a day altering work of staggering cleanliness

The following post is sponsored by Homejoy. You can read more about Homejoy, its founders and philosophy, here. 

Every day, at around 9am, I get home from dropping all four kids off at school. It is then that my work day begins. Unfortunately, because I work at home, my work day begins in a house that has dishes in the sink, milk still out from breakfast and a mess in every room that I feel like I must clean because, well... it's hard to work in filth, you know? I need some order in my court before I serve...

SO.

I do the dishes.

I neaten up.

I sweep.

Dustbust. (The vacuum is way too much work. The dustbuster on the other hand is alright.)

And then suddenly it's 10:00 and I haven't eaten breakfast yet and I have an hour until a post is due and three hours until school pick up and and and and suddenly, my work day is over. Except it isn't because if I don't finish x and y by EOD, I will have double the work tomorrow which, no. SO! When the kids are down I work until bedtime. Rinse, wash, repeat...

Since the twins started school and Tamara left (sniff!) I have been on my own cleaning wise, save for the three times (in almost a year) I've hired help. In a perfect world, I would hire someone to come once a week, but financially speaking, that isn't going to fly.

I had never heard of Homejoy until a few weeks ago and was of course BEYOND thrilled to "give it a spin".

A cleaning service? YES PLEASE I WOULD LOVE TO PARTNER... HOW ABOUT TOMORROW? TOMORROW!

And so it was. I logged into Homejoy.com, picked a time that worked for me and two days later, Miriam knocked on the door. Miriam was cool and funny and had nothing but praise for her experience with Homejoy. (Homejoy works similarly to Uber/Lyft where independent contractors can make their own hours/schedules.)

I set up shop on the front porch with my computer so that I could continue to work from home without getting in her way and from 9-2:30, Miriam whipped the house into shape like whoa. I went ahead and took some before and after photos because they are fun.

First, we'll start with the twins' room because, HA!

Before

(at some point, you just give up.)
Oh, hey! That's... yeah. Yeah!

I am just now realizing that I never did a post about the twins' updated "big kid" room complete with twin beds (Ikea), bedding (Target) and carpet + storage ottomans (also Target). Everything else is unchanged since they were born and, if you're looking for sources, you can go here. Also, here, here, and here and here's a video of what the room looked like once upon a time when the twins were newborns. Sigh. Moving on! 

Looks good, right? If only it lasted longer than six minutes! (It looks like the "Before pictures" once again and has since Bo and Revi came home to a clean room and were like, THIS LOOKS GREAT! LET'S THROW EVERY TOY IN THE AIR TO CELEBRATE!)

Living Room: Before

After:

Archer and Fable's Room: Before

And after:
And before
And after
And before:
And after:
And before:
And after:
Dining Art Room: Before
And After:
Our Room: Before
"Pin this"
"Pin this, too"
Not a total Betty but a vast improvement. P.S. Hey, Elsa.

***

Beyond a clean house (for a day, anyway) I was able to get a day's worth of work done before school pick-up which NEVER happens. AKA, Hal and I caught up on Mad Men. (Is Don Draper dying? Is he already dead? Will he "fall" out of his office window in the season finale? Has he already jumped? Is Don me? Is Don you? Is this thing on? Who's on first?)

But, BY FAR my favorite part of the cleaning service (minus the clean house part) were all the goodies left behind... between the toilet paper and the paper towels and the sinks and the mints, I felt extremely special and fancy. Also? Miriam was awesome. 

Thanks, Miriam! Thanks, Homejoy!

***

Interested in giving HomeJoy a spin? From now until May 12th, get $25 off your first cleaning by clicking, here. Thanks again to Homejoy for sponsoring this post! 

GGC