Keeping Clean

My mother is like, the best cleaner in the world. Her house is spotless. You could eat off the floor. She enlisted my sister and I as slaves helpers when we were kids, and our work was often inspected (mine rarely stacked up to her standards).

I was never great about keeping things clean, though. My room had clothes everywhere, my drawers would overflow with carelessly tossed in shirts my mother had worked so hard to iron. I always assumed that when I grew up, I’d magically inherit this cleaning skill my mother has and executes with such precision.

Guess what? It didn’t happen. I have my own household to run now, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that I am NOT my mother in the way I run my household cleaning schedule. Sorry, Mom…it just isn’t gonna happen. I often feel bad about this, because I really do try to keep things tidy and clean, but every time I pick up a toilet brush, I feel like I’d rather stab myself in the eye.

I’m not being melodramatic about it or anything, either. I absolutely can’t STAND cleaning and equate it to some of the worst torture you could put me through. (Organizing things, on the other hand, I adore.)

Adding to the issue of simply hating to clean, my dogs make sure to keep the floors constantly dirty as they track in dirt and dust in their wiry, velcro-like fur. It makes the house very very dusty–I could probably dust once a day and it still wouldn’t be enough.

Mike is actually a much better cleaner than I am–at least, he soldiers up and does it without as much complaining and melodramatic sighs. Still…things could look a little nicer around here.

I’ve been toying with the idea of hiring someone to do weekly cleaning. I’ve never had any experience with this though, as my mom was freakin’ superwoman when it came to this stuff.

Doesn’t she look like Superwoman?? Hahaha sorry Mom, please don’t kill me.

Here she is, looking lovely with her slaves children a few years ago

Does anyone know how it works? Any good service recommendations? Do I have to leave the house when they come? On second thought, I’d probably prefer to not be in the house when they’re here since I think I’d die of embarrassment to sit at my computer while someone literally does the dirty work for me.

Also, any ideas about how much it costs? I suppose I need to just start calling people, but again, the sense of shame and embarrassment that I can’t clean my own house is kind of overwhelming. I guess embarrassed, but with a clean house is better than nothing. Please tell me that I’m not the only one who has such trouble keeping things spotless! What are your cleaning habits?