Call the Merry Maids!

by Marijean

My mother is a rare breed. Unlike most mothers of her generation, those who listed occupation as "housewife" and had a day of the week for cleaning the baseboards, my mom encourages me regularly to engage a cleaning person. "Call the Merry Maids!" she bellows long-distance, when she hears I'm cleaning house on a beautiful weekend.

I'm not opposed to the idea, actually. We had a cleaning service for awhile, a team that would come in while we were at work once a month and maintain a level of less filth so we could wipe up, pick up and lightly dust in-between. I justified it then, since I was working three jobs. I had a full time job, a long commute, wrote a column for a newspaper that required a few hours of research and writing each week and taught a college course one evening a week. I figured some of the "extra" money I was bringing in was mine to spend, so I called the local cleaning company, deciding that I was certainly not going to get around to cleaning in the limited off time I had; no one else was volunteering, so there you have it. My mother applauded.

I moved, then, across the country, necessitating giving up the teaching gig, letting go of the newspaper column. I became a work-at-home mom with just one job and lost, I thought, my justification for hiring out the cleaning.

Of course I'm home, nearly all the time. My living space is my working space. At the office, they have cleaning staff. At home, there's me, and my support staff, consisting of my husband, son and daughter. Realistically, though, there's me. I work between 45 and 55 hours per week, and with no commute, I still have far more time than I used to have with my previous schedule. The time is absorbed, though. I cook more and better meals. I write more often. I even take more frequent walks. But do I clean more? Not unless I have to.

My mother's been, er, aggressively suggesting I again engage a cleaning service. It's not that she finds my dusty, dirty home frightening (she hasn't seen it since April and I totally cleaned before she came), it's that she knows my peace of mind depends on knowing my down time will be that, and not more work. For a mom who never once worked full time outside the home, she's amazingly supportive and understanding of the working mom's schedule and needs. I should listen to her, I know, and call the darn Merry Maids, already.

What about you? Do you have a cleaning service or person? Do you feel guilty about it or justified?

Comments

[Megan]

Oh please. I have one team that comes in and cleans every two weeks and a person that comes in and does the laundry and puts it away. And I only have 1 job. But with my one job, and my husband's one job, and our 3 kids under 5, it means we spend more time together and less time doing chores. Go for it! Any stigma attached is just crazy.

[Amy W]

I too have a cleaning person (or people I should really say). Although the first cleaning lady we had in NC tried to blow up our house, we love coming home and being able to hang out with the kids versus cleaning toilets.

[Penny Higgins]

My plan is just to continue wearing the same clothes until they struggle as I try to put them on - then do laundry. We keep the lids down on the toilets - no filth there. We squirrel away the dirty dishes into the dish washer. I figure, that which does not kill us can only make us stronger. At least we scoop the litter boxes once or twice a day. Maybe we SHOULD get a maid.

[jo saxton]

We have someone who comes and cleans for us and its wonderful. I don't feel guilt, I feel peace of mind! With two kids under the age of two, a hectic job(sometimes at home, sometimes in an office), and a great husband who also has a hectic job, I know I just can't do it all, even if I wanted to - and its pointless feeling bad about it!

So you go girl! Call your Merry Maids and clean the dust, and the guilt away.

[hong]

Hi, I'm new here. I love to read these.
I work from home for 24 hours a week. I have a 9 month old and a 5 year old.

We just started to use a cleaning lady recently. she comes in every two weeks, does the hard-scrubbing of the kitchen and bathroom and she mops the floors. Basically she does all the stuff that we usually would wait way longer than 2 weeks to do. We are happy about it.

[CPA Mom]

I work 40 hours a week normally, much more during tax season. My husband works 40 hours/week too (both us out outside the home) and I have a long commute. I do NOT want to spend time cleaning when I can be with my 2 and 4 year old. I've hired and fired 8 services over the years but have finally found a WONDERFUL individual who comes in every other week and cleans up. I only have to run the vaccum occasionally. Best thing we ever spent our money on.

[amy]

We definitely use a cleaning service - although I'm terrible about scheduling them to come regularly. Last year, I got a wild hair and decided to do a deep cleaning myself. 12 hours later I had only cleaned two rooms. That's when I remembered why I have to use a service - I get WAY too detailed and end up burning out two rooms into the cleaning! I still do a lot of deep cleaning myself, but I leave the dusting, etc. mostly to the service.

[Mia]

Merry Maids has been cleaning my house for years now. I have had many other cleaning services, and they just never "got it". It was like they were coming in and picking and choosing what they want to clean or what they feel is dirty. Merry Maids has set procedures for cleaning and they have to clean them reguardless of if they want to or if they feel it is dirty, otherwise I can call and they have to come back and fix it. It was a little rought start but Merry Maids was the only company who worked to resolve my complaints, and eventually they went away, because they knew they would have to come back. As long as you get out all of your concerns out of the way from the beginning, it is smooth sailing after words. Remember they are humans and their minds have 1000 things on them too. As long as you are open and honest with everything anyone will get better as long as they are willing to please you, which I feel Merry Maids was the only company that was willing to try. I have had other companys big and small and also individuals and no one has ever tried harder to meet my needs like Merry Maids has.
As for "feeling bad" about having a cleaning service yeah the cost is a little steep but it is up to you with anycompany to get your moneys worth and if they do your house right at some point, The one less thing off my plate is greater than the money. I have time to myself, and time to spend with my kids and husband. With all the other things in life that there is to worry about, I just dont havce time to get into all the details of cleaning my home. I know when I clean it is always longer than I figure. So I will spend that extra cost so I can deal with the things that really matter in my life like my family and friends. Quality of life is Key and money is not everything.

[Rita]

I don't know what I'd do without my cleaning maid. My house would probably be in shambles right now and I wouldn't be able to find anything.