Thursday

The Cost of Adding Full Family Laundry to the Nanny Job?

Fransisco Laso
Hi All,
My boss just got a big promotion. Knowing she was getting this, she raised my live out salary from $825 per week to $900 per week. I have been with them 17 months. She recently asked me if I would like to do family laundry to make extra money. She wanted to know "what would make it worth it to you" and she is asking me from the point of someone who is working more and wants to have less responsibility at home. The family laundry would include towels and laundry for five people, Five beds, (one child has a bunk bed and sleeps in both top and bottom over the course of a week), soccer, cheerleading and karate uniforms, running clothes of the father (daily, sweaty) and the regular laundry of five people, excepting any thing that goes to the drycleaner. Both parents change when they get home daily. I was thinking $150, but I don't want to sound greedy. 

15 comments:

anonymous said...

Weekly/monthly? Please clarify.

Anonymous said...

Find out what a weekly laundry service would charge in your area.

nannyrobot said...

I think your estimate is a little on the high end but I might be mistaken because you might do more laundry than I estimate. I estimate that you would have about 13 loads a week. You can't charge what a service would because you aren't a professional laundry person and you're using their machines and soap to do it. I suggest finding out what "fluff and fold" service costs in your area and charge 75% of that (prices are per load.) OR have a trial week where you do the laundry and record how much time it takes you. (Don't include time that you're not physically involved in it.) Charge a flat hourly rate based on how much time it took in your trial week and add a little extra for the hassle of waiting for the laundry.

Anonymous said...

I do laundry for 4 people in the house I nanny at. I don't get paid extra for it. I can do up to 12 loads a week If the parents bring me their bedding along with the kids. So be prepared that some weeks can be more then others.

anonymous said...

I would totally go with the $150 a week.

I DontLikeDoingFamilyLaundry said...

I think you really need to clarify how many loads per week you are talking about. I have worked for families that wear clothes multiple times "if the shirt looks/smells clean," and some that go through multiple outfits a day per person. The former was much less work and time consuming than the latter. In addition, are you just washing, drying, and folding, or are you also putting away this stuff? Because that's something that a fluff and fold won't do, (take that in consideration when seeing what a fluff and fold charges. Are you pressing and ironing? Are you stripping the beds of the sheets? Are you making the beds back up, or are you just folding and putting in linen closet? Don't sell yourself short. Lastly, is doing the laundry something that you feel fully comfortable doing, or do you feel obligated to do it because she just gave you an additional seventy five dollars a week?

In my experience, I'd guess that you are going to have ALOT of laundry. That's a minimum of six loads of bedding a week alone - depending on how bulky it is. I would probably do what NannyRobot suggested in order to record what amount of time it takes you. Then I'd charge an additional 2.5- 5$/hour for that amount of time to come up with a flat rate.

Nanny said...

I agree with I don't like laundry. I wouldn't charge what a fluff and fold charges. They only wash and dry. They're not running around collecting, sorting, pretreating, washing, drying and putting everything away. Find out how much she wants done. I would charge a fee per load. Flat fees can have you doing 15 loads per week. Laundry is my least favorite chore at my house. So to do it for a NF, I'd need to be seriously paid!

Anonymous said...

$150 are you joking? Talk about piggy.

Leah said...

Remember: each load washer and dryer is about 45min. If you have 3 loads, you end up with 4h less or more. You still have to separate colors/whites/delicates/blacks clothings.
After that you have more folding and maybe, I don't know if it's your case, but put clothes away.
You probably have to do it 5x week, otherwise it will be overwhelming to do it.
I would say $150.00 or more. If she complains then tell her find another person to do it, because you don't want.

I already did laundry for a family of 7. Never more!

Anonymous said...

I think you should count your lucky stars that your employer hasn't figured out that kid's laundry is legitimately a nanny's job anyway... $600 per month for laundry? madness. Revise downward. By a lot.

Ferni said...

I'm a nanny, not a laundress. Doing laundry is NOT part of my job. If they asked me to do it and asked for an amount to do it, you bet that amount would be greater than $150 a week because I DONT WANT TO DO IT. No thank you.

Anonymous said...

Laundry of any kind isn't part of this nanny's job. You couldn't pay me enough to do it!

Anonymous said...

I disagree. Kids laundry, prep of kids meals and organization of their bedrooms is standard in most nanny contracts - you just have to follow guidance from nanny hire agencies to see that.

Anonymous said...

You can disagree till you're blue in the face! A LOT of nannies do not and are not EXPECTED to do more than care for the child. I don't even clean up plates from breakfast or lunch. Our household has a full time housekeeper for that. She doesn't want us (I or Night Nanny) in her way. I've never had a job where laundry was requested of me and I've been nannying 14 years. All experiences are not the same.

Anonymous said...

I would say a household with a full time housekeeper is not the norm. Perhaps you work for wealthy households where there is someone to clean up after you, but in your average household, if a nanny didn't even clean up after herself, there would be issues. Most nannies are expected to at least leave the house as they found it, not leave a trail of destruction behind them for parents to clean up after they get home from work! Clearly this household, like most, does not employ a full time housekeeper so your anomalous example is irrelevant.