The old switcheroo

Are you ready to hear the latest on the cleaning person saga? (See this post for background, if you have no idea what I’m talking about.)

Go ahead…I’ll wait. *drums fingers on table top*

Okay, I think we were all pretty much in agreement that although it was super keen that J wasn’t robbing me blind, it was rather creepy that she was using my stuff. Using my stuff and NOT putting it back, lest we forget that part. So I had decided I was going to let her go.

By the time I came to this conclusion, it was only a few days before she was due back. I was worried about the timing because I knew with such short notice, that could really put her in a bind financially. I mean, what if she had already sent out checks to pay bills, counting on my money in a couple days? I wanted to make sure that if I let her go, it would be as painless as possible. So I decided to let her come back once more and I would let her go a day or two later. (It always pays to be nice and considerate of others…keep reading.)

So I came home on the day she had been here and the minute I opened the door, I knew something was different. The smell of the cleaning products was different. The rugs on the floor were in different places. The curling iron had been stowed in the linen closet instead of left sitting on the bathroom counter. The little fuzzy lint ball that had been living between my bed and the nightstand (that I was using as a test of J’s cleaning skills…a test which she failed multiple times, by the way) was GONE.

I called my mom (who has been eagerly following this whole thing like it was her own private soap opera) and I just kept saying, “It’s different! The house is different! Oh my gosh, someone different has been here because it’s just so different!” She finally said, “WHAT exactly is different?” And I said, “The rugs are different, the place smells different, the bathroom is different, and um, what else? Oh yeah! The place is REALLY CLEAN!” My mom, completely deadpan, said, “Oh my, that IS different!”

Yes, my dear readers, J didn’t clean my house that week and not only did she NOT bother to tell me she wasn’t coming…SHE. SENT. SOMEONE. ELSE. Isn’t that creepy on steroids? Now, I happened to know that if she wasn’t here, she probably sent her father. (The whole family is in the cleaning business together.) I mean, I didn’t for one minute think she just picked up some guy in an alley and gave him my address and a toilet brush. But still, the whole thing was a little strange.

So, back to my mom on the telephone…she asked what I was going to do. I mean, my house was CLEAN, folks. Clean, like sparkly and shiny clean. It was hard to ignore. So I told mom that I would give it one more chance and see what happened. If J came back, I would definitely let her go. If her dad came again, well…I do like the sparkly and shiny. I would just wait until the next time to make a decision.

Two weeks passed, and lo and behold, I returned home to a sparkly and shiny home AGAIN. So I gave J a call and asked who had been cleaning my house. Surprise! It was her dad. It turns out that she is 9+ months pregnant (being induced today, as a matter of fact!) and if it is okay with me, her dad will be taking over her houses.

If that is okay with me? Is she kidding? I get a sparkly, shiny house for the same money I was paying for less than stellar. How could that NOT be okay?

AND the man DOES NOT USE MY STUFF. Win-win, baby!

HIGH: Seeing the leaves just starting to turn. I love this time of year!