Originally Posted by
basil
I need to hire Krystal...
I can’t do it by myself. I’ve tried. And I would rather get a root canal than spend my very limited free time on something like that. I just can’t stand it.
I do understand why the cleaning lady does what she does, but it’s also annoying when she throws a hair elastic on the kitchen counter and a dirty sock from under the couch and a new electronic in a box sitting on the coffee table into a pile with toys.
We do have a nanny, she contributes to the problem in her current form.
I just need more than a typical cleaning person apparently but I can’t figure out if I need two people or one person who can do all.
I'm going to sound like a fanatic, but I identify really strongly with what you're saying, and I'm telling you that hiring an organizer was totally worth it for me.
DH and I like to joke that we're "second generation slobs," both of us having been raised in messy homes with piles of stuff all over and rooms full of junk. I tend not to see the clutter until it's at a point where I can't ignore it, and then the idea of getting into it is overwhelming. Plus, I hate to clean/neaten -- literally every other possible task comes first before I voluntarily clean anything. I'd try, say, emptying out the linen closet to clean it, but then a kid would need something or it would be time to make dinner and the task never really got finished. And my "donate" pile would sit in the hallway for weeks until eventually it all kind of got mixed in with the laundry and I'd find myself putting it right back into the closet. I remember one time when I walked into our mudroom with the intention of cleaning it, and then turned around and walked right back out again because I couldn't even begin to know where to start. That's when I hired an organizer.
I won't lie, the process wasn't fun (and full disclosure, I'm a SAHM so I had plenty of time to do this). I worked like a DOG for a good 15 days, but the organizer was there every step of the way, keeping me on task and actually physically helping. For example, for that mudroom, she set me up at the kitchen table with boxes, and then started bringing me everything from that room. My only task was to sort -- throw out, donate, keep. Next, we looked at the keep pile, she'd ask me how I used something and where I wanted to be able to find it, and we decided what really needed to be in that room and what needed to be elsewhere. And then she helped me figure out where and how, exactly, everything that lived in that room should be put. She'd leave with all of the trash and donations, and come back next time with the bins/organizers/etc. that I needed to maintain that space according to the plan. But, critically, the sole focus was on how I, personally, wanted to use each space in the house. We worked to find ways that I could keep things neat, not how some hypothetical organized person would.
I could in theory have done all of those tasks myself, but (a) having a second person helping made it much easier, and (b) the organizer helped keep me on task and made sure everything actually got finished. It's a little embarrassing to admit that I don't have that discipline by myself, but I really don't.
I'm still a slob, and I still hate cleaning/decluttering. But over two years later, the systems we set up still work and they're easy enough that, for the most part, I actually use them. The organizer was worth every penny I paid and every moment of the hard work I put in, even if it was a drag at the time.
DC1 -- 2005 DD -- 2009 DS -- 2011