Who cleans your house?

Hi Kathy,
I'm 78 and clean my own home. I do the laundry, scrub the floors, wash the windows, cook meals, dust, vacuum etc. I also do the gardening and take the garbage out. All of this "exercise" makes me feel good. I did pay the neighbor who is a landscaper to clear off my roof of debris. I'm a little too old to manage heights. It all depends on your physical health and your income. House keepers are expensive!
PML

Look for 'bonded' services where the onus is on the service provider/employer as much as it is 'on you' to ensure your security and privacy.

Interview the provider AND the actual service rep who comes to clean your home. It must be a comfortable fit. Your spidey sense will help here. If you are likely to get two or three individuals coming on a revolving basis, insist on meeting each one of them.

Middle-aged and older cleaners might be more reliable than younger cleaners. I hate to 'go there', but the chances are a middle-aged person is more stable, less dependent, more mature, and has a better work ethic.,,by this point in their lives. They have more learning and scruples, generally, as they mature. And, they're generally more comfortable between their ears with who they are, including all their 'misses'. Happens to all of us who are sane and reasonable.

I am 64. I have had health challenges but am doing better now. Something new has hit me recently though. We have 2 dogs who are my legal ESAs. I help walk them I cook clean do laundry etc. But my energy became drained . I had taken on more than I could handle. I realized I needed to declutter as the pain I have was making it harder to do. Less and easier to clean. I have been working on returning to a composite wardrobe. My husband and I are not hoarders but we own and rv and too much accumulated. I am focusing also on me being more organized. I need quiet time daily. My husband has gone back to work plus is doing some remodeling on our rv. I walk 3000 steps daily.

@pml Such a great response ❤️‍🩹

Good professional cleaners, gardeners and odd job people ARE expensive.

I don’t think this is just a 70’s or 80’s issue. I think we all struggle with it at any age, if we are able to afford them: Whether we “should” or “shouldn’t” do as much as we can ourselves.

During my chemo treatment I did get in a gardening service because I physically couldn’t do everything that was needed. I chose to do my home (I stayed pretty isolated because my immune system was so poor and I also value my privacy - something that has always been a factor when weighing up what I wanted done for me).

We may or may not qualify for government assistance.

We may or may not have family members or neighbours who can provide some limited assistance.

We may or may not have the physical ability to do everything needed.

We may or may not appreciate the kind of exercise that cleaning and gardening provide and may not get satisfaction from them.

We may or may not mind foregoing some privacy.

I am glad to be back to doing everything myself - for the moment - except for odd jobs. I’ve found a wonderful contractor who does my odd jobs. He is expensive and I need to wait for an appointment but he is extremely good, honest and thorough so has a massive client base.

There are a lot of factors and no right or wrong decision. It’s what suits each person from time to time when weighing up all sorts of factors.

We're planning to move into an independent living community that wraps in twice-a-month housekeeping, and I've been looking into lockable cabinets for sensitive financial papers, medicine, jewelry, etc. I'm not fussed about damage -- it's not as if I've never damaged something while cleaning. But I am concerned about privacy and the potential temptations created by leaving small valuable objects or medications easily accessible.

Having a friend refer someone is one way to make it more likely the person is trustworthy. If you hire someone from a service, ask about how they go about vetting their staff, and make sure they carry appropriate insurance. It's also possible to pay a firm to vet a potential employee if you want to hire directly.

While I'm at it, if you haven't looked at your homeowner's insurance to see if you are covered if an individual you have directly hired gets hurt while working for you, you should do that. And think about how you will pay them and how you and they will handle income taxes, etc. If you pay a service, they will handle all that, of course. Once upon a time, someone working on our house stepped in a gopher hole in the back yard and broke an ankle -- it really caused me to pay more attention to this sort of thing.

I love your answer- do what you can, but don’t feel guilty if you decide to off-load some tasks.
I had to have spinal surgery and have lower leg neuropathy, so I hired a guy who does the bathrooms and floors, yard work as needed, and I do the rest.
Walking balance and stamina is difficult so I signed up for grocery curbside pick-up and do delivery when ice/snow are on the ground.
My husband needed to go into AL, so I have a guy who does snow removal and the mowing.
I used to work in health care. I regularly had patients with bone fractures from falling off ladders, so even when my husband was able, I arranged for a company that does gutter clean-outs.
If there is anything I could convince you to do- stay off ladders. Please check the statistics for outcomes for seniors with fractures.
Saw lots of ladder-to-roof- for whatever falls with various fractures and combinations of fractures (spinal/femoral/hip (s)/humeral/wrist (s)/) but only saw one caused by fell-asleep-in-a-tree stand and down he went.

May I ask? I'm having Dr app burnout. I gym ea morning. But, it's crazy, you do something, and feel it lol. I was trimming some animal hooves. She jerked..I twisted my right hip. This happened two yrs ago. The chair in shoe shop collapsed. I went to chiropractor. He took x-rays, did smoke n mirror sales- pitch. Drumroll.. n Q: I've been working on it slowly at gym. Could I have a tiny fractor??