The blue dot, a red bra and the plastic bag

Whatever would these things have in common? Well, they are signs that my cleaning lady is getting worse and worse...

Let me go back to the beginning so you don't think I'm a complete spoiled brat! LOL When I decided to go back to school I knew I would need help at home with my munchkin and the house, so I originally asked/offered the job to my mom. She would clean my house once a week, plus get the munchkin on the bus for $50/wk. Then she feel in my shower and broke her shoulder. Since I wasn't in school for the summer, it was okay and the house was no problem. By the time school came around again she was okay enough to start cleaning again. But then she was scheduled for surgery that January and actually in December stopped cleaning. I knew my neighbor was cleaning some other houses and they were really in need of some financial assistance, so I offered her the job and she took it!

I think I thought things would be great, because she was always going on about how often she cleaned and how particular she was with her cleaning. She was even nice enough to clean my house on Christmas Eve that year because she needed the money and I was having the family over for Christmas dinner. So our relationship went from being just friends and neighbors to being employee/employer.

Well, things seemed great in the beginning but quickly went down hill. After maybe six months or longer I came to realize that she wasn't moving anything and dusting around things. If my son's playroom was out of order at all she would refuse to vacuum in there. Then I figured out that she was cleaning my entire house with one rag. I'm not sure about you, but with a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, and an almost 1,200 square foot home when I would clean I used more than one rag. Then my aunt pointed out to me that she was the one having to wipe off the TV screen weekly because no one else was doing it.

So I came to the decision that I was going to have to let her go soon...this came a realization in December, especially when a co-worker gave me the name and number of an alternate person to clean my house. She said she is really good and cheap too. I never got to make that call in December because my current lady's, who is no longer my neighbor but is still a friend, daughter came over to give me a picture of her baby and told me that her mom had been really, really down lately. I told her I was aware that her mom had been depressed lately and she confirmed that she feared that her mom was suicidal. I found this scary because a couple times my friend had called and said there were a couple times she thought of calling me because she was at her wit's end and had thought about ending it all.

I knew after having this information confirmed and with the economic downturn that I couldn't make that call to my friend telling her I no longer needed her services. :( I just didn't want that on my hands if she decided to do anything, especially since she wouldn't take any of my advice or suggestions and go and talk to a professional. So I decided to take her down to every 2 weeks instead of every week and she told me they were using my $50 every other week to file bankruptcy because they were so far behind financially. So I thought maybe once I confirmed she filed her BK I would move her down to once a month during the summer since I could clean once I'm done with school and then call the new lady and see how she was and maybe in the fall alternate them and eventually let my original lady go.

Then I discovered something today and I have changed my eventual plan... Two times I've tested my cleaning lady. Not intentionally, but when I would see something I would leave it there to see if and when it would get taken care of. One time I noticed that my blue shampoo had splashed a small little dab up on the side wall of my shower. It wasn't noticeable if you just looked at the shower, but if you were cleaning the tub and the shower you would definitely see it. 6 weeks later I took care of it myself. A few weeks ago I noticed something on the floor at the edge of my bed...my red bra. It was between my bed and the foot board under one of my decorative pillows that don't always make it up on my bed during the week. Well, I picked it up this weekend while I was doing laundry so I could wash it. Needless to say...the pillow and the bra were never picked up from the floor. I find it really ironic since she never has to make my bed but I did expect she had been dusting and using pledge on my oak bed...well, I hoped she was but I kind of thought some time ago that she hadn't been using pledge on any of my wood since we used it some time ago and placed a dusting rag on top of the canister, which has never moved since.

Then I found the final thing that kind of sealed the fate of my cleaning lady dilemma. As I was putting paper products away this weekend after shopping something feel on the floor in my bathroom closet where I keep all of my cleaning supplies and paper products. It was the bag that went over the end of my mop, which I purchased months and months ago when my other mop broke, along with the zip-tie that fastened the bag to the mop. Apparently when my cleaning lady unwrapped the mop she didn't feel compelled to throw out the plastic bag and instead left it balled up on one of my shelves in my bathroom closet...

So after the blue dot, a red bra and the plastic bag I know what I will need to do this summer while I'm off school...I'm hoping that their BK has been filed so I will feel less bad.