How much would you pay kids to clean house?

[ColouringPencils]

One-off thing while they are on holiday and DH and I are working. Age 11 and 14. One is conscientious but does things slowly, the other likely to work much faster but also be more careless. What is a reasonable hourly rate, or would you pay per task, and if so how much?

I also don't pay. I wouldn't say to them "would you two clean the house" , instead I usually leave a list of very specific jobs and put a name against each one. My children require specificity and absolute fairness (ie no hint that they are doing more than their sibling).

We also all do the weekly clean together every Saturday. No list then.

@ColouringPencils

Okay it sounds like I am far too soft and have missed a trick. I want to say 'can you two clean the house today while I am working?' I do ask them to do housework when I am doing it too, but don't really expect them to do it on their own (apart from tidying their own bedrooms). They would normally do things like hoovering or washing up. I would like them to hoover, steam floors, clean windows and mirrors, tidy sitting room and dining room, clean kitchen and bathroom.

I would like them to hoover, steam floors, clean windows and mirrors, tidy sitting room and dining room, clean kitchen and bathroom. That list is way too extensive imo. You at least should be doing the bathroom and kitchen. But what have you been doing all weekend to allow the house to be in this state of guests are coming? What would you be doing if they were still at school?

My teenage son used to ask me for jobs to do when he was skint . He was the worst cleaner I have ever seen but I would have ended up giving him money anyway. At least he was getting some practice!

My mum used to pay me and my sister £5 each to clean the whole house at the weekend. Hoover and dust everywhere, tidy, clean kitchen, clean bathrooms (including parents bathroom). That was on top of all the washing up, cooking a couple of times a week, our own laundry and bedrooms which was just expected and not paid specifically. As soon as I could I got a part time job as a waitress that paid much better and didn't involve picking my parents hair out of the shower. My mum treated it as a huge joke how she'd got such cheap cleaning for so long 🤨

I'd have jobs for your kids to do but expecting them to do all that cleaning when you can't be bothered to do it yourself is a bit much.

Lol, thanks for the telling offs.

I pay my cleaner £50 to clean my 3 bedroom house and she doesn't clean windows in that time.

Mine would do it for a million pounds, hopefully .(They've already lost pocket money and netflix due to their refusal to work as a team)

12yo DS paid £3-£4/hour, depending on the job. He's slow but extremely thorough. I can't justify paying more than minimum wage for teens age 15-16 yo.

I've taken bathrooms off the list. By windows I only actually mean the two windows in the sitting and dining room. I don't think this is a ridiculous list. One can do hoovering, windows, kitchen. The other can steam hard floors, tidy dining room and sitting room. It's quite a small house. Obviously I am not going to get - nor do I expect - the work of a professional cleaner.

I would pay £10 each
Have a list of tasks and separate between the two, but there is a minimum time, say 2/3 hours they must work for. If they finish early they get an extra task. To stop the speedy person rushing through.
I would maybe say, if there do an excellent job you'll tip them. £5 each

And the 14 year old could do bathrooms... at that age they should be sensible enough to use bleach properly in a toilet.

@ColouringPencils

I've taken bathrooms off the list. By windows I only actually mean the two windows in the sitting and dining room. I don't think this is a ridiculous list. One can do hoovering, windows, kitchen. The other can steam hard floors, tidy dining room and sitting room. It's quite a small house. Obviously I am not going to get - nor do I expect - the work of a professional cleaner.

Unless you are very poor I don't see why you can't pay for a one off professional clean.

I used to be in the no payment camp but realised I was nagging the kids to do tasks and it was unproductive.

I’ve moved to payments for set tasks (their own bathrooms, hoovering, dusting etc) and no one feels hard done by or nagged. When they have homes of their own they will realise that work like cleaning is valuable and valued - hopefully!

Depends whether you’re asking them to deep clean the house from top to bottom or whether you’re just asking them to do regular jobs most kids their age do. My DC are expected to keep their bedrooms tidy which includes changing their own bedding, sweeping and mopping their floors, dusting and cleaning their windows. They’re also responsible for putting their washing in the machine at the end of the week. They’re 11, 10 and almost 9 for reference and I give them £5 a week each for this. I occasionally ask them to do extra jobs like watering the plants, vacuuming the hallway and stairs, helping me with the gardening but don’t pay anything extra for this.

If you’re expecting your DC to do all of the housework then I’d probably give them £20 each.