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Babies: 9 - 12 Months
My thoughts on cleaning people
My mom hired a cleaning person for me when I was pregnant with Gabe and really sick. It was a huge help, but it helped me decide that I would never pay for a cleaning person with my own money.
The cleaning person broke a picture frame and part of our stove. Then, I ended up having to rearrange things that they had messed up and also reclean areas that I didn't think were done right.
I decided that I prefer cleaning things my own way. Am I the only psycho who feels this way?
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Re: My thoughts on cleaning people
I wish I could pay someone to clean, but I'd probably end up doing what you did:)
I do... we had a cleaning person come in the first Month after DD was born and I ended up letting her go for two reasons, one was that my H was laid off so we could not really afford it anymore and 2 was becasue I ended re cleaning everything, she never cleaned our tub really well, or the bathroom for that matter, she always missed spots when dusting.
I figure if I am going tp pay someone to do it they should be better than me.
No you are not.
Though I am at a point where my life is SO busy, I either hire someone or we live in filth. Every minute is spoken for and the small amount of free time I have, I want to be with my girls. Not cleaning for 4 hours every weekend. I was doing a room a day. Now I play with the girls during that time and I am going to pay someone to clean.
First, I thought you meant the act of cleaning another person and I couldn't understand why someone would have thoughts on this.
Second, do you think it was this particular cleaning person or do you think you'd be like that for all of them?
I don't have a cleaning person (wish I did!) but my mother always has and some of them clean to her standards and some do not. It took her two years to find the cleaner she has now that she loves.
I would be pissed about someone breaking my stuff for sure. As for how they clean...as long as it is clean, and not done in a short cut type of way, I wouldn't be too upset. When we lived overseas we had a live in maid (in Bahrain...in Spain, the maid came a couple of times a week but did not live with us), so I like having a super clean house, and that's why I am very anal about mine. I would welcome someone to fold and put away our laundry and to mop the floors, but that's all I would really want. I don't mind the other stuff.
And AW, you know I don't think you are crazy.
I am a clean freak and like things super clean and done a certain way, also. But our cleaning people do that. They are amazing. They fold the toilet paper ends into little rosettes and make me feel like I live in a hotel. And they don't break things or rearrange things. I could not live without them, they are part luxury and part necessity, and I will never go back to not having them!
I've been back and forth on this for 10 years, I swear.
Everyone that I know IRL who has a cleaning person loves it. Best money spent they say. So, when I get fed up with cleaning toilets and washing floors, etc. I think 'why not'?
But then I think I should get over myself, wash the damn toilets and floors and take that money and put it in the kids accounts.
So, that's what I do.
I totally agree. I even hate it when DH cleans some things bc he leaves stuff out of place and/or doesn't do it right*. My mom had a cleaning lady a few times when we were younger b/c she was taking care of my grandfather when he was sick. Several things were broken, "disappeared," things weren't thoroughly cleaned and stuff was always left out of place. This happened with a few different cleaning people, so it always left a sour taste in my mouth, so to speak. I'm happy enough cleaning my own mess. It's somewhat cathartic if I can get a few hrs to do a thorough cleaning.
*right = my way
My mom used to clean houses and I know how much that money meant to our family...the only vacation we ever had was because my mom saved every penny of that money to take us to Disney.
So now I am in a position where I can do the same for someone. It isn't perfect, but I know how much they need the money so I let it slide. If my mom saw the work, however, she would be very displeased!
That has been a concern of mine if I did hire someone - I don't know if they would use my products. My babysitter just got a cleaning person and she said they had to go outside because the fumes were so bad.
My time is worth something to me. So if I can have the time to be with my family, spend relaxing, winding down from a rough day/week, then it is is worth EVERY penny to me.
I am pretty anal about stuff, and where it goes, but again I got over it. It doesn't killme that something isn't exactly where or how I would put it, but my house is CLEAN.
To each their own.
This is exactly how we feel. DH works ridiculous hours, and we were spending the entire day on Saturdays cleaning the house. It wasn't a good use of his down time, and now that we have DS it makes more sense for us to be able to spend that time together as a family.
Plus - I fully admit this - I'm awful at cleaning. I hate doing it, so I usually do a half-assed job when I do. My house is a thousand times cleaner because I have someone else doing it. I think if I was a neat freak, very particular about how things got done, or a germaphobe, my outlook on this would be totally different.
Hiring a cleaning person was one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. We were spending all of our evenings/weekends cleaning, time that should be spent with our kids since we both work more than full time.
I wish we would have done it sonner, I'm happy to cut back to save us from fighting over soap scum in the bathtub.