Toolkit Series: How to Hire a House Manager with Expert Kelly Hubbell of Sage Haus

What if you could go from juggling endless chores and mental checklists to finally feeling off duty at home? In this episode of The New Modern Mom Podcast: Toolkit Series, I sit down with Kelly Hubbell, founder of Sage Haus, to unpack the real role of a house manager (sometimes called a family assistant) and how this kind of support can completely change the way your household runs.

A year ago, I was completely maxed out. Between growing businesses, raising kids, and keeping our home from falling apart, I felt like my brain was permanently overloaded. Laundry piles everywhere, dishes stacked in the sink, and no time to reset the house. It wasn’t sustainable. When I first asked our temporary nanny to step in with things like meal prep and laundry, I got my first taste of house manager support. It was life-changing. We’ve since officially hired a house manager for 15 hours a week, and it’s no exaggeration to say it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

In this conversation with Kelly, we get into the details: what a house manager actually does, how much they typically cost, where to find the right person, and how to onboard them so they truly lighten your mental load. We also cover the common mistakes families make when hiring and how to avoid them.

If you’ve ever felt like everything in your household runs through you, from errands to grocery shopping to after-school logistics, this episode is your crash course. It’s not about doing more, it’s about finally doing less!

This episode is perfect for moms searching for:

→ What a house manager does day to day for families

→ House manager vs. nanny vs. housekeeper — what’s the difference

→ How to actually hire a house manager and what it typically costs 

→ How to set up systems and onboarding for your house manager to make it a success

🍴 What a House Manager Actually Does

From running errands and folding laundry to grocery shopping, meal prep, and even supervising kids after school, a house manager becomes the extra set of hands every mom dreams of. Kelly explains how the role adapts to what your family needs most.

“Anything you would do for your family in a given day is something you can expect a house manager to help you with. Those are things like running errands, doing laundry, buying groceries, doing some meal prep, or even after school childcare.” – Kelly Hubbell

💵 Costs, Budgets, and Hours

How much does a house manager cost? Rates vary by location and experience, but most families start small with part-time help and scale as they see the impact. Kelly breaks down realistic budgets and strategies for making it work.

“House managers are similar to nanny rates and it really depends on two things: where you live and then the experience level and the type of person that you’re wanting to hire. Across the board I’m seeing anywhere between $25 and $45 an hour. Most families start small say six-ten hours a week and then expand once they see how much it changes their life.” – Kelly Hubbell

📝 How to Find and Hire the Right Fit

Finding the right house manager isn’t as simple as posting a job listing. Kelly shares where to look, which titles resonate most with candidates, and how to structure interview questions that reveal fit beyond the resume.

“We post on Care.com, nanny networks, Facebook, and Indeed, but the trick is going hyper-local and knowing which job title works in your market. In one city, ‘house manager’ gets no traction, but ‘housekeeper’ or ‘family assistant’ brings in strong candidates.” – Kelly Hubbell

📋 Onboarding and Systems That Work

Hiring is only the first step. Success comes from having clear systems, a tailored job description, and a structured trial period. Kelly explains why documenting household routines upfront is the game changer.

“What I recommend is treating the first 30 days of the role as almost like a trial period. Of course a trial day is great, but really making a point at that 30 day mark to have a check-in and go through feedback both ways to set a strong foundation.” – Kelly Hubbell

⚠️ Common Mistakes Families Make

From rushing into the wrong hire to writing vague job descriptions, Kelly outlines the top pitfalls families face and how to avoid them.

“The first mistake is the job description. Getting that right sets the tone. Another mistake is having expectations you really want met, but then hiring someone who doesn’t have the right experience just because you need the help. And then the last thing is onboarding. If you’re not setting somebody up for success in your home, then they’re going to fail and you’re going to fail. It’s not the situation you want to be in.” – Kelly Hubbell

This episode is part crash course, part pep talk, and part action plan. By the end, you’ll see how applying the same principles you use in your professional life like hiring, onboarding, and managing can completely transform how your household runs. Listen now and walk away with a few tangible tips on how to lighten your mental load with a house manager.

Here are some additional resources to help you get started on your House Manager journey: 

• [Free] Barbara's House Manager Checklist: daily & weekly task checklist Barbara uses in her own home
• [Free] Quiz: How Many Hours Are You Managing Your Home? Kelly's quick quiz helps you uncover the hidden mental load
• Home Systems Course: A two hour deep dive to help you create repeatable routines and train your house manager so you can finally start taking things off of your plate for good.
• Sage Haus House Manager Hiring Service: Skip the job postings and lengthy interviews, and get matched with a pre-vetted house manager.

Listen to the Episode

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Rather read the full interview than listen?

[00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome to the toolkit series from the new Modern Mom podcast. I'm thrilled to bring you this bonus series in between seasons. Each episode will be a quick, actionable deep dive into some of the most important themes from season one, plus some new topics that I know are very top of mind. For all of us busy, ambitious moms, my goal is to help you build the tools you need so they're ready and waiting in your toolkit, the ones you're going to reach for to calm the chaos of career and motherhood. Today's episode is for anyone who is feeling like they are wanting and needing more efficiencies in terms of running their household. Whether you're overwhelmed, feeling unorganized, or feel like all you do is chores with no time to yourself. Today I am joined by expert Kelly Hubble, who is the founder of Sage House, whose goal is to lighten the mental load of her clients by helping them hire experienced house managers.

[00:01:00] Kelly and I originally connected on Instagram and quickly realized we have a lot of things in common. One, she left her corporate tech job to build something of her own just like me. Two, we are passionate about not doing it all ourselves when it comes to running our households. And three, she went to college with my husband, welcome Kelly. I am thrilled to have you on as my first expert in the toolkit series. And for the sake of time, we are going to literally jump right in So let's just start with the basics. What are the kinds of things a house manager typically does at the beginning and how might that change over time? thank you for having me Some of the things a house manager does, the way I explain it to people is a house manager. Some people call them a family assistant. To me it's very similar. We can talk about some nuances, but is a second pair of hands. Anything you would do for your family. In a given day is something you can expect a household manager to help you with. Those are things like running errands, doing laundry, buying groceries, doing some meal prep for you. Anything you do for your family is a clone of you would be what I would consider a house manager.

[00:02:00] And I think anybody listening right now is going to be like, yes, I need that. And I know personally, I've had a house manager now for about a year, and it's been completely life changing with how I spend my time. how do you figure out, okay, you want a house manager? How many hours do I need help for, How much, do I pay somebody? Those are obviously the next questions somebody would think through. Totally. Yeah. And those are things that we go through when we work with clientswe go through a list of every way we've ever seen someone use a house manager, what are the things that would apply to their family? And then based on that, we're able to kind of come up with a rough estimate. a bigquestion that I get often, is, can I hire someone part-time? And the answer is yes. Absolutely. So you can start at, six hours a week, 10 hours a week, 12 hours a week. I personally started my house manager at eight to 12 hours a week, four and a half years ago. And same as you, it was so life changing for our family that we just started giving her more.

[00:03:00] But I think in terms of the budget question, Backing into it, You can think about what is the budget we can set aside for this, and given that, how many hours can we afford? Based on the rates in our area the other way around where it's like, we have all this stuff, we wanna give this person, how much time is that? And then how do we fit it into our budget? So you can go one way or another. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's super interesting.  I have my house manager, she comes 15 hours a week and she's 9:00 AM till 12:00 PM So she kind of comes after the tornado of my morning And I work from home most days. It's so helpful for me not to have my house look like that while I'm working here, but I was chatting with somebody who wanted evening support over dinner time, and I found that super interesting. often household managers are also in that family assistant type role where there is sometimes childcare, sometimes supervision in those afterschool hours between 2:30 or 3PM. and we're seeing household managers being able to supervise, you know, elementary, middle school aged kids, make sure they get off the bus, make sure they're home and they're able to be running laundry, prepping dinner, doing stuff while kids are also. There and that's providing what some families need.

[00:04:00] A lot of families have a spouse who travels a lot. doing client work. And so having that extra parent, that extra set of hands around it's crucial. Yeah. I can imagine if you have a spouse that travels a lot, having a second Person to actually help with everything that goes into running a house with young kids is invaluable. I am curious 'cause I'm only exposed to the San Francisco market, but when I was searching for my house manager and I've gone through the search twice, I kind of found that the rates were very similar to what I would expect in nanny to be charging for. And I'm curious if that's kind of across the US what you've seen. Fair assumption? Yes. The short answer is yes. I would say similar. again, it depends on two things, where you live, of course, higher cost of living, and then the experience level and the type of person that you're willing to hire, you're wanting to hire. And so those are kind of the two elements. But yeah, across the board I'm seeing. Anywhere between 25 and $45 an hour. I know that's a big range, but that's kind of like based on where you live and the going rate. 

[00:05:00] Yeah. So speaking of experience level, let's talk a little bit about interviewing. So where do you find this person? the way that me and my hiring services team find top tier candidates for these roles are on all of those platforms, The Craigslist, the Facebooks, the Indeeds, the care dot coms, the nanny platforms it's all over. And we get really hyper-local based on where you live. So where you live, There might be more public Facebook groups or community groups that you can go to to sort of find people who are really interested in these like part-time roles. So I had a big learning curve looking for my first one because I went to like the Facebook groups and I put up the job description, house manager, and here's the responsibilities, here's the hours, and I almost felt like it was crickets. And then I reposted it using housekeeper. And I got so much more interest. And so I'm curious, are there certain search terms that you have found resonate more with kind of that profile of person that we are trying to hire for a house manager? 

[00:06:00] Yeah, and, and that kind of depends also on where you live. So some people call this household manager, some people call it a family assistant. Some people are looking for nanny plus house manager, right? It like, it sort of is nuanced based on like where you are and where you live. But what I'm seeing is this term being used more and more. And often the people who are seeking these roles don't even realize that they are a perfect candidate. They have the experience that they need. Maybe they've been like a lifetime, what they call themselves a nanny, but actually they've taken on so many responsibilities from the household, right? Like they're doing laundry and errands and. Taking on big home renovation projects. And so they are so much more than just their quote like nanny role. So it's kind of like an evolution. So you just touched a little bit on kind of like the experience and skill sets that you may be looking for in that person, that ideal candidate. What Interview questions. Should somebody keep top of mind when they are vetting applicants? 

[00:07:00] Yeah, I think interview questions around their experience I like putting people in real life examples, right? If you're in a, a, a situation like x. How would you deal with it? If someone's coming to the house to do work and they need something how would you handle that? I like peop putting people in real life experiences and then just learning about their past. Who have they worked with, what have they liked about the families that they've worked with? That gives you a lot of information about them and what they value in the role and vice versa. How, how can I work with you in the best ways? Like how do you communicate, like how do you work well with someone you know, like. All of those things and they are really personal. this role, you know, Barbara, like this is someone in your home. So like you have to get personal, you have to ask 'em hard questions. You have to like get in with the tough q and A from the very beginning in order to really suss out whether or not this person will be a good fit for your family. And that's something that. We have learned how to do over a long time is like taking people through a really rigorous interview process to ensure that they're the right fit.

[00:08:00] Yeah, I, I really like that question of what have you liked in the families that you've worked for? I asked something similar when I'm interviewing for AU pairs, it's like, what are you looking for in a host family? But it never occurred to me to ask that for house manager role. And that makes so much sense. Because you do learn so much about how they work best and what they're looking for. And at the end of the day, they are working for you. It's in a very personal role. Right. So you really want them to be happy, of course, in the family that they end up with as well. And so you've gone through these interview questions. You think you found somebody is it okay to ask for a trial day? Oh yeah. actually what I recommend is Treating the first 30 days of the role as almost like a trial period. So Sure. a trial day is great. Of course. I would recommend that being a paid trial day, and that's something that you talk about with someone. The clients that we work with, we typically encourage them, like to really make a huge point in those first 30 days to. Onboard someone in a very successful way, meaning like you're communicating with them about your needs and your wants and desires about how you want things done in your home.

[00:09:00] And really making a point of at that 30 day mark, having check-ins and really like doing feedback both ways of how did this go? How could we make this better? And like just really being curious about how do we wanna continue this relationship forward? And I think by just sort of. Having that sort of container, even just a mental container, I think it really helps families like get someone off on the right foot. You know, the person that you hire in your home wants to be, you know, off on the right foot, and so I would even recommend like making it sort of a first 30 day trial. What I love about that is it's got so much parallel to the corporate and professional world, right? Like you're hiring somebody for a role, you lay out onboarding docs for them. You lay out 30 day expectations. You go through this interviewing and recruitment process. Like it's the same skillsets, right? That probably most women who are listening to this right now have excelled at in their corporate. Working life and it's just applying that to a very different kind of role that's helping you on the more personal side.

[00:10:00] Yes, it's applying our business principles that we are so good at to our home and it that's absolutely what it is. And I think I'll just touch on another piece of that, because what we've seen with clients is, okay, I found this amazing, like modern Mary Poppins unicorn for my family. I'm so excited about them. They're gonna come in, they're amazing. But then it's like, okay, now what? Wait, how do I make sure they know how we like our laundry done and how do we like our rooms reset and all of these things? we offer a home systems. playbook for our clients to ensure that like they know exactly how to fully dump everything they're holding in their head about their household and how they run it into this template so that they can give it to their house manager, family assistant that they hire. And now they're like, oh my gosh, I know exactly what you want. And then you can never think about, you know, a grocery list or your laundry schedule ever again. I think that's genius. And again, it kind of goes back. You need a very thorough onboarding doc that's going to set that person up for success, and it sounds like you've really curated strong way of doing that.

[00:11:00] how much time should we think of? Spending towards training this person. Because I also think probably something you see fairly common, right? Is you hire somebody, maybe you create this great onboarding doc 'cause you had that forethought, but then they start and then you're like, oh, I'm jumping into a meeting. So what does that kind of first week experience? Or longer really need to look like to train them. Yeah, so we spell this all out in what we call our home systems playbook in terms of like an onboarding plan for them in the first 30 days. and then you as the employer also get a checklist of here's all the things you should think through, right, in terms of communication policy, what are your household rules. Making sure you've got it all somewhere. And if I can nail that, then this week is all about my household manager getting a hang of like, here's our feeding the family system. Next week we're gonna do our like keeping the house clean system. And then one more thing I'll say is for people who are like, well, I have a nanny, or I have a housekeeper, or I have somebody who. You know, really is interested in taking on more from my family, but how do I outline that?

[00:12:00] How do I delegate that? That's what our systems are for. Because if you've got somebody who's amazing, great, here's a way to go and like create structure and routine around around giving more to them. to that point, I know personally, I have so many friends who have a nanny and their kids are kind of outgrowing that full-time nanny stage and they're like, oh, we may wanna have another kid in a couple of years and we don't wanna get rid of our nanny, but we don't need the support. And that idea of kind of maybe reallocating that person's time to maybe be part-time nanny and taking on. Other roles and responsibilities within the house, a really good option, whether you're looking to downsize the number of hours or keep the full-time for a potential child down the line. 

Yeah. And perhaps you need less childcare hours, but You're now in a season of life where you're building your business. you're getting back into a hobby, whatever it is, but you wanna be spending your quality time with your kids when they're home instead of multitasking on the laundry and all of the groceries and all the things that need to be done around the house.

[00:13:00] You talk about feeding system, cleaning system. What if I don't have a feeding system? how do I think about maybe what systems or tools I need to put into place before I'm ready to bring on somebody like this? I'll give you like a perfect example of that. I never want a busy mom to like be making a handwritten grocery list, right? There are certain things in your grocery, in your pantry, in your freezer that you need all the time on hand and making that list, and then being able to go and check things off the list that you need. Going to the store again, checking them off, and then just clearing that list. So that in three or four days when you do this sort of inventory again. It's just there for you, right? Like, you never have to keep making a list. Like sure you're adding to the list. 'cause like your kids' preferences are changing and this week they're eating like blueberries suddenly or whatever. But like, you have systems for this so that you're not like constantly making lists and doing new things and like, you know, it's a system. So I'm a constant optimizer with my time, my life, every process and system in my life.

[00:14:00] And I believe in consistently learning from experiences. And I can't think of a better person when it comes to hiring a house manager who has probably seen so much to learn from and optimize. And so I'd love if you could share. What are your top two or three mistakes that you see families make when they hire a house manager? So that all of us listening, don't repeat them. Yeah. Okay. Here's what not to do. The first is, the job description.getting that right, is setting the tone in the very beginning of your relationship with somebody. So that's something that we spend a lot of time with clients on. creating a custom tailored job description for the family we're working with. That is all encompassing because the last thing you want is to find somebody. They see your job description, they think it's good, you hire them and then they get into the job and then all of a sudden, like you're asking them to do more or less or different things than what they were actually being hired to do.

[00:15:00] So I see that all the time and to speak to that, like, hello, we're moms. and we don't like to ask people to do things sometimes. And so I think putting something in a job description but then not. having accountability around those responsibilities later on can really come back to bite us because that's not what we want. I would say, yeah. Another thing is having expectations that you really, really want to be met by someone, but then not finding the right person to meet those expectations, but because you're like, oh my gosh, I need the help. So like, I'll just take somebody who's kind of subpar. So you end up finding someone who's not perfect for your family, and then long term, they're just not a good fit. And then the last thing, we already talked about this, but it's the onboarding. If you're not setting somebody up for success in your home, then they're gonna fail. You're gonna fail. It's not a good situation. So like really getting that right from the beginning is gonna set a solid foundation for your relationship going forward and ensuring that like. They're good at their job. You know they're doing the job. You're happy. They're happy. And like this is a long-term committed relationship. 

[00:16:00] Your story around hiring a subpar person because you feel desperate really hits home. I mentioned I did this search twice, it's because that's what happened for me. And I will just say like, side note, don't. Look for somebody, during the holiday season, because you will not probably find the best candidates. And that's basically what happened with me last December. I was looking for somebody and I just couldn't find a great pool of candidates and I was really desperate to have somebody and I hired somebody who I knew wasn't the right fit, but I was like, yeah, let's just give this a shot. And I ended up starting again from scratch. So. I completely agree. Just like in the corporate world, you would not settle. Like we should not be settling for this role either. Yeah, don't settle. Don't settle. So I feel like we just got a great crash course in everything. House manager Kelly, you are a wealth of knowledge and I am so excited that we were able to dive so deep into all things House Manager today. Thank you so much for joining me. Our listeners want to connect with you after this episode. Where can they find you? You can find me on 

[00:17:00] Instagram at my sage house. House is spelled HAUS. I'm also on LinkedIn, Kelly Hubble. And you can find me there. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to help you and your family find the right fit, and at the very least, set up better systems to make you more effective and efficient. Amazing. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Okay, we just heard a lot of information. Now let's turn it into an action plan. Here's what you're going to do next. Step one, get clear on what you need help with. Start by walking through your day and identifying what drains your energy or takes up too much time. Think errands, laundry, groceries, meal prep, afterschool supervision. Ask yourself, what would make my week feel lighter if I didn't have to do it? Step two, and this is a little bit trickier, estimate, the right number of hours. Consider your budget and what kind of help fits within that factor in your household routine.

[00:18:00] Do you need resetting the house in the morning or managing the dinner hour? Chaos? Most families start with six to 15 hours a week and adjust as they go. Step three, write the job description. Now that you know what support you need and how often create a clear tailored job description, this is where chat GPT comes in handy and can take this part of the exercise and turn it into just a two minute task. Make sure you include responsibilities. IE what exactly they'll be doing. The required qualities and experience you're looking for the exact schedule. You want days and hours, and the preferred communication style. You want them to apply step four prep for interviews. You're inviting someone into your home, so you need to get personal, not just professional. Ask real life scenario questions. Learn what they liked in past families that they worked for This. Reveals their values. Share how you work best in what matters in your household dynamic. And then the last step, create an onboarding plan. Set them up for success with a simple guide on how to run your household. Include these five essentials daily and weekly task checklist.

[00:19:00] I will link my exact checklist for my house manager in the show notes. Also include a home systems overview. This could mean how to load and unload the dishwasher, how to organize your spice drawer, how to do laundry. Anything that you are requiring of this role and you have preferences on, you should include those details. include preferred products and brands to use. Include. Key contacts and house information. And then finally, communications guidelines. What feedback process do you wanna follow? What cadence? Remember to treat the first 30 days as a trial period. Check in daily in the first week, and then weekly. Think of it as building a long-term partnership, not just filling a role. Okay. All right. Thanks for tuning in to this toolkit series on the new Modern Mom podcast. I hope today's tips help simplify the chaos of career and motherhood one tool at a time.

[00:20:00] If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to subscribe. Give a five star rating and leave a review. My dms are open. Are you interested in hiring a house manager but still have hesitations? Let me know. Please follow me at New Modern Mom on Instagram and subscribe to my newsletter on Substack. Your support means so much as I continue my mission to help more moms find work life fulfillment.

Until next time. 

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