Hellobee Boards

I have absolutely zero guilt about having a housecleaner and I don't think anyone should! My husband and I both work full time and on the weekends we want to spend time as a family, not clean toilets, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. So I definitely think you should cut the guilt/shame out of the equation. We definitely are inspired to pre-clean for the cleaning lady so we tidy up thoroughly the night before they come and then they do all the real cleaning (floors, counters, bathrooms, etc).

I would call a cleaning service and let them know your situation. You can work with them to discuss how much you want them to do (organizing clutter, etc or just actual cleaning) and then they'll be able to quote you a price for the first time deep clean, and then an ongoing fee based on how frequently you want them to come back.

I have the same philosophy for house cleaners, gynecologists, and masseurs.

I'm sure they've seen bigger, smaller, cleaner, dirtier, etc. bodies to work with

I would agree that having a house cleaner come helps with the tidying up (though I'm still the only one who does it...DH doesn't understand that if she has to clean AROUND things...she can't get as much done).

Another thing that helps is regularly having people over. So maybe if you can get in one really good deep clean, then plan to have people over a week or two later so you are inspired to keep it that way?

@lilyofthewest: I totally understand everything in your post! I am seriously considering asking for a house cleaner deep clean for my birthday this year, since I am due 2 weeks later. I think it would greatly help me to clean, considering just getting a roomba that vacuums for me but isn't going to clean up the clutter to vacuum under it helps me stay more organized and tidy! I would also absolutely love to get a professional organizer but I think thats out of my budget, sadly.

Ok so as the child of a hoarder / parents who lacked good housecleaning skills, my advice is to just do it! Move forward. As an adult I am good at keeping my own house neat and relatively clean because when I was growing up I was the only one in the family who really cleaned. My 3 other siblings all have messy to much messier houses because they didn't grow up cleaning. Watching my parents these days it is so frustrating to see them continuing to live that way and unable to keep their house clean and not keep tons of unnecessary stuff. It was embarrassing for me growing up and still I would never want my in-laws or someone like that to visit my parent's house.

I am not at all suggesting that your situation is the same but I do think that the earlier you tackle the issue and the greater clarity you have that it is a problem that you want to improve upon the better chance you have making a real improvement. @MaryM: has a great point that they will have always seen worse!

Is your partner willing to part with things?

My favorite part about having someone else clean our house every other week is that it gives me time to deal with all the organization /purging tasks that I never get around to because I'm always behind on cleaning! So overall my house is cleaner and more organized and I am way less stressed out about it.

We hired someone to clean our house once every two weeks this past summer. Our LOs are 1.5 and 4 years old...DH and I both work demanding full time jobs outside of our house. Its been amazing.

We no longer argue over stupid who cleans what crap. The amount of cleaning we do is so minimal that it just seamlessly falls into our normal routines. It also encourages us to keep our house picked up...like clothes piles and what not.

Plus - we have the days she comes circled on our calendar and our 4 year old is getting good about picking up her room for "Mrs I"...she loves how she arranges her toys in her room...Mrs I leaves sweet little scenes arranged with her stuffed animals or will leave a book pulled out on K's bed. My daughter rushes up stairs to see how her room is on the days she comes. Its so cute...

As our girls get older and we have more activities and therefore less time we plan to have her come more frequently and help with laundry, sheets/towels, and maybe some other household chores.

Its been the best decision!

Question for those of you who have house cleaners... do you give them a key? Hide the key somewhere outside on days they come? How does that whole process work?

@MrsADS: We gave our cleaner a key. There's an element of trust in the whole thing - my friend was HORRIFIED - but we also have given keys to our pet nannies and on a few occasions had total strangers house-sit for us while we've gone on vacation. I figure that if they steal all our things we have insurance.

@MrsADS: Our cleaner has a code for our keyless entry, but it only works on Fridays from a certain period of time.

As far as organization, being ruthless and de-cluttering, I really liked the book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" I didn't follow it to a T--honestly, I only read a few articles on it and basically followed the cliff notes--but, her ideas for setting a date and categorizing the clutter (so you see how much of one thing you really have) then systematically putting into donation, sale or trash piles and only keeping what you really feel like you can't live without, really helped me.

@lilyofthewest: I think you should just do it! My house is also cluttered/disorganized and lots of things don't have "homes" (or have random/non-intuitive homes) but coming home to a clean house where things have been hidden away that at least *looks* clean on the surface is good for my mental health and marriage. I have long-term aspirations to get organized or hire a professional organizer but for now just having a clean, clutter-free house for a few days is great. And it inspires us to try to keep it that way as long as possible. It's just much less daunting than doing it ourselves.

ETA I also feel a bit weird about outsourcing this, and what that means in terms of privilege etc. but I do it anyway. It helps me and our cleaning team and is the ultimate "buying local!"

@T.H.O.U.: Yes, to everything has a home.

If it doesn't, I either find a home for it, or sometimes, purge. My biggest problem is that I always save things for "later" and then never use them.

My house doesn't have a ton of built in storage, so as much as I hate having to do this, I had to go and buy organizational items. My favorite one is the 8 cubby Kallax shelf thing from IKEA, you can use it horizontal or vertical, you can put castors on it, and you can use the baskets or drawers for further organization.

@lilyofthewest: Have you tried to de-clutter or organize in the past? How did that go? What barriers did you hit? As much as I would love a home organizer but I dont think we have those really in our town except for someone super high end. So we had to find ways to do it on our own.

If you don't think you can find/afford a professional cleaner, the best way I have personally found to organize is to take one space at a time so that its not mentally overwhelming. I am not a neat person by nature, but with a really messy husband, 2 kids and all their junk, plus just not having enough TIME, I needed to figure out a way to get a handle on our hoard without giving myself a panic attack about the enormity of the project. Because having too much stuff and mess was ALSO going to give me a panic attack. So I have learned in the last year (with a baby, packing up a house, and moving to a new house) that the best way to handle it is to just do ONE THING. One shelf, one closet, one cabinet, one box. Whatever. Just tell yourself that's all you have to do today.

Pick one space to clean AND then pick one place to be the holding area for the stuff that comes out of that space once you've organized. As you move from one space to another, there will be more "where the eff do I put this?" stuff, so its helpful to have a designated space for that crap while things are getting sorted out. (Its that overflow/mess from organizing that's so overwhelming to me). I'm in the process of organizing our master closet right now and the overflow is in a corner of our bedroomand it looks like World War III in there and its making me batsh*t, but I know it will be worth it when its over.

When it comes to organizing systems, find one that you can actually stick with, not what looks good or what you think you SHOULD do. I embraced at 35 that I am not a person who folds my clothes and then neatly puts them away in drawers. Why? Because I'm a visual person and I need to SEE everything at once. By the time I go digging around the drawers for what I want, its all balled up anyway, so I ended up throwing all the stuff on a chair and then digging through that pile later on. Drove my husband crazy. So I switched to keeping my clothes in hampers, plastic bins, and storage cubes. Each hamper/cube holds a specific thing, like t-shirts or socks and they all just live there on the floor of my closet. It makes putting stuff away easy, I can easily find what I want, and I'm not pissed at things not fitting in drawers. I don't wear anything day to day that requires ironing or cannot be fluffed by my dryer. I only hang slacks and dresses and suits.

Our kids stuff is also similarly sorted into bins and storage units where its easy to take a look at a bin and know what's in it. Cars, plushies, blocks, kitchen/food toys, puzzles, etc.
The Ikea Kallax system is great for this because those canvas boxes they make for the units are huge and sturdy.
It makes cleaning up easy, makes finding things easy. We have most of the kids books in front-facing bookcases which makes it so much easier for them to clean up and is inviting to them.

Their clothes are in Land of Nod hanging canvas storage systems with the drawer add-ons, and then I keep a separate one just to lay out their PJs and outfits in each week (they have 6 slots, so I put 2 outfits and 2 jammies in for the weekend in one slot). Everything else is in storage for the right season or hanging in their closets. This frees up more floor space in their rooms to play in.

I am in the process of slowly investing in pull-outs for my kitchen cabinets so I can easily pull it out and find my pots and pans and whatever. I invested in drawer organizers for all my kitchen stuff. I have everything in my pantry in a way where I can easily see and find everything - whether its Rubbermaid cereal containers or a designated box just for all the pastas or whatever. Our bathroom stuff is all in plastic Rubbermaid bins that I can see through. They are organized by First Aid, medicines, vitamins, grooming, kids stuff, oral, etc. so that I can quickly grab the bin I need and give my husband the antifungal cream or whatever he needs on a given day.

Each and every one of those bins and projects was taken one at a time, so it was never a huge endeavor all at once. Just tell yourself today I'm going to tackle the hall closet, or shoes, or the spices. Just having that one thing done will make you feel so much better!

We have somebody come once a month and it is SUCH a huge major help. I wish I could have them more often but at this point once a month is all we can afford. I do pre-clean, tidy up before I know they're coming. But it's a great excuse to monthly keep things clean... and to maintain in between. It's almost like having that person come to clean, I want to keep things up for them, if that makes sense...

In terms of organizing.... Head to The Container Store or Walmart or just buy online some storage bins of different sizes. HUGE help to de-clutter, organize, and store-away things that you might not want to get rid of.

Also - those vacuum storage bags are great for clothes you want to store away and don't have a ton of space. In my basement I've also purchased those large plastic storage shelving units to store all of our stuff...

Agree with another poster above that said tackle one room at a time. I'm getting to a place where I need to go room by room again.

I think the bedrooms are easiest, then I do the big rooms, and finally I tackle the closets.

If you have a Container Store near you check it out - great ideas to store, although it can be overwhelming.

But again, having someone come clean has been the greatest thing ever even though we can barely afford it. It's money SO well spent. Me and DH don't argue about cleaning, and we stay on top of it because we don't want the cleaning people to think we're insanely messy. ha.

good luck!