My house is always a bit of a disaster – mainly because my cleaning lady sucks. Most of the time, she barely finishes picking up clothes and toys before losing steam. Forget about actually scrubbing things. Oh sure, every once in a while the house gets a good cleaning and really sparkles – but very infrequently. She does stay on top of the dishes and the laundry, and she doesn’t let the bathrooms get out of control. But she just doesn’t have a consistent process. It’s all so haphazard. I’m honestly thinking about looking into bringing someone else in.
So I confess: I AM the WORST cleaning lady ever. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have the time or if it’s because I have so little time that I don’t want to waste it on cleaning. I work five days a week, so I’m limited to evenings and weekends. And I feel like I should spend that time doing something far more meaningful like playing with my children or writing or watching Project Runway reruns. So I do the bare minimum – and it shows.
Ironically, I am somewhat fastidious by nature. I rarely leave clothes on the floor (unlike my husband) and I can be a little obsessive about the tasks I actually do complete. For example, my bed must be made a particular way. I like the covers to be tucked and straightened, and I have to smooth out any wrinkles on the matelassé coverlet. And of course the pillows must be neat and symmetrical. My husband has lived with me for nine years, and he has of yet to learn how to make the bed without me having to fix it. While he has definitely improved, his early attempts were akin to what I might expect my two year old twins to manage if they tried to do it. So yes – I can be a bit of a perfectionist.
Maybe that’s why I don’t like cleaning. Because I can’t just do something half way. Reorganizing a shoe holder might result in a complete closet overhaul. (It’s happened.) So instead I just put it off as long as possible. Another good example of this is vacuuming. My floors don’t even warrant the five second rule (more like the five nanosecond rule). I think I’ve written once before about how I caught myself saying to my son, “you can’t be naked – the floor is too dirty.”
The solution is either for me to get better at this or to make some sacrifices and hire a cleaning service. I’d like to say that I’m reluctant to pay for a service because I’m cheap or because I’m nervous about having strangers in the house. But that would be a lie. The truth is that I’m embarrassed to have professionals come in and see what kind of slobs actually live here.
I’m there. And I don’t even have (regular) work as an excuse. I’m just doing other things that I think are more important. I used to be better actually, but then I started doing all kinds of stuff at the school and that was that.
I’m trying to get someone in here next week after we’re done with the garage sale to just give it a deep cleaning. I can’t stand it anymore.
I completely understand. And I don’t even work 5 days per week. I stay home, yet I still find it incredibly difficult to keep my house clean. Between the kids, 4 cats, 2 dogs, and my husband – nothing ever stays clean for more than 2 seconds.
my house is the most disgusting space on the face of the earth. i keep coming up with these elaborate, amazing plans to clean my house… but somehow they don’t work for me.
We used to have a cleaning service. We also had the day-before-the-cleaning-service-comes-cleaning-day.
Our house was really clean.
Now it’s gross again.
Totally with you. I used to be a neat freak. Now, I’d just like to be a neat freak. I credit the change to learned helplessness. After so many instances of fastidious cleaning that were completely foiled within 2 seconds of completion, you just give up.
I comfort myself with the fact that maybe other moms will breath a sigh of relief when they enter my way-less-than-perfect home and say, “Ahhh. I’m not the only one.”
Oh, who am I kidding?? They’re all probably vomiting in their mouths a little bit and making mental notes to never let their kids go over to THAT house again.
Sigh.
…Maybe I can hang an “All Mediocre” sign on my door like the tag on my blog. “We can’t all be five stars!”
Cleaning is boring. Project Runway is interesting.
Matthew calls me a slob. He’s very picky about the way certain things should be cleaned (I’m not allowed to clean the cutting board or the teapot), so I leave a lot of it to him. But I can be tidy when I want to be. It just takes effort that I usually don’t have. But I would never have a cleaning lady—I’m way too OCD about where things belong.
I’m just like that. I can clean, I can have a clean house. I just don’t.
Unfortunately for me, we are having a home study soon and the social worker will be checking out out our house. So I kinda have to clean it. Or hire someone.
God. It’s like I wrote this. Laundry and dishes because we need them and bathroom because it. must. be. done. Beyond that? Meh.
I’m paralized by my need to completely reorganize/overhaul, so I end up doing nothing.
Hire a cleaner! If nothing else it forces you to declutter so she can get to the real dirt underneath.
My house is currently cleaner than it has probably ever been. Why? We had cleaning services coming in for estimates this week. I highly recommend getting a service. We have had them before and LOVE it. Our last cleaning lady moved about 7 months ago, and we have just been slacking.
I hate it too. I have a cleaning person and I love her!!!! Even if she doesnt do a good job whatever she does is something I dont have to do
At least we know we’re not alone! I love the honest confessions of other women who find it all rather difficult to juggle!
You MAKE YOUR BED??? Hello! That’s fantastic already. I only WISH I could make my bed every day.
Trust me, your place is cleaner and more organized than 89.7% of houses, including mine!
:)
This would be me. I used to be a neat freak and then had two children. I realized one day that I was putting away the toys before they were done playing, and had to stop. So now we clean the basics and get to the rest later. The only problem is that we live in a very small village where EVERYONE is expected to have their house spotless at all times.
Thankfully I have help that come in and deals with the “rest” otherwise it would never get done! And that would be a no-no in this town.
Here, here! Although I am home most of the day, so I don’t really have a valid argument there.
LOL! I used to have the same problem, and I still find myself decluttering the entire house before the cleaning service comes, because I don’t want them moving things around. Even my piles of crap seem sacred.
I have a phenomenal cleaning schedule if you ever want to borrow it. I can’t abide by it, but maybe you’d be better at it? (I vote for professionals, though.)
Thank you for your perfect comment on my blog. I responded there, but had to come over and say thanks formally.
I’ve been reading for awhile here, but never commented until now. I love your new layout! They did a great job.
I’m the same way with housework. Just today I spent 3 hours cleaning up, it started as a quick vacuum and ended up being a closet re-org (yikes!). I, like you, can’t do something without going all out, which is why I have a hard time cleaning. It’s hard to just try to do small things when you always end up doing the heavy stuff anyway!
I have someone who comes once a month just to get the house really clean. The only problem is, she’s notoriously picky about her clients (I got her from my neat-freak mom), so I have to clean before she comes to clean or I’m afraid she’ll fire me and I’ll have no one.
And my bathrooms? Shameful.
Let’s see, 4 kids, 2 different schools, a nursing toddler, want to get some exercise, carry the 1, multiply by friend factor….my house is disgusting. Seriously. I have never liked to clean, though I like the clean house result, and I have clutter issues, so…meh. I figure, people come to see me, not my house. It’ll get clean when all the kids are in school. You are not the only one by any means.