I grew up in a low-income community. To me, families with house cleaners were considered wealthy and bougie. I frankly didn’t understand how anyone would have someone else clean their home. After all, scrubbing a shower or wiping down surfaces with dusting spray and a rag wasn’t difficult.
Then I fell in love with and married someone who grew up in a home where they hired a house cleaner. In our first few years as a married couple, it wasn’t even a question of hiring a house cleaner. Instead, we split up the chores of cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming, mopping, and cleaning windows and mirrors.
After our first two kids came along, just two years apart in age, a friend and neighbor of mine told me about her housecleaning crew. This friend wasn’t someone I considered rich or uppity at all. Exhausted from trying to mop while chasing toddlers, clean toothpaste off the bathroom sink, and attempting to keep the girls from getting into the cabinets while holding down a part-time teaching job, I decided to hire them.
Little did I know that my change of heart toward who had their house cleaned by professionals and who didn’t would end up being a necessity.
Fast forward a few more years, after moving from an apartment to our first house, to our second and current house, and I was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time, we had completed our family: four kids. A mastectomy rendered me unable to use my arm and chest muscles for over six weeks. Having hired help with household tasks was essential. Years later, they still are.
I’ve felt guilty about hiring outside help
Once we found a housecleaning company, we never looked back. I have certainly felt guilty at times, I didn’t grow up this way, and have wondered if I should just do this work myself instead of using my downtime to watch an episode of a new show, read, or play with the dogs. However, I also know I have very little downtime, and my chest and back haven’t been the same since my mastectomy (making housecleaning chores like mopping and vacuuming difficult).
I understand that having this help is a privilege, and not something that makes me snotty by default.
The cleaners are here to clean, not pick up after the kids
I have a deep appreciation for the housecleaning company that comes to our home once a week. Before they arrive, our whole family picks up all our rooms and spaces.
When the housecleaning team arrives, there are no wet towels on the floor, no trash that doesn’t make it into the bin, and no dirty laundry scattered across surfaces. I have told the kids that the cleaning team’s job is to do just that: clean. Their job is not to pick up after them.
My kids still have chores
My kids also have daily chores, tasks such as brushing the dogs, helping prep dinner, loading the dishwasher, and doing their own laundry.
Having housecleaning doesn’t take away from my kids’ life skills experiences. Instead, having housecleaning leaves room for us to teach our kids responsibilities that the housecleaning team doesn’t tackle.
This expense gives us time back
Because we have weekly housecleaning, we are able to spend more time as a family, or for my teens, work, attend sports practices and games, or enjoy a movie night at home. We have time to sit down and have dinner as a family several nights a week. And occasionally, we can sleep in on a weekend morning.
I was so hesitant to hire house cleaners because I was afraid of being perceived as wealthy and snotty. However, I can say that many of the folks I know now as adults who hire house cleaners are incredible parents and community members — a far cry from who I believed they would be.
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