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?
I have a lovely friend who comes every other week and just does my bathrooms. I feel so decadent!
ReplyDeleteI 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!
ReplyDeleteOh, 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!
ReplyDeleteOh 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!!
ReplyDeleteI 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!
ReplyDeleteI 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!
ReplyDeleteI 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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