Living in Korea | Tips for Hiring a Housekeeper

At Wonderful we've answered over 100,000 requests and a good number of them are about housekeeping in Korea. Here's one question we'd like to provide more insight into explaining.

Question: "Why can't I find a housekeeper that will clean my balcony? I mean it's a small room, enclosed and a part of the inside of my apartment! Are they all just lazy or am I going crazy?"

Answer: In Korea, there are actually different types of housekeeping services and only certain people will clean your balcony. We're not exactly sure why, but we think it's a combination of superstition and division of scope of work amongst different types of housekeepers. We're pretty sure it has nothing to do with being lazy since it's standard practice amongst most cleaning companies. Housekeeping jobs in Korea are not all the same.

The housekeepers who clean balconies also tend to be those who specialize in deep cleaning and work when apartments are empty to prepare them for new tenants. In general, most Koreans traditionally do not clean their homes when they move out. They believe that cleaning your house upon move out will make evil spirits that reside in the house follow you to your new home - and nobody wants that!

The cleaners that do deep cleaning before you move-in work to make sure every nook and cranny is sterilized. They go to great lengths to clean railings, grout stains, and all the obscure places you would normally neglect. These types of housekeepers usually charge 10 times more than regular ones because they bring specialized equipment and will spend all day focusing on stubborn stains and hard to reach areas. Depending on the size and location of your apartment it can range between 250,000 krw to more than a million to hire a reputable cleaner.

Regular housekeepers are happy to help wash dishes, clean bathrooms, mop, do laundry, dusting and light organizing. They usually won't come with cleaning equipment since it's really difficult to carry a mop and other cleaning supplies onto public transportation. Imagine sitting next to an ajumma on a crowded subway with a big bucket and vacuum cleaner - not a good thing!

A housekeeper can sometimes also do additional duties as a nanny in Korea. While it generally safe in South Korea, we recommend to do extra background checks if you decide to have someone take care of your kids too. We think it pretty much goes without saying, but there can be cultural differences and language challenges when it comes to child care.

Wonderful can help with finding a housekeeper to help with any kind of cleaning and also order dishwashing cloths, mops, and soap if you need it too. We make keeping clean easy by taking care of all the booking and initial communication so you get exactly what you need. Don't worry if you can't speak Korean, send us a message to get started!

Order anything in Korea, hassle free! Wonderful can help because you're busy, don't know how to do it, or just a little lazy... :)

Most house cleaning requests take around 20-40 minutes to get done on average, but times can vary depending on your situation.

Regarding our pricing, we charge for the time taken working on your request by the minute, for as low as 1250 KRW per minute, depending on your preferred pricing package. There are NO processing fees when you pay us via bank wire transfer. (You will pay only the cost of the item(s)). When we charge your bank card, there is an 8.5% processing fee that goes to the payment processor for their services. We do NOT benefit from this fee. For more information regarding our pricing, please follow this link.