If you’ve ever had a messy home, you know that it causes low levels of stress throughout the day. When your house is a mess, you feel like a mess. Never mind the judgement of friends and family who visit your place, you will judge yourself for it constantly, every hour you have to live in it!
When yours-truly was in college, he had clothing and textbooks strewn all over the floor and desk, seeming to taunt him with his own disorganization. A quick sweep of the dorm could have solved the problem, but that would require picking up that first piece of clothing. The first piece is the hardest. Going from 0 to 1 is daunting.
It was no coincidence that I was similarly scatterbrained with my schedule and my schoolwork. When things in your life are out of order, they pile up and weigh on you constantly.
In the back of your mind, there’s always that low-grade worry
Eventually life’s challenges stacked up – as they always do – and I was forced to become organized. If I was even going to survive on my own, I needed to get this handled. I needed to live in a clean environment.
Here are a few of the benefits of maintaining a clean home:
- A clear and coordinated mind
- Visits from friends without the shameful reveal of your pig-stye
- Increased focus
- Increased self-esteem
- A sense of well-being and rightness
- No tripping over things in the middle of the night
- Fewer allergens and better health
- A pleasant visual aesthetic to your place
The research on this subject is pretty consistent:
Small successes lead to big successes. When you get organized, write things down, clean your room, meal prep… you gain momentum and succeed in other domains as well. BUT, if that first step is so hard – what are you going to do?
Well, when you’re young and have no money, but plenty of time, you start by putting things away in their proper place right after you use them. When you break up the chore into many small tasks, and develop the habit of never letting things get chaotic in the first place, you end up succeeding. If you can just drag yourself off the couch and pick up one piece of clothing draped over the arm of your chair, you end up grabbing a second, and a third…
If you can just take that first step, you can do a complete overhaul of your home and feel the relief wash over you.
From then on you start putting things back in place right away. Don’t leave those dishes in the sink! Clean and throw ’em in the dishwasher as soon as you’re done eating. Fold your clothes the minute they come out of the dryer.
Before you know it you’ll be reaping all the benefits of a clean home, and a clear mind
But, what how do you tackle this problem when life gets busy? Cleaning is easy when you’re 22 and don’t know what to do with those 3 hours of free time after work.
How about the single mom? What about the busy professional?
Do you still adopt the same strategy?
Short answer: no.
Long answer: yes, BUT
In the spirit of Rohan Gilkes
Automate, automate, automate.
Very successful people don’t spend much time cleaning, cutting coupons, or doing data-entry, they pay other people to do these things for them.
How much is your time worth?
If you consider how short our time is on this planet, I’d estimate it’s worth about $50 an hour. Now considering that you’re not a professional housekeeper, with years of experience, how fast could you clean a house at that level?
Let’s say you live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. I’d wager cleaning the baseboards, tables, chairs, kitchen, bathroom, carpets, oven, fridge, ceiling fans, and everything else… I’d wager it would take you about 8 hours.
Now, let’s say you book a high-quality maid service, you’re looking at a price of about $180 dollars when you include sales tax, and a bi-weekly discount (recurring cleanings every other week are probably the best bang for your buck). That’s how much it is here at Easyway Maid Service.
Let’s do the math real quick. If your time is worth $50 an hour (it is), multiple that by 8 hours to get $400. If you pay $180 to get a bi-weekly cleaning, that’s $220 you’re saving every 2 weeks. Heck, that’s enough to cover your groceries for the whole 2-week period.
You know you should get your house organized, and you know how much your time is worth. This is just one of those areas in life that you have to get handled, and there’s no better way to handle it than outsourcing the whole process to a trained, background-checked, professional maid.
No one wants to live in a messy home, and frankly you shouldn’t have to. Treat yourself right, treat your house right – get your environment under control and save your mental energy for the things that will really net you big returns.
Just sayin’.
-Dan @ Easyway Maid Service
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