House Cleaners are Cheaper Than Marriage Counselors

When my hubby and I were first married, we cleaned the house together. While I can’t say that we whistled while we worked, we did work well together. In retrospect, I chalk it up to the honeymoon phase. He did the tasks I didn’t like (dumping the trash and cleaning the kitchen) and I did the tasks he didn’t like (dusting, sweeping and vacuuming.) Unfortunately though, neither one of us liked cleaning the bathroom. Shocking, I know. So who cleaned the bathroom you ask? Neither of us, except of course when house guests were coming. Then we dashed around like crazy people wiping toothpaste off the sink and hair off the floor. Even then, we both avoided the toilet. Our last minute efforts to appear to be responsible adults who kept a clean house, left us panting and sweating by the time the doorbell rang.

Since our house guests were few and far between, we couldn’t rely on the occasional surface cleaning. Well, I guess we could’ve, but we had just graduated from the days of having to wear shoes in the shower and didn’t want to regress. So we decided to take turns cleaning the bathroom. Clever, I know.

This worked well, for about a month. Then it got ugly. The honeymoon phase was over.

“It’s your turn to clean the bathroom.”

“No, it’s not. I cleaned it last time.”

“Wiping the sink with your dirty socks doesn’t count as cleaning.”

“Spraying the toilet with air freshener doesn’t count either.”

Touché.

Then we made a decision that would impact the success of our marriage. We decided to hire a house cleaner. Expensive, I know. But at that point in our marriage, we had ample disposable income so it was an easy decision. We reveled in our solution and did the happy dance.

Years later when I stopped working and the money was tight, we discussed areas we could cut back on. Gym membership . . .dining out . . .travel. Neither one of us even brought up the house cleaner. We decided we’d give up cable TV first.

While our solution won’t work for everyone, especially if money is tight, it works for us because we decided long ago that house cleaners are cheaper than marriage counselors.