Last Friday Chris and I did something we never had before - we hired a maid service to clean our house! With Chris working 6 - 7 days per week I feel that more of the housework has fallen on me. Most weeks I really don't mind this - I want to be supportive of Chris as he works two jobs and builds a successful small business. Plus he still does a lot around the house when he's not working - but he works a lot! When Chris gets home from being at the farmers' markets with Chow Locally he's exhausted, and rightfully so, he's been up and working since 5:30 AM! On the other hand, I also work a full time job and don't want to spend the entire weekend cleaning the house by myself. When the house doesn't get clean on the weekends I just don't feel like I start the week off right and it's harder to keep clean during the week.

So when a friend of mine mentioned that she hires a cleaning service run by a woman that she knows and trusts and that she pays less than $200 I had to get the number. I passed the contact information on to Chris and he arranged for our house to be cleaned on Friday as a Valentine's gift. I couldn't ask for a better present! We ended up paying $125 for the whole house to be cleaned including baseboards and blinds. Baseboards and blinds! Here is where I embarrassingly admit that our blinds were super dusty when we moved in...and we've never cleaned them. Since 2009! So this was a big deal to me. Given the level of detailed cleaning, I thought the price was so great.

Our house is sparkling clean - including our blinds and baseboards - and I've been able to have such a relaxing weekend without having to clean.

No dust here (for the first time in over 2.5 years).

A nice clear view to the backyard now that both sides of the sliding glass door are clean.

If you wanted to use my trash can as a mirror, you could.

Our breakfast table is dust free.

We're not sure yet if this will be a regular occurrence and if so, how regular. We really don't want to add another $125 to our monthly bills. But every 6 weeks to every other month could be OK. If getting the house cleaned occasionally makes the house easier to keep clean during the next few weeks and gives us some much needed free time it seems like money very well spent.