With my official retirement date just days away (eeeeek!) I'm thinking about what my 'new' life might look like. For some people, celebrating retirement might mean a round the world cruise, or a luxury hotel holiday. Or perhaps buying a motorhome and setting off on an extended 'van life' adventure.
Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't mind doing any (or all!) of those things, but I'm going to have to work up to them in increments. There are some smaller adventures I'm looking forward to undertaking over the coming months with my newly acquired spare time and to that end I have indulged in a very special treat, after which I've been hankering for years.
We have hired a cleaner. Just for one hour a week at the moment, so see how it goes, but thus far it's a game changer.
I have to confess, I don't enjoy cleaning. It's generally a thankless, Sisyphean task which has to be repeated endlessly, day after day, until you die. Dust accumulates constantly, kitchen worktops stay clear and clean for mere nanoseconds, crumbs and dirt take up permanent residence in corners, tiles get splashed.... it's all relentlessly relentless. It doesn't help that I can only clean in short bursts, when my energy levels allow, so sometimes it just doesn't feel worth it as I know I won't be able to do everything that's needed at one time.
Negotiations have been ongoing for some time. We dipped a toe into the world of 'paying people to do the stuff we hate' last year, when we decided to hire a regular window cleaner. Hitherto, PP had been responsible for cleaning the outside of our 16 windows, and it would take her most of a day with a bucket and extending pole thingy. However, since her surgery I've banned her from doing it, and I can't do it either, so every eight weeks two chaps come with the requisite equipment to clean all the windows in less than 20 minutes.
Deciding to hire a cleaner though is a whole different level. They're actually in your home, given unrestricted access to private areas where visitors never go. They see how you live. How you REALLY live. It's all a bit daunting. With neither of us ever having had a cleaner, we didn't know quite what was reasonable to expect and in what timescale. We identified the areas of the house we'd like to have cleaned. Not the whole house as several of the rooms aren't used on a daily basis. Not the office (which will shortly revert to a study) and not my workroom, (which will shortly be re-designated as a craft/hobby room). Not the spare bedrooms or the main bathroom. Not our little granddaughter's bedroom. Just the high traffic/most used areas which take the longest to clean and get messed up the quickest.
Having identified what we needed, it was time to find our cleaner. Asking for recommendations on our local neighbourhood network produced a deluge of responses. Some recommended themselves, others endorsed their own cleaners or those of friends. After sifting through all the messages, I contacted several who offered more information than simply their hourly rates. This enabled us to further narrow our search down to two, who we met for a brief chat and so they could see what we wanted doing. Although both were lovely, we decided to go with the older, more experienced lady.
She's already worked wonders after just one visit. Our kitchen is gleaming, the floors are sparkling, mirrors are dust and smear free and everywhere smells fresh and clean. There's a psychological effect too, in that we're highly motivated to keep it that way.
I don't know why we waited so long to take the plunge.
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