assess for herself what tasks need to be done, she never asks me. Whatever she sees as needing done she does and if there is something specific I want done I’ll just ask her to do it. She has her own schedule that’s she sticks to. She does all of the house management but the best part is when she does the bathrooms she folds the toilet paper into a point like in a hotel

She also cooks dinner for us most days so all we have to do is heat it up after work.

DH has a housekeeper.....me!

I used to have a housekeeper. She lived with us and did all the cooking, cleaning and childcare. To be honest, it is more trouble than it's worth. Our housekeeper did a wonderful job with the house and the children, but was quite moody. This meant that I used to try to stay out of her way, which was difficult in my own house. Also,, she didn't really like me and much preferred my DH, which made things a bit awkward.

We have a part time nanny/housekeeper. She minds the kids (aged over 8 so they just need to be told to do homework) and does children's laundry and cooking, including tidying the kitchen. She will also visit to feed small pets if we are away.

We also have a cleaner who does floors & bathrooms etc.

Nanny gets £14per hour in London

I pay 15ph, she comes
for 5 hours once a week, cleans everywhere , does any washing, changes beds, sorts and tidies any cupboards that I ask, south east.

We have had a housekeeper for 12 years. She cleans, does laundry and ironing (hurray), a small amount of shopping, organizes workmen, payment of bills, she waters plants, runs errands etc.

When the children were younger, she sometimes played with them and occasionally babysat.

She has a lovely personality, so it works well. Paid minimum wage + 25%. Plenty of paid time off when she needs it to deal with her own family things.

I’m surprised by people saying £12 net an hour is cheap for London.

That’s her actual take home pay. She’s also getting paid holidays, pension, sick pay and we’re paying the taxes. People who are talking about £15 an hour are talking about gross salary/paying somebody who is self-employed so doesn’t get any extras.

So she’s getting about £31k a year (after tax) to do the job that SAHMs do for free. Bear in mind a nanny housekeeper needs to have experience working with children, but doesn’t need any formal qualifications. Tbh I think she’s paid very well considering there’s no student debt to pay off.

@Paranoidmarvin

I’m a housekeeper. Do u have any questions I can answer.

Hello!

I wouldn’t need help with the kids as ex is very hands on and probably has them more than me at the moment due to my business although the kids will get in bed most nights at mine.

It’s the washing and putting it away/ cupboard up and just generally keeping the house in some kind of acceptable state. I didn’t know if house keeps did cleaning.

Weekends off wouldn’t be an issue.

Do you ever walk in to a house and think ‘WTF?’

I have a 4 & 7 year old and over the past months whilst I’ve been home the house has exploded so I know when they are back in school it won’t be as bad - however the washing never goes away and I’ve always been crap at sorting it.

Thanks