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am I the only person without cleaning help?
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Anonymous
| Mom of 3 who works FT out of the home (so does DH) --- and I'm discovering that pretty much everyone I meet has outside help with cleaning (either weekly or every other week). Is this the norm around here? If so, I'd appreciate some tips on how I can persuade DH to get on board. |
Anonymous
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Definitely the norm among all the people I know with 2 FT working parents.
What are your husband's objections? The way to convince him is different depending on what he's concerned about. Invite friends over and have him learn how many of them hire cleaning help? Get a referral for someone that has worked in the neighborhood for years and for a bunch of people you know? Have the cleaners just do public areas and kids laundry, but not his stuff or his laundry? Hire someone just for a short period of time, then let him see how nice it is? Hire an individual but pay him or her the same rates you'd pay a cleaning service -- then show him how workers only get some $5 to $8 of every $20 you pay the service? |
Anonymous
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Not sure if your DH helps you with the cleaning, and how much / how often he does it. But if he does and he tries the cleaning lady for a month or so, i'm sure he would appreciate the extra time that gives him.
DH used to help me with our weekly cleaning - he used to dust and do the bathroom. We live in a small house, so the cleaning used to take the two of us 3 hours - on the weekend. We were fine with doing it until DS came along, when it became much less pleasant and more time consuming task. We got a cleaning lady who comes weekly, and haven't looked back. DH totally appreciates her work and is totally on board with paying for the service. It saves us time and effort. |
Anonymous
| Yes, I think it is the norm. I used to beat myself up when I went to other people's houses and they were spotless, when both parents worked and they had more kids than I did -- until I realized they had a maid. (I don't.) |
Anonymous
| We don't. I'm too cheap. But I imagine that we don't travel in the same social circles as many DCUMers. |
Anonymous
| I have three kids, we both work full time, and we do have cleaning help. I was the hold out, but I came to realize that I wanted more time with my kids, especially when the weather is nice. So, a couple of years back, we hired someone to come in every other week and now we have Saturday afternoons together to do fun things instead of cleaning the house. |
Anonymous
| We don't. I 'm a SAHM and we can't afford it. Plus, totally capable of cleaning my own home. |
Anonymous
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Most people I know with both parents working FT have some help. We have a monthly cleaner, so I only feel compelled to keep the bathroom clean in between, and we cook a lot so the kitchen gets cleaned all the time. I will take a swiffer and go through to clear out dust on the floors (we have hardwood) but otherwise we rely on her for the deep cleaning.
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Anonymous
| Yes. You are the one and only. And you are sad about your dishpan hands. |
Anonymous
| Have had cleaning lady for 7 years. Used to be every two weeks, now that we have kids every week. It has been LIFE ALTERING and relationship changing. I would stop buying clothes and going out to dinner before I gave up my cleaning lady. We both work full time (but I had her even when I stayed at home for a year after babies were born). I love it and think it is worth every penny. |
Anonymous
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We have maids come every other week, and I could not live without them. Seriously. You must do this. Once you do this, you can never go back.
Just tell your husband that a monthly maid service is cheaper than a divorce. |
zumbamama
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| I don't have one thus I am cleaning all day today. |
Anonymous
I tell all my newly-married friends (who both work FT), that a housekeeper is cheaper than marriage therapy. For us, we started one year into our marriage when entertaining became a dreaded chore b/c of the cleaning we had to do before anyone came in the door. We loved having people over so it was worth having even once/month service come to do some heavy cleaning. Now we do 2x/month and it's the best money we spend. I still vacuum b/w visits and we keep the kitchen clean, but I'm not worried about whether the guestroom is clean if we have last minute visitors (and we, oddly, have a lot!) or if the dining room has dust bunnies if we want to invite friends over tonight for dinner. SO worth the money. |
Anonymous
| We both work FT and don't have cleaning help. We've hired people off and on, but it bugs me to pay for someone to do a crappy job when we can do a crappy job for free. |
Anonymous
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Parents of 2 (10 month old and 2.5 year old) here and we don't have a cleaning service.
I can't get over the class/race issues surrounding hiring cleaning help. I'm American but grew up in a country where having live-in maids was the norm, and my dad's company paid for it. I think that's where my dislike grew from... |