Now that I am living alone, I am on a mission to cut expenses.
I’ve already sold my wife’s car and shopped for cheaper car insurance. Next up is the cleaning lady.
I never had a cleaning lady until Ellen and I were married. Maids were for rich people. My wife’s family had a maid when she was growing up. Her father was a doctor, so they could afford it.
Her father’s wealth was not hers though. In fact, when we first starting dating, my wife was broke. She cleaned other people’s houses to help pay the bills. Even after we both had better jobs, for many years we cleaned the house together. Saturday’s were the weekly “day of dread” where we’d scrub the bathroom, vacuum, dust, mop, do laundry and work our butts off. I could never clean as thoroughly as she wanted me to, but we got by.
After a few years, I started working overtime on Saturdays so we could afford to hire a cleaning lady. At the time, with two slobs for kids, us two parents working full-time and a jam packed schedule, it was worth it.
For the next 20 years, we had a cleaning lady come every week or two.
We’d keep the house straightened up and relatively clean in between visits. We’d leave the heavy scrubbing, floors and bathrooms for the cleaning lady.
Although I didn’t like having a stranger in my house and I really didn’t like paying for it, I did it for Ellen. It always made Ellen happy to walk into our freshly cleaned house. It did for me to.
I’ll admit, it’s a nice perk to have a cleaning lady.
Before she died, Ellen said to me,
“Don’t fire the cleaning lady after I die. I know you’ll want to save money and you think you can keep up the house yourself but you’re wrong. The house will be a disaster and you’ll hate cleaning it alone.”
During Ellen’s treatments and hospice I was grateful for the cleaning lady. She kept our house in order when I didn’t have the time or energy. She loved Ellen and was sweet and kind to us both. She even brought her newborn grandchild to visit the week before Ellen died.
She’s a good cleaning lady and a great person.
I suppose if I had steady income or if I was working full time, I’d be tempted to keep her.
I know Ellen’s at least partly right. I probably won’t enjoy cleaning and the house will never be as clean as it used to be.
But the cleaning lady costs me $100 every other week. That’s $2600 a year that I could be saving.
I figure if she can clean my house in 6 hours, I’ve got to be able to do it myself in 8 hours. That’s not so bad.
Plus, now that I’m alone, I only live in half the house. I rarely even enter one of the bathrooms, the second bedroom or the office.
And I’ve got time.
My home will never be like it was when Ellen was here.
I like it clean and clutter-free, but I don’t care about the finer details the way Ellen did.
I’ll never polish the silver. I won’t dust as often. I will rarely polish the woodwork.
My approach to cleaning is:
- Get rid of as much stuff as possible – minimize furniture, knickknacks and dust collectors.
- Stick with natural cleaners. I’ll be using vinegar, baking soda, soap and water for 90% of my cleaning.
- No harsh chemicals. I won’t use anything that requires me to wear gloves, flush my skin if contacted or avoid breathing the fumes. Why would I expose myself and my pets to this poison?
I have a good friend who’s been a bachelor for 15 years. He walked me through his cleaning process. It’s a reasonable 4 hours every other week plus a spring cleaning once a year.
That sounds manageable to me.
So next week, I will be firing the cleaning lady. She’s got plenty of other work so I’m not worried about leaving her in a financial bind.
She’ll be OK and so will I.