I walked in the door a few weeks ago after a day full of meetings and phone calls and flopped on the couch.  I was frustrated because I was actively looking to hire someone to help me with “work stuff” and was having a hard time defining what “work stuff” was and also a person who could do said “stuff”.  All I knew was that I could get all my work done but hadn’t been able to find time to get a haircut since March.

As I looked around from my spot on the couch I realized that there was also a rather long and embarrassing list of things that needed to be done at home.  Like the dishes, vacuuming, black bananas on the counter that needed to be tossed and laundry was literally piled waist high in Ryan’s closet.  When Ryan got home we got in a fight about how I didn’t think he was helping enough because he can easily ignore things like laundry piles and I literally have trouble sleeping if I know it’s there.  My final threat was “if you don’t help more with this then I’m getting a cleaning lady.”

The thought sounded ridiculous.   I’m living in a small apartment with my boyfriend.  We have no kids and no pets.  We should by all means be able to handle the day to day around here.  However, we both own businesses and work hours that are insane and when I get an hour to myself these days I just want to turn the air conditioner up really high and lay around on the floor reading design magazines.  Or try to make something that involves ink or cutting things up or cooking which only adds to the problem.

Over the next few weeks I met someone who owned her own real estate business and now had 5 employees.  I told her that I was looking to hire someone but was having trouble writing a job description.  She told me “write down what you dislike doing the most about your work every day and that would be my job description”.  Great advice.

So I made a list of things that I wouldn’t mind getting someone else to do.  I worked it and reworked it and changed my mind and then wrote: throw away black bananas.  Could my new hire throw away black bananas?  They wouldn’t, but a cleaning service would.

So I started Googling cleaning services in the area.  Lots of things popped up that promised everything from deep cleans to laundry services to grocery shopping.  I felt like I was in heaven.  Would I pay $99 to have these angels of house cleaning to come and make 6 hours of housework go away?  Absolutely.  In a heartbeat.  It seemed like something that I wouldn’t want to tell people though.  Was it snobby?  Did it mean I suck at taking care of my apartment?  Why did I have these thoughts about hiring a cleaning service but not about hiring an employee?

This was about defining where I needed help.  It had not occurred to me to assess my life as a whole and pinpoint where I needed the most help.  Now it seems obvious that I would trade dishes and mirror Windexing for an hour of free time or an extra hour to work on strategies, it was just tough to come up with because I don’t really know anyone else my age (besides Photis but I just figured it was because he’s a single guy) that had someone else clean their house for them but once you figure out where you need help it’s much easier to get it.

Ideas:

If you are thinking you need some cleaning help, consider getting a service to come in once a month for a slightly deeper clean.  This way, you can do a more minimal upkeep job between their visits.  It will certainly cost you less than a paid intern.

Consider online grocery stores and cleaning supply stores to save you a trip to the store.

Don’t think about it in terms of extra money spent.  You are adding extra work time or free time to your day by doing this – I see it similarly to hiring a service to take care of invoicing.