Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Livin' above my raisin'

"Livin' above my raisin'" is something my family says when one of us gets a little "fancy." I bragged about a great steal on a Petunia Picklebottom diaper bag on FB and got no less than eight messages from relatives. It's all in fun, and it often comes to mind when I do something outside of my usual routine (shop at Whole Foods, drink Starbucks, that kind of thing.) So I'm fixin' to really start livin' above my raisin'.

It's no secret that housekeeping is not one of my strengths. I'm definately a work in progress. But it's getting better. I have successfully maintained a routine of doing (washing/drying/putting away) laundry daily for the last week. My dishes are hardly ever a couple days old. But anything more than that I just don't feel like I have the time for. I don't want to spend my day off mopping and scrubbing the toilet of a four-year-old boy. So on Friday I have a housekeeping team coming to check out my house to give me a quote. Even cooler is that I found a team that uses all natural, eco cleaners. So I feel responsible and fancy! I've been cleaning ever since I made the appointment, which makes perfect sense. Because of course they'll never know...

My thought is that I'll just have them do the bathrooms and the kitchen, but if it's not so much that I have to choose between cleanliness and food, I might have them do the whole thing. That part makes me feel like a bit of a Real Housewives though, so we'll see. I feel bad subjecting strangers to the plethora of crap my family moves around throughout the day. On the other hand, I have no idea how people get the edges of their carpet clean without busting out the special hose. Do normal people use that everytime they vacuum?

So here's where I need help. Does anyone out there hire housekeepers? If you do, do you have them do the whole thing or just parts? AND do you stay in the house while they work or do they come during the week? That part weirds me out too, since they are essentially strangers (albeit hippy, all natural strangers).

3 comments:

  1. I use the special hose on my central vac to edge when I vacuum, but I am cuh-razy about cleaning.

    Yes! Housecleaner! Best money ever spent. Whole house. For awhile we did twice a week (when I was freaking out form post-partum hormones), but most sane people I know do once a week or twice a month.

    No, I don't like to be home-- I just come home to a magic clean house. Most companies (even independents) are bonded and insured, so I have never been worried about theft.

    You don't want to clean before they come, but you do want to pick up before they come. It really helps to have a pretty basket in each room that you can hurry up and throw crap in, so they can wipe all counters and surfaces. Think about what kinds of extras you want-- changing sheets on bed, emptying dishwasher, etc. Also, if you are picky about your cleaning products, leave out the ones you prefer. Oh! One company we used for awhile brought their own stuff, including a toilet brush which made me want to vomit, so I made sure to ask what supplies they needed and had those available, too. Good luck!

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  2. I am interested to hear about your experience with this! I have been considering hiring someone, myself.

    I have 2 friends who do it, and both hired "independent" cleaners (read: immigrants of various nationalities who need work). Because they've hired people who AREN'T bonded and insured, both friends stayed in the house but just chilled out in their office while the work was done.

    Both hired someone for weekly bathrooms/kitchen, and then added a "deep clean" of everything 1x monthly. They picked up prior to the cleaners coming & generally supplied cleaning rags/mops/etc.

    Loooking forward to hearing about how this goes!!

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  3. Totally excited to hear the results on this one. I know 2 folks who used the same cleaner. They loved it for the first few months and then felt that the results weren't equivalent to the original quality. So they both stopped having them come. Maybe it's in the eyes of the beholder? Or maybe they didn't have an effective quality conversation set-up from the get go. Or maybe it because less cost effective. Anyway, they weren't home when the person came. I do know another, separate, person who has regular cleaners from an agency and is home when they come. She's in her office when they come and has been doing it so long she's in no way wigged by being home. SO excited to hear your results!

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