Sometime in December my husband asked if I knew my sister has a cleaning lady. I said that I did, in fact both sisters have a cleaning service. He said that I needed to get a promotion at work so we could get one too. I remarked that while a promotion would be nice and while a cleaning service would be nice, my sisters have kids and we don't. They need it a bit more than we do, we're just tired of cleaning.
Then January came around and my department posted a new position, Technology Coordinator, and I applied. And I got it. My first official start date for the new job was February first, although I'm still handling things at my old position until a replacement is hired and trained.
I had a set amount I wanted to make and was all prepared to counter when the official offer came in lower. Imagine my surprise when the initial offer was higher, much higher. I jumped on it, I took it and ran (as my husband said). What's the first thing my husband said after I told him what the monetary offer was? Well, after the "OMG?! Really? Wow?". The first thing he said was for me to talk to the sisters and get the number for their cleaning service.
I couldn't believe he was still planning to hire a cleaning service! My husband is very frugal, more so than me. Not just frugal, he hates to spend money. So for him to suggest we pay money for somebody to clean our house, something that we are already handling and have time for, well this is big news.
The other thing is that he was much more willing than I was. I was torn. I don't enjoy cleaning house yet I know we could easily do it. We don't have kids, there's nothing keeping us from cleaning the house on the weekends. Yet, I've been feeling lazy and I know the house hasn't been cleaned as well in the past several months as it should be. I felt guilty. If cleaning our house was gong to be such a problem, why did we buy such a big house? Why did we buy a house so big we couldn't keep up with it? (To be honest, our house is roughly 2,400 sq feet and we can easily clean it..but again we're just feeling lazy, and our last house was roughly 1,700 sq feet, so it's not that much bigger). Why am I being so lazy? Why can't I just get the energy to clean my house? Why waist money paying somebody else to clean it? So all these thoughts are going through my head. But we still went ahead and interviewed some people and hired the lady one of my sisters uses. The price was right, she was nice, we knew somebody who trusted her.
So..part one of going about hiring a cleaning lady...the guilt. Stay tuned for my thoughts about it after she started.
Do you have a cleaning service? Did you feel guilty about it too or not?
Congrats on the new job! If I ever make more money, I'll have to have your husband talk to mine. I ask every year to have a cleaning service come in for Mother's Day. Just to get things back into shape. Um...never happened...not once!
ReplyDeleteI understand your feelings about the guilt, but I say if you have the money to be spoiled, go for it! I'd jump on that in a heartbeat. :)
Thanks Anna! I'll have to tell my husband to call yours. He's loving the cleaning service. (ok..and I am too) haha
ReplyDeleteI hear you on this. I don't have kids either, but I hate to clean -- there are just so many more interesting things to do with my spare time. So while the house (a manageable 1100 square feet) is never really dirty, it's never really clean, either. I feel bad about hiring someone else to do our dirty work, though, and we're not exactly swimming in money. I also worry that a cleaner would use toxic chemicals that would be bad for the cat (and us). Last year, we hired a one time cleaner. That could be an option again this year. Once a year seems reasonable to me.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the raise!
noteasytobegreen - I think hiring somebody to do a deep cleaning once or twice a year would be great! I admit that the lady we hired isn't very expensive, it's $80 for our main floor and the finished area of the basement and $60 just for the main floor. I set out my own cleaners for her to use. That way I know that she's not using harmful chemicals..so that's always an option too.
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