I Got Me a Cleaning Man!

This spring, I decided I wanted to try having cleaners come in to do my housework periodically. I can't afford (and don't really need) a weekly service, so was thinking about having someone in once a month, just to help with big jobs like dusting and doing the floors.

After a bit of research, I decided to try a new company here in the city. They're an environmental service, only using natural cleaning products, etc. More importantly from my perspective, however, they pay a decent wage and have ethical labour practices - thus helping to assuage my middle-class guilt. (This, of course, being spurred on by Jan Wong's series "Maid in Canada" in the Globe & Mail last year.) That said, they are quite reasonably priced, at $25 per cleaner, per hour.

So I had them come in this morning for a first clean. The hippyish young fella who started the company turned up, with a young woman in tow. They spent the morning mostly doing the ground floor of the house, and did a reasonable job. Not perfect - they missed some dusting, along with things like the top of the fridge and (oddly) the kitchen sink. But generally speaking, it was pretty good. I'd say they did about 70% of what I'd ideally have liked, and that's probably good enough. I'm not looking to never lift a finger around the house again - merely to get some help with the crummiest jobs. And that they did. I think I'll hire them again, maybe for three monthly cleanings to start - and we'll see how we get on from there.