to get a cleaner?

[DeliaRose]

We are not exceptional well off, we get by.

I'm a SAHM to 18mo, 3yo (at nursery mornings) 6yo (at school).

I do a bit of voluntary work (once a week, couple of hours) and am intending to go to college next year.

Dh works long hours.

I can't cope with the volume of cleaning/washing/cooking/ironing.

I feel like if we got a cleaner I wouldn't be able to tell anyone. Especially DH's family as they would be at the fact that hero DH is working every hour god sends and I can't run the hoover round once a day.

Other supermums manage, why can't I?!

Who cares whether other people used to have to beat clothes by the river with rocks? If you can afford it, do it. I work nearly full time but kept my cleaner when on maternity leave. It makes a massive difference to me. I don't understand the whole who wants to live in a show home/don't iron/ dust doesn't get any worse after seven years attitude on MN. I loathe mess, it makes me happy to be in a pleasant environment.

Before you get a cleaner you could try to make the whole housework thing as easy as possible. Don't set yourself high standards, just make everything good enough. Cook 3 meals when you feel like cooking and freeze two as ready meals for days when you can't be arsed. Buy things that don't need ironing whenever possible and only iron stuff that really needs it.

I do an hour on the house a day and what's not done ain't done. I stick a wash in the machine, fill the dishwasher and put it on. Vacuum the worst bits, wipe the gunk off the worktops/sinks/bath, empty the bins, unload the washing machine and the dish wash and the place looks tidy enough. I open all the windows before I start and the place smells fresh like I've done a proper job .

You could spend the money you save on a cleaner on a takeaway one night to have a night off the cooking - alternatively your DH could cook and you can blow the money on shoes.

And if it's still a pain for you after that - Like Pagwatch said and sod everyone else. If it seems like too much now it's going to be much worse when you go to college.

Just learn to clean and keep the money. You may need it if going to college.

I have, just an hour ago, found myself a cleaner, she starts next week & I can't wait. £20 a week (2 hours) is well worth it, I've just gone back to work part-time after ML and would much rather spend my now limited time-off enjoying my DS than trying to keep my house dust free & bathrooms sparkling.
It's your money & your priorities - if you can afford it then do what works for your family.

I think we need a link to give to people who ask are they unreasonable for getting a cleaner

In this economic climate you are doing someone a favour creating a job for them.

Go for it! I have just got a cleaner after not having one for about a year and it is the best money i spend. I am a SAHM too and have 3 DDs, pregnant with fourth.

Get a cleaner. Everybody will benefit. And don't tell anybody if you don't want to. It's none of their business.

Goldship... why?

sashh - I like your thinking! Will tell that to the in-laws

Maybe I'll give myself a couple of weeks to try and do it myself. Will check out the Fly thing.

I would rather be out with the dc or doing puzzles/crafts/reading books, anything other than scrubbing the loo though, it's so tough juggling everything.

It doesn't help that I'm ill at the moment so everything is going to shit.

The washing - I do a load a day, it isn't enough but I can't get anymore than that dry a day as the dryer is bust, so it builds up, then on a sunny day I do loads, that gets dumped in our bedroom for all of eternity until it's back in the utility waiting for a 7-load-day.

YANBU

go for it!

I have a cleaning business, where are you based?

Do it imeediately. Life is too short to spend it doing things we don't like doing. If you can afford it, go for it.

I have one and like others have said, it's the best money I ever spend. To have weekends and evenings free to do whatever I want to do is worth 100x what I pay her.

Do it!

But re laundry, don't hide it in a bedroom once done - put it somewhere you can see it and sort it when you have 5 minutes.

We use those folding crates - they hold a load each, and then once clean I sort the laundry by room it's going to, and it's much quicker to put away

I have had a cleaner for years, but I work full time. I still end up hanging out washing at 10pm though, because that is when a load is done after I get in from work. I am genuinely baffled as to why you wouldn't be able to find the time to clean, but on the other hand completely understand that you might not want to do it and would prefer doing fun things instead.

Can anyone point towards the Fly thread?

Get the cleaner! best money I have ever spent.

As for tidying up for her - We go around the house on thursday nights and put everything away. I don't want to pay her to move my stuff around I want the house clean! And the house stays cleaner and tidier because there is never more than a weeks worth of crap belongings around the place!

I'm on maternity leave and have one DS (5 months). We have a cleaner for 3hrs every fortnight. I'm so lazy that if it were up to me nothing would get cleaned. Having a cleaner means that we have to tidy ever so often. When I return to work I think we'll get her to come weekly.

It's your choice how you spend your money, nobody says 'I'm a sahm and I'm ashamed to buy a washing machine, my scrubbing board and mangle work just fine'.

Get one - I loathe cleaning. I resent housework.

I need a cleaner.

Yes I think that's the difference, like eurowitch said.

If it simply a case of you don't want to do it, get a cleaner and don't worry what anyone else thinks.

We all either get on with it, or not. I'm another hanging up washing at 9pm, doing a tidy up at 9:30 cos I'm at work all day but I have DH and the DCs doing stuff as well.

I do however pay someone to clean my oven. And I am happy to shout that from the rooftop

We have a cleaner simply because we don't like doing cleaning, so prefer to pay someone else to do the bulk of it. I don't feel remotely guilty about it, why would I?

It's nothing to do with being able to 'cope' or 'manage', just how you prefer to spend your time and money. Which is none of anyone else's business really.

What pagwatch said.

And oh get a cleaner

Why do you feel you need to justify your decision to your in-laws anyway, or even discuss it with them?

If people can't afford a cleaner they can't. But if people can with a bit of juggling why not. It's not as if they're going to be lying around on a couch eating figs from a golden bowl all day with three children to look after. I don't understand this business of working full time and cleaning every night till midnight. Who would do that by choice.

I'm getting a cleaner, DH works full time (in reality 50+hrs a week), I'm a full time student doing history and we have 2dc, 7 and 22mo, I'm Knackered and the house is getting me down. I cracked to one of the other mums this morning and she says she'd give me the number of her lady. I feel better already.

You don't have to do the drudge of all the housework to prove anything.

Just get a cleaner.