Our Cleaner has been fired!

[Paul David]

As myself and my Wife both work full time and long hours we have (or had) a house cleaner who visited every Thursday and cleaned for 4 hours. I personally was happy with her work for the money we we're paying £50 a week), but my Wife wasn't overly impressed so has decided to fire her.

Her new idea is that we're going to share the cleaning between us. I'm a man who's never really cleaned anything in his life, i can hoover and do basic things but generally cleaning isn't for me. Don't get me wrong i like things clean but i don't want to be the person doing it.

I've told my Wife that the last thing i want to do of a weekend or weeknight after staring at a computer screen all day is clean. It didn't go down too well.

I do however have a plan. I work from home 4 days a week so surely i could put the house cleaning costs through as a business expense and that way it doesn't come out of our salary, i don't have to do the cleaning and it means i can utilise the time to work on my business. I value 2/4 hours of time at more £12.50 an hour and I've got a plan anyway that within the next 12 months my Wife can leave her job and become a house Wife and she can clean to her hearts content!.

What do you guys and girls think on this?

 

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[rc08234]

If you make more than 12.50 an hr then hire someone, if you make less then clean.

If you make more than 12.50 and hr and you clean it is costing you money to do something you don't even really want to do, seems quite silly to me?

 

[theag]

I'd really like to have these kinds of "problems".

 

[king156]

I think its a terrific idea!

 

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[JokerCrazyBeatz]

Thats a super interesting idea , it could work

 

[IceCreamAction]

What are you starting a business in the cleaning industry? Why not invest the time to clean in finding a better cleaner ? You both work full time....just my 2cents though hope you guys happy with her decision.

 

[Vigilante]

So your wife fired your cleaning person and then told you to do it?

 

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[Paul David]

So your wife fired your cleaning person and then told you to do it?

She said we can share the chore, so i do the easy stuff like hoovering, cleaning shower, oven, bath etc and she does the rest. I honestly don't think she thought it through. She leaves the house at 8am every day and doesn't get home until 7pm sometimes. We've got 2 children. I work as many hours as i can on my business.

I'm going to check with my accountant if i can put it through as a business expense and i'll make a decision then. If the £50 a week isn't coming out of our account i'm relatively sure she'll be happy even the cleaner isn't up to her standards!

 

[theag]

I'm a man who's never really cleaned anything in his life

i do the easy stuff like hoovering, cleaning shower, oven, bath etc

She tricked you.

 

[TonyStark]

She tricked you.

Leave the yard work for the real men.

 

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[Phones]

50£ for 4 hours per week sounds like a really great deal. So much extra effort to save 25 bucks each per week?

You want to be taking things out of your plate, not adding them. Many people have this sense of pride and effort from doing chores, there's nothing to gain from doing it yourself, unless you're a 15 year old and need to understand how shitty "shitty work" is.

 

[Francisco Roldan]

Dont even try to clean! , I pay three days a Week trhree diferent girls for cleaning, ironing cooking etc. this will liberate your energy and your wife´s to do greater things

 

[Guest34764]

It's good being a teenager.

Just gotta keep my room nice and tidy :joyful:

 

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[ApparentHorizon]

"Time is our most valuable asset, yet we tend to waste it, kill it, and spend it rather than invest it." -Jim Rohn

 

[blueoceanblues]

I'm not buying it.

The cleaner must have been hot, that's why she got the axe.

What exactly was wrong with her work?

 

[Fox]

The cleaner must have been hot, that's why she got the axe.

LOL My thoughts exactly.

 

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[Tapp001]

Seriously, if you can afford to pay for the housework my god do it. Otherwise its a swirling vortex of time sink. Sounds like the decision was pretty unilateral, but I understand if there is little you can do to avoid causing friction. Give it a week or two, and let it sink in how much time and effort keeping house takes. Then propose using a cleaning service that the wife finds acceptable. Even if there is still disagreement, you at least tried to make a go of it.

I have family who cut their cable, and used the extra money to hire a cleaning service. Revenue neutral but real positive expected value in terms of time saved!

 

[Azure]

I used to have this cute little college girl clean my condo naked.

I was forced to get rid of her as well.

 

[Paul David]

I'm not buying it.

The cleaner must have been hot, that's why she got the axe.

What exactly was wrong with her work?

Not exactly, but when I pick the next one she will be!

Like I said I didn't have any issue with her work. I think my wife expects someone to clean the house as well as she would.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

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[theag]

I used to have this cute little college girl clean my condo naked.

I was forced to get rid of her as well.

 

[Digamma]

Like I said I didn't have any issue with her work. I think my wife expects someone to clean the house as well as she would.

So your strategy, if you end up having to do the cleaning, is to do a very sloppy job.

 

[Paul David]

So your strategy, if you end up having to do the cleaning, is to do a very sloppy job.

I like your thinking! Another option i suppose would be to get rid of the wife and bring back the cleaner.

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[VDon]

and I've got a plan anyway that within the next 12 months my Wife can leave her job and become a house Wife and she can clean to her hearts content!

Never ever let your wife be a full time housewife.

My mother was for 25 years, divorce came and now she lives from a very small pension, always berating me because my father has more money than her and whatnot.



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[Choate]

I think you should clean. Its one of the little things in life that feels like a small accomplishment once you've done it. What do you really need to clean? Everything in life is so modernized that its relatively simple. Throw the dishes in the washer, vacuum the floors, wash the floors or rotate window cleaning each month for an hour, etc.

80% of your cleaning can be done in little to no time... under 15 minutes. For everything else, you have your wife. Just take care of the major things, make the house look nice, enjoy in the little accomplishment and move on with your life.

A perfectly clean environment around me allows me to think clearer and set out to do what I need to do. For that, I'd never hire out someone else as the time + effort of finding someone, potential issues, etc. outweighs just doing the work.

 

[G-Man]

I used to have a cleaner. She did a way better job than my wife. When you pay someone, you can set clear expectations, expect those results to happen consistently, and have everyone be happy with it. Telling your wife to do shit does not work this way.

 

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[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Why not have the cleaner work for less hours and you guys pick up on the rest?

It doesn't hurt having a little bit of help...
If quality is an issue, let cleaner focus on what they excel with - Ignoring what they're not so good with

 

[Paul David]

I can't speak for tax laws outside the US (and I'm not a tax professional inside the US either), but based on US tax law, this would be considered part of home office expenses, and you could deduct a percentage of the cost proportionate to the percentage of your home dedicated to an office. For example, if you use 10% of your use as a dedicated home office, you can deduct 10% of your utility costs, cleaning costs, etc. Typically, you'll want to keep that home office percentage below 15%, or you risk getting audited (the IRS doesn't typically believe people use more than 15% of their home as a dedicated office, I guess).

Yes that's what I've done and I works very similar here in Uk.


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[MidwestLandlord]

I can't speak for tax laws outside the US (and I'm not a tax professional inside the US either), but based on US tax law, this would be considered part of home office expenses, and you could deduct a percentage of the cost proportionate to the percentage of your home dedicated to an office. For example, if you use 10% of your use as a dedicated home office, you can deduct 10% of your utility costs, cleaning costs, etc. Typically, you'll want to keep that home office percentage below 15%, or you risk getting audited (the IRS doesn't typically believe people use more than 15% of their home as a dedicated office, I guess).

And don't cheat it either. In an audit, the IRS will literally measure the amount of space you use versus total square footage to see if you were cheating.

Source: I'm married to an accountant that specializes in small-business accounting. She's seen more than a few audits. (don't mess with the taxman, my gosh the horror stories she tells me about audits)

 

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[G-Man]

Tax audits aren't that bad.... you just go to jail for a few years.

Now workforce commission audits... that's when you're praying to go to jail just to make it stop.

 

[minivanman]

Anything under $125 for 4 hours of cleaning is a good deal and anything under $80 is a GREAT deal.... such a great deal that you don't get a very good job, as your wife figured out. Even though I'm a guy, I owned a house cleaning company for over 19 years.... back in the 90's when we started we charged $20 an hour and sometimes less but now the going rate is between $25-$90+ an hour. So the moral of my story is this.... if you want to pay cheap price, you get cheap cleaning. But why is that all bad? Have her come in... clean... if she misses a spot then clean that spot.

Speaking of the hot cleaning girl. My girls cleaned the floors on hands & knees. And I'd go around checking on their work, talking to them a little to let them know they were appreciated. So one day my girlfriend at the time (she worked for me and lived with me) said, "The girls and I took a vote and we would like for our next shirts to be tank tops". With a straight face I said, "Ok, I'll tell Jason (my shirt guy at the time) to get those made next week". Now deep down inside I was telling myself, "HELL YEAH!!! Why didn't I think of that??? Now I get a great view when they are down washing the floors". That was the best money I've ever spent in business was on those shirts.