I am having the family room, den, loft and stairway carpets cleaned on Monday and those areas have to be *finished* before that. Then Tuesday I am having a housecleaning service come in...so the rest of the house has to be completely picked up.

AND I have to pre-clean the bathrooms and kitchen, which I know is stupid, but they are going to base our ongoing estimate on the overall condition of the house, so I *have* to or the estimate will be way high. (IOW, we aren't quite the slobs you would think from how the house looks right at this moment, LOL!)

On top of all that, I am feeling very guilty about paying people to come in and clean. Dh said he'd rather work OT than help clean (and I need help being pg, having a baby, two older kids and this huge mess of a house to deal with!) so this was our deal, but I still hate to spend money on it. Ugh.

I'm really overwhelmed. I did about 12 loads of laundry today and went through some stuff but there is still so much left to do! I've already purged truckloads--I don't know how/why I constantly still have so much clutter!!! ;peek:

I would not go crazy! I had someone come and do an estimate the other day as well. The place was a mess, as we had all just gotten over being sick. (Not a mess-mess) but def not what it usually is. I just didn't have the energy. They only estimated $4 more than my friends home of the same size. :cuc:

So, stating the first week of May, I have housecleaners again. 2x/month. It was part of dh's and my agreement if he took this new job. Which he did, so here's my perk.

I would not go crazy! I had someone come and do an estimate the other day as well. The place was a mess, as we had all just gotten over being sick. (Not a mess-mess) but def not what it usually is. I just didn't have the energy. They only estimated $4 more than my friends home of the same size. :cuc:

So, stating the first week of May, I have housecleaners again. 2x/month. It was part of dh's and my agreement if he took this new job. Which he did, so here's my perk.

Woo hoo!

Well, that's good to know--I won't knock myself out! :D

When I cleaned houses, we usually had to charge a fair amount for the first cleaning, but the following cleanings were based mostly on the size of the house and how frequently they had us come over.