Why I Finally Hired a House Cleaner

|

The sink was so dirty that you could literally carve your name in it. Like how you can write “wash me” on the back of a dirty car. Yikes!! It was pretty disgusting and I was disgusted as I walked by it. As a mom of two little kids and a momtrepreneur, I was drowning in responsibilities and cleaning the house was at the bottom of the list of priorities. Gross, I know!

I kept the house mostly picked up, but a deep cleaning just wasn’t high up on the priority list. And the dirty sink staring back at me was adding another layer of stress to my already stressful life.

Why I Hired a House Cleaner and why you might need one, too!

But I’m a stubborn DIY girl. I hate to pay someone to do something that I am perfectly capable of doing myself. And while I don’t love to clean, I am fully capable of doing it myself.

For example, I cleaned houses to earn extra money in addition to babysitting when I was in high school. But it was becoming increasingly clear that just because I could do something didn’t mean that I would do it.

There just wasn’t enough time in the day.

10 Ways to Customize Your Home on a Budget Guide Button

The stress of having all of that to do, and then feeling like I wasn’t able to take care of my home was making me a pretty grumpy person.

Another issue for me was that I felt like my house was too cluttered. I needed to declutter before I thought it would be worth it to hire someone to clean. Looking back, I should have hired someone to help me declutter, but I did it myself.

I wrote my 30 Days to Less of a Hot Mess series based on my decluttering efforts and that were a huge improvement for my home!

Side note: my home is less cluttered than it’s ever been and it’s amazing. I still have a few stacks of stuff here and there that I need to clean up, but it’s nothing like what it was! You’ll see why it’s stayed so clutter-free in a minute.

Why am I Telling you About my House Cleaner?

And I want to be super clear about something. I don’t share this so that I can wave around a “look-at-me” flag so that you can admire that I have a house cleaner. Nope, no way.

I share this to show you how delegating something when it makes sense in your life is so helpful. It’s not helpful to try to do everything yourself if you can afford to hire someone to help you. In the same way that I hired a couple of part-time assistants to help with my work tasks, it just makes sense to give someone else a job that they can do, while allowing me time to do the things only I can do.

It makes sense at a certain point to hire help. AND a huge factor in helping me decide to hire someone was that I read account after account of other mompreneurs doing the same thing. It helped me see that it really was worth it to free up the time and relieve the stress and mom-guilt.

So, if you’re a busy working mom, or a busy volunteer mom – or if you’re taking care of a family member and the cleaning is just not high on your priority, then it might be something to consider. And even if you can clean and want to do it, sometimes it’s better to delegate.

Pros to Having a House Cleaner

In addition to having a freeing up my valuable time and having a clean home once again, I have found several surprising benefits to hiring a house cleaner. If you’re in the fence about hiring one, then I these might help you see the light!

  • Once every 2 weeks my home is clean! Duh. Right? You’re thinking I’ve lost my marbles. But I mean that my entire is all clean all at once. Both of the bathrooms are spotless. The hardwood floors are so clean that they are slippery and every surface is wiped down. I try to schedule events when I’m hosting people at my house right after my house cleaner comes. Or, I schedule weekend visitors right before she comes. LOL Make this work in your favor!
  • The longer she comes, the cleaner my house gets. My cleaning lady has been coming for 5 months now, and the hot spots that were always messy are disappearing. For example, I probably never deep cleaned the baby’s high chair. One day after she left, the high chair was missing! What?! How does a high chair go missing?? I walked into the laundry room and it was turned upside down in the utility sink. She had thoroughly clean that sucker! Yay!!

RELATED: How to Declutter a Room in 5 Simple Steps

  • It forces me to pick up and sort through the junk every two weeks, which means I have less clutter and less mess. This is why my house has continued to stay mostly clutter free for all of these months! It’s forcing me to declutter and throw away trash every two weeks instead of ignoring it. And now I’m decluttering even more, because I’m seeing what I still need to work on since everything else it straightened up!
  • I have more time for my family. This not only means I get to spend more actual time with my family, it’s more quality time with them. I’m not snapping anyone’s heads off because I’m frustrated with a dirty house. That’s always a win in my book!
  • I am more efficient. Have you ever heard of the saying that physical clutter equals mental clutter? I wholeheartedly believe that it is true! I now have less clutter in my home, which means I am able to focus and have clarity where before it was hard to concentrate with all of the physical distractions. My mind and schedule are now freed up to do that things that only I can do, like mother my children and run my businesses!

The One Thing that Could be a Problem

There’s not a whole lot of problems I see with having a cleaner home, but I do want to make sure one thing doesn’t happen. I am extra careful to make sure my girls are still having to clean up after themselves and do regular chores around the house. This is mostly in regards to my 6-year-old, because the 2-year-old is still a little young.

But I want to make sure they don’t grow up thinking they can just get by without cleaning up. There are plenty of regular chores that need to be done. And as they get older and can help with more around the house, I may cut back to only having the house cleaned only every month or so in order to give them the opportunity to learn how to clean their home.

It has been Totally Worth It

In the end, the decision to hire someone to clean my home a couple times a month has been more of a blessing than I could have ever imagined. It was worth giving up my pride that I can do it all to take back some of my sanity. The lack of clutter and the fact that it forces me to deal with trouble spots and messes in my home is just the icing on the cake.

If you are on the fence, then I encourage you to at least try it and see if it works for you. Find a reputable cleaning company in your area that is bonded and insured. I highly encourage you to ask around for recommendations from trusted friends and family. That’s how I find mine!

What are your thoughts? Has this been a valuable service in your life? Are you contemplating delegating the cleaning in your home?

Similar Posts

14 Comments

  1. Thanks for your post. I do not currently have someone helping us clean our home but used to. When our son was at home, we took his room off the list of rooms to be cleaned and he knew he was responsible for cleaning it. I also appointed my husband to be the “cleaning coach” so that our young man would not have the impression that cleaning is only a responsibility of a woman. He’s grown up now and does many of the household tasks for his growing family.

  2. We would all LOVE to hire someone to clean our homes, but sometimes it’s just not possible with finances.

    1. This is so true! I couldn’t have hired someone even a year ago. Super thankful that I can now and that I finally took that leap. 🙂 Blessings! Laura

  3. I will definitely take this advice. Going to have the cleaning service do their part so I can finish my attack on clutter!

  4. I really liked this post! A few months ago, My hubby suggested that we start paying someone to come in twice a month to help with cleaning. We both work full-time jobs, I blog, and freelance, so it just made sense. Before, I would devote an entire Saturday to cleaning the house, and never allowed myself to relax without feeling guilty that the house wasn’t in order. Now I feel like a large burden has been lifted, and I can truly focus my attention on my passions and the other obligations of daily life. Thanks so much for the insight!

    1. Yes!! It’s such a relief, isn’t it? No more all-day cleaning sessions. Sure we still have to clean our homes in between, but every so often it’s all done and it’s so nice! xo, Laura

  5. I’ve often thought about this – loved reading about your experience! We went through something similar with our lawn care – physically capable of doing everything necessary, but there never seemed to be enough time, plus my husband and I both have allergies. Hiring someone to do that, along with some other landscaping chores was the best decision ever. For a very reasonable price (less than I had imagined), I have a LOAD of stress taken off my shoulders. Exactly like what you said, we shouldn’t feel bad / guilty about getting help. Once I got some help, any guilt / embarrassment soon passed!

    1. Thank you for sharing your experience, Deb! I have said for a long time that we should hire someone to do our lawn care and landscaping. My husband has some time in the summer since he’s a teacher, but it would allow him to do other things like take the kids to the pool or help me with my business. But he doesn’t want to give it up just yet. Maybe soon!

  6. I would love to get a house cleaner, my fiance however doesn’t like strangers in our house. With that said, how did you find the perfect person to come into your house? Did you use a website or recommended by someone?

    1. Hi Karla! I felt a little weird about it too, but I got referrals from several friends. And I’m at home while she’s there. I am either working on another part of the house or in my office, which is in my home. I know that’s not an option for some people, though. I would recommend getting a reputable cleaning service company to come in if you’re hesitant about someone being in your home, as opposed to an individual running her own business. Just my thoughts! 🙂

    2. Hi! I’m a domestic cleaner, I know first hand the relief I give to my customers by cleaning their house weekly or fortnightly, so many families struggle to keep their house clean and feel really guilty because they can’t keep on top of their house work due to been time poor. So many mums have to work full time now and really struggle with keeping house been a mum, and working
      So many mums are burning out and find it a relief when their house work is done for them. Happy mum happy life happy family.

      1. Yes!! Your work is so valuable! I actually had to cancel my last cleaning for several reasons, and I tried to tackle the cleaning this past weekend. I came to the conclusion that my cleaner is so much more efficient than I am and worth her weight in GOLD! So thankful to be able to have her help me every 2 weeks!

  7. I definitely agree with you! My husband requires 24-hour care and when I first brought him home from the hospital, everyone said I should get someone to help with him. However, I only need someone in 15-30 minute increments throughout the day which is not possible. On the other hand, I HATE cleaning. So I decided to have someone come in once a month to do a thorough cleaning. Even though I’m home all the time, and have the time to clean, I determined that taking this chore off my shoulders was worth the expense. We can’t do it all, and if we’re fortunate enough to be able to afford help, whether it be to clean the house, watch the kids, do repairs, then I believe it’s worth it.

    1. Yes! It’s so helpful when we have our hands full with other responsibilities. And I understand it’s not affordable for everyone. It wasn’t for me just a few years ago. I’m grateful I can afford it now.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *