There’s no reason I should feel weird about getting a cleaner, but I absolutely do.
What is that about? I guess you might call it imposter syndrome, or working class guilt, or upward mobility anxiety – I dunno, but I feel weird about it.
My other half has been badgering me about getting a cleaner for literally years, and I’ve always said no because it feels like the sort of thing we should be doing ourselves.
Who do we think we are? Too good to clean our own house now, are we? I hear this in my Grandma’s voice for some reason…
Anyway, it’s been a month since I buckled and I am slowly getting used to it. I’m secretly enjoying it a little bit too if I’m being honest. Although I would never tell my friends that. Or even admit to having a cleaner.
There has also been an unexpected consequence to this: I have learned something about myself I kind of wish I hadn’t. More on that below, but first, let me introduce you to the lady who cleans my house.
She is AMAZING
I might feel weird about doing it, but I absolutely love the lady who comes to clean our house.
Her name is Kerry, it’s her own business she started when she was 20, and eight years later she employs two other people, too. Not only is she hilarious, not only does she bring a real positive energy into the house once a week, but she leaves it looking more beautiful than I have ever managed.
She also gets so much done in the 3 hours she’s here. She’s like a cleaning ninja 🥷🧽 I don’t know if she’s been on a special course or what, but she cleans the bathroom in half the time it takes me and does a better job, too.
The kitchen is left spotless, the floors are hoovered and mopped, cobwebs are banished, and she even puts the washing and the dishwasher on before she leaves.
This is all positive stuff, right?
So what’s with my awkwardness? Why do I feel like I have to apologise to Kerry for hiring her? Why do I have this urge to tell her that I am from a working class background, too?
I had a bit of a shock when I realised what was going on.
Guess Who Had a Bit of Internalised Snobbery…
I’ve ended up having to take a good look at myself.
I think I’m a good person. I don’t judge people, I’m polite, I treat everybody the same unless I’m given a reason not to. But this whole cleaner thing made me realise that I had internalised snobbery.
When we booked a cleaner I was expecting… well, I don’t really know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t Kerry. I had been conditioned to associate cleaners with being unhappy, financially struggling, uneducated. Like I would be making them feel bad about themselves by paying them to do a job.
Somewhere deep down I made a judgement I didn’t even realise I was making. I felt awful when I realised. I’d absorbed more class prejudice than I thought.
It’s a real tangle of emotions because I am from a working class background. When I was growing up some of the walls in my house were bare plaster for years, not all the rooms were carpeted, my Dad was on the dole for a bit. I probably sound like I’m trying way too hard here, but it’s all true.
So it wasn’t just internalised snobbery on display, but also my own working class guilt.
No one would consider me working class anymore. Nice house, nice car, comfortable job, regular family days out, etc. My kids don’t know hardship. So maybe I also feel like I have betrayed my roots in some way?
It’s all very silly, I know that, no one should feel bad for getting on in life. But nevertheless, here I am feeling all pretentious and stuck up for paying someone £40 a week to clean my house. Then feeling worse for being surprised when she turned up with a smile on her face.
Am I an awful person?
Oh My God Get a Cleaner
So, after all of that, what I would say is this: get a cleaner. Like, right now. Stop reading this, go to a local Facebook group or the yellow pages or whatever, and hire a local cleaner.
The average price seems to be around £15 an hour, they bring their own products, and you can get them in on any sort of schedule you like. Once a week (that’s what we do), once a fortnight, once a month. Whatever you can afford.
You will be buying some of your time back, supporting a small local business, and you will end up living in a nicer environment.
Top tip: Always get your cleaner to come on a Monday. Your house will be trashed after the weekend (bloody kids), and you’ll get some longevity out of the clean while the children are mostly at school during the week.
Even if it’s only every once in a while, a cleaner will make your house feel tidier than you ever could. Plus, the feeling of sitting down in a freshly cleaned space that you haven’t lifted a finger to achieve is just awesome 👌
It’s a bit depressing when you’ve spent £40 and the kids have trashed it again 24 hours later, but for that brief window of time you will feel like royalty.
Just don’t let that royal feeling trigger your working class anxiety like it did me!