Since going back to work full time a little over a year ago, I've often had a hard time balancing everything in my life. I went from the type of person who uploaded photos off of the camera once a week to the type of person who has to put together a quarterly Facebook photo album update. If it wasn't for text messages and instagram, my family would rarely see photos of my kids. And the scrapbook—don't even get me started on the scrapbook. Laundry is only done on the weekends and ironing happens in the morning and is on an as-needed basis. I have a file box containing unopened bank statements, pay stubs and miscellaneous paperwork marked "to be filed" (anyone see the irony here). I cancelled my subscription to People magazine because I couldn't even keep up with my celebrity gossip. Most of these "sacrifices" are minimal and if they mean spending more time with my family after work, then so be it. But as the title of this blog states, my life is about finding balance. And finding balance means crying "uncle" when it is necessary.
I started to wonder how my friends managed their lives, their kids, their households...and so I asked. And I asked. And I asked. The answer was surprising and almost unanimous - "I have a cleaning lady" (and I say cleaning lady not in a sexest way, I am being literal, each person who I asked has a woman who does the cleaning). How did I not know that all of my friends used a cleaning service? Here I am wallowing in my own swill and layers of dust feeling envious of all of my friends and their dust-free homes! Now let's get serious, I'm not talking about Mr. Belvedere or Tony Macelli (I'm dating myself here), I'm talking about a person who comes to the house every other week just to give it that extra boost. It isn't an extravagance, it is called keeping my sanity. Yes, I still do my own laundry (on the weekends), and I still iron in the morning (on an as-needed basis but I am seriously considering farming this chore out in the near future), but instead of scrubbing baseboards and dusting mantles on the weekends, I'm playing with my kids and catching up on celebrity gossip, you know, the important things in life.
SO there you have it, my seceret to a clean house.
I started to wonder how my friends managed their lives, their kids, their households...and so I asked. And I asked. And I asked. The answer was surprising and almost unanimous - "I have a cleaning lady" (and I say cleaning lady not in a sexest way, I am being literal, each person who I asked has a woman who does the cleaning). How did I not know that all of my friends used a cleaning service? Here I am wallowing in my own swill and layers of dust feeling envious of all of my friends and their dust-free homes! Now let's get serious, I'm not talking about Mr. Belvedere or Tony Macelli (I'm dating myself here), I'm talking about a person who comes to the house every other week just to give it that extra boost. It isn't an extravagance, it is called keeping my sanity. Yes, I still do my own laundry (on the weekends), and I still iron in the morning (on an as-needed basis but I am seriously considering farming this chore out in the near future), but instead of scrubbing baseboards and dusting mantles on the weekends, I'm playing with my kids and catching up on celebrity gossip, you know, the important things in life.
SO there you have it, my seceret to a clean house.
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