Cleaning the whole home
Floors, bathrooms, the kitchen, dusting and wiping down. The daily pass keeps the home liveable, and the heavier jobs sit on a weekly rotation.
MOM EA Licence 24C2490 · Singapore
Housekeeping helper placement
Housekeeping helper inSingapore, matched to your home
A full-time live-in helper who keeps the home running: cleaning, laundry and ironing, cooking, and the daily errands. We scope the work against the size of your home before we shortlist anyone, and we say so plainly when one person is being asked to do the job of two.
- Replacement support included
- Indonesia and Myanmar helpers
- Full-time live-in placement
The short answer. A housekeeping helper is a full-time live-in domestic helper whose main work is the running of your home: cleaning, laundry and ironing, tidying, cooking and the daily marketing. In a 3 or 4-room HDB flat that is a comfortable full-time job for one person. In a landed house, or in a home that also needs childcare or eldercare, it usually is not, and we would rather have that conversation before you hire than six months after.
What she actually covers
The work that keeps a home running
There is no official duty list. What a helper covers is whatever you and she agree before she starts, which is exactly why it is worth writing down. These six areas are what almost every housekeeping placement in Singapore is built from.
Laundry and ironing
Washing, hanging, folding and putting away, plus ironing school uniforms and work shirts. In a family of five this alone is close to a daily task.
Cooking and the kitchen
Meal preparation, washing up and keeping the kitchen in order. How much cooking she does, and what kind, is one of the first things we ask you.
Marketing and errands
The wet market or supermarket run, collecting parcels, and the small trips that quietly eat an hour of your evening every day.
Beds, linen and wardrobes
Changing and washing bed linen, keeping wardrobes and storage in order, and the seasonal clear-outs nobody in the family ever gets round to.
The deeper jobs, on a rota
Windows within safe reach, skirting, behind and under furniture, kitchen cabinets, the fridge. These belong on a schedule, not on a wish list.
A realistic week
A flat and a house are different jobs
The same job description means something completely different in a 4-room flat and in a three-storey house. This is our own working guide from placements, not a rule anybody sets, and it is meant to make the conversation concrete rather than to fix a standard.
3 or 4-room HDB flat, small household
The daily clean, the laundry and one or two cooked meals fit comfortably inside a normal working day, with real time left over for the deeper jobs.
- Daily clean of the whole flat is realistic
- Deep-clean rota with room to spare
- Cooking and marketing sit alongside easily
5-room, executive HDB or condominium
More floor area, more bathrooms and more laundry. Top-to-bottom cleaning moves onto a weekly rota rather than happening every day, and cooking starts to compete with cleaning for time.
- Rooms rotate rather than all being deep-cleaned daily
- Laundry becomes a daily rhythm, not a task
- Full cooking plus full cleaning needs a written routine
Landed house, or several floors
Genuinely a different job. Stairs, more bathrooms, outdoor areas, often a garden and usually more people in the house. One helper can keep a landed home clean and orderly, but only on a rota, and only if the rest of the load is honest.
- Whole-house daily cleaning is not realistic for one person
- Zones by day is the routine that actually holds
- Adding full childcare or eldercare on top is where it breaks
To be clear about what this is. The Ministry of Manpower does not publish a standard duty list or a maximum home size for one helper. What it does set are the employment rules, the rest day requirement and her upkeep, all of which we cover below. Everything above is our own judgement from placing helpers into Singapore homes, offered so you can sanity check the week you have in mind. If you want the full financial picture alongside it, read our guide to the cost of hiring a helper in Singapore.
Why families choose Jaz Helpers
We scope the job before we shortlist
Any agency can send you a profile within the hour. The harder and more useful thing is to work out what your home actually needs first, and to be straight with you when the answer is not the one you were hoping for.
We scope the job before we shortlist
How many bedrooms and bathrooms, how many floors, who is at home during the day, how many meals you want cooked. The shortlist comes after those answers, not before.
We match on strength, not availability
Some helpers are genuinely strong in the kitchen. Others are meticulous cleaners and fast, careful ironers. Sending you whoever is free ignores a real difference.
We say so when it is too much
If the week you describe cannot fit into one person's working day, we tell you before you hire rather than after the placement has already started to fail.
We stay through the settling-in weeks
The first month is where a routine is set or lost. We check in, help you adjust the schedule, and provide replacement support if the match genuinely is not working.
Who it is right for
When upkeep has become a second job
Two working parents, no time left
You are not short of willingness, you are short of hours. Housework is being done at 11pm and the weekend disappears into catching up.
A bigger home than you can keep up with
You moved into more space and the upkeep quietly became a second job. Cleaning happens in bursts, and the deeper jobs never quite come round.
A new baby or an ageing parent at home
The care is happening. It is the housework that slips, and that is usually what tips a household from coping into worn down.
A full house, and constant laundry
Several children, school uniforms, sports kit, three generations under one roof. The volume is the job, and it does not pause.
A housekeeping helper is not the answer to everything. If what your household really needs is care rather than upkeep, start with a helper matched for childcare or an eldercare helper for an elderly parent, because those are different profiles and we shortlist them differently. And if you need someone soon, a transfer helper already in Singapore can usually start in about two weeks rather than two months.
Where placements break
Placements fail on workload
The most common reason a housekeeping placement breaks down is not a bad helper. It is a job that was never possible for one person.
A helper asked to keep a three-storey house spotless, cook every meal from scratch, watch a toddler and sit with an elderly parent will not do all four well. She will do the visible things and everything else will slip, or she will hold it together for six months and then ask to transfer. Neither outcome is a failure of character, and neither is fixed by finding a harder-working helper.
So before you hire, write down a normal week. Every meal, every load of laundry, every school run, every hour of care, and the deeper cleaning you want done. Then put a rest day in it. If the list does not fit into one person's working day, the honest answer is to cut the list, split the work, or accept a rota where the whole house is not deep cleaned every day. We would far rather tell you that at the enquiry stage than watch a family and a helper both end up disappointed.
And one rule that is not a matter of opinion
MOM is explicit that a helper may only work for her employer at the residential address declared to MOM, and may only perform domestic chores. There is a specific allowance if you need her to care for your child or parent at a relative's house: you must notify MOM before the arrangement starts, you need her written agreement, and she must not be performing the full load of housework in both households. Employers who illegally deploy a helper may face a financial penalty of up to S$10,000 and may be barred from employing a helper again. The full conditions are on MOM's employment rules for migrant domestic workers page.
Every placement I have seen break down over housework broke down over the size of the job, not the person doing it. That is a much kinder conversation to have before she arrives than after.
Rest days
A rest day is the law, not a courtesy
This shapes the weekly plan more than anything else on this page. A household that needs seven days of work does not have a one-helper answer, and it is better to know that while you are still planning.
One rest day a week
Your helper is entitled to one rest day per week. You and she must mutually agree which day of the week she takes it.
Working it is paid, not assumed
If she agrees to work on her rest day, you must compensate her with at least one day's salary. That is an additional payment, not part of her basic salary.
One a month cannot be bought out
She must have at least one rest day a month that cannot be compensated away. Employers who do not provide it may face enforcement action.
It can be taken flexibly
A rest day may be taken as one full day or as two half days, she may choose to spend it at home, and it can be deferred by up to one month.
Everything in those four cards is taken from that MOM page, checked on 28 July 2026. Where your arrangement gets more specific than this, for instance how a deferred rest day should be recorded, go to MOM rather than to an agency, ours included.
Combining the work
Cooking, errands, pets and care
Almost nobody wants only cleaning. The question is never whether a helper can do two things, it is what has to come out of the day to make room for the second one.
Housekeeping and cooking
Cooking ability varies far more than families expect. Tell us what your household eats, whether the kitchen is halal, and how many meals a day you want cooked, and we shortlist on that instead of assuming.
Housekeeping and daily errands
Marketing, parcels, and sending or fetching within your own household. Useful hours, but they are hours, so they come out of the cleaning day rather than being added to it.
Housekeeping and pets
Feeding, walking, litter and grooming are a real daily commitment, and not every helper is comfortable around animals. It is a question we ask candidates directly.
Housekeeping and care
Adding a young child or an elderly parent changes the shape of the day completely, because care cannot be rescheduled the way a floor can. This is the combination to be most realistic about.
If care is the bigger half of what you need, the honest answer is to hire for the care and treat housekeeping as what fits around it. Read what an eldercare helper does day to day or how we match a helper for young children, and if there are animals in the house, see what to look for in a helper with pet care experience. Not sure which of these your household is? That is exactly what the household assessment is for, and you can see everything we do on our services page.
How it works
From scoping the week to her first day
Five steps, with the paperwork stated plainly. The parts with real deadlines are the orientation programme before the application and the settling-in programme after arrival.
Step 01
Describe the home
Bedrooms, bathrooms, floors, who is home during the day, how many meals you want cooked, and whether there are pets. A short conversation, no commitment.
Step 02
We scope the week honestly
We turn that into a realistic week with a rest day in it. If the list does not fit, you hear it here, which is the cheapest possible place to hear it.
Step 03
We shortlist, and you interview
You get a focused shortlist with honest notes on each helper's strengths, then you meet them in person or by video and decide for yourself.
Step 04
Permit, insurance and bond, sorted with you
First-time employers complete the Employers' Orientation Programme at least 2 working days before the Work Permit application. We manage the permit, insurance, security bond and medical examination.
Step 05
The routine gets set, and we check in
A first-time helper must attend the Settling-in Programme within 7 days of arriving, excluding Sundays and public holidays, and she can only start work once she has attended it. We check in through the settling-in weeks while the household routine is being set.
How long does it take? A transfer helper already in Singapore is often around two weeks from match to start, depending on her current employer's release and MOM processing. Hiring from Indonesia or Myanmar usually runs six to eight weeks or more, because selection, training and deployment all sit in front of the permit. We give you a realistic date rather than a hopeful one, and we tell you which of the two routes actually suits your timing.
The costs, clearly
What you pay, and who you pay it to
These are the third-party and government costs, each with the source it came from. They are the same whichever agency you use, which is why we would rather you saw them in full than saw a headline total assembled by somebody selling you something.
S$300a month · Paid to MOM
The monthly levy
The standard rate for a first helper. It is S$450 a month for a second or subsequent helper, and S$60 a month if your household qualifies for the levy concession. Current rates are on the MOM levy page, and who qualifies for the lower rate is on the levy concession page.
S$70one off · Paid to MOM
Work Permit application and issuance
S$35 to apply plus S$35 on issue. Fixed MOM fees, not agency charges. See how the Work Permit application works.
S$29.98 to S$76.30one off · First-time employers
Employers' Orientation Programme
Required of first-time employers, and it must be completed at least 2 working days before you apply for the permit. The online course is the cheaper end and a classroom session the dearer end. Details on the MOM orientation programme page.
S$76.40 to S$92.65one off · First-time helpers
Settling-in Programme
Required of first-time helpers only. MOM's Work Permit records identify which helpers are new to Singapore, so a transfer helper already in Singapore who has worked here before is normally not required to attend. She must attend within 7 days of arriving, excluding Sundays and public holidays, and can only start work once she has. Three MOM-appointed providers set their own fee. Details on the MOM settling-in programme page.
S$5,000not cash · A guarantee, not a payment
The security bond
This is the figure most cost articles get wrong. The bond is a binding pledge of S$5,000 furnished as a banker's or insurer's guarantee, not S$5,000 in cash that you hand over. It is usually bundled into a helper insurance package rather than paid as a separate line, and it is not required for a Malaysian helper. The MOM security bond page sets out the conditions.
Requiredannually · Paid to an insurer
Medical and personal accident insurance
You must buy medical insurance and personal accident insurance for your helper, and MOM sets minimum coverage. Premiums vary by insurer and by the package you choose, so we will not quote you a figure we cannot stand behind. The requirements are on the MOM insurance requirements page.
You set ita month · Paid to your helper
Her salary
Singapore does not set a minimum wage for migrant domestic workers. MOM requires only that you pay the salary you declared in the Work Permit application, in full and on time. MOM's salary guidelines state that the salary must not be lower than what you declared, and that it must be paid no later than 7 days after the end of each salary period. What a helper will accept is a market question, not a legal one, and it moves with her experience and nationality. We will tell you a realistic range for the profile you are asking for rather than publishing one that would be wrong for most households.
Two things this table does not include. If a child under 7 in your household is not fully vaccinated, your helper needs proof of measles immunity. MOM estimates the two MMR doses at S$80 to S$140, and has required this since 1 September 2025, as set out in its announcement of the measles immunity requirement. And her medical examinations continue every six months once she is here, which the MOM six-monthly medical examination page explains.
Our own placement fee is not on this list on purpose. It depends on your household and on whether you hire a transfer helper or from overseas, so we quote it to you directly rather than publish a number that would be wrong for most families. Ask us on WhatsApp and you will get a straight answer with nothing added later. For the full picture across every line, read our guide to the cost of hiring a helper in Singapore.
Common questions
Housekeeping questions, answered
A housekeeping helper is a full-time live-in domestic helper whose main work is running your home. That usually covers cleaning floors, bathrooms and the kitchen, laundry and ironing, changing bed linen, tidying and organising, cooking, and the daily marketing and errands. There is no official duty list set by the Ministry of Manpower, so the exact scope is whatever you and she agree before she starts. Writing that down clearly, with a weekly rota for the deeper jobs, is the single most useful thing you can do to make the placement work.
She can keep a landed home clean and orderly, but not in the way one person keeps a 4-room flat clean. A house with several floors, more bathrooms, outdoor areas and usually more people in it is a genuinely bigger job, so the work has to run as zones on a rota rather than top to bottom every day. Where it goes wrong is when a large home is combined with full cooking and childcare or eldercare for one person. That is the most common reason a housekeeping placement breaks down, and we will tell you honestly if the week you are describing needs more than one pair of hands.
Your helper is entitled to one rest day per week, on a day the two of you mutually agree. If she agrees to work on her rest day, you must compensate her with at least one day's salary, and that is an additional payment rather than part of her basic salary. She must still have at least one rest day a month that cannot be compensated away, and employers who fail to provide it may face enforcement action. A rest day can be taken as one full day or as two half days, she may choose to spend it at home, and if she cannot take it in a given month it can be deferred by up to one month. The Ministry of Manpower sets out the full rules on its rest days and well-being page.
Not as a matter of course. Under the Ministry of Manpower's employment rules, your helper may only work for you at the residential address declared to MOM, and only on domestic chores. There is a specific allowance if you need her to care for your child or parent at a relative's house: you must notify MOM before the arrangement starts, you need her written agreement, and she must not be performing the full load of housework in both households. Illegally deploying a helper can bring a financial penalty of up to S$10,000 and a ban from employing a helper again, so it is worth getting right rather than assuming.
Most can, but cooking ability varies a lot, and it is one of the things families are most disappointed about when nobody asks in advance. Some helpers are confident with local dishes, some cook mainly the food of their own region, and some are far stronger on cleaning and laundry than on the kitchen. Tell us what your household eats, whether the kitchen is halal, and how many meals a day you want cooked, and we will shortlist on that rather than assume it.
The government costs are fixed and public. The monthly levy is S$300 for a first helper, S$450 for a second or subsequent helper, or S$60 if your household qualifies for the concession. The Work Permit is S$70 in total, the Employers' Orientation Programme is S$29.98 to S$76.30 for first-time employers, and the Settling-in Programme is S$76.40 to S$92.65 for first-time helpers. You also need a S$5,000 security bond, which is a banker's or insurer's guarantee rather than cash you hand over, plus insurance and her salary. Singapore does not set a minimum wage for migrant domestic workers, so her salary is what you declare and pay. Our own placement fee depends on your household and the route you take, so we quote it to you directly instead of publishing a number that would be wrong for most families.
These are the questions housekeeping families ask us most. For everything else, from replacement support to work permit renewal, see our full list of frequently asked questions or browse all of our services.
Does your week fitone helper?
Describe a normal week in your household and we will tell you honestly whether it is one helper's job, what she should be strong at, and how soon she could start. No pressure, and no pretending a week fits when it does not.
Mon to Fri 10am to 8pm · Sat 10am to 3pm · MOM EA Licence 24C2490