Every fall, usually sometime in October, I treat myself to a house cleaner. I know that I will soon be shutting the windows and doors for the long winter months. I also know, all summer I have had the windows and doors open as much as possible. That being said, my house gets an extra amount of dust and summer grime. For the most part my house is pretty clean. After all, I worked as a custodian though my early college years. But, there is something strange for me to close down my house knowing there is extra summer dirt and grime inside. So I hire myself a house cleaner for 3 to 4 hours. The trick is I work right beside him or her. That gives me 6 to 8 hours of house cleaning for the out of pocket price of 3 to 4. A day or two before he or she arrives, I complete some of the simple cleaning chores. For me that would be dusting my special trinkets. I leave the cleaning chores that I do not particularly enjoy to the person I hired (bathrooms, appliances, baseboards, dusting fans and getting spider webs etc).
In the Spring, I do the same thing in reverse. I open the house up for summer. I know my house has been closed down all winter. By April, I am ready to open the windows and doors and let the sweet smells of spring come in. I also know the winter dust and grime needs to go. So once again I call on the house keeper and hire him or her for 3 to 4 hours and work beside them.
This may sound crazy to some. But, I love having a clean house, I hate paying huge prices for a cleaning team (today I was told a service charged $80 an hour for a team of two), and I enjoy teamwork. It’s a win-win situation!
