Cleaning House
Since late November, I’ve been desperately trying to find myself a maid. Wait, scratch that, house keeper. I’m told calling people who clean your house “maid” is no longer polite. House keeper is the new vernacular. What’s so wrong with maid?
The search for a house keeper has been interesting one. I first asked amongst my friends for recommendations, but that was a no-go. So, I checked out the listings on Craigslist. The listings there were an odd assortment. I was surprised by the number of men listing their availability to clean house … nude! Clearly their cleaning service comes with, at the very least, additional scenery for those who might find it attractive and/or a happy ending. This client wasn’t interested.
I specifically didn’t want a professional cleaning service as it usually costs 30-50% more than if you just go with an individual. You can tell from the writing styles on Craigslist which ads are for services and which are individuals. After some considerable searching I found a woman named Jenny that seemed suited to my needs (i.e. her good English more than made up for my almost non-existent grasp of the Spanish language). We spoke and made plans for her to come out and clean my apartment.
On the day Jenny was to come out to my house, she called to reschedule. I was disappointed, maybe even slightly annoyed, but she was available the next day and that would work OK
The next day she called me to say she was running a little late and would arrive at 10:00 as opposed to the scheduled 9:00. That pissed me off because I knew she wouldn’t be able to finish my entire house before noon, the time she told me she’d have to leave to go to another client. I told her to come anyway and do what she could. Sshe showed up at 10:15, finished the master bathroom and the kitchen and then left at noon, leaving her sweater behind. At least she got something done. We made plans for her to come back the following Friday.
The following week my my father died, so I cancelled the appointment and told her I’d reschedule. She understood and that was the last I ever spoke to her.
I called a week later to reschedule and left a message, but she never returned my call. I called a week after that, thinking she might be on vacation, but there was no answer and another message was left. Right after Christmas I called her again, reminded her that she left her sweater here and informed her that if I didn’t hear from her by the new year I’d call someone else. She never called, I gave her sweater to Goodwill and moved on. The flakiness annoyed me. I should have known from day one she wasn’t going to work out.
I started to scour Craigslist again, dodging the weird “I’ll clean your house nude and lick it for you” ads. I found another woman who seemed nice. In her ad it said she went to my part of Los Angeles. I called and left her a message. We ended up playing phone tag went for two days when finally she reached me. We talked price, time and size (of the apartment, you dick weeds) and made plans for her to come out the following Friday. She asked for my address, I gave it to her and she said, “Ohhhhhhhhh, you so farrrrrrrr!” Her reaction was as if I lived in the Saharan desert and I expected her to commute all the way from California. Annoyed, I hung up and went back to Craigslist.
I sifted through another 10 or so “I’ll clean your house nude and sift through your ‘garbage’ when I’ve finished” ads and finally found a nice woman named Letty. She and her husband clean homes together, which means the job would be done that much faster. Great. We talked price and made plans for her to come out Monday at 2:00 PM.
By 3:00 PM there was no Letty. I called and another message was left. Seems she got held over at her day job (she works at a grocery store) and couldn’t call because she left my number at home. Fine, no worries, but now there was the issue of LA traffic. She was going to leave Marina Del Rey at 3:30, which meant she had an hour to 1.5 hour trek across LA in traffic to my house. She said she still wanted to do it, so off she went. At 5:00 she finally showed.
Two hours later Letty and her husband finished up and were on their way home. I liked her. She was sweet, professional and very contrite (the number of times she apologized for being late became silly) and both she and her husband did a fine job. She told me she’d been at this house cleaning thing for a year, now. She’s worked at the grocery store for five years and when the SoCal grocery stores all went on strike at the end of 2004, she suddenly found herself without any work or money. So she and her husband started cleaning homes and decided to keep doing it well past the strike, just in case. She said the contract she’s under is up for renewal in 2007 and she’d rather not be caught in the same situation twice.
It looks like I have finally found a house keeper I can rely on. I think. I just want a clean home and don’t have time/want to do it myself. Is that too much to ask?
