The other day I hired someone to come clean my house. I have no shame in admitting that. There are seasons in life where your time is extremely short and, as a result, extremely valuable. Seasons where you are fortunate to have financial flexibility and a enough disposable income to buy yourself conveniences. It’s not like I’ve ever loved cleaning the house. In fact, hah!, mostly all I really do is clean the bathroom, and the kitchen (but mostly the dishes). Andy has always vacuumed, and I very, very occasionally would dust. We’re not dirty people and we take our shoes off at the door. I mostly did reactionary cleaning when something look gross.
I kind of meant to try and have someone clean our loft when it was empty, before we even moved in, to give a deep clean to all those empty corners and wide open floors.
That didn’t happen.
Since then, every month, we’ve budgeted money for a housecleaner, and I’ve said this is the month I’m going to do it. I said this is the last time I’m going to clean my own bathroom. It took me 4 months, but this month, I finally did!
I used a service called Hux. They’re a startup in Atlanta and actually work out of the same building I do, so I’ve met several of them (my housecleaner included!). The website made it super simple to book. It’s kind of like Uber for house cleaning! You can see all of the available cleaners, read about them, check out reviews, and find out their availability. Then you just click, add a few notes, and voila! It charges your credit card through the site and sends you texts as confirmation, reminders, and follow up. (Can I just say how much I liked that feature?) Also, the cleaner has access to your information, so we were able to text directly about details on getting into my complex and such.
Yet as cleaning day drew closer, I realized I was having a hard time letting go. When I booked the appointment I had to stop myself from writing a bajillion notes! “Clean this thing this way. Oh, don’t miss this other thing. Can you do this thing?” I was going to be at work when he came, so Andy asked me the night before if I had any specific things I wanted to make sure got done. Y’all, I made a list. I don’t know if that’s what you’re supposed to do for cleaners. I kind of wish I could’ve just let him do his thing. I’m sure he’s extremely competent and, you know, knows a thing or two about cleaning houses. I’M SO SORRY. I’m a little neurotic.
But you know what? It all went well. Things that used to be dusty are not dusty anymore. The rugs are vacuumed. He even found my watch, which I thought was long gone, lost in our move! So next month, I’m ditching the list. He knows what he’s doing, and there’s no reason for me to exert mental energy over whether it’s being done “right.” If I’m going to outsource, I need to trust in the system a little better (unless, of course, there’s something specific and more out of the ordinary than “mop the bathroom floors”).
I just need to let it go, if you will.
SORRY NOT SORRY.
What’s your housecleaning style? Are there tasks you outsource that make your life a lot easier?
P.S. If you’re interested in Hux, I think I have a referral link somewhere that will give us both a credit, so let me know!
