The Exorcism of the dirty house

Ever since I started a dual life of a full-time professional and full-time student, I have found that it’s increasingly difficult to keep up on a daily routine of household chores, eight hours of sleep, exercise, home-cooked meals, and such. I excel at work and school, at the sacrifice of an orderly home and spending quality time with friends.  I’ve reached the conclusion that I can’t find enough time in the day or evening to keep up on the routine chores of maintaining an inviting home, so I’ll be looking into hiring a part-time maid service to come in a few times a month. It’s not worth the added stress to try to be a superheroine.

Meanwhile, I’ve got out of town company coming to visit next weekend. I’m not about to let something like a chaotic office keep me from playing to host to good friends. I’ve declared danger week on the place. Tomorrow, we’ve got an appointment with the “Got Junk” folks to take away old tech, furniture and accumulated crap. I’m happy about this. I have a schedule and plan in place for how to tackle each room and get the house in shape. There’s something exciting and reassuring about making this a priority for a week. More importantly, it creates a calm and zenlike home when everything is in it’s place.

My boyfriend and I are performing an exorcism on the clutter. I’m throwing or giving away clothes and things that I haven’t worn in some time. It won’t be sustainable given our hectic schedules, and now we a plan in place to mitigate that with the soon to-be-hired cleaning services.

If anyone has any good Seattle-area recommendations on services, please comment.