Hiring someone to clean your home may sound like a luxury you can’t fit into your budget. Unless you can find cleaners whose hourly rate falls below what you earn per hour, you have to get creative. Here’s how to do exactly that so you can afford to hire spring cleaners.
Work the Free Trial Offers
You just might be able to get at least one completely free home cleaning — but more likely you’ll score discounts on first-time cleanings — by checking out websites that provide lists of local service providers along with mobile apps that offer subscription-style pricing for domestic help. These websites and apps include listings of home cleaning providers and may have promotions in some local markets:
Get Your Kids To Do It
This suggestion might double as a way to instill a sense of responsibility in your children while giving them something to do during spring break. You could offer to pay them based on the quality of their work and still end up paying less than you would if you hired an outside party to do the job. Just don’t get overzealous about this: If your kids are too young, you might end up doing the cleaning yourself.
Barter with Cleaners
If you’re an entrepreneur of any kind, you might be able to barter with cleaners who might need your services. If you drive for a rideshare service, you could offer to take the cleaners to their gigs.
Accountants might be able to barter tax return filings, tutors might give some lessons, marketers could provide promotional services, cooks might offer up some meals, and so on. If you have a skill to offer that might save the cleaners some time, and your pay rates seem similar, you stand a chance at negotiating a trade.
Sell Stuff to Pay for It
One of the simplest ways to cost justify hiring a spring cleaner involves attaching some cash flow to the exercise: sell household items to provide you with enough funds to pay for the cleaning help.
This only works if you have self-discipline because it effectively puts the proverbial cart before the horse — otherwise, people usually come up with their pile of things to sell at the end of a spring cleaning exercise. Read more about this specific type of sale by clicking here, here and here.
You Can Afford to Hire Spring Cleaners
If you really need to save time or physical energy, that might be all the justification you need to make the case that you can afford to hire spring cleaners. Perhaps you might even be able to set up an ongoing arrangement with someone to help you tidy up.
If you create a budget that’s based on your priorities, hopefully you can find a way to line up the funds for the things you want or need most.
Readers, what experience have you had with paying for home cleaning services?
Jackie Cohen is an award winning financial journalist turned turned financial advisor obsessed with climate change risk, data and business. Jackie holds a B.A. Degree from Macalester College and an M.A. in English from Claremont Graduate University.
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