Clean Up

Costa Rica is a really great place to live. It has it's faults, but all in all, a good place to raise kids and have a family. One of the many benefits for me is the abundance of ladies who are willing to come into your home and clean it.

If you make a decent living (more than the average), then a cleaning lady is not such a far fetched idea. For one thing, they are cheap- less than $2 an hour. And for another, most of them are local... simple girls just looking for some extra work. They aren't professionals, but they tend to get the job done well enough.

I've been through my fare share of housekeepers since I've been here. Some were hired by my mother in law, and one was a recommendation from hubby's cousin. I've been mildly satisfied by them, except for the last girl, recommended to me while I was pregnant with my third baby and desperately needed the help.

She was awesome! She cleaned things I never even thought of to clean and did all the things I didn't want to do. She wiped the walls and all the doors. She dusted cobwebs and swept up dust bunnies. She cleaned the floors and the bathrooms with such finesse and she cleaned my windows, inside and out. She was a God send... and I didn't want to let her go. Then due to some unfortunate circumstances, I had to let her go. A downside to having strangers come into your home... you have to trust them enough not to take your things.

Anyway, as sad as I was, I had to get over it and get back to cleaning my own house. It sucked having to clean the fridge after having someone else do such a marvelous job, but I had to do it. Besides, I wasn't raised in a life of luxury. I wasn't accustomed to having maids clean up after me... so getting back to a 'normal' life wasn't THAT hard to do.

I was content to live without a cleaning lady.. after all, I was a young, fairly strong and capable person. I can more than clean my house by myself, and since I am so picky, only I can really do a job well enough to please me. But I daydreamed about having someone to designate certain household tasks to. I like to clean... most days it's cathartic, but it gets mundane and takes away valuable time from my kids. So when a lady knocked on my door, searching for work, I considered it a sign.

I am not a trusting person, and I hope my having a stranger in my home doesn't come to bite me in the ass. But she seems nice enough and I figured I can start slow. I could tell she needed the work and though we're not rich by any means, I figured I could spare a few dollars a week to have her clean my house.

she showed up today and, per our conversation on Saturday, cleaned the floors and the bathrooms. I would have liked if she did a better job with my floors and not used so much of the cleaning solution (my house reeked of Ajax), but she did ok. And on the upside, I didn't have to do much. I did find myself spot cleaning a few places she had missed with the mop, dusting a window she had overlooked and putting things back that she had forgotten to put back herself. But I can't be picky. No one is perfect. She's here to do a job to the best of her abilities and I will let her. I figure for two days a week, 3 hours a day for less than $6, I am getting a damn good bargain. Try finding that in the states. I love Costa Rica.