There has been a cataclysmic shift in my household this month. I hired someone to clean my home. Every year when REAL SIMPLE's annual house cleaning issue arrives in the mail I think, "Ah shit. I forgot to clean my house this year!" I'm really good at organizing and tidying up my home but I've never been good at cleaning it.
I finally decided to hire someone when my 2-year-old son was rolling around on the floor and came up with a purple, hairy dust bunny stuck to his sweet drooly face. Hiring a house cleaner always seemed like a completely extravagant luxury reserved for well-to-do families who had huge houses to keep clean. And I guess I also felt guilty about hiring someone to do a job that I didn't want to do myself. Somewhere deep in my DNA (my great-great-grandmother was an Irish immigrant laundress) was a sexist strain that felt if there was an able-bodied woman at home, then cleaning the house would fall to her. If my mother was here right now, she'd remind me of an incident from my early childhood when I refused to pick up after myself and stated that it was "her job" to clean up. (Oye!)
The first day that our house cleaner was here I followed her around asking if I could help or if she needed me for anything. I'm sure she was thinking, "Lady, let me do my work and get back to your children!" But after a few visits, I'm feeling more at peace with my choice to outsource this particular chore. I cannot fully express my glee and relief at seeing my home in a clean state. Its spiritual. Plus, I've had more time to focus on my children, organize our home, and more time to write and paint. This week, I was able to spend more time doing things like this:
And this:
And this:
How about you?
Do you have a cleaning person or service?
7 comments:
I have a lovely friend who comes every other week and just does my bathrooms. I feel so decadent!
I do surface cleaning pretty often but I would love to hire someone for this reason. Who has the time to do the really deep clean that your home needs a few times a year? I've tried to pick one room a week to do it but with a remodel and yard work it's been hard!
Oh, I am so thinking of hiring someone! I even know an artist who cleans house for another friend. He does a good job--it's what he wants to do. Hmmm. Your situation is rather like mine, sans kids, with "sexist strain." I think it's time to make that call. You've given me courage!
Oh wow, I could do with more time to do my writing and painting and quality kiddy time, well done, I want a house cleaner too now!!
I first hired a cleaning lady when I was pregnant with my second son, because I was so sick all of time. I never stopped! It is so worth it to have someone come in every two weeks and do the deep cleaning!
I happen to visit your house on that life-changing day and did I ever come home with "house envy." You should not feel any guilt about this. Think of it as prioritizing with perks. Congrats!
I finally started calling "cleaning" what it actually is at our house- "crapshifting." You are so right. Having help cleaning the house is spiritual. We have someone come every other week and I wouldn't give it up for the world. It not only frees my time, it frees my mind, as well. Worth. Every. Penny.
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