Ok. I am a Proud Mary. I am fiercely independent and stupidly proud. I do not like to admit that I cannot handle everything that life throws at me. By handle, I mean juggle into my schedule and vastly exceed expectations in all aspects of my life. Sometimes this stubborn pursuit of excellence can land my butt in some serious hot water. Sometimes I need to just admit that I am not Wonder Woman, but I stink at asking for help. I also am very protective of my family and our belongings… Sometimes too much goes into that effort as well. Anyhow, the combination of these less-than-amazing personality traits resulted in my denial of my husband’s request to hire a maid. I know, right?! Your husband wants to hire a maid and you say NO?! You’re a nutbag. Yep. I was.
When we reached my ninth month of pregnancy, I just couldn’t keep up with my household cleaning responsibilities. I finally caved in and called The Cleaning Authority . I justified the risk of having strangers in my home by deciding to use a company that is bonded and insured, and by making the conscious decision to never give them a key. Rather, I decided I would simply be home every time they came, and monitor their movements personally.
Two days after my call, the company came and gave us a free estimate. Even if they had said “its FREE!” my mind would have still cringed at the idea of someone else coming in to my house to clean. I didn’t want anyone in my house seeing everything we own and knowing where we keep it all. BUT, I was too round and the house needed too much attention, so when they gave me the pricing information I simply sighed and asked when they could start. The following Wednesday, two woman came into my home and cleaned for FOUR HOURS. They detail cleaned my preparation spaces (kitchen/baths) I would have never had time to, and regular cleaned all of our living spaces (bed/living/dining/den/playroom etc…) a normal standard. Two weeks later, they returned and did the reverse treatment (detail in living spaces, regular in prep spaces). This process took two hours. Finally, I had what Oprah would call an “AH! HA! Moment”. While the cost came out of my “fun” budget, I had just saved myself 12 hours of hard labor (2 ladies x 4 hours on the first visit plus 2 ladies x 2 hours on the second visit). This was labor that my body was incapable of performing mind you, let alone finding 12 hours to perform it that WickedGirl wouldn’t undo my work or get in my way. Further, my house was so clean that I could really relax and get the little things done that I would never EVER have gotten around to otherwise. Why was I so against this before?!
With WickedHubby’s job requiring many days of travel per month, and myself busy with two children in tow (soon), I think I will keep using a portion of the per diem WH brings home to pay for these professional cleaning services. I get to relax and be more healthy in a clean home. My stress level gets to go down. My blood pressure gets to go down. I also probably will get more of my security deposit back when we move from this house (we are renting) due to our ability to better keep up with its maintenance. Now that I think of it, I can just count our security deposit as nine months worth of maid-fee reimbursement! Good times! Now I just have to keep up with the day-to-day cleaning and laundry instead of undertaking the entire detail cleaning project. As my mother used to say, “the maid moved out!” Except in this case, Mama outsourced…
Do you use a cleaning service, or do you do the work yourself? If you do use a cleaning service, which one? Would you recommend it?
