On the way down to North Carolina my husband remarked on an interesting point. He pointed out that I clean our vacation home more often and more thoroughly then I have ever cleaned our primary home, despite the fact that we have owned our primary home for for much longer and live in it 99% of the year.
I think it comes down to three basic facts. First, our vacation home needs to remain clean to ensure we don’t attract pests. It’s important to empty all of the trashcans, vacuum and sweep all of the floors and wipe down all of the counter tops and the refrigerator to ensure we keep ants and other creatures away.
Second, I really enjoy cleaning our vacation home. The house is about twenty years younger than our primary home and it is much easier to clean. At home we have 50 year old tiles and grout in all of the bathrooms. At the beach the bathrooms are only two years old and the bathtub is one big slab, which means I don’t have to clean out dirty grout.
Third, since the house remains empty for weeks at a time I like to leave knowing that everything is clean and in it’s place. Also, there is nothing better than coming home to a clean house. In fact, I often clean our primary house before we head to the beach. I don’t clean it as thoroughly as our vacation home, but I do sweep the floors, straighten the messes, take out the trash, etc. I like to know that I won’t have to think about cleaning when I return from a short trip to North Carolina.
I’ve actually been thinking more and more about hiring a cleaning service to perform a deep clean on our primary home. Maybe if they could get the tiles to sparkle and the floors to shine then I would enjoy cleaning at home more often. Maybe if I saw the house at it’s cleanest I’d want to continue to keep it clean and it wouldn’t feel like such a drudgery. I just hate the idea of pulling out an old toothbrush and wasting hours away in the bathroom cleaning out all that awful grout. Maybe if it was sparkling and clean I wouldn’t mind making sure the dirt and grime didn’t come back. Maybe…
Her Royal Highness says
Hey OFG – I fully and completely support hiring a cleaning crew twice a year to do a deep clean.
Generally speaking, a reputable service trains their cleaners extremely well to get all those weird places you and I might miss.
Add in the fact that they are equipped with the best tools of the business and… well, that’s one clean home.
I hire a crew everytime I switch apartments and it’s so worth the two hours I pay for.
Sense says
I would also be cleaning that other place more thoroughly because guests stay in it…maybe it’s a southern thing, but my mom always cleans the house from top to bottom when people are staying over–even if she just cleaned everything the week before, she’ll do it again. I catch myself doing the same thing–it’s like showing respect for other people or something–maybe something about hospitality…?
I also clean before I go on vacation. I used to go out in the field for work for weeks at a time, and I was careful to tidy up before I left…because walking into a clean, neat place after traveling? …ahhhh, it feels so good!
Debt Dieter says
I think the cleaning crew is a great idea, and worth every penny.
One Frugal Girl says
With these comments backing my decision I’m leaning more and more towards the deep clean. Now I just have to call a few companies and scope out the cost.
2million says
Cleaning crew for rental property could be tax deductible, might be better to hire the cleaning for the rental property and clean your primary house yourself.