It’s summertime, and the weekend, which means I pretty much want to do nothing but lounge around reading books & magazines (or blogs posts like the ones below).
And sometimes I actually manage to do that, but then I feel (at least briefly!) like I should do something about the dust bunny farm, or maybe clear off my desk. So I daydream now and then about hiring someone to come and clean a couple of times a month.
But we haven’t done so yet. I’m not sure why. Maybe it just seems like too much work to try to find someone. Or maybe it’s the money.
Do you hire folks to help around the house? How did you come to your decision?
And now for those posts I mentioned earlier:
Sweating the Big Stuff hosts a guest post from Letitflow on what it takes to be successful.
Money Funk starts Early Retirement Extreme’s 21-day makeover.
Financial Samurai asks, is becoming a millionaire the rule rather than the exception?
Beating Broke hosted today’s edition of the Yakezie carnival, and Free From Broke hosted the credit card information edition of the Yakezie carnival. Check out the great lists of posts 
I think about it too, particularly as I work longer days and feel overwhelmed juggling school, work, meals, bills, yard, etc. But I used to have someone come in twice a month, and though it was kind of nice, I still found myself having to clean (especially the longer I had them it seemed the more shoddy the job would intermittently be, or because they did mostly surface stuff and I still had to do more intensive cleaning), and feeling doubly resentful after having paid someone. I could use even surface stuff now, but time feels so short that finding someone feels beyond me right now.
Hm, I wonder if I’d feel the same way. Although it’s not like I have super-high cleaning standards, so maybe not
A yard guy comes around once very month or two, when I can afford him. Used to have cleaning ladies off & on, in palmier days, but soon learned that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. I hate to clean house, but I hate undoing a mess or actual damage someone else has created even more!
Yeah, undoing damage would be bad.
We do, actually. We have a cleaning lady come over once a month to clean the entire house. We generally try to tidy up every now and than but thoroughly cleaning the entire house is well beyond what we can afford in terms of time. With them being professionals, they take a couple of hours to do what would take us an entire day.
With two little kids in the house, we really think money spent on this is well worth it.
If you do decide to go this route, check out the classifieds/craiglist first or go with referrals. This might end up being cheaper than hiring a cleaning agency or franchise.
That reminds me, I do actually have a referral sitting on a notepad. Although it’s been so long since I got the referral, that I wonder if they’re even still looking for additional customers…
I refer the woman who cleans our place, Jacqui, to everyone I know in the Houston area for cleaning or pet sitting since she’s great at both. I found her online via a service 3 years ago and will be sad when she retires.
Sounds like she does a great job
We’d love to have someone come by to clean once in a while but it’s just not in our budget now.
Maybe someday then Craig