It's also a thankless job. I can't remember the last time anyone said "Wow, honey, the house is spotless. I am so appreciative!" I can't remember it because it never happened. I just can't stand for it to be dirty and I'm not happy when it's not tidy. I just wish someone other than me was cleaning it.
I should probably look for someone to do that. Whether you want to call said person a housekeeper, a house cleaner, or a maid doesn't really matter. I think it may be time to look for one.
I've had an assortment of them in the past. I had two teenaged girls who came and cleaned. They were a bit too generous with that deoderizing powder that you sprinkle on the carpets and then everything smells artificially nice when you vacuum. They got it all over the baseboards and didn't vacuum it up. It was really noticeable on the stairs because it looked like thick white dust. They didn't like it when I complained about it. But the final straw came when I pointed out that the toilet had an outside as well as an inside and that I expected both the inside and the outside to be clean. That did it. They quit. (Apparently the single guy they cleaned for had absolutely no complaints about the way they did things.)
Then I had a more mature woman. She brought her kids with her. I didn't mind the kids but I instructed her not to let them play with my computer because I used it for work. I know she let them use it because I had a secret switch under the desk. If anyone turned it on or off without using that switch, I could tell because when I flipped the switch, nothing happened. Dead giveaway. It also seems that she never cleaned the top of the refrigerator because my ex-husband was tall enough to see that and he complained. She ended up getting a job at Texas Instruments which pays far better than cleaning houses.
So I started looking for a replacement. One of my friends was very happy with the person who cleaned her house, and the price she paid was less than I paid. And her house was bigger than mine. I asked her cleaner to come over and give me a price. She came over and asked me what price I'd been paying. Silly me. It's just in my nature to blurt out the truth. Oddly enough, her quote was exactly the same as what I'd been paying, even though my friend was paying significantly less for a bigger house. No thanks. Not having her based on principal.
And then another friend recommended her cleaner. The price she quoted was in line with what my friend paid and so I had her come and do the cleaning. I was happy. She also had a partner and they didn't throw rug deoderizer everywhere. Both sides of the toilet were clean and so was the top of the refrigerator. Life was good. But then I was downsized and couldn't afford to keep them on. And besides, with no corporate job, I certainly had time to do the work myself. When I started doing it myself is when I noticed that there were some jobs that apparently never got done. For example, removing the plastic mat in the bathtub when cleaning the tub. My goodness! The underside of that mat and the tub underneath were the nastiest things I have ever seen. I ended up replacing the tub and I will never again have a plastic bath mat in my house.
Right now we are incredibly busy. Answering the phone and managing Mark's schedule takes a significant amount of time. Not to mention that some days I just need to stare at a stock chart. And when it's nice out, I'd prefer working in my garden to working in the house. But I still can't stand it if it isn't clean and Mark is far too busy to help me, so I'll probably be looking for help. I can hardly wait.
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