Just do it!

I'm going to share with you about one of the two greatest things I've ever done: I let the cleaning lady go!! I have been without a "cleaning lady" for about a year and a half now, and I HIGHLY recommend it! During the past 8 years, I've had five different cleaning ladies. (Good help is hard to find!). Anyway...I was always disappointed. Always complained about what they didn't do. And always felt guilty for complaining because...hello...it's a cleaning lady, for goodness sake, and I should be thankful that I have (had) one! But typically, the days that the cleaning lady came were the most stressful days of my life. They always want the clutter picked up before they clean.Let me rephrase - they want YOU to pick up the clutter before they clean. So I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find a place for all of the clutter that collected on my kitchen counter. I frantically unloaded the dishwasher , then re-loaded it so that she could clean the sink and wipe the counters. And don't dare askthe cleaning lady to clean the inside of the refrigerator - they don't do refrigerators. I had one who didn't do windows, either (even though all 4 of my child en were under 36 inches tall and left sticky,nasty fingerprints and lip-smudges on every window). Half the time I couldn't even get to the playroom to pick all the clutter off of the floor so that cleaning lady could vacuum. I'd shut the door and say, "Don't worry about the playroom today." Then my 4 little kids would follow her around all day trying to "help". So when I wasn't running around picking up the clutter that four kids can produce, I was running up and down the stairs trying to keep the kids out of cleaning lady's way. And I'd usually end up making all of the beds so that the pile of pillows wouldn't be on the floor. One cleaning lady told me that she fired one of the lady's she cleaned for because there was too much clutter and she couldn't spend "that much time" picking up clutter and cleaning. I took that as a warning to PICK UP MY CLUTTER!! And the whole time she was there I felt embarrassed - embarrassed by the clutter, the piles of laundry, the pace at which I was trying to stay ahead of her so she could clean the next room, the random wet diapers here and there, the pile of clean (yes, CLEAN) laundry that was on the foyer floor because I had thrown them over the balcony to get them back downstairs (our laundry room was UPstairs). And when she'd leave my house would look so good -except for the windows - so I'd spend the next 2 hours cleaning windows. And I'd have two or three children behind me asking if they could "spway" too! It wore me out! The cleaning ladies WORE ME OUT!!
And to make it all even worse- I didn't even like myself when I had a cleaning lady. I found myself running my finger over the furniture to inspect for dust. I even found myself with my face flat against the hardwood floor so that I could look under the sofa to see if cleaning lady had cleaned under the sofa! Who cares?!?! Let it go! I was like some snooty doctor's wife! HaHa. Hee Hee. And I couldn't "let it go"> I would tell myself it didn't matter if there were 3 sippy cups and 2 racecars under the sofa - "pick 'em up and move on", I'd try to say to myself. But deep down it would drive me crazy that I'd just paid cleaning lady close to the cost of a monthly mortgage and there were 3 sippies and 2 card still under my couch!?!
And what would really get me all worked up was when I'd wake up four hours early to start working on the clutter, and then she WOULDN'T SHOW UP (OR CALL!).
My other "favorite" ...the time the cleaning lady used Pledge furniture polish (the spray in the can) on my hardwoods floor to give them "some extra shine." I had two children at the time who were learning to walk. They could not STAND UP on the floor without falling flat on their poor little faces! Even M. fell. I spent hours on my hands and knees trying to remove the furniture polish off of our floors.
So now ...my house is a mess. But I don't feel bad about it. When I had a cleaning lady, I actually felt guilty aboout my house being a mess because well...I had a cleaning lady - I should be able to keep it clean! But the best part - when my husband says something about the kitchen or the bathroom or the bedroom being a little messy...I just look at him like he's lost his mind. After all, I don't have a cleaning lady!
And I'm much more likable - I have lots of stuff under my sofa to prve it! Just last week I found a banana peel!
So ladies, do yourself a favor ... let her go! (Or if you have a REALLY GOOD ONE who picks up clutter, call me and share her number! Shhhh.)

Sidenote - I remember complaining about the windows with the yucky fingerprints on them to an older lady in our church. She told me that one day I was going to miss those fingerprints on my windows. ( The jury is still out on that one).
Sometime in the near furture I'll address the second best thing that I've ever done and highly recommend!
Thanking God today for this messy family of mine!