Cleaning Day

About 6 weeks ago I fired our cleaning service. Well not quite. I told them I wouldn't need them for the summer and I would call again in the Fall IF I needed them (this is because I'm a chicken).

It was a combination of factors – lack of money being the biggest one but in general I`ve been annoyed with the service I`ve been getting. At the end of May they were due to come for the bi-weekly cleaning. They didn't show. They didn't call. We just got home to a still dirty house. It was about the tenth time this had happened (sometimes we do got a call to apologize). They ALWAYS had an excuse and normally gave us some sort of discount for the inconvenience (at first this was spontaneous but more and more I had to ask to get any recompense). That last time they offered to come on the following Monday. I reluctantly said okay. Over the weekend my Father-in-law (who had been very ill for a very long time) took a turn for the worse and Daniel flew home. Cleaning crew came on Monday and cleaned. My Father-in-law died Monday afternoon. So that Thursday morning SUPER early the kids and I flew to join Daniel and stayed for 6 days. Since we hadn't really been in the house since it was cleaned I cancelled the regular cleaning the following Friday.

A week passed and the house was looking grubby so I cleaned. It wasn't that bad. The kids helped some. I KNOW I did a better job than the cleaning company on their best day. I contemplated how much we pay them. I contemplated what I could do with that cash. And I picked up the phone and fired them!

Okay so my plan quickly went south.

I had some utopian idea that my stay-at-home-Dad husband would clean a little everyday and we would live in spotless Nirvana. Un hunh. I cleaned like a madwoman every night after work. No one helped and I resented the hell out of both kids and husband. Hmmm... wasn`t this the reason we got the cleaning service in the first place? So ya – 2 weeks in and I wanted out. But I wasn't going to give up that easily. Time for my best passive-aggressive tactics. I made up worksheets (really I did!) listing what needed to be cleaned inside a two week period. I put a due date on the list and posted it on the fridge for all (read my darling husband) to read (and feel guilty as all the jobs were checked off by someone other than him). So two weeks went by and again I did everything by myself.

So I upped the aggressive and turned down the passive. I told him that I resented doing the job all on my own. He nodded and mumbled something. Two weeks went by ... I hired a divorce attorney – kidding. ;)

I changed tactics. Last Saturday we had "cleaning day." It was wonderful.

The WHOLE family contributed even the kids. It didn't take us a lot longer than the "professionals" I paid so dearly for (better even, the time I normally spent cleaning for the cleaning ladies folded into the overall clean).

The house is a gazillion times cleaner:

- I did all sorts of things they wouldn't normally do (things I didn't expect them to do - i.e. pulling out the stove to mop and sweep behind it).
- When dusting I tossed a bunch of clutter that I otherwise wouldn't even have noticed.
- I saw dirt that I normally wouldn't have noticed

The best thing is I think I taught my kids something. Yes, they have chores but Saturday I really put them to work. We're normally not at home when the cleaning crew comes - they truly had no idea what it takes to keep this place clean. If nothing else the lessons they are learning make the hassle worthwhile and have convinced me (at least for now) to stick it out (yes, my resolve was slipping). Daniel was grumpy by the end but its not like he could sit on the couch and read the paper while I cleaned around him. I was so much happier not having to do everything on my own.

Kamryn declared "cleaning day" boring but was soothed by the trip to MacDonald's for a post-cleaning feast. Yesterday she asked when it would be cleaning day again.

Perhaps because everyone worked so hard to clean the stupid house there seems to be a little extra effort being put forth to keep it clean (I've caught Daniel doing dishes twice now!)
I'm just revelling in a clean house that I didn't have to clean by myself. Hopefully we can keep this up.