I hired someone to clean my house
May. 2nd, 2021 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlnamehereTL;DR; - I hired someone for the first time in my life to help clean my home, and it was an exhausting but positive experience.
I have a lot of executive function difficulties when it comes to keeping my home clean, and also the finite amount of energy I have in a given day is almost completely exhausted by the time I get done with work. Weekends are spent recharging, so that doesn't leave a lot of time for household tasks.
I don't enjoy living in a cluttered/messy space. I logically know what needs to happen to get my space from messy to clean, but getting started just feels so hard most of the time. Being a single parent to two kids who are still learning to clean up their own mess doesn't help either, as I have not been the best teacher in this regard. We stay on top of tasks like dishes and taking out the trash bin in a timely fashion, but everything else is "as we have the time/energy".
One of my close friends who has ADHD and has similar difficulties keeping her home clean helped me to come to the conclusion that I just can't do it all and that's OK. I asked my friend lots of questions about what types of tasks does this person do for you, and what don't they do? Several conversations over several weeks got me more comfortable with the idea. The other issue I couldn't get past is, is this person a kind and trustworthy person, since they will be in my house? A family member gave me the name of someone who was highly recommended by a friend of hers and I trust this family member's judgement. I texted this woman and made an appointment for a Saturday two weeks out so I had time to prepare myself for the appointment and get a clear list of priorities for her since the appointment would last four hours.
The day arrives, and the woman I hired shows up promptly at the time she said she would and we spent five minutes or so going over priorities for the day. I told her I have issues with scented cleaning products and she was very understanding and let me smell each product before she used it. Most things she used had little to no scent anyway, or it quickly disappeared. She checked in with me often to make sure I was OK with the progress or OK with how she cleaned an area. I did not once feel judged for the state of my home, rather she was compassionate and reassuring.
One major item on my list I just could not bring myself to do is clean out the freezer and fridge. It has needed it for a year and looked HORRIBLE. This woman had my fridge sparkling clean within an hour, inside and out. My children's' rooms were also a cluttered mess as were my kitchen counters. She concentrated on the cleaning part and I concentrated on the decluttering part. I assisted my son with his room and she assisted my daughter after we had discussed before about helping my daughter to organize her things. This woman was amazing with my daughter, kind but firm, and my daughter was working hard on her room and was super proud of her resulting tidy room when they were done.
At the end of the four hours, there was only one item on my list we didn't do, everything else was finished and so SO much better. It was a draining experience for me and I had to lay down and recharge afterward, but I felt it was completely worth it. Walking through my home doesn't give me a wave of stressful or self-defeating thoughts anymore. It was a lot easier for the kids to tidy up after themselves at the end of the day since there wasn't multiple days of mess to contend with.
I'm hiring her again in a few weeks to clean the rest of my home. I'm hoping a "reset" will help me to better keep up with household tasks on my own.
I have a lot of executive function difficulties when it comes to keeping my home clean, and also the finite amount of energy I have in a given day is almost completely exhausted by the time I get done with work. Weekends are spent recharging, so that doesn't leave a lot of time for household tasks.
I don't enjoy living in a cluttered/messy space. I logically know what needs to happen to get my space from messy to clean, but getting started just feels so hard most of the time. Being a single parent to two kids who are still learning to clean up their own mess doesn't help either, as I have not been the best teacher in this regard. We stay on top of tasks like dishes and taking out the trash bin in a timely fashion, but everything else is "as we have the time/energy".
One of my close friends who has ADHD and has similar difficulties keeping her home clean helped me to come to the conclusion that I just can't do it all and that's OK. I asked my friend lots of questions about what types of tasks does this person do for you, and what don't they do? Several conversations over several weeks got me more comfortable with the idea. The other issue I couldn't get past is, is this person a kind and trustworthy person, since they will be in my house? A family member gave me the name of someone who was highly recommended by a friend of hers and I trust this family member's judgement. I texted this woman and made an appointment for a Saturday two weeks out so I had time to prepare myself for the appointment and get a clear list of priorities for her since the appointment would last four hours.
The day arrives, and the woman I hired shows up promptly at the time she said she would and we spent five minutes or so going over priorities for the day. I told her I have issues with scented cleaning products and she was very understanding and let me smell each product before she used it. Most things she used had little to no scent anyway, or it quickly disappeared. She checked in with me often to make sure I was OK with the progress or OK with how she cleaned an area. I did not once feel judged for the state of my home, rather she was compassionate and reassuring.
One major item on my list I just could not bring myself to do is clean out the freezer and fridge. It has needed it for a year and looked HORRIBLE. This woman had my fridge sparkling clean within an hour, inside and out. My children's' rooms were also a cluttered mess as were my kitchen counters. She concentrated on the cleaning part and I concentrated on the decluttering part. I assisted my son with his room and she assisted my daughter after we had discussed before about helping my daughter to organize her things. This woman was amazing with my daughter, kind but firm, and my daughter was working hard on her room and was super proud of her resulting tidy room when they were done.
At the end of the four hours, there was only one item on my list we didn't do, everything else was finished and so SO much better. It was a draining experience for me and I had to lay down and recharge afterward, but I felt it was completely worth it. Walking through my home doesn't give me a wave of stressful or self-defeating thoughts anymore. It was a lot easier for the kids to tidy up after themselves at the end of the day since there wasn't multiple days of mess to contend with.
I'm hiring her again in a few weeks to clean the rest of my home. I'm hoping a "reset" will help me to better keep up with household tasks on my own.
