I did something yesterday that I said I never would...

I paid someone else to clean my house.

I never understood why people did this.  Surely they were capable of doing it themselves, so why spend money having someone else do it?  Now, I understand.  The past couple of months have been so busy for us!  It seemed as though we had something different each night.  We get home from work around 5:00 and then I immediately jump into dinner.  By the time we are done eating, we have about an hour or so before we have to start baths and bedtime preparedness.  When the girls are in bed (and finally asleep), we only have about two hours before we head to bed.  At that time, I want to crash.  I want to be able to wind down and relax a little bit before waking up and doing it all again.  I don't want to spend my free time giving my house a deep cleaning.  Keep in mind that we generally keep a clean house.  We always have things picked up and put away.  The girls know that they can get anything out to play with that they want, but they are responsible for putting it all away before they go to bed.  We also vacuum and sweep regularly.  So, I'm not talking about cleaning mess and clutter.  I'm talking about dusting and window washing and mopping the floors and scrubbing the bathrooms.  I'm talking about the deep down, nitty gritty stuff that peels the first layer off the fingertips.  That business takes TIME!  Usually, Mike and I designate the second week of the month to cleaning.  That means, in that hour after dinner and the two hours after bedtime, we split the jobs and clean the entire house every night throughout the week.  For six years, it has been a great system.  But, we are now in a bigger house and have a lot more going on.  It's hard and exhausting!  We talked and talked and talked... and decided to give a cleaning service a chance.  We shopped around and found one that definitely would not break the bank AND they used their own supplies! Coming home yesterday to a SPARKLING house (not exaggerating at all) was heaven.  They picked every single thing off of every surface and cleaned it all. They vacuumed the furniture. They first vacuumed the hard floors and then scrubbed them by hand. They washed the windows and vacuumed the blinds. Everything looked SO good!  It was so relaxing.  Now, this will not take the place of the regular pick-up and touching up that Mike and I do each day, but I have to say, that probably won't be the last time we have it done.  It's like when you highlight your own hair... Frost & Tip looks good and gets the job done, but every now and then, you gotta splurge for the salon treatment, right?

Like I said, it was worth it.  It was less stress and more relaxing for us!  We used CottageCare.  I'm pretty sure they are located all over.  They give you a quote based on how many rooms you have, the type of flooring, the number of people in your house, and the number and type of pet.  They give you a price for the first time cleaning and then a lower price for return service.  They did an amazing job :o)