As you know from my bragging my husband gifted me with a cleaning lady. This was a sure sign of his love for me or his desire to not stick to the floor when he walks through our kitchen. Either way, it was a great gift and a huge stress inducer for me. I never thought I would be this person but I am anal when it comes to someone else cleaning my house. Clearly I am not doing much cleaning lately so it would seem that I wouldn't have high expectations but I do. I have tried cleaning services before and every time it is the same scenario...I am all excited with visions of sparkling floors and gleaming sinks in my head only to end up begrudgingly handing over money before re-cleaning my house. Its not that I expect ridiculous things I just want a professional cleaner to leave my house looking like a professional cleaned it, i.e. looking better than my 10 minute cleaning sprees. I had one lady who was a cleaning goddess but one small snag- she couldn't ever get here on time or on the right day. With small children and naps to work around she was not a good fit. I would go out with my newborn and plan each feeding and nap strategically around the time we had scheduled only to come home and find that she had arrived 3 hours late. Thankfully my baby could not understand the words I said under my breath at that stage and we were quickly on to cleaning lady #2. She was as old as my grandma, weighed 80 pounds, and wreaked of smoke. No. Go. I looked into a cleaning service but the prices convinced me I would come out better hiring a babysitter for a couple of hours and doing it myself.
So, when my husband proposed this we both knew it would be on a trial run basis. This time I would not agree to pay someone for a service unless it was done to my liking and it didn't cause me an ulcer. If you know me, you know that I hate confrontation and the thought of micro-managing a person who is doing me this big favor makes my skin crawl. I also always have this nagging feeling of guilt, like they are looking at me like a spoiled little princess so I go over-board trying to be nice and polite. So to make this work out for everyone I devised a plan. I let today be a trial day. She informed me that it would be a very thorough cleaning and would take up to 5 hours. I know that that kind of workload means she might not get every detail today and thats fine but I want her to get those little details from here on out. I thanked her and told her what a big help she was and then I sent an email to summarize today. I tired to tell myself that she would appreciate knowing my expectations up front and would rather know what I am looking for instead of just hiring someone else. Inside I think she read the email and thought, "spoiled. rotten. housewife." But I sent it and I feel relieved. Now its on paper that I want the wall next to the high chair wiped down each time (thank you, Sullivan for that caked on oatmeal!). Its also recorded that I forever want my floors cleaned with something orangey smelling and I like the appliances wiped down. I felt way too demanding, overly-professional, and just plain annoying but at the end of the day its our hard-earned money I am handing over and if I like things a certain way I shouldn't feel bad asking. (I have almost convinced myself of that with this post). So good luck to anyone looking for some help around the house. My advice is be upfront and honest. They will feel relieved knowing they did the job to your liking and you will be happy to hand over that cash.
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