Cleaning Lady

For the past 20 years, I have employed household help to keep my house clean.  During the first 10 years, my housekeeper came once a month; but with my daughter’s arrival and the chaos of daily life involving school, work, home and everything that goes with them, I’ve had someone come twice a month.  A lovely woman, our cleaning lady certainly does a much better job than I could ever do, even if her work doesn’t always perfectly pass the “run-your-finger- across-the-windowsill” test.  She does change our bedding though – and washes it too – which in my book qualifies her for sainthood and more than compensates for any little lapses when it comes to dusting.

Plus, I file and pay taxes for her like a good citizen should.  I’m just putting that out there in case anyone ever wants to nominate me for Secretary of the Treasury, or something.

Like other families, my husband and I are looking to better manage our monthly expenses as we get closer to retirement.  Reducing or eliminating household cleaning help would save us about $2500 a year, which is not insignificant when you consider the discipline required for living on a fixed income.

But I have to tell you:  I’d rather give up my shoe and purse addictions than give up my housekeeper.  I’d rather start using coupons religiously each week at the grocery store than give up my housekeeper. 

I’d rather stop using credit cards than….uh, no.  That will never happen.

But honestly, I’m not sure where else to really try to economize.  It’s not like my husband and I have an expensive “date night” each week that’s eroding our disposable income; our date night typically involves Comcast’s “On Demand” movie feature at $4 a pop and a couple of Weight Watchers ice cream sandwiches washed down with Diet Coke.

But I do know at some point I’m going to have to seriously consider the housekeeper issue, as I was reminded last week when I read an article about “speed cleaning.”  Huh?

Don’t be fooled:  this is a strategy that women -- who still are largely responsible for this delightful household chore -- are increasingly embracing, whereby they do a little bit of cleaning every day (“drive by swiping” and clean-ups here and there) rather than dedicating hours on a Saturday to getting the house in some sort of order.  But the house still has to be cleaned, even if one does it in chunks.  In fact, I’ve been embracing this strategy when it comes to doing the laundry (3 big loads on Friday, 3 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday, then we’re good to go for 4 days!) but I haven’t really seriously considered this as a disciplined exercise for housekeeping. 

Come to think of it (note to self), I still haven’t stripped the guest room sofa bed or put that room back into its usual state of disorder since my visiting in-laws left to return to their Indiana home on Sunday.  Guess I better get to that tonight – and maybe straighten the family room a little bit, possibly the kitchen too – because my housekeeper is coming tomorrow.

Nope.  I will never give her up.  Never.