What Happened When I Fired My Housekeeper

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How many of you remember the MTV show “The Real World?” Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real….today we have our own episode! “Find out what happened when I fired my housekeeper and started cleaning with my family’s help.”

First let me say, I feel so extremely lucky to have been able to have this wonderful housekeeper helping me for the last year…..BUT –

Everyone had become soooo used to saying ‘oh the housekeeper will get it.’ We were ALL turning into piglets!!!! Notice I did NOT say just “the kids,” I said ALL of us….me included.

What made me say this?

I walked around my house one day and realized that even professionals do NOT clean my house as well as I do. I have expectations (thanks Mom!) and I should have been telling my housekeeper what my expectations are all along. But I didn’t because I was so thankful for the help. I had let my house become dirty (to my standards).

So, I needed to take action and reclaim MY home!

I also noticed that my kids did NOTHING to take care of our house. They hardly had any chores anymore….they had to bring down their clothes every Sunday (and sometimes my son did it for everyone) and that was it.

I was tired of hearing “I don’t have to take my cups downstairs, I don’t have to take out my trash, I don’t have to put my toys away.”

I was a little dramatic and said that I fired the housekeeper but really I just told her to take 2 months off. And informed my family that we would be cleaning until she came back. They were NOT happy!

Day 1 started off rough. Everyone complained the whole time!!! They did their part but it was meltdown central!

Day 2 was a little easier, by day 3 they picked up after themselves a little better than normal.

But by day 5….the participation was starting to wane a little. The 2 youngest were the worst. They thought I was torturing them!!! What do you mean I have to put away my books, everyday???

But I made them.

By day 7 – we were rocking and rolling again. It is so amazing what a little motivation can do for a family and the idea of a clean house.

We had several external motivating factors – sick pup, Christmas visitors, and the completion of my FNP exam. So everyone was extra motivated to get this fresh start. We started looking at it like a Spring cleaning in the winter.

Where did we start?

Since we had a lot to accomplish, we had to pick up the messes first. Everyone had to put all of their belongings in their room (or where they belong) and trash to the garbage (what a concept!). That took all of day 1.

Day 2 & 3, everyone got their orders and set off to achieve them!

Oldest child – vacuum all carpets, including stairs, clean his own bathroom, and take out all the trash to the outside trash can. He also had a lot of little “hey can you come help me for a second” tasks.
Middle child – empty the dishwasher, dust (this was hilarious because I made her use the long duster to dust the corners of ceilings and ), and clean her own room – like really clean it (that took 2 days itself!)
Youngest child – help me clean the bathrooms, clean the living room/office by cleaning the tables, clean the windows (the inside only), and she mopped the kitchen.
Hubby – clean all the carpets….I mean it was NOT an easy task. There was doggie sickness everywhere! (And they look AMAZING!!!!)

So what did I do? Cleaned the bathrooms (to my specifications, which was really time consuming), cleaned the kitchen, swept all hardwood and tile, and picked up dining room and front room. Over the course of 2 days, we spent 8 hours cleaning the house. I mean REALLY cleaned it.

When we all finally sat down –

We laid out some new rules:

No eating anywhere other than the kitchen table!!!!!!!!
Every week, each kid is to bring down their clothes if they want clean clothes. They are to put those clothes away after I wash, dry, and fold them!
All glasses will be brought down every morning. There is only water allowed upstairs.
Any person caught with food or drinks upstairs will be grounded from electronics for 3 days. (I am willing to bet this will only need to happen once.)
Everyone received daily shower cleaner – this is to be sprayed by the last person to shower. I gave specific instructions on this – spray under the lip between the wall and the tub. It is an awkward spot and grime builds up quickly.
Use your daily routine cards to help you stay picked up.
If we keep it this way, each week of cleaning will be less time consuming.

After a week of living in these clean conditions, everyone was beginning to see why this was so important to our family. We had less arguments about cleaning up, less meltdowns about putting away laundry, less eye rolling about the trash, and we were all HAPPIER!

I would love to say I can keep this up, but the truth is, I don’t know if I can. I am saving money and teaching my kids something valuable but we have busy schedules.

How do you do it? Comment below and share the love with the rest of us!!!!

Keys to keeping it clean

Minimize

We went room to room and made bags of trash, Goodwill, and give to friends.

Seasonal clothing (gently used kids clothes went to friends, parents clothes went to Goodwill)
Old towels (animal shelters LOVE old towels!!!!!)
Cleaning supplies that I don’t use
Food that we won’t eat (Think Costco size that we didn’t like)

Restart the daily chores

I have been soooooo slack about these things. I really have. Today, I am bring back what has worked for us in the past. I printed a new set of cleanup cards, laminated with these self-laminating sheets, punched a hole in the corner, hooked them to a binder ring, attached the dry erase marker, and set them on the hooks on the mail holder.