As someone who’s spent years helping households run better, I know firsthand how overwhelming household responsibilities can be. If you’re constantly juggling tasks and feeling burned out, hiring a House Manager might be the solution you need.
A house manager can take over the daily logistics of running your home so you can focus on what truly matters, your family, career, and personal well-being.
Let’s dive into the five essential steps to hiring the right house manager for your home.
Fair warning though… if you’d rather skip the list-making and self-auditing entirely, we’ve already thought all of this through… and we’re happy to just handle it for you. Book a free group call here.
Step 1: Identify Your Household Needs
Before you start the hiring process, take a moment to assess your household needs.
Here’s how:
- List Household Tasks: Write down everything from laundry and meal prep to grocery shopping and scheduling maintenance.
- Prioritize Responsibilities: Highlight the most time-consuming and stressful tasks.
- Assign a Joy Rating: Identify the tasks you enjoy and those you’d rather delegate.
This clarity will help you define the exact role and responsibilities of your house manager so they align with your household’s needs.
Step 2: Calculate Your Budget & Time Value
Time is your most valuable resource. A house manager helps you reclaim time that can be better spent on work, family, or self-care. But how much time are you actually spending managing your home, and are you even ready to hire?
Take our free quiz to find out in just 3 minutes. Over 2,000 families have used it to audit their mental load, and you’ll walk away with a custom job description, personalized hiring roadmap, and your readiness score. Whether you’re ready to hire tomorrow or six months from now, it meets you exactly where you are.
Calculate Your Hourly Rate
Divide your annual salary by 2,080 (40 hours per week x 52 weeks) to see what your time is worth.
Consider how much more productive or relaxed you’d be with the extra time. Hiring a house manager is not just about the cost, it is about the value of your time. Consider not only what you’d pay per hour, but also what an extra hour in your day is truly worth.
Would you use that time to grow your business, be more present with your family, or recharge with time for yourself? The ability to focus on what matters most is priceless, and a house manager helps you reclaim your freedom!
Determine a Budget
Set a realistic budget for hiring a house manager. We have an entire article about finances that you can dive into.
Explore Cost Savings
See if existing household help, like cleaners or nannies, can take on additional duties. We actually have an amazing and FREE guide teaching you how to transition your nanny into a house manager, download it for free here.
Hiring a house manager isn’t just about convenience, it’s about reclaiming your time, reducing stress, and improving your overall quality of life.
Step 3: Create a Job Description
A strong job description will attract the right candidates. Be sure to include:
- Responsibilities: List daily, weekly, and occasional tasks.
- Skills & Qualities: Describe the experience and personality traits needed.
- Schedule & Availability: Indicate part-time, full-time, live-in, or live-out preferences.
Step 4: Interview Candidates & Check References
Once you’ve received applications, follow this structured process:
- Screen Applicants: Review resumes and eliminate those who don’t meet your criteria.
- Conduct Initial Interviews: Ask about their experience, problem-solving skills, and fit with your family.
- Schedule Trial Runs: Have top candidates complete a paid trial shift to see how they handle real-life tasks.
- Check References: Contact at least two references to verify reliability, professionalism, and past performance.
Step 5: Hire with an Employment Agreement & Onboarding Plan
Once you’ve selected your ideal house manager, make it official, and set them up to actually succeed.
Draft an Employment Agreement. Set clear expectations from day one regarding responsibilities, pay, and confidentiality. Use an attorney-drafted template to make sure you’re legally protected.
Set Up Payroll. If hiring part-time or full-time, consider payroll services to handle taxes and benefits properly.
Onboard with a Real System. This is where most families drop the ball, not because they hired the wrong person, but because they never gave that person the structure to thrive. Providing home access and going over a schedule is a start, but it’s not enough.
That’s exactly why we created our Home Systems Playbook. It gives you a step-by-step framework to onboard your house manager with confidence, including a household handbook, first 30-day checklist, delegation tools, and repeatable routines for meal planning, cleaning, laundry, and more. Your house manager gets clear expectations from day one, and you finally get to stop being the only one who knows how everything runs.
As one Sage Haus family put it:
“Our new house manager said in her 15-year career she’s never had such an organized onboarding before.”
Hiring a house manager isn’t just about convenience, it’s about reclaiming your time, reducing stress, and improving your quality of life. But hiring is just the beginning. The right systems are what make it stick.
Understanding the House Manager Role
A house manager is the operational backbone of your home — part personal assistant, part logistics coordinator, part household staff manager. The role is different from a housekeeper or estate manager, and understanding the distinction helps you hire the right person from day one.
→ Want a full breakdown of duties, pay, and what to expect? [What Is a Household Manager?]
Let Sage Haus do the Heavy Lifting
Finding the right person, the kind who fits seamlessly into your home, anticipates needs, and takes ownership of the daily chaos, takes more than a quick online search. That’s where we come in.
At Sage Haus, we’ve helped 3,000+ families find trusted household support, and we do it differently. We don’t send you a list of random candidates. We take the time to understand your family’s unique routines, pain points, and what the right support actually looks like for you, then we go find that person.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
We start with a kickoff call to deeply understand your needs, then build a custom job description tailored to your household.
From there, we post, screen, and vet every candidate so you don’t have to. Within 4–6 weeks, you’ll receive two top-tier finalists, with all interviews and logistics handled for you.
Every candidate goes through reference and background checks before they ever step foot in your home, because trust isn’t optional when it comes to your family.
And we don’t disappear after the hire. We guide you through onboarding and give you access to our House Manager Certification and Home Systems Playbook to make sure the transition actually sticks.
Whether you need a part-time house manager, a family assistant, or a meal-prep chef, we work closely with families to ensure every placement gets the attention it deserves. And if your hire doesn’t work out within the first 60 days, we’ll find you a replacement at no additional cost.
You’ve already spent enough time managing everything yourself. Let us handle this part.
Get the Support You Deserve
I know how exhausting it is to try to do it all. That’s why I created Sage Haus, to help busy families like yours find real relief from the mental load. When you have the right support in place, everything shifts:
More Presence. With 10–20+ hours back in your week, you can actually show up for your kids, your partner, and your career — not just survive the day.
Time Freedom. Delegate the meal prep, laundry, errands, and daily chaos to someone you trust, and spend your hours on what actually matters to you.
Less Resentment. When the invisible load is finally shared, stress goes down and connection goes up.
Your Village. You were never meant to do this alone. The right hire becomes your trusted right hand — someone who runs toward the chaos so you don’t have to.
If you enjoyed this article, 5 Steps to Hiring a House Manager and Reclaiming Your Time, you might also enjoy:
- Everything I Did To Successfully Onboard a New House Manager
- Transitioning your Nanny to a House Manager
- How to Run Your Home Like a Business
Frequently Asked Questions about Hiring a House Manager:
A house manager oversees the daily operations of a household, ensuring everything runs smoothly by managing the rest of the village, schedules, maintenance, and budgets. They may also handle event planning, inventory, and administrative tasks to support the homeowner’s needs.
A House Manager is worth it if you have a large or busy household that requires organization and daily upkeep, freeing you from handling logistics yourself. Many clients find that even part-time assistance can make a huge difference, reclaiming 5-10 hours per week can be immensely valuable for focusing on family, career, or personal well-being. Their value ultimately depends on your lifestyle, budget, and the complexity of your household needs.
A housekeeper primarily focuses on cleaning, laundry, and maintaining the home’s tidiness, performing hands-on tasks like vacuuming, dusting, and organizing. A house manager, on the other hand, oversees the entire household’s operations and an extra pair of hands for day to day home operations; from light cleaning and organizing, to laundry and errand running. (Sometimes this role can include childcare and meal prep!)
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