Since house-cleaning is a huge business in the US I was wondering how many of you, Czech and Slovak ladies, hire (or would hire) a house cleaning lady? If you have not been brought up in Czech or Slovakia let me give you a little bit of a background on this situation. Back when I was a child everyone cleaned their house himself – there was no question about it. Having a cleaning lady coming to scrub your toilets meant that you were either really rich (which was unlikely) or there was something physically wrong with you (sickness, injury, old age). If you were to suggest those services to some woman during those years she would probably laugh at you and said something like: “What? Are you crazy? Why would I let some stranger in the house AND pay him money, if I can do that stuff myself?”.
I haven’t heard of such ‘magical’ services until I came to the US and I have to say I was kind of apprehensive of it at first. And I admit, I would still probably not hire any cleaning help just because I am a stay-home mom (and also a blogger!!) and I have more time to clean than someone who works full-time. But also, if someone were to clean my house, I would probably end up feeling bad for that lady the whole time she was there, wanting to help her! You know what is the worst about this whole business? Some of my American friends do use house-cleaning services and they actually clean before the cleaning crew comes so that they would not feel embarrassed about their ‘real’ mess!!! Now, what is the point of that?? Just clean the whole house when you are at it!!
Anyway, share your opinion in the poll bellow and/or comment bellow the post:
Loading ...CZ: Jelikoz jsou uklizecske sluzby v USA velmi zadane, zajimalo by me, kolik z vas, ceskych a slovenskych maminek zijicich v zahranici, zamestnava (nebo by zamestnalo) uklizecku, ktera vam pravidelne uklizi dum. Musim se vam priznat, ze ja jsem o techto ‘kralovskych’ servisech nemela ani tuseni az do te doby, kdy jsem prijela do Spojenych statu. To vite, v Cechach neco takoveho nebylo vubec k videni, vsechny zenske na ten svuj tip top uklizeny domecek byly pysne a ani je nenapadlo, ze by si domu privedly nejakou ‘cizi osobu’ a jeste ji za to PLATILY (!!) – to proste neprichazelo do uvahu.
Ale i ted bych s tim asi mela problemy; hlavne protoze jsem ‘zena v domacnosti’ (ale taky blogger!!) a mam o trosku vic casu na uklizeni, nez nekdo, kdo pracuje na plny uvazek. Ale i kdybych si nekoho az najala, tak si myslim, ze bych si celou tu dobu co tam ta pani smrdli houbickami, pripadala divne a vinne. Vite, co je na tom ale to nejhorsi? Vetsina lidi (vim to od mych Americkych kamaradek, ktere uklizecky maji) uklizi pred tim, nez samotna uklizecka vubec prijde! Tak proc neuklidit cely dum, kdyz uz jsme u toho??
No, nic, vyse je uvedena anketa, ve ktere muzete vyjadrit sve pocity (a samozrejme, ze uvitam vase komenty):
Gee Tanja…you look a lot different in this picture… What happened?!?!
Ja bych nic proti uklizecce nemel, ale musela by vypadat trochu jinak nez ta na fotce 😉
Ale po pravde receno, nejak se mi nelibi myslenka, ze cizi zenska se mi bude hrabat v mych vecech ktere lezi vsudem kam oko dohledne 😉
Kdyz jsem kupoval dum, tak zrovna “cleaning crew” opusteli dum a dali mi svou “business card” , ze kdybych je potreboval…Moje odpoved je urazila, protoze jsem jim rekl, ze je asi nebudu potrebovat, protoze jsem zenat 🙂
What do you mean??? I just took my contacts off, put my cleaning gear on and that was it!!! (OK,maybe I had a little too much bublanina too…) 😉
hahaha!!! Jestli je to stejne jako u nas, kde je vestsina cleaning crew z Mexika, tak ti asi nerozumneli, tak je to v pohode….
to je prave ono, my jsme zvykli z Cech, ze jakakoliv ‘cizi osoba’ by nas okradla, kdyby jsme ji nechali samotnou. Tady o tom ani nepremysleji – oni proste vedi, ze se to nestane a taky ze ne (z 99%)….
Vlastimile, to je teda drsny!
Muj manzel by si zkusil neco takoveho rict a se zlou by se potazal.
Zase na druhou stranu my nemame mycku, protoze muj manzel je myc.
😛
Tano:
Ted uz to stihame, ale kdyz se nam narodil syn, urcite bych ten prvni rok uklizecku brala, ale financne jsme si ji nemohli dovolit. Jen na tri tydny jsme meli studentku, ktera chodila parkrat za tyden na par hodin mi pomoct. Dost tezko jsem se zotavovala po cisari. Taky mi bylo trapne, ze mame v basementu tolik veci a ze mi a memu manzelovi pere spodni pradlo. 😉
Ale kdyz jsem si predstavila, ze jdu po tech schodem dolu a pak zase nahoru, tak mne ten pocit presel. Moje americka kamaradka mi tehdy rekla: “kdyz uz tam je, tak ji zaprahnete. Ji to vadit nebude a aspon se bude citit potrebna.” Takze jsme opravdu pokazde sepsali seznam veci a takhle cisto jsme tu od te doby nemeli. haha
Jinak mam dve kamaradky v Praze, ktere si obcas pani na uklid zaplati, kdyz uz nestihaji. A jsou to maminky na materske. Nijak zvlast bohate nejsou, ale za ten stras a drinu jim to nestoji. Pry je to jiz ted celmem normalni a nikdo se nad tim nepozastavuje. Tedy krome generace nasich rodicu.
Ahoj Jani,
diky, ze jsi me dala ‘up to date’, jak to s tema uklizeckama v Cechach je, ze uz se to ‘zwesternuje'(to je slovo, co?) 🙂
To je prave to, kdyby mel clovek vic penez, tak by to asi bylo neco jineho….
Jano, ja vim, je to drsny, ale kdyz jsem navrhl manzelce, ze zkusime mnohozenstvi, tak s radosti souhlasila, ze pry si aspon odpocine (tak asi neco na tom neco je..) Bohudik k tomu pokusu nedoslo, potraviny a obleceni zdrazilo, tak jsem si spocital, ze nez mit dve nebo tri manzelky, je lepsi si objednat servis jen na tu dobu, co to je nutne zapotrebi 😉
Mozna by se uklizecka hodila, ale v mem pokoji (home office) nedovolim uklizet ani manzelce….Mam tam takovy “tvurci” neporadek, za ty roky uz vim, kde jaky kus papiru lezi.. 😉
Uklizet v mem pokoji by prudce snizilo moji produktivitu….
Good observation, Tanja. This really is a noticable cultural difference. I couldn’t pick any of those answers though; neither of them really describes my situation.
I do have a cleaning lady now but just like you, I was fighting the idea for the longest time for the same reasons. However, as we kept moving, houses were getting bigger, and it was just too much for one person to handle. I actually enjoy cleaning but with a baby I do not have the time to devote at least a half day to deep cleaning and scrubbing (and I like my house clean). I still do the everyday little cleaning, washing the dishes, vacuuming, and doing the laundry, but have a lady come and do the deep cleaning once a week. Yes, I do “clean” before she comes, but it is more of a straightening up and putting things where they belong, so that she can clean properly. I still have feelings of guilt and I could never sit down when she is there cleaning, so I just take it as a cleaning day and as long as my baby lets me, we clean together, just doing different things.
Also, I have to say that I am a stay-at-home mom but my house gets much messier now when I am at home (with a baby, two dogs and a bird) than when I was working all day long. There was no one to make the mess throughout the day … there were no dishes to wash, no muddy floors to clean after the dogs, and no toys to put away every day.
Ted koukam, ze jsem to vsechno mohla napsat hezky cesky, ale jak jsem ten clanek docetla, tak jsem proste uz byla v “English mode”. Ani mi to nedoslo …:-(
Ja si teda uklizim sama, stydela bych se najimat uklizecku, ale to je jen muj osobni nazor a pocit, vubec nikoho neodsuzuji. Bylo by me i lito penez, ktere muzu vyuzit na jine veci. Sice mam 2 deti, ale vsechno jde, kdyz se chce ;o) Taky mam super manzela, ktery me pomuze treba vysat ci umit nadobi atd. ;o)))
No, hele, kdybych mela ty penize, tak by mi nejaky to ‘ground cleaning’ taky nevadilo (teda nevadilo…asi bych musela odejit, aby ten pocity viny castecne zmizel)!
Kdyz jsem bydlela s moji host family (asi pred 500-ti lety) tak oni take meli jednu pani, ktera jim uklizela 1-krat tydne a musim rict, ze jejich dum vypadal jako v hotelu!!! I ten zachodovy papir byl slozeny jako v hotelu!!!
Tanja, dum, ktery je hezky jako v hotelu, tam bych nemohl bydlet…
Dum musi byt “charming and cozy”….Nejaka ta ponozka na stole prida ke kouzlu pri romanticke veceri….
My grandparents are from Slovakia and they were very determined to clean everything from start to finish themselves and in one day. The idea of paying someone would really offend their old-fashioned way of housekeeping. I think paying someone to clean in this poor economy is not wise because it would be a waste of money when we could clean ourselves.
“Uklizecky” dorazily na platna kin ….
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3040582912/tt0446085
I got to see that movie!
Hi Michelle,
We were just commenting (in Czech – sorry, sometimes we forget ourselves) that the older generation (our parents and older) would NEVER hire anyone. But the younger generation is more up to date with the current world, which is a good thing 🙂
Honestly – I don’t think that American cleaning crew can clean my place as good as I and Rumba can… I hate vacuuming but so we bought Rumba – vacuum robot that cleans the floors everyday by itself and I can just dust the furniture once a week. I would hire crew for cleaning windows couple times a year 🙂
Funny you should mention Rumba because my husband bought a refurnished Rumba just recently – as an experiment – and it failed terribly. Back to the ‘old fashioned’ cleaning …:(
Maybe your Rumba has a better personality??
Excuse me dear. Rumba did not fail terribly. She’s just resting for awhile…
Ladi, Rumba would choke while crawling all over the places in our house
neuklidit nekomu kdo to potrebuje,napriklad starsim lidem,muzum kteri ziji samy a od rana do vecera pracuji,mamince co ma vice deti a pracuje(ona v praci ty u ni)nebo samotnym zenam ktere nestaci na takovy chlapsky uklid jako velika okna atd proc ne!
I stumbled across your cool blog while searching for a picture of a cleaning lady to add to my post today about the troubles I’m having with my cleaning lady.
I agree, I do go around the house picking up things before the cleaning lady arrives, but I do that everyday anyway because I’m a very neat person.
It wasn’t until the past few years that I have been able to afford a cleaning lady. It frees up my time to do other things. But I can’t seem to find a cleaning lady who either actually cleans well, or shows up when she’s scheduled to clean.
Anyway, I enjoyed your blog today.
http://www.madtexter.com/2009/08/to-show-up-per-chance-to-clean.html