Looking For A Maid

LondonBridge

Since my wife moved out my chores have doubled and I work long hours so I'm thinking of hiring a maid to help clean my small townhome. Mainly need the floors, bathrooms and other parts of the house clean. Maybe do this once or twice a month.

What should I be looking for in a maid and price range? Any good way to find out they won't rob me?

zhen_rogue

Find a reputable organization in your area, and make sure the maid or company is both bonded and insured.
This will help protect you from theft/damage.

Check the BBB for any open complaints against the prospective company, and also ask the company for refrences.

However, you're never 100% protected from people jacking your stuff, snooping, etc.

I'd still advocate finding a way to keep up on the cleaning yourself, it's much, much, much cheaper and there's no security issues.

jclast

One sure-fire way to make sure they don't steal from you is only schedule them to work when you're home and don't give them keys to your place. This works especially well if, say, they won't be in the living room because all you want is somebody to clean the kitchen and bathrooms.

EggyToast

If you're in a big city, there's tons of maid services around. Big companies, too, and if the big ones got hit with charges of theft and defacement, their entire business would be ruined (after all, why would anyone work with a company that hired thieving maids?).

I see a few cars driving around my city occasionally, different companies. Merry Maids is a big "chain," and I've seen a few others that unfortunately I don't remember (as I'm not exactly in the market for maid service).

Anyway, if you call up a maid service that isn't just one lady working at home by herself, feel free to ask about things like theft and whatnot, prefacing it with a "I've never hired a maid before." And, as far as I recall from other things I've heard about, they almost always meet with you beforehand so you can talk about what you want cleaned, trouble spots, places to avoid, and whatnot. And yeah, you should probably put away important things in a drawer, simply so they don't get misplaced.

I'm not sure what the opinion is on tipping maids, though.

Spackle

Hmm do you have any family members having a tough time? It may or may not be a pride hit but I know my mother has offered maid work to my sister in law when her and my brother (her husband) were really struggling with the bills.