10.20.2011

If possible, hire help!

Tip #29 If possible, hire help. today's tip is is actually a partial repost of my blog post from April 2010, but it warrants restating. If possible, hire help. Seriously. A few years ago, my mom lives with me and she used to host a ladies prayer group meeting at my home every Tuesday morning. So, every Monday we had a cleaning service come to help clean the house. Don't fool yourself into thinking that this will relieve you entirely from cleaning, but it certainly will motivate you to get everything 'ready' for the cleaning lady to arrive. :-) Those of you who have hired cleaning services can totally relate to what I mean. It is amazing how important it becomes to you to have all of your surfaces decluttered. You are paying good money here, and you want every square inch of floor, counter, and table dusted and washed!! This is great for the order of your home. Honestly, this became harder for us to continue to afford as time went on, and we have greatly decreased the frequency. Still, we call them on an 'as needed' basis, and I still LOVE to walk through my home right after they leave. This is the only time it is ALL done at once. (update: working full time now and all of my kids are in private school. My mom is the only one home during the bulk of the day. We don't have time or money to hire a house cleaner at this point in our lives, but it was really great during that season our of lives!)

I would also highly suggest that you consider hiring a Professional Organizer. These people are freaks of nature. Oh, I'm so just kidding!! Seriously, a Professional Organizer can be so helpful in helping you see what you can do to improve the processes and systems that you currently have in place (or not). Not sure where you can find a Professional Organizer in your area? Check out the NAPO website at http://www.napo.net/ and on the right sidebar there is a tool to locate a CPO by state and zip code. Very cool! There is, of course, a cost involved, but take into consideration the peace of mind that you will get in gaining order to your home! BTW, my friend, Colleen's company is appropriately named Peace of Mind. :-) If you are on the south side of Chicago, I'd highly recommend her. (update: still recommend Colleen! She's a doll!)