I finally realized the cleaning fairy will never stop by our home and I am left with all there is to do. I am getting older, the house is not getting smaller, and it seems I am constantly running behind. I feel like I spend all of my precious free time cleaning and scrubbing the house, and I am tired of it.
I was swamped with work this Holiday season and decided to gift myself a cleaning help. I was hoping to find somebody who would come by twice a months for 4 or 5 hours and help me with “deep cleaning.” Doors and door frames, floors and stairs, bathroom and kitchen, perhaps the windows and blinds now and then and I would be the happiest camper here on this planet. No laundry, no dusting, no dishes and no bedrooms! (What is wrong with me, it’s not like I love dusting?)
I posted an ad on a neighborhood board, and so the games began. Several people called, and after talking with a few, I met three of the ladies the following day.
One sounded better than the other and they all pretty much asked for the same price (Is there a House cleaning union I dont’t know anything about?) I made an appointment with a nice young woman, whose story had touched me the most.
The day before she showed up, I cleaned the house -made sure nothing of our STUFF would be in her way. My husband shook his head but bit his tongue. He just doesn’t get it. Of course, you clean before the cleaning lady comes. (Goodness, please someone tell me I am normal?)
My human cleaning fairy came by the next day and started cleaning our home. She liked to talk, and within two hours I was familiar with her life story. After she left, I inspected the house, and within a few minutes, I had found everything that she had overseen. She didn’t move anything on the kitchen counter, had only cleaned what could be seen. In the bathroom, she had forgotten the shower and the mirrors. Little things in each room just added up.
Two weeks later I tried the next one, and the result was similar. She didn’t seem to like our kitchen much and never found our guest bathroom. I spent about two hours cleaning after the cleaning lady had left and my husband roared with laughter that night when I told him about the failures of Cleaning Fairy #2.
“Well, the house will get clean eventually, with you cleaning before and after them.” He is so lucky I love him, but I have to admit it made me laugh too.
Cleaning Fairy #1 and #2 retired in our home, and I felt like the worst drill sergeant ever. Perhaps I was expecting too much?
….to be continued tomorrow
I’m reading this story backwards and finally found the beginning.
The beauty with reading it backwards is that I know it has a happy ending 😉
So far so good.
Hmm, I’ve been investing in extra help too. We have a couple who come once a month and do basics and I thought twice a month would be great – and it is, the house does look better more often and my husband is happy about this – but I don’t do any less and I’m poorer. And yes, you are normal, I tidy and part-clean before they come. On the other hand, i have also invested in a young woman to help once a month in the garden. She is expensive and brilliant and we can work together, so I have no spare cash, but I am happy.
I started giving classes this year on Friday’s and Saturday’s and I enjoy it more than I thought I would.
The cleaning fairy gives me time to work, money is -and always will be -an issue in our home as well. It just doesn’t grow on trees as it should.
A garden help sounds like a miracle. Not sure if I could find anybody who would like to fight our weeds.
I tell myself that I will grow more veg with her help – rather forgetting that I shut the vegetable plot knowing that I would not have time for it next year.
I miss your posts and your pictures. Am I missing something?
No, you are not missing anything. I am trying to strike a balance between life’s demands and the blog has to be low priority. I almost got a message out last week. I may even get there tomorrow – whoops, that’s today. I still enjoy yours!
They are like ‘fairies’ in that it’s magically wonderful to be able to have their help!
I guess I’m in the 1.8% who doesn’t clean before the cleaning lady comes. I think it makes them feel more needed when their work is visible to them and everyone else. My first cleaning lady ever was a friend who was in dire straits (needing extra cash) and who knew my house already… Before she ever came to clean the first time, she scolded me NOT to clean before she came. She’s since moved away.
Now, sometimes I have another lady clean, when I’m working too much at my job, and the house is getting away from me, and before SHE ever came, she also told me not to clean before she got to my place. I was happy to oblige, as I didn’t think- considering how much I was working- that I’d be able to do much cleaning before she came anyway.
On the other hand, (please don’t shoot me for saying this) I don’t expect my cleaning helpers, (I don’t call them ‘cleaning ladies’ ) to clean my whole house- I don’t expect them to do what I can’t do in a few hours- so I give them a to-do list of musts: a list that has the basics, Bathroom upstairs hall, bathroom main floor, kitchen floors sweep and mop, etc. It takes the edge off my cleaning chores, ESPECIALLY the upstairs children’s bathroom that is the worst- I love that she uses bleach in the tub, and gets every nook and cranny etc- just makes my day. I don’t need a cleaning lady to do the whole house, just some tedious chores that I can’t keep up with-
AND I’m cleaning the whole time she is- knowing I have a helper is very motivating.
I’m looking forward to part 2 of your story.
Same here. I don’t need someone for the whole house, but need help with deep cleaning.
I had no idea how to call them, to be honest. I call them cleaning fairies 🙂
You did make me smile …. I look forward to part 2
This is one reason why I haven’t bothered trying to find someone.
Cleaning before the cleaning lady comes is normal, I always make sure my bathroom is presentable. I have friends who do the same in spending hours cleaning before the cleaner arrives. I think we’d hate it if they went away and talked about us. I have a cleaning lady who is not so reliable is what my gripe would be, she’s very thorough, she only does the common spaces in our house as I figure we are responsible for our own private spaces.
Hahaha! This was hysterical and I can’t wait for Part Two! I know I’d do a quick walk-through, just like I do before the maintenance men come, to make sure I’m not leaving anything real personal for them to see. I’d love to have someone come in to do a deep cleaning of my apartment. Thanks for a trial run on the experience! 😀
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I have also straightened up before a cleaning person comes, but I’ve also gone behind them and “suggested” that perhaps they might move the stuff on the counter? And, before they go, maybe they might clean the room they missed? After all, that’s why I hired them. But I’m blunt that way. ^_^
I didn’t have to heart to criticize them. I just told them I have changed my mind. I don’t have the time or the nerve to teach a cleanting fairy how to see the dirt. 🙂
Oh I know about that elusive cleaning fairy. We didn’t have kids, so there’s just me, husband and dog…sometimes there was also a cat. For years I did it all myself….mumbling under my breath a lot because I also worked long hours at a very stressful job. Eventually I decided, like you, that I needed help. Every other week. I found a wonderful woman who worked on big cleaning items, one each trip until things looked great. Then I moved too far away for her to keep coming to my house. She and I cleaned the house that last time together, so that the new people would come into a spotless house. I drove from there, after hugging her tearfully, to my new house where I found the old owners had barely moved out and left food in the cupboards, crap in the basement, flour spread across the carpet etc. I just about cried again.
Anyway, I hired 3 more cleaning people at the new house. None of them stacked up to the cleaning lady I had left behind. And yes I had to clean prior to and after they were there. Last year I tried a cleaning company. They sent 2 women every other week. Not usually the same two. I had to clean after them. Eventually I fired them.
Now I clean when I feel like it and just deal with a dirty house when I don’t feel like it. My husband knows not to complain or bring it up. If it’s dirty enough to bother him he knows he better clean it himself. So far it’s working. Mostly.
Well, I haven’t given up (yet).
I am so glad to know I am not the only one who seems to have a problem to hire a cleaning fairy.
You are not alone. It is a fact, (no fake news) 98.275% of people clean before their cleaner arrives!
Oh dear, I am normal 🙂