One Amusing Thing

[liralen]

Yesterday, when we were going into the house, one guys said, "Well, that's one thing, if they ask you if you can do housework, you can't say you don't know how."

I blinked a bit, "Uhm... I don't know how."

"Huh?"

"I haven't cleaned my own house for... uhm... about fifteen years." I said.

He looked astonished.

We live pretty simply on the most part, but... well... I discovered after I started earning a salary and working 60 hour weeks that I not only had no affinity for cleaning my own house, but no desire to, especially with the limited time I had off from work. I did, however, know how clean a house should be and couldn't just let it go. So we hired folks. Usually local folks that just needed the money to do what they needed to do and most of them found satisfaction in cleaning up someone else's mess, which they had no emotional attachment to.

We've mostly avoided the chains, as they seem to gouge both the cleaners and the households, and just went by word of mouth. We've ended up with various folks trying to make a living. Presently we hire a pair of grandparents trying to raise a grandchild, and when they take sick days or vacation days, we're entirely understanding, and they're great. Seems that regular, paying customers are as hard to find as regular, conscientious cleaners, so when we moved from Erie to Longmont, they followed, quite happily, and at the same rate. I'm thinking of asking them if we should up the rate with present gas prices.

It's been good. But I can honestly say, now, that I really don't know how to clean a house.

Comments

[archangelbeth]

I need to figure out how to declutter a house.

Except that if I could declutter it enough for cleaning, I could probably at least vacuum. *sigh*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

Not really. We declutter every two weeks for the cleaners, it's definitely easier with the incentive of getting stuff out of their way so they can work. Easier, too, to do it regularly rather just that first time. Jet gets his toy vacuum (which actually does suck stuff up) out and "helps" when they arrive, and I think he's going to learn how to clean houses from them...

But it's nice to just declutter and let them take care of the dust, the vacuuming, and all that.

[bwb-archive.livejournal.com]

Awww, all you need is some practice.

Come on over! I'll train you on cleaning my house!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Not me! Maybe Jet. :-) He's fascinated by the cleaners.

[alfvaen]

Probably that's what we need. Because we all hate cleaning, and our house seriously suffers because of it. Now all we need is to find some of these trustworthy, hard-working people.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Word of mouth. At work we have a list alias called "stupid" where we talk about all the non-work related needs. That's where we would have asked about good, local cleaners and where we advertise ours.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

You might also check with your local chains (merry Maids, etc.) so that you know what the local going rate is. They're usually on the high end of the rates, but you'll at least know the dimensions of the ballpark when you talk to private cleaners. It's a good way to not insult the value of someone's time.

[amberley.livejournal.com]

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it." -- Samuel Johnson

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Precisely.