House Cleaner

When I first moved in together with my girlfriend, she was insistent that we got ourselves a house cleaner.

I’d never used one before. My biggest concern was about privacy. Also, I’d been used to keeping my office and space the way I was used to, and thinking about a stranger moving things around made me feel uncomfortable. That, and I was concerned it was going to be costly. Of course, I knew that my time was likely worth more, but I didn’t really know how this added up.

Fast forward almost 2 years, and I’m glad she insisted, and I’ve been happy that we found someone to help us out. Plus, it helps me practice delegating work!

Services

• My girlfriend found someone who was cleaning a neighbor’s home, and she was amazing and went right up to talk to her. We scheduled a time to have the cleaner come and give us a quote.
• After we agreed to hire her, she did an initial deep clean of our place.
• What she cleans:
  • Vacuums the hardwood floors, rugs, and the carpeted stairs
  • Mops the hardwood and bathroom floors
  • Washes the bathroom tub, sink, and toilet
  • Wipes down tables in the kitchen, bedroom, and living room
  • Changes the sheets
  • Arranges pillows on our sofa (nice touch!)
  • Sometimes she folds the toilet paper and tissue in the bathroom so it feels like we came back to a hotel room!
  • She was instructed not to clean my office 😎

Costs

• 2 times a month for $70 each
• A friend said for him, he found someone to deep clean 1 time each month for $150
• A little bit of privacy/security, as there’s someone you have to trust to be in your home, and they also have an extra pair of keys to your home; we’ve been able to mitigate this risk with renter’s insurance

Value

• Obviously, there’s the time saved from not having to do the actual cleaning.
• No more stress of THINKING about cleaning. This was not something I foresaw, but is clear and obvious to me now. There’s no more of the thought of, “Hmm, should I clean this weekend?” All those brain cells used for thinking about that question can be used for more important decisions.
• No more guilt of not doing it when you say you will do it.
• You no longer have to buy cleaning supplies for doing the cleaning.
• If you have a roommate, or argue about who cleans or if someone’s not cleaning enough: all that tension goes away.
• I get to practice trusting people more and delegating tasks to others 🤓

Needless to say, it’s been worth it.

Onward!