It started five years ago when Gordon LeFleur gave his wife, Marsha Gilford, a gift certificate for housecleaning services for Mother's Day.
"That hooked me," Gilford said. "I couldn't live without it."Gilford has two college student cleaners come to her house for two hours twice a month. It costs $48 per session and she is convinced it's worth every penny. "I'd spend my last $50 on the housecleaning service before I would give it up. It frees me to do the things that are more meaningful to my family and to me in the limited time we have on the weekends."
Although Utahns have long prided themselves on their do-it-yourself tradition, working women increasingly are turning to others for housecleaning help. Currently, about 62 percent of American women with children under age 5 work outside the home, according to the Brigham Young University Family Studies Center.
Companies that provide cleaning services say that besides dual-income families, these firms do a brisk business for elderly people who want to stay in their own homes as long as possible. Often, their adult children are happy to foot the bill for the housework. Other strong client bases include bachelors busy with their careers, single moms juggling many responsibilities, and people either buying or selling homes who want them spiffed up to look terrific.
Gilford, who is the spokeswoman for Smith's Food & Drug Centers, works long hours and often travels. Her husband, who has been a teacher for 23 years, and their two teenage children always have enjoyed summers off -- but that meant more teens, traffic, commotion and dirt in the house.
The housecleaning service frees her from worrying about it. She used to force her kids to clean their rooms plus one more -- the tradition Gilford grew up with -- every Saturday before the family did anything else. But that turned out to be miserable.
"I was turning into a tyrant mother every Saturday morning. I was becoming obsessive that we get all these things done before we go out and have any fun," Gilford recalls.
Coming home to a clean house after a hard week and getting the chance to really enjoy family life is worth every penny, she said. "You feel like you've had the gift of time bestowed upon you. It's not even a luxury to me anymore, it's a necessity."
The cost of cleaning ranges from an hourly fee to a set amount for a certain number of hours depending on the type of work done, the number of people involved, whether the homeowner or the cleaner provides the equipment and supplies, and whether the cleaner is bonded and insured.
One Davis County cleaning firm offers a "one time cleaning" package that costs $195. For that price, four people show up to scrub, dust, vacuum, move furniture and appliances, and wash almost everything. A Centerville woman who is a self-described "cleaning lady" charges $17 an hour.
Other private cleaners charge substantially less and usually are paid on an hourly basis. People who have found a good cleaner who doesn't charge much often joke that they don't want to share that person's name for fear of losing an absolute treasure. Still other homeowners exasperatedly go through one cleaner after another in search of someone who will do a quality job.
Brian Bardsley, owner of Molly Maids, which serves Salt Lake and Summit counties, said he chose this industry in 1994 after the oil and gas exploration firm he worked for was sold. "I decided I always wanted to have my own business. I just got into this because I saw there always was going to be a demand for it," he said.
Molly Maids goes into a home, estimates how much time a job will take and cleans using its own methods. A team of two people take on a house with one doing the "wet cleaning" in the kitchen and bathrooms, while the other does the "dry cleaning" of dusting and vacuuming. They do a room at a time, moving clockwise. The nationally franchised company provides training videos, and Bardsley often sends a third person along to train employees.
His clients vary in age and income level, but the service has plenty of two-income households. "People just don't have the time. They want to spend time with their families rather than clean the house," Bardsley said.
Shirley Beaty, who has worked for Molly Maids for four years after years of being a full time homemaker, said she likes the pay, she likes her boss and especially enjoys the clients. "I step back (after cleaning some place) and I think, 'They'll enjoy this -- a nice clean home to come home to.' "
She has many regular clients whom she knows well and her pay (which she doesn't disclose but terms a liveable wage) often is supplemented by tips from grateful homeowners.
Evelyn Rudman, who has operated the Merry Maids for 13 years, also wanted own her own business. She investigated several options but decided "you have to choose something that doesn't sound fancy, but something very down to earth and something that people will be needing."
Things in the house cleaning world are different now than the days when "the little lady down the street didn't have a hope in the world but to be somebody's servant and be paid a pittance for very demanding work," Rudman said.
"We're struggling to get out of that (image)," Rudman said. "This is very important work. It's done in peoples' homes and your home is the most expensive possession you own. It should be trusted to the very best people. Historically, it has been entrusted to the underdog."
Rudman said she pioneered the technique of having clients write a list of things they wanted done and prioritize it.
Like many cleaning services, she employs many Spanish-speaking workers and has only good things to say about them. "There are so many of them who are wonderful women."
She uses videos and a trainer to teach cleaning the Merry Maids' cleaning techniques and also does continuing education. But she has learned that "people either clean or they don't" after the training.
Rudman said her business has no typical customer or typical job since every home is different and every person's desires are different. That's why the list of priorities is so important.
There still are women who feel inadequate if they don't do their own housework, although that is changing -- probably out of necessity.
"The new generation -- I don't know how young people do it. The young woman of today is supposed to be a wonderful wife, a wonderful mother, she's expected to be active in church and civic affairs, she's expected to exercise, she has to shop, clean and cook, and be very, very successful at a career," Rudman said.
Such extraordinary expectations are "one of the worst things that ever happened" to modern women, she said. "I think a lot of them get ill over it."
Says Rudman: "We can't marry your husband or raise your children, but we can clean your home for you and that helps a lot."
She's also proud that she not only has made life easier for her clients but also has helped other women -- often those who possess few or no workplace skills -- with her thriving business. "I'm 70 years old and I've put thousands of dollars into the economy every week in payroll for women who would otherwise be on welfare or not working."