Cleaning for the Cleaning Lady

My wonderful, supportive, caring, loving, adoring husband (Yes, he really is all those things about 90% of the time - the other 10%? Well, nobody's perfect.) got me a cleaning lady for Mother's Day. Better yet, she's not just coming one time for Mother's Day, she's my year-round Mother's Day present. BEST. GIFT. EVER.

I have struggled with cleaning for years. It's not that I can't do it, I just don't like to. Pretty much, I hate it. I wish I was one of those people that loved to clean and whenever they got stressed or upset they grabbed a mop or a sponge, but that is so not me. I am the exact opposite. I will put off cleaning as long as humanly possible. So much so that we always joke we need to invite people over to our house more often because it makes us clean up.

I'm not a total slob. I like the house picked up, I'm just not good at the deep clean. If you looked quickly inside my house you would think it looks pretty good. I rarely have dishes in the sink, the counters are reasonably clean, and most things are in their place or in neat piles. If you looked closer, however, you would see there is a lot of dust and grime and crumbs and other unknowns lying about. If I had to describe it, I would say my house is picked up, it's just not deep clean.

Up until lately it hasn't bothered me that much. It's become more of a stress, knowing that I needed to clean, but having no will or desire to do it. It's kind of like exercising. I say that I don't have time to do it, but it's more like I don't make the time to do it. If I really wanted to do it, I could. I just don't really want to.

So, when I finally found someone who would clean my house and she said she would come today, I realized I needed to clean the house before she could come. I know, it sounds crazy. Why clean for someone who is coming to clean? But I didn't really say it correctly. I needed to pick up and purge a whole bunch of stuff to make room for the cleaning lady to actually clean. I had to put things away, get rid of the piles, condense, consolidate, whatever, so they could get to the stuff that needed to be deep cleaned.

I probably spent 5-6 hours working on it this weekend. After I got up to nurse Amanda at 6:15a on Sunday I stayed in her room and reorganized, stacked, packed, and unpacked until 8:00a. Amazing what you can get done so early in the morning, and I always waste that time on sleep! Moving on to the rest of the house I filled an enormous bag with Halloween, Valentine and Easter candy for Charlie to take to work. My kids love to receive candy, but they forget about it and never eat it. I eat most of it, which is not good, and we still have a ton. Then I threw away all those little toys that the kids get from Happy Meals and birthday party goody bags that they play with for a couple of hours and then they sit around for months. I recycled home work and art projects, expired coupons and old mail. Did I mention that Charlie and I are pack rats? I could go on, but you get the idea. When I was finally done the house didn't look too bad. If only I had done it sooner.

The cleaning lady came today. Actually, it was cleaning ladies. Two sisters working together. It took them four hours to clean my house and when they were done it looked fabulous and smelled like cleaning products. I love it. Charlie loves it. The stress is melting away. One less thing I have to worry about that makes me a little happier mommy. Thanks Honey, you really are the best!