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Book a free call →Kids outgrowing the nanny?
The kids outgrew the nanny years. The to-do list didn't.
Hiring a house manager when the nanny years end is the most common switch we help families make. School pickups, dinner, laundry, the calendar, the dog, the forms. When the kids start school, what's left is the running of the house. A house manager owns that layer. It can be the nanny you already trust, in a bigger role, or someone new. We help with either.
We'll tell you honestly whether this is the right next role for your family.
The kids are at school
Someone resets the mudroom, gets the laundry going and keeps the calendar straight while the kids are at school.
Families who made this switch run 15 to 45 hours a week.
- 10,000+ families supported
- 90-day guarantee
- Flat fee, never a % of salary
What people are saying
Families who made the same switch.
“I knew I wanted to transition our nanny into a house manager, but I had no clue how. Kelly guided me through hiring, training, and creating systems that now give me more time with my kids, and for myself.”
Keep who you trust
If your nanny is the right person, we help you grow their role instead of replacing them. If they aren't, we find someone built for this stage.
15–45 hrs
a week across nanny-to-house-manager Sage Haus families. Most started part-time and grew the role as trust built.
7–12 wks
from kickoff call to start date in those stories. First candidates typically arrive in four to six weeks.
The shift
From the children's day to the whole household.
Much of what makes a great nanny translates: the routines, the judgment, the trust your children already have. What changes is the scope. The household becomes the job, with the responsibility and the pay to match. We help you rewrite the role with your nanny, or find someone new if they'd rather stay in childcare.
The nanny role
- Hands-on care while you worked
- The children's routines: naps, meals, play, the park
- Tidying up after the kids
- Hours built around the children's day
The house manager role
- The daily reset, laundry, kitchen, supplies
- Meals planned and prepped, groceries ordered
- The calendar, school logistics, pickups when needed
- Vendors, returns, errands, the dog, the forms
- Hours built around the house, with pay to match the scope
Not sure if you should keep your nanny, grow their role, or hire new? That is exactly what the call is for.
Seen enough? Pick a time now.
A free 30-minute group call with a Sage Haus hiring specialist. No obligation, and the fee is covered live.
Why this role lasts
The nanny years end. The household doesn't.
Nanny roles have a natural ceiling: kids age out. Industry guides put it at three to six years per family, and it arrives sooner once a child starts full-day school. A house manager's work is tied to the household, which doesn't age out. For a nanny who wants to stay with your family, it's the natural next step.
3–6 yrs
The natural ceiling on a nanny placement. The childcare hours shrink the day school starts; a wider role is how a great nanny keeps full-time hours with the same family.
15 → 45 hrs
How the role grew across nanny-to-house-manager Sage Haus families. Most started part-time and added hours as trust built. The job expands with the household instead of ending with it.
90%+
Two-year retention that professional placement firms cite for house managers hired through a properly defined process. Industry guides put the average closer to two years when the role is loosely defined. The difference is the setup.
What ends placements early is predictable, and fixable.
Across a dozen industry sources, the same five things end household placements early: pay that doesn't keep up, scope creep, unclear expectations, being treated as the help, and no written agreement. Every Sage Haus search is built against that list: a written role with hours and scope, a transparent pay range, an employment agreement before any offer, an onboarding call, a six-week check-in and a one-time re-match within 90 days.
What you'll get
A search run for you, start to finish.
1
Kickoff call with your specialist
We map the household around the school day. What falls between the cleaner, the school run and you becomes the role.
2
A job description built for this era
Hours, scope and a title that attracts people who want to run a household.
3
Vetted candidates, interviews arranged
We source, screen and interview. You meet the finalists. References, background check and an employment agreement come before any offer.
4
Onboarding and a 90-day guarantee
An onboarding call, a six-week check-in, and a one-time re-match within 90 days if the fit isn't right.
Keeping your nanny?
We can grow the role you already have.
Some families don't need a new hire. They need a plan for evolving the person they trust: new scope, new compensation, a 30-day trial. Our free guide walks you through it, and the call covers whether that's the better route.
Nanny moving on?
Hire for the family you are now.
Three of the six families in our nanny-to-house-manager stories lost a long-time nanny to a move or a life change. None of them replaced them like-for-like. They rebuilt the role around the house.
Case studies
Six families. Six versions of the same decision.
The Casterline family · Nanny to House Manager
Not someone to raise our kids. Someone to run everything else.
A Hill Country couple with two little girls and a third on the way, one parent away a night or two most weeks.
The Merriweather family · Nanny to House Manager
The nanny had the fun part. They changed who had what.
Three boys aged five and under in a Midwest college town.
The Pinfold family · Nanny to House Manager
Consultants know how to staff a project. This was the project.
Two management consultants with demanding hours and travel, three children with the youngest still a baby, school and daycare running to 5:30, a nanny covering the infant — and a family dog in the mix.
The Quenby family · Nanny to House Manager
They didn't replace the nanny. They rethought the role.
A Northeast family whose nanny years had run their course — the kids older, the needs shifted from childcare toward everything around it.
The Pemberton family · Nanny to House Manager
The nanny era ended. They didn't need another nanny.
Two parents working full-time, mostly from home, with two school-age children in sport and a young Labrador.
The Winslow family · Nanny to House Manager
Their long-time nanny couldn't come with them. The list did.
A move out of the city to the suburbs, and the nanny who had been with the family for years couldn't make it with them.
Read all the stories at sagehaus.com/case-studies.
Not ready to book? Take the three-minute quiz.
It builds a scope for your family: the hours, the tasks and the kind of role that fits. You get the result straight away.
The numbers
What the switch is worth, in hours and dollars.
The calculator takes what you spend today on the nanny, delivery and piecemeal help, adds your own hours, and shows the return on a house-manager search.
- The cost today, including your own time
- Hours you get back each week
- Return on the search at one and two years
How the calculator works
- 1What you pay today for sitters, delivery, cleaners and errands, plus the hours you put in yourself
- 2A house manager at the hours and rate you choose, with W-2 costs if you want them
- 3How you find them: a flat fee, an agency percentage, or your own time
- 4The return on the search at one and two years, and the hours you get back
Nothing is filled in for you. Add the Sage Haus fee from your call when you have it.
Book a call
Ready for support?
A free 30-minute call with a Sage Haus hiring specialist. We'll look at your week, tell you honestly what kind of role fits, and if a search makes sense, what it would look like for your family.
More from our families
What changes after the hire.
“Instead of coming home and immediately thinking about dinner, dishes, laundry, groceries, and everything else that needs to get done, we can breathe.”
“Our home feels calm when we walk in at the end of a long day. We no longer have to choose between a big work deliverable and making sure the family is ready for tomorrow.”
“The mental load I've been able to release is indescribable. If you're a working parent feeling stretched thin, Sage Haus is the solution you didn't know you needed.”
Questions families ask
Before you book.
Should I keep my nanny and grow their role, or hire someone new?
Both are real options and the call is where we work it out. If your nanny is organized, wants more hours and is open to a different kind of work, growing the role is often the best outcome. If they love the childcare and not the household, you'll both be happier with a clean handover.
Free resource: How to transition your nanny into a house manager
What does a house manager actually do all day?
The household: the daily reset, laundry, kitchen and meal prep, groceries and supplies, the family calendar, school logistics, vendors, errands and returns. Childcare can stay in the role around the edges, like pickups or a weeknight bedtime, and a nanny moving into the role can keep the parts the children rely on.
Free resource: The mental load, explained and time and cost calculator
How many hours do families usually start with?
Most start at 15 to 25 hours a week and grow from there. We've placed roles from six hours a week, but searches move fastest at 20 hours or more. Under 30 hours is part-time, 30 or more is full-time, and you can start part-time and settle the tier later.
How long does it take?
About four to six weeks from an approved job description to your first candidates. Nanny-to-house-manager Sage Haus families started their house manager seven to twelve weeks after the kickoff call. If you have a date in mind, we work back from it.
How long do house managers stay?
Nobody has a clean national number for nannies or house managers, so be wary of anyone who quotes one. What the research does show: the closest government baseline is 2.5 years median tenure for personal-care-and-service workers, nanny roles carry a built-in end date when kids age out, and placements that end early tend to end for the same reasons, like scope creep, unclear expectations and no written agreement. Our process is built against those reasons, and if your hire leaves inside the first 90 days we re-match once at no cost. On the call we'll walk you through what a first year typically looks like.
What will I pay the house manager?
A house manager who grew out of a nanny role is usually paid more than the nanny was, because the scope is wider. Typically $25 to $50 an hour depending on scope and location, higher in New York and the Bay Area. They're a W-2 household employee; we point you to a payroll partner that handles taxes and pay stubs. Our own fee is covered on the call.
How do you vet candidates?
If your nanny is stepping up, we skip the search and go straight to the role; if you're hiring new, every candidate is vetted the same way. Regional hiring specialists source from local boards and our certified talent pool. Every candidate is screened and interviewed by a human before you meet them. References, a background check and an employment agreement come before any offer, and a one-time re-match is available within 90 days.
My partner isn't convinced.
Common, and usually solved by numbers rather than persuasion. Bring them to the call, or start with our guide for the conversation at home.
Free resource: Pitch in the Kitchen and the calculator
Do you cover my area?
Nanny-to-house-manager families have come to us from the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and Philadelphia. Families across the United States and Canada, with regional specialists who know the local market. Rural and small-town searches take a little longer; tell us where you are on the call.