Kate and I both hate doing housework, so a year or so ago, we broke down and hired a cleaning service. Every other week, they send a crew in to vacuum and dust and clean the bathroom and kitchen, so we don’t have to. IT’s not a terribly expensive service, and we’re happier as a result.
I occasionally have pangs of liberal guilt about this, because it’s such a bourgeois thing to do. I had this mental image (aided by the brochure they sent when we signed up) of the cleaners as middle-aged Hispanic women, probably getting paid about six bucks an hour. Which would put me in the position of aiding and abetting the exploitation of the underclass, all because I’m too lazy to vacuum my own damn house.
Of course, I’ve never actually seen these people, as they generally come when we’re at work. Until today, when I was running a little late, and the cleaners showed up just as I was about to leave: two white guys in their 20’s. They looked like college students working a summer job.
I’m not sure where this fits in the context of International Blog Against Racism Week, but I thought it was pretty funny.
. . . now I feel sexist for being unhappy at the idea of guys vacuuming the bedroom floor, where I forgot to pick up various bits of clothing.
(I don’t suppose you thought to ask them what the heck product they use that smells like cinammon, and could they not?)
So you’re happy to give work to educated white men, but would hate to hire poor minority women, eh?
I find that the only way to not feel guilty about a cleaning service is to think of it as a cleaning service, rather than as maids. Maids are personal servants, doing the work you’re too good to do; a cleaning service is a company you hire to provide you with, well, a service, the same way you get internets and oil changes.
So you’re happy to give work to educated white men, but would hate to hire poor minority women, eh?
Based on the note they left with some coupons for cleaning products (presumably the cinnamon-smelling stuff Kate doesn’t like), “educated” might be a stretch. Then again, I’ve seen similar writing from actual college students, so who knows?
Meeting the cleaners didn’t change my feelings about the service (which, I agree, is not the same thing as having a maid– I’d be absolutely paralyzed with guilt over that), it just struck me as funny to have my assumptions exposed that way.
At Jordin’s instigation we hired a cleaning service called Renta Yenta. The first group that showed up to clean our house were 20 somthings in doc martens with tats and piercings everywhere. I blinked a lot at first, but they were really good! They eventually left the service and the people we’ve had since then have been mostly ok but never as good as Sean and Rachel were.
MKK