I think it's time. I have to be real with myself. 

No more procrastination, no more avoiding the subject. It's time.  I'll just have to do it and hope for the best, you know? Here goes nothing.

I think it's time I admit... I think I need to hire a housekeeper.

Don't get me wrong.  Husbando does a great job taking care of stuff around the house. He does the dishes, he vacuums the floors, he does the laundry, all that great stuff.  But we live in an old house. It's over a hundred years old.  That means it has high ceilings, for example. And in every room, we have ceiling fans.  Which accumulate dust.  You're probably saying, 'Behk, they have those Swiffer things, you can get the long one, that'll work fine."  No.  They're nowhere near long enough to reach.  Use a ladder?  Yeah, no. Husbando gets around the house fine but he can't step up on a ladder, his legs won't support him without something to hold onto.  And frankly, I don't want to deal with the hospital bills if he tries.  And me?  Well, I can kind of do it.  But you know, I have MS, and it's not always super reliable/safe to get up on a ladder that will reach up that high.

And it's not just that.  You also have to think about cleaning behind stuff.  Like moving a washer or dryer? I think he might be able to physically do it.  But he can't do it regularly. And we have cats, you know they run back behind the washer and stuff.  It's a great place to hide when I'm squirting them with the water bottle for fighting with each other.

So some parts we kind of... can't do.  And I'll be honest - I don't have the energy after a day off work to do the regular maintenance I probably should be doing. Fatigue is a big part of my issues when it comes to MS. Sometimes it's other symptoms, but being... just wiped out at the end of the day is the biggest one. Sure, some of it is just laziness, but there's more to it. I do some stuff, don't get it twisted. I sweep and clean the kitchen floor.  I try to keep the bathroom clean. But I don't have the motivation to scrub my dang woodwork or dust the living room walls or get the accumulated whatever off the fixtures in the kitchen.

That means it's just kind of been..... sitting there.  Which leads me to my conclusion. I think I need to hire someone to come by maybe once a week or so and get the stuff we're missing. HOWEVER. I am nervous about actually doing this for several reasons.

One, the cost.  On the one hand, how bad can it be? If they come over for, like an hour, that can't be super expensive. But I guess it could be. I mean, I'm literally paying them to do my dirty work for me. There must be a cost for supplies and time and having to break out the dang ladder and all that.

Two, I had a bad experience once.  One time, we had a company that was affiliated with our stations through Missouri Bargains (remember that? That was ages ago).  They were a small, two person cleaning company, and I tried them out.  They came over, spent maybe two hours, and the place was better.  However, when they left, so did my $80 bottle of perfume. That was in the bathroom.  The bathroom that one of the cleaners spent forty five minutes in. Keep in mind, our bathroom is teeeeny tiny.  There was no way she needed to spend forty five minutes in there. In a way, I should have known. But I wanted to trust them, you know? And I would have to trust this person in my house, because it might be that I'm not there, just Husbando. I never did get that perfume back. And they never did admit they took it.  But they did.

Three... I would kinda feel bad to do it. I know my friend Heather has someone come by to help once a week, has done for years, before she had her little girl, even. She says it's not a big deal, but I don't know.  I always feel like it's.... kind of pretentious? Like, "Oh, the help is here..." But that's not what it really is, is it?  They're people hired to do a job. It should be that simple, right? I mean, I CAN cut my own hair, but I don't (anymore. There was a long stretch in my twenties, that's another conversation for another day).  I let an expert handle it.  Shouldn't some part of this be like that?

What do you think? Should I try it?  Who would you recommend? Would you ever hire someone, or have you?

Cleaningly yours,

Behka

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