My Dirty Little Secret

Today is one of my husband's favorite days of the month: Cleaning Lady Day.

For the last ten years or so, we've had a cleaning service come in every three weeks.  I can honestly say it's one of the happiest days around here.

See, I kind of have a secret:  I'm not a very good housekeeper. 

Oh, I pick up things. I wash dishes and do laundry. Every now and then I'll clean the bathrooms or polish furniture.  Everything's reasonably neat.

But I don't enjoy cleaning, and to be honest, I'm not all that good at it. Years ago, Tom told me I was the 90% gal when it came to cleaning anything. As in, it  almost looks good…never great. I think he was being generous, I'm more of an 80% person. I'll wash almost all the dishes. I'll dust two rooms not three.

 He stopped complaining when I told him I thought he was just as capable as I was to clean the kitchen.

He now vacuums way more than I do.

Anyway, as of yesterday, everything was pretty messy. Tom was out of town and I was finishing a book. I spent ten hours on the couch double checking scenes, looking up things like the Pennsylvania Dutch word for 'Grandma', and adding about 4000 words. I had some lettuce and a piece of cheese for dinner.

I was very tired.  I even told my daughter if she needed laundry done she better do it herself.

Then, when the book was turned in, I took Suzy the wiener dog for a walk, watched The Closer and read a book.

Yep, even though everything was a mess-I didn't even consider cleaning.

This morning, I checked my email, saw that today was our scheduled day, and went on a mad dash through the house, picking up and cleaning off counters.

Yes, I clean for the cleaning ladies!

I also made Chicken Tetrazzini this morning because I can never get the stove top as shiny and pretty as the ladies do. So now I won't mess the kitchen up before my husband gets home! I'm very happy about that!

Our cleaning ladies are just the best. They laugh at me because I greet them pretty much like they're returning war veterans. I'm so, so grateful for them.  I not only pay them, make them cookies and give them free books.

They are always pleasant, pet the barking wiener dog, and give me advice, which is basically things like never touch the bathroom mirrors again. One morning, during my usual mad dash, I managed to get weird streaks on most of the bathroom mirrors. They had quite a time removing them.  One gal patiently explained, "Shelley, it's just easier for us if you don't try to clean things very much. Now, go write your books."

Off I went, back to the basement… somewhat sheepishly I might add. But I was relieved, too. As I've said, I'm not a good housekeeper.

In a few hours, the whole house will smell like Pine-sol and Pledge. Like Murphy's Oil Soap and Windex. The floors will be mopped, and the bathrooms will be sparkling. The house will look awesome, and very obvious to one and all that I won't have done any of it.

Because really, the fact that I can't clean as well as the cleaning ladies can isn't much of a secret at all…

Anyone else have a household chore they're not very good at? I hope I'm not the only one!

Thanks for stopping by,

Shelley