Jamie, I pay my domestic help $20 per hour. She lives on a lake wide of Hackensack MN. It is about 23 miles from here, so her round trip is 46 miles. I pay her $10 per round trip.
We have a
4,500 sq.ft. home.
It usually takes her two and a half hours. She comes every two weeks. So it sets us back $120 per month. If the grandchildren have run riot a little more.
One word of caution. Your wife will run into more individuals than she thinks who have the DSM diagnosis of cluttering. Yes, there is a diagnostic inventory and a cluttering scale.
These people will be bad news and she needs to run away from them or have a route of referral for professional help.
My youngest daughter runs an organizing service in the Twin Cities,
Seriously Organized.
She uses all her social work skills to deal with these individuals. When she makes a diagnosis of cluttering disorder, she insists on professional counseling as part of the contract. She also has a home cleaning business.
The home cleaning business is part of the ongoing follow up and therapy of the clutters.
If you wife does not have a plan to deal with this disorder, which is more common than you think and getting commoner, you wife will have some unpleasant and frustrating interactions. This disorder transcends the whole social spectrum.
The other issue is that your wife needs insurance. I know she is honest, but she will unfortunately run into situations, where she is accused of stealing items. Some of these accusations will be the result of early dementia, that even families may not have recognized. However they still have to be defended or settled.
The other issue is taxes. If you wife gets paid more than $50 per month, then the employer has to make arrangements for tax withholding, unless your wife largely uses her own equipment and supplies, then she is regarded as an independent contractor. Then your wife has to file quarterly tax returns.
Unfortunately running a small business, even as simple as a cleaning service, has more ramifications than you might imagine
