Did you Hire Help?

I am feeling very overwhelmed with keeping up on laundry and housekeeping. What did you do?

 

QUOTE(dannlori @ Jan 9 2008, 10:22 AM) [snapback]564304[/snapback]
I am feeling very overwhelmed with keeping up on laundry and housekeeping. What did you do?



My hubby and I do all the laundry on Saturdays. He wants me to spend all my time with the kids helping them. I also take care of a 7 month old all day as well so I have NO time for anything.

He usually cooks as well. Although, the last 2 nights I cooked dinner for him. He started a new job and I know he has been busy learning and needs a break!

 

One of my biggest regrets is not hiring help during the first year. l look back and think "Why the h#ll didn't we hire a cleaning person?!?" It would have saved my DH and I alot of arguments. We were already exhausted enough. If you can afford it, get the help. When your twins get a bt older you won't need it any longer but it might help save your sanity now.

 

QUOTE(dannlori @ Jan 9 2008, 09:22 AM) [snapback]564304[/snapback]
I am feeling very overwhelmed with keeping up on laundry and housekeeping. What did you do?


My mother in law hired someone to come clean my house every other week. The lady is here about 3 hours and she cleans bathrooms, scrubs floors, dusts, etc. It is such a relief not to have to do any of that stuff. It costs $50 each time she comes. I try and do a load of laundry every morning and then as needed throughout the day. I have no problem keeping up the washing of the laundry, but I never seem to get aroud to folding it.

 

I have a lady that comes in to clean 2x a month. I don't know what I'd do without her. Like you mentioned, laundry itself is like a full-time job! She cleans my kitchen, bathrooms, living room and my bedroom. She doesn't do the kids' rooms, or our downstairs. I pay her $60 each time and she's here cleaning for about 5 hours.

I have found, however, that if I can do at least one load of laundry a day and fold it at night while everyone is in bed and we're watching tv or something, I can stay pretty much on top of it. I could not handle doing it all in one day. Way too overwhelming.

I would rather not eat out, or cut back on other areas in order to afford some help. It's vital to my sanity.

Reyna

 

DH took over the cooking entirely.

My sons were 8.5 and 11, and they got to do some vacuuming. The older one did his own laundry.

I did not have the money to hire anyone, but it would have been nice and if you can afford it, why not? The first year is hard enough, and why spend it with the house instead of the kids?

ETA: I am one of those daily-laundry people. It would be impossible to do it all at once.

 

If u can afford it do it.

 

We have a cleaning lady. She is actually here right now. She comes 2X a month, $85 each time she's here. We started it when I was pregnant on bed rest and probably will never stop, now that we have budgeted for it. Both DH and I work full time, so when we are home on the weekends, I can't imagine wasting half a day cleaning the house! I want to spend it with the babies.

 

I hired a cleaning service to come every other week once I landed on bedrest at 16 weeks, and I haven't let them go yet. I contemplate it but I'm not quite ready to commit!

I do have help with the girls, but it is only because I work FT from home so I have a nanny here 7-4 M-F while I work. If I was a FT SAHM I could only survive it if I did have some PT help to give me a little break and time to myself. At first she did the girls laundry but nowadays I just throw their stuff in with ours.

cleaning service - $78/every other week
nanny - $295/week

 

I would have loved to but money was an issue.

 

If you can afford it, I would do it. Since I had to quit my job to stay at home with the twins this year, the money is not really in the budget, but next school year when I go back to work, we are going to hire a cleaning lady.

 

Yes, yes and yes!

in addition to the nanny who started about 6 weeks after the boys were born (she does laundry, picks up some, empties dishwasher), we have had lawn care at $100/month and a cleaning lady every other week at $65 a visit for as long as I can remember. If you can afford it, the help is especially invaluable after having the babies. The way I see it is this - DH and I work really hard, sometimes very long hours. When we do have time off, we want to spend it with each other and the boys. we don't want to spend it doing chores.

 

YES, YES,


I started with a cleaning lady when we moved into a bigger house while I was pregnant. She comes every 2 weeks and costss $100. I also work FT from home so I have a nanny that comes 3 times a week from 9am -3pm. The other days I "work" AND watch the kids myself...light on the work side, heavy on the kids side! We started with a night nanny that came 3 nights a week from 11pm to 6am just so that we could get some sleep in the beginning. When I went back to work after only 6 weeks we simply switched our night nanny to days and the schedule I mentioned before. The kids absolutely love her and she also comes one Saturday night a month so that DH and I can get out together for a date night. If I don't have tons of work to do I will also have her come one less day during the week on the weeks she comes on Sat. so that we save a bit of $$$.

I am generally able to do the laundry etc... but since the kids nap at 9am and around 12:30 while she is here and my nanny hates to sit still she straightens and does laundry when she has an extra minute etc... I really really appreciate this, particularly because I never ask, she just does.

Anyway, I am sooo glad that we hired a night nanny the first few weeks so that DH and I could enjoy (kind of although it was still pure he**) the first couple of months. I don't think I would be sane without my cleaning lady and I totally appreciate having the nanny during the day so that I can work and get out to buy groceries, take a walk, or even enjoy one of the babies without have to worry about what the other one is doing.

Get help, enjoy life!!! No martyrs in my house!

Amy

 

We had a cleaning service come in about 1-2 times a month for the first few months. It was nice to get some of the deep cleaning done that I just couldn't find time for but I always felt like I stressed myself out by cleaning up for the cleaning ladies so we stopped having them come.

No hired help with the babies but my mom did stay over to help at nights for the first few weeks (hubby works nights so it would have been just me otherwise and I had a bad recovery PP). She was a lifesaver.

 

Nope I didn't stress and just did what I could do.

 

I started using a cleaning lady when I went on bedrest with the twins. She came every other week, $80 a visit. I also work PT from home so I have a nanny that comes during the week from 9am-5pm ($350) and she also picks up the house & does laundry. Having her allows me to spend time with our 3 yr old & 7 yr old and get ind time with each baby too along with time with my hubby. Not to mention cook dinner, go to the grocery store, etc.. We too had a night nanny for the first 8 weeks. She worked 8m to 8:am. We loved her & the babies loved her & we got sleep & didn't argue a 10th of what we did with the previously pgs. I say if you can afford someone then do it! Don't feel like you aren't being a good mother if you use someone. Taking care of yourself so that you can be the best mother & wife possible is the most important thing to your family unit. If you can't afford someone then beg, pled and borrow time from friends and family. Don't be afraid to ask for help!

I agree with Amy..Get help, enjoy life!!! No martyrs in my house either!

Ashley

 

QUOTE(dannlori @ Jan 9 2008, 03:22 PM) [snapback]564304[/snapback]
I am feeling very overwhelmed with keeping up on laundry and housekeeping. What did you do?



I hired a cleaning service when the babies were about six months old. We love it. We really wish we'd done it earlier. We really can't afford it, but it eliminates so much drama (looking for stuff, complaints over things not being done, etc.) that it's worth the tight budget.

At first they came every week, now it's twice a month and sometimes just once. It helps so much. She changes the sheets and cleans everything! Our service charges $45 per time. (Well worth it!!!)

We also sent our older son to his sitter when the babies were first born. I think we did that a couple times a week for the first 2-3 months. Also, well worth it. He was 2 1/2 when the babies were born.

Hire someone if you can, and don't feel guilty about it. I have decided that if we all have clean underwear on and our bodies are clean that it's fine. I can have a perfectly clean house when my kids go to college. Enjoy them now!

 

My awesome DH agreed so we hired a lady to come in every week and do whatever needed to be done. Laundry, cleaning, etc. She will even watch the babies for a little while (she loves this) if I want to go outside and play with my horse for a bit. Usually only for about 1/2 hour but it's still a little break! I can't imagine how hard it must be to have to do everything yourself with infant twins. It's so stressfull to have everything piling up! If you can afford it, hire someone! We pay her $15 per hour.

 

my twins are 4 months and 2 weeks and we just had a house cleaner come this week! It was amazing! I loved it! Shes charging us 50$ every time she comes every 2 weeks. I think we were lucky in finding a great cheap cleaning lady though...