I recently added something to my life that has totally improved my ‘quality of life’. This is something that my husband has encouraged for quite a few years now, but I resisted and or procrastinated on any action steps for it to become a reality.

It would give me more work, I said. I would be more worried about my part, I said. I would have to coordinate this ‘extra’ thing, I said. I don’t want to deal with it if it goes wrong, I said. The boys won’t learn properly if we do this, I said.

So, when my sister quit her job and decided what she really wanted to do is clean houses and organize, Yes Please! I said. Just give me a time, I said.

The last couple of years, I did start to consider the idea more seriously. I had resisted for so long for a couple of reasons: budget. And then also, I didn’t want to hire someone to do some basic cleaning and have the boys learn that they don’t have to help out because we have someone doing it for us. The lesson for years has been, if you live here, you clean. If you live here, you pitch in. Then there are other things that make me nervous, having a stranger in my house. What does one do when they have a cleaner over? Should I be here, or not be here, but I wasn’t sure i would feel comfortable with either.

More recently, I have certainly been busy enough and I was tempted to let Jay win this ‘argument.’ The boys would still have to do their part. So when my sister talked about this more seriously, I was all in. We used to tease her by calling her Monica when we were growing up. This is a ‘Friends’ reference. Monica – the insanely organized and tidy character on the show. This describes my sister to a tee.

I budgeted for a couple of hours monthly, and when she comes over… *chefs kiss* *hearts in my eyes* *dreamy on a cloud* – Insert all the appropriate emojis or gifs of being totally spoiled and in love *heart*.

It’s such a weight off. The amount of work she gets done in a couple of hours too! So to summarize, its simply dreamy. I told her that it has actually improved my quality of life. Normally, just getting the basic cleaning and tidying out of the way drains me. I don’t have the time and energy, most of the time to do any deep cleaning. So it’s also helped me in this way. With so much done on that Friday, then I actually have had energy to clean or organize some things that I simply wouldn’t get to.

And as my grandpa would always say, ‘my, this has improved my outlook on life.’ This definitely has improved my outlook and quality – of my life.

Sending Love,

Devon