Cleaning For The Cleaning Lady

My mother grew up with seven brothers and sisters. This means my grandmother was pregnant for 63 months. Wow! I have three children myself and cannot imagine what it would be like to have four additional children in the house. I have a whole appreciation for my grandparents that you cannot achieve until you get older and wiser. I can vaguely remember being a toddler over at my grandmother’s house. She had a full time cleaning lady! Wouldn’t that be awesome if we could all have a full time cleaning lady? If your pregnant for five straight years and then breastfeeding for another five straight years, you are going to need some help. The laundry is piling up right next to me as we speak. Laundry for nine people in a house would be a full time job. I’m surprised they didn’t have a full time cook. These were the days before take out existed. Feeding nine people breakfast, lunch and dinner without a dishwasher, forget about it.
Let’s advance one generation to me. We never had a cleaning lady. Heck, I was the cleaning lady. Alright, I won’t go that far. My mom, sister and I were the cleaning ladies. I am very adept at cleaning toilets, kitchen counters, dishes, vacuuming and mopping the floor. We didn’t need a cleaning lady because it was all manageable with only four people. Different time, different way of life and a different economy.

Let’s fast forward to present day. Today is the day our cleaning ladies arrive. This is our special thing that happens ever other Thursday. You would think that with five people in 2,000 square feet that we could get this done. It just doesn’t seem to happen. After Karen and I complete our first day(the work day), our second day(parenting) starts about 3:00pm in the afternoon. It’s hard to clean a toilet when you’re in the car for three hours every afternoon. We need to eat, so I’m usually the chef. Time for homework. Who wants to scrub toilets after 8:00pm? Nobody.

The funny thing is we have to clean for the cleaning ladies. There is usually a mad dash Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Picking up scrunchies and bobby pins off the floor. Emptying all the little trash cans in all the rooms. Make sure every dish is clean. Picking up clothes off the floor. See we don’t want to pay them to wash the dishes. We need the heavy stuff done every two weeks. The scrubbing and bleaching and polishing.

Who can afford a full time cleaning lady these days? Aren’t we all leveraged to the hilt? We can afford four hours of clean time every other week. It’s a different time for the maids, also. One maid can’t afford to spend one entire day on one house. They hit our house with 3-4 ladies and bust it out in less than four hours. They do three houses a day. How’s that for an economy of scale? Time to buy that maid franchise.

I’m going to enjoy the house being clean tonight. Tomorrow when I get home from work it will look like they were never here.

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