I hired a new cleaning lady last week. She’s FANTASTIC. I told my mother she would love her. New cleaning lady doesn’t believe in mops – floors should be cleaned on your hands and knees, so you get all the corners. Dusting requires rags and cleanser, not just brushing with a duster. Blinds should be cleaned slat by slat. The first visit, she cleaned the upstairs windows – inside AND outside.
Sure, I should save the money – but honestly, I find cleaning the entire house and all the special projects, my full-time job, caring for cats, my side business, and serving as President of Feline Outreach all overwhelming at times – and I think I deserve this for myself. I had a cleaning lady back in my pre-crazy cat lady days and it was immensely helpful, and I’ve decided I need one again.
So, today is visit number two and after introductory hello’s (to me AND the cats) she got to work. She started on the second floor. While she was upstairs, I balanced my checkbook. Then, I tackled cleaning the cat’s water fountain, which had some nasty hard water build-up that needed to be soaked and chiseled off with a knife.
As I was chiseling, I noticed yet again that two of the fluorescent bulbs in the kitchen light fixture were out. I had seen a spare bulb in the basement and decided to replace one of them. Well, the bulb was dusty and dirty, so decided to clean it off first. Then, taking off the light cover I saw the predictable dirt inside the cover as well as cobwebs up inside the fixture (and drop-tile ceiling). So, now I need to get out the vacuum. Cobwebs eliminated and covers shaken off outdoors, I start to wonder about the nasty greasy stains on the covers. They were there when I moved in, and I assumed they were stained permanently. (Why else would the former owners not have cleaned them before putting up the house for sale?) However, now that they’re down, why not give them a good scrub? So, now I’m scrubbing the covers with my favorite Trader Joe’s multi-purpose cleaner (smells of cedar and sage) and getting water and soap and greasy nastiness all over the kitchen floor. Hey – the greasy nastiness comes OFF!
But what about all the soap? Hmm… I’ll take the covers into the guest bathroom and wash them off in the shower – so now I’m dripping water through the guest bedroom and guest bathroom, but the covers do wash off pretty nicely. I put them back and admire my handiwork. To top it off – during this long process, bumping the two bulbs that were out miraculously makes them come back on.
Now the dirty step stool I used is bothering me – so it gets a good scrub and rinse (in the guest shower) as well.
Of course, now the floors are wet and filthy.
And now the cleaning lady comes back downstairs…
I tell her “Sorry – I was just going to clean the cat’s fountain, then I noticed (again) that a bulb was not working in the kitchen light fixture and decided to replace it – had seen a spare downstairs…”
She said it was no problem – but I got out of the way and now I’m upstairs trying not to make any more messes for her.
If nothing else, this illustrates quite well why I NEED a cleaning lady. In around two and a half hours, she did a thorough cleaning of the entire second floor – floors, bathroom, dusting, etc., etc. In this same three hours, I cleaned the cat fountain and messed around with a kitchen light fixture bulb that didn’t need replaced after all.
Life of the Lintee Bean 