Cleaning for the Cleaning Lady

You know you’ve done it too.  The night before the lady comes to clean your house, you’re running around scrambling to clean up.  The dirty dishes get put away and the crumbs are wiped off of the countertop.  The laundry gets scooped up and thrown into the same basket they came out of when you made the attempt to sort it until your toddler decided to jump on everything you just finished folding.  The piles of mail, magazines, and unpaid bills get shoved in a closet just so that your house doesn’t look that cluttered.

Honestly, we don’t have extra cash lying around to pay someone else to clean our house.  But with a toddler and a baby, we don’t have the time either.  The best I can do is get the laundry into the hamper and reload the dishwasher (sometimes).  Since I am usually wearing a baby, cleaning the shower or toilet is NOT something that I can (or want) to do.  Vacuuming with two light sleepers doesn’t seem like a good idea (and I hate to vacuum, but that’s another story).  And let’s be real… by the time both kids are put to bed, and then put BACK to bed three or four times each, all I want to do is sit on the couch, watch TV, and drool.

The evening prior to my house getting cleaned is so stressful.  It’s worth it, though, to be able to come in to a home that is free of clutter, smells fresh, and isn’t sticky… unfortunately, that only lasts about five minutes.  Before you know it, the Legos are all over the floor, one or both kids has a poopy diaper, and even without a waffle in sight, everything seems to be covered in maple syrup.  Still, it’s nice to know that for a fleeting moment – the moment from when the cleaning lady leaves until we take our first step back through the door – the house is acceptable enough to actually have guests over.  By dinner time, however, all signs that the cleaning lady was there that morning have faded.  It’ll be at least another three weeks until I can, ever so briefly, bask in the glow of the freshly mopped floors.  Now, where did I put those bills?


Posted

in

,

by

Comments

4 responses to “Cleaning for the Cleaning Lady”

  1. Leslie Avatar
    Leslie

    I could have written this post so many times! We’re debating canceling the cleaning lady when I go on maternity leave this summer; but we’re also afraid of how nasty the house would get!

    1. Amy Avatar
      Amy

      Do not cancel the cleaning lady. I repeat. Do not cancel the cleaning lady.

      Your sanity is worth so much more than paying someone else to scrub your toilets!

      1. Walid Avatar
        Walid

        I started when I had a home darcaye business. According to licensing, I could take one more child and the income from that child would pay for a housekeeper. I just couldn’t get to the bathrooms, upstairs cleaning and changing the linens while I was taking care of other people’s kids almost 12 hrs. per day Mon.-Fri. & then I had my own kids.I found an ad in the Pennysaver or somewhere like that for a self-employed individual (I think they have more insentive to be good & reliable). She worked great and when I moved from Clinton to Brandywine, she made an attempt to help me at the further location with the bigger house, but it was too much. I asked around and found my next door neighbor was doing it, though she didn’t have an opening at first, I got on her list and she’s great! Obsessive compulsive cleaner.I’m sooo spoiled!

  2. Jen@PlainVanillaMom Avatar

    OMG! Lol you made me laugh. Thank goodness I’m not the only one who does this! This sounds like our house. My husband thinks I’m a nut “cleaning for the cleaning lady”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google’s reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.