We've had both a live in and once a week cleaning lady before and both have been awesome.
Even just having someone once a week/month to do BIG cleaning projects (mopping everything, vaccuming, laundry/folding, window cleaning) just makes life so much easier lol
Prives vary by area and how ok you are with hiring people who are, *ahem*, not exactly legally supposed to be working.. if you know what I mean..
It's not lazy or wrong lol it's paying someone to do things you don't want to do so you can spend more of your life doing the things you DO want to do. COULD I move out of my house by myself? Ya, probably.. but movers just do it better, in less time and I hate getting sweaty and lifting heavy objects so why not? Lol same thing with house keepers.
In the words of my brother "I work all day, doing stuff I'd rather not be doing. I'll be damned if the time I spend enjoying my life at home is going to be cut even slimmer by doing stuff I'd rather not be doing, and not even getting paid for it!"
We leave a list of things to do. Laundry/folding/putting stuff away is always at the top.. followed by basic cleaning stuff that needs to be done every week (mopping, dusting, cleaning rooms etc..)
and then the rest of the list is random stuff that isn't really urgent but we'd like done at some point and she works her way through those when she can (sometimes she has school and needs to leave immediately, sometimes she is ok with working an extra hour or two) extra stuff is stuff like cleaning fridge, mopping down balcony and other random stuff.
I like the list thing, with NEED TO DO TODAY and LONG TERM tasks. It ensures everything that needs to be done gets done without rushing her, and the long term stuff always gets done and done WELL
She is awesome and is very open with us in discussing how we want tasks done and her pay. She has been with us for a while and does a great job
SHE EVEN FOLDS UNDERWEAR! ..which is one of those things I really didn't think I would love until she started doing it and now..