cleaning house



this pile of clothing will be ironed and put away by the time i get home from work today... thanks to the lovely rowena



"nobody can do everything", quote from mr. rogers.

although i am very good at cleaning house and actually enjoy it, i don’t do it often enough because we have a cleaning lady.

stefan brought it up first and i resisted for a long time. i was defensive. no one can clean better than me i remember stating incredulously. of course this was not why stefan wanted to get a cleaner, it was to free up our my time. i could spend hours (mostly happily) cleaning.  it was instilled in me from a young age... my saturdays were spent cleaning house and it simply became a habit. 

we’ve had a cleaner now for approximately 6 years. only in the last 6 months has rowena been coming on a weekly basis (it started out once a month, then every other week). working on a regular basis now, i find that i can't get to everything that needs tending to: the ironing (yes, i iron almost everything!) and the bathrooms need more consistent looking after.  a weekly cleaner has been the best decision ever.

our job is to ensure it stays clean in between visits, at least try (it doesn't always happen!).  so i tidy, make beds, do laundry, keep clothing off the floor (kai!), sweep, re-arrange, organize, and my boys help out too (thank goodness for the dyson!). i don’t dust, scrub, iron, well, at least most of the time. i know all that is going to be done for me. and it does! sometimes, dishes piled high in the sink are washed and put away too.  my weekends are spent free of housework (unless i crave a quick clean of course).

this will be the first time my family is aware of my cleaning service. you see i have carried around tremendous guilt about not cleaning my own house. i believed because i was working part-time and then casually for many years, it was my job to clean. i had the time to devote to cleaning. i wanted to be supermom, you know, the mom that can do everything. my mom did it, other women do it (who may not have the luxury to hire someone), surely i can do it too, right?

 

well, yes i can and i can do it very well but i didn’t want to do everything anymore. i choose to sit with a book, go out on adventures with my boys on weekends, snuggle extra-long in bed with kai... instead of tending to the waiting dishes, instead of ironing, instead of scrubbing the shower walls. it’s been a good thing.

do you like to clean? do you have a cleaning service? if so, how much do you love it?