As I was cleaning my bathroom today, I was thinking about one of the things I miss most…a housekeeper.

Being on the Dave Ramsey plan requires you to give up a few luxuries in order to change your family tree. For some it may be eating out or going to the movies every weekend. For others it may be buying expensive toys or electronics. I miss the people that would come to my house twice a month and clean it.

Yes, it’s true. I used to have housekeepers come and deep clean my house every other Monday. Ahhh….

To some that may seem extravagant, to others it may not. But, it was an extra expense we incurred every two weeks.

Why did I have a housekeeper? Well, aside from getting a clean house, it helped my sanity…let me ‘splain…

When I first got married I was a neat freak! My mother would probably be surprised because growing up my bedroom was a disaster {there is hope for my daughter.} My new husband couldn’t understand why the kitchen had to immediately be spotless after dinner and why Saturday was cleaning day. If it wasn’t clean, I couldn’t relax! Over the years he helped me learn to let go of my OCD tendencies and just learn that things don’t always have to be perfect {and that it is OKAY if it’s not *breathe*}. Having children a few years later REALLY drove that home since I couldn’t always get to what was dirty when I had a little human to care for. I began to give in accept not having everything in its place. After three children it became almost impossible to get to deep down get-in-the-corners-with-a-Q-tip cleaning because I was just trying to maintain the clutter that three children bring. Enter the sanity savers housekeeper.

You see, growing up, although my bedroom was messy, the rest of my house was not. My brother and I were trained to clean and clean to a high standard. I always grumbled under my breath every time I had to do it. I even remember saying, “I’m going to have kids just so they can clean for me!” As a result, I am highly particular on how things are cleaned. So when I can’t get to it after a while I start to freak out a lot a little.

When I was pregnant with my second child I had a difficult time with exhaustion, morning sickness, and back pain. My husband was in the military at the time and worked 12 hour days six days a week. We decided to try a housekeeper to come in every few weeks and do the cleaning I could no longer do myself. It changed my life! We found a woman who cleaned my house top-to-bottom-eat-your-food-on-the-floor clean!!!

A housekeeper {a really good one that cleans to my high standard} can come in and get my entire house deep-cleaned in a day. I have a sense of relief because the whole house is spotless for about 15 minutes until the kids walked through the door. It restores my sanity, calms the OCD tendency that prickles my skin, and lets me focus on other things.

Giving up that luxury was a little painful sad, but getting rid of debt helps my sanity as well. The money that was budgeted for a clean house every two weeks is put towards the goal of debt freedom. Now my children are learning a high standard of cleaning {and my daughter probably grumbles under her breath as well}, but it is something they need to learn to be fully-functioning adults. And although they may not do it exactly how I would do it that is okay because at least they are learning how to do it.

Someday I will probably have housecleaners come in and deep clean again. Someday I will have my entire house cleaned all at once rather than a few rooms at a time. Someday the kids will grow up and leave the nest *sniff* and there will be less mess to clean up. But until then, I will spend 45 minutes deep cleaning my bathroom and be content that it was the only room I had time to do during naptime.