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Having a housekeeper isn't for everyone. But maid service is kind of like cell phone service: Once you've had it, it's hard to imagine life without it.
On the grand scale of extravagances, housekeeping is cheap, with a two-hour weekly session running $30 to $70, depending on where you live. Is $30 a week too much to never scrub a toilet again?
If you're still trying to talk yourself into it, play around with MSN Money's Time Value Calculator. Paying someone else to do the chores you hate may not be as wasteful as it sounds.
If you're already sold on the idea, or if you've hired someone but wonder whether you're going about things the right way, read on.
Before you open the phone book
Your first big decision when hiring household help is: Do I hire an individual or a service?There are pros and cons to each approach. With an individual, you:
- Can get referrals from friends and neighbors who swear by the efficiency, work ethic and honesty of their housecleaners.
- Can guarantee only one person will be in your home, rather than a team or a rotating series of cleaners, as may be the case with a cleaning service.
- Can often pay less per hour than what a service commands.
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On the downside, you:
- Have the hassles of verifying legal status, doing background checks and paying taxes -- or risk the consequences if you don't.
- May have to boost your homeowners or renters coverage if your cleaner doesn't have her (usually "her") own bonding and insurance.
A cleaning service, by contrast, typically handles all the taxes and employment paperwork. Good ones are bonded and insured, and perform at least basic background checks.
Have a plan
Whether you decide on an individual or a service, you should:Ask for references and call them. You want to know how long your cleaner or service has been in the business and how problems have been handled in the past.
Ask for proof of bonding and insurance; if it's a service, ask for proof that it does criminal background checks on its employees.
If you're checking out an individual, you can use an online background search firm for a basic check for $35 to $50. If the cleaner has moved recently from another state, you may need to pay more to do a check on records in that area as well.
Discuss what you want the cleaner to do and how long that will take. You may be trying to keep down costs by hiring someone for two hours a week, but she may need four or more to accomplish everything you want done. Conversely, your cleaner or service may want to be paid by the session, which could start out at six hours and slip to less and less time as the cleaner rushes through the job.
It may take some negotiating or even a few sessions to figure out what's reasonable, but doing so can prevent later problems and dissatisfaction. If you're hiring a service, consider asking if you can try out different individuals or teams so you can pick the one you prefer.
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Provide supervision and feedback. Hovering and interfering with your cleaner's routine is counterproductive. But a walk-through inspection at the end of the first few sessions, and periodically thereafter, can help you spot problems and make adjustments.
Don't hesitate to fire someone who isn't working out. If you're giving clear instructions and your expectations are reasonable, you should be satisfied with how your house looks and smells when your cleaner is done. If not, or if you have good reason to question your cleaner's honesty or reliability, cut your losses and start over.
Are you now an employer?
If you hire an individual, your next question is: Do I pay taxes on the wages?The tax issue is a sticky one. The Internal Revenue Service requires you to file paperwork and pay taxes if you pay a household employee more than a certain amount each year (in 2008 the floor is $1,600 a year). With maid service running anywhere from $15 to $35 an hour in most areas, you could reach that limit even if you hire help for only half a day every other week.
Under the household-employee tax laws, you're responsible for paying your share of payroll taxes: typically 7.65% of your cleaner's gross wages for Social Security and Medicare and 0.8% for federal unemployment tax (FUTA), plus any state unemployment and disability insurance taxes.
Continued: Be smart about paperwork
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