Mrs. Clean? Sure!

I have a lady that comes in once every two weeks, she helps us clean in detail what we sometimes don't have time to...or energy for! When we had our first born it was kind of hard keeping up with her and finding time or space to clean without her getting into trouble.

One day when I was bringing down groceries from our car I saw this lady walking by in the evening so I asked if she cleaned houses and if so how much it would cost me. She smiled and said she was booked solid, but had a friend that was looking for a job -this was 5 years ago-. A week later she shows up at my front door with "Toni" (names have been changed to respect privacy) we talked and 10 minutes later she was ready to clean! $65.00 a day and from 9 - 5. That was the deal. I offered to drop her off near the bus stop so she wouldn't have to walk up the hill.

After a year she found a job at a hotel and that was the end of it. I decided to continue cleaning on my own and save myself the $65.00 at the begining I thought well I can put those $130/month in my wallet or savings and clean the whole house myself. Two years later, I was having trouble keeping up with the household chores so a friend recomended another lady. Same deal, but after a couple of months she quit because of family issues.

Fast forward to this year actually 4 months ago and "Toni" walks into our lives again and ready to continue what she had started -helping us with cleaning-. I admit I feel guilty sometimes, is it that my time is not well spent to have someone outside the home help us with cleaning? But then I read an article in a very popular magazine and I honestly felt better. It's not that I'm incompetent cleaning or managing my time, yes this is a small luxury I give myself considering I'm a stay-at-home mom. However, it allows me to have more time to enjoy my kids and also when they are in school or taking naps I get some time to myself. This keeps me sane and re-energizes me for the time ahead.

It is a great feeling to be in a very clean home, that for that day I had nothing to do with! So just enjoy it!! and smell the fresh clean scent "Toni" leaves behind.