Reader-submitted: The cleaning help crisis

As many are aware, there is a cleaning help crisis in town.

The fact is, they are taking advantage of us and keep on raising their prices – just because they feel they’ll get it anyway.

Today, a message was going around saying that a group of cleaning ladies intend to raise the price to $20/hour for the Yom Tov season! This is absolutely rediculous and we need to all unite to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand.

I think it’s time someone takes the opportunity to open up a cleaning help agency, keeping a cap on the rates in town, and simultaneously screening the women.

Thank you.

A Lakewood resident.

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28 COMMENTS

  1. Do not, under any circumstances, call this a crisis! A crisis is when a tragedy occurs. A crisis is when a child goes off the derech or gets sick. Having to pay a cleaning lady $20 an hour is NOT a crisis. If you need the help, you have to pay for it.

  2. I have not had cleaning help in a several “years” because I cannot afford it. I’ve been forced to either do everything myself, or live with a less then spotless house during this period, which included every yom tov too.

    For someone to call the latest change in hourly rates a “crisis” is simply wrong. If she can no longer afford to be spoiled, then she & her family are welcome to join the rest of us and live within their means.

    • You are correct. If we call the prices cleaning ladies charge a crisis, what do we call a real crisis?
      All those that feel that they absolutely must have cleaning help have brought this problem upon themselves. If everyone would stop using cleaning help, the price will drop like a rock. It is simple economics.

  3. Give each of your kids a chore and offer then $1 for doing it well, $2 for doing it perfectly and you be the judge.
    You’ll keep the money in the family, you’ll have a cleaner house and it will cost less than cleaning help.

  4. I always was my own cleaning lady, but, I did get my kids to help. It is very important for kids to learn responsibility and know that not everything is coming to them and to understand that keeping a home clean and tidy takes effort. B”H my kids are mostly all married now and they all know how to vacuum, wash dishes, clean a bathroom and fold laundry, even the boys, and even my sons help my wives when necessary.

  5. If it’s too expensive for you don’t hire them. If enough ppl don’t hire their prices will drop very fast. Not everything has to be regulated. Unless of course your a democrat.

  6. Wow! Somebody raised a valid point, it’s hard to find good cleaning help and if in fact they charge $20 most ppl won’t hire them at all but from reading all the comments it looks like most of this town manages without help at all???
    Even if you get cleaning help a couple of times a week your kids will have lots of opportunities to help,do not worry!
    With most ladies working and our big sized families I would not call it a “luxury”!

    • the last word of your comment (luxury) falls in line with my thoughts. i’m from the “previous” generation and boy have things changed in the last 30-40 years! when i was growing up who of us “simple folk” had cleaning ladies? it was always only the rich people that had cleaning ladies. in fact, when someone today asks me if i have a cleaning lady i say to them “i don’t need one since i married my cleaning lady”. what the women are doing is not illegal. they are organizing and “unionizing”.

  7. @Chaim I wouldn’t say its a luxury, having 3 kids and working 30+ hours necessitates a cleaning lady. My mother didn’t have a cleaning lady but she didn’t work more than 20 hours a week. It’s a different story today.

    Also, with all due respect to your wife, I hope she’s not your cleaning lady!

    • @rachel…you are correct when you say that “it’s a different story today” but it’s not because women are working more hours today, but rather because the average frum yeshivish family lives in a house that would once upon a time be called a mansion. more rooms=a greater need for cleaning ladies. and, with all due respect to my wife of 41 years (b”ah), the remark about me marrying my cleaning lady was not, c”v, meant to be a put down. my point was that way back then we ALL contributed to cleaning the house (wife included) without relying on some “goyete” to wash the floors, etc. btw, we also brought up our 8 kids WITHOUT a car (or two) (gasp!) and we …..survived!

  8. Who is with me? I will go to the Mexican border and import cleaning help for 7 dollars an hour (just bring a ladder in case the wall is up). That’s like a month salary over there. It is only when they come here and ppl offer more to entice good cleaning help to leave their neighbors do they decide to go up in price. In the nursing home industry CNAs who do a lot harder of a job than any cleaning help that I know of get paid a little above minimum wage of 7.25 an hour in New Jersey. How does it make sense to pay someone 13 an hour to fold laundry and mop the floor??
    We created our own problem and we need to do something about it, I called someone and she wanted 15 an hour plus 5$ each way for car service. I said no, no one pays for my car to go to work, and I don’t get a 50% raise every 2 years…

  9. It is simple economics, everyone wants to make as much as they can/spend as little as they can.

    If they are getting hired at $20/hour, why would they lower their prices?

    If noone hires them and they are out of work, they will work for less.

  10. you can have mine, i just told her I will not be needing her anymore.
    I have been paying her 11.00 per hour to not clean my house and to break my vacuum cleaner, scratch my floors etc.

  11. to rachel – sorry, no cleaning help in this home either. i do work 30+ hours a week and b’h have many more children than 3! kids have jobs, everyone pitches in and no, my house is not always spotless. yes, it is a luxury. i cannot afford the luxury of help and nor do i think it worth the price tag – not just in $s but in lost chinuch opportunity. children raised with cleaning help are often not as responsible, capable or self-confident. children that know they make a difference have a self-worth, are mature and capable….

  12. Totally agree with “my take” and “no cleaning help”!! Children who have chores and responsibilites, learn to be just that…responsible!! Thats right, you clean up after yourself because noone is behind u with a mop & broom. Its healthy for children to know that they must throw out their own plates, sweep up, vacuum etc! Im not saying you should never have a cleaning lady to help you “catch up” but having them for so many hours, a few days a week, is a whole ‘nother ball game….

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