Housework.... spin off question!

[AMF]

We have a cleaning crew come once a week, until the end of the year. Then we will 'go back' to once every two weeks. When our 3 month old arrived...we had a college aged girl come three times a week. She did everything...cooking, cleaning, laundry, childcare, etc. I loved my "Kimberly" days...she would also send her friend Christina on the days she couldn't make it...and all my boys fell in love with her...my 2 yr. old calls her "my-eena"
I stopped feeling guilty about this about three years ago. I need help. Our house + our lifestyle...it is very difficult to maintain a home the way I like it.
My dh does very little in the way of helping. I am not okay with that. Even with the work they do...I am constantly on the move. I have had a real hard time going from a household with one child, who was 13 when our two year old arrived, then our nephew came to live with us...he was age 16 at the time...and now a couple of years later..our newest little one arrived.

I love my life, and I am very grateful to have outside help. Someone who can clean up the bathrooms and the floors is worth the money I pay.

As for outside work...I am really ticked, but my dh has stopped doing any of it...so I hire people to come do the yard clean up. My flower beds are a wreck right now...but that's okay..I have two happy small children. It's a trade off.

As for meals..I would say that most of the responsibility for that is on me too. He might put the meal together...but for the most part..I do the shopping and decision making.

He's not all bad...LOL..he does pay the bills...which is not nothing...I get that.

[BC-daisymae]

I don't have a maid, I do all the housework. We do have a lawn service that does everything outside except trim the shrubs. Dh and I do most of the home repairs/remodeling b/c his dad is a contractor. We hire people to help us once in a while but we do a lot ourselves, including the tile we are about to install.
I'll admit that I am considering hiring a maid service. If I found the right person, I would probably hire them I'm just not looking very actively right now.

[JenNeedsABaby]

I have some help. I have a maid service right now that comes twice a month. I tutor once a week to pay for it (so it doesn't affect our budget). I do think it is my job to keep the house clean, but being pregnant with twins has made that difficult, so last month I hired the service. I will keep them through next summer and then should be in a routine to get the house clean. Believe it or not, I am much cleaner when I clean myself. When I know someone is coming, I tend to be lazy and a little messy. We also have a lawn service that comes every other week most of the year and every week in the summer. It is so hot and humid here, most everyone has a service. For $28 you can have your lawn mowed, edged, and blown in less than 30 minutes. I do all the planting, weeding, and trimming. I maintain two fairly large vegetable gardens, so I spend quite a bit of time outside. But that is where the help stops. DH does all renovations. He has painted the entire house and is about 1/2 done putting in wood floors upstairs. As he floors each room, he paints it and redoes the trim. He has never done this but his craftmanship and dedication is amazing! He is even flooring our stairs. By December 1st, we will not have a stitch of carpet in our house and he loves that idea! He also enclosed our office with french doors. He built a wall and everything. He never ceases to amaze me. He is the handy one and I am the logistical one. I plan, orchestrate and run most of the household including the bills. So I don't mind paying someone for stuff I can't get to. I am thankful we have the cash to do it.

[Cat Mom]

We do not have any outside help. I can see why some ladies want it, I really can, but we just don't. DH is really good with helping me out around the house and will cook on the weekends. And he refuses to have anyone work on our house or vehicles and I'm ok with that. Saves us a lot of money and he knows what he is doing so it doesn't bother me.

Well, I shouldn't say we don't have outside help. My kiddos do go to daycare 2 days a week for a few hours so I can work on our small business. We have a small metal working business and I can't have them around when I am painting or running the equipment. Other than that, that is the only outside help we have...and the occasional grandparent!

[Cali]

Nope, no help of any kind here.

[BeccaMichelle]

No help that we pay to clean or do lawn. I do have them in a mother's day out program twice a week and then I work on organization and cleaning up while they are out of the house. It's only a few hours twice a week, and I work my butt off trying to get as much done as I can in that time. They are 18 months old and do not let me do anything with them in the house.

I'd love to be able to pay for someone to clean our bathrooms and do the floors, that would be nice. I do it when I can get to it. Laundry is so hard to get done (it is on the basement level and our rooms are on the second floor.) I can't leave the girls to run up and down the stairs, so we do a huge mountain of clothes on weekends.

We don't have the neatest, spic and span house and that is frusterating, but I have learned to let go and realize that while they are this age, my attention needs to be with them, and not on cleaning the house all the time. There is no leaving them in a room alone, they would turn on each other, lol.

[Caro2]

Originally Posted by BeccaMichelle

I'd love to be able to pay for someone to clean our bathrooms and do the floors, that would be nice. I do it when I can get to it. Laundry is so hard to get done (it is on the basement level and our rooms are on the second floor.) I can't leave the girls to run up and down the stairs, so we do a huge mountain of clothes on weekends.

You can put them in their cribs for a few minutes while you go down stairs even if they cry for a few minutes it is no biggy, just tell them "I am going to the laundry room I will be back in a few minutes" and that is it. They can even "help" with folding.

Caro