It seems to be the nature of the beast that one’s cleaning lady eventually becomes annoying. She doesn’t remember to dust the blinds. Or she doesn’t remove the fingerprints from the back door. Or she no longer does that one thing you absolutely want her to do. And when you remind her, she says that she does that thing every time.
I’ve had different cleaning ladies over the past thirty years and this has always been the pattern. It must be that old adage about familiarity breeding contempt, because a cleaning lady learns a lot about you in the process of cleaning your home.
But wait.
I’m here to say I have an awesome cleaning lady right now. And she’s worked for us for over two years, which is usually plenty of time for the honeymoon phase to be done. She’s always pleasant and punctual. And she is the first cleaning lady who bills by the job instead of the hour. I like this because I tend to want to chat a few minutes with anyone who enters my home. So if we talk about her children or her garden or my children or my garden, the meter isn’t running.
At the risk of being stereotypical, she comes from Poland. I had another woman from Poland twenty years ago, and her work ethic was the same. Perhaps being from that country should be the primary criteria for hiring. And I bet Poland is the cleanest country in the world too.
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