As I look ahead to the surgery in a month, I would like to get my house cleaned up before friends and family come to visit. I even have out-of-town friends offering to come stay to help me out after surgery so I'd like my house to look nice. It's a total mess as I've had a hard time keeping up with it since it's difficult to get around. It's in desperate need of dusting, vacuuming, and floor washing. My boyfriend and I did a major cleaning prior to our New Year's party and it was absolutely brutal! Just thinking about how bad I felt after a week's worth of cleaning and then hosting a party leads me to avoid cleaning now. I really want to come home to a clean, fresh house post-surgery. Any tips on how to handle household chores when your mobility and energy are compromised? Thanks!
Is there any way you could hire a cleaning service? If not, maybe your boyfriend and friends would help. For yourself, limit how much you do each day and don't try a marathon effort. And...MOST IMPORTANTLY.....your friends know how much pain you have been in and they don't expect nor care about a sparkling house. They are coming to help YOU and not to evaluate your homemaking skills.
I agree---if you are hurting that much---and you are---then I would check for prices about a cleaning service so you do not have to endure that type of pain again. I would also remember that your friends understand how much pain you have been in and will not mind it at all.
Otherwise, do it like the old saying "how do you eat an elephant? answer: one bite at a time"! In other words, do small jobs well spaced apart. That's how I cleaned my house whilst in recovery. I would dust one room then vacuum it the next day - that sort of thing. Drove me mad not to be able to crack on and get it all done in one fell swoop but you can only do what you can do!
Hi Kathy I don't know if this will work for you but I get a neighborhood boy to clean my house. He is 13 and a real go getter. He does a fantastic job and is very excited with the $20.00 dollars I give him which is more that he asks for. He does exactly what I want him to do and even more. Good luck (if they are really good friends they won't care.)
Thanks for the support and suggestions! I'm sure my friends won't mind, it's me who minds. I think I will try to break down some of the manageable tasks into smaller bits I can do, but maybe I will enlist someone to do the bigger tasks, like vacuuming and washing up the floors. I just can't do those at all. I hope to find someone as inexpensive as your neighborhood helper, Carol. I will check with a high school girl I know...she might know someone. Great suggestions all! Thank you very much!
Just a thought---do you attend a church? Perhaps some of your fellow congregants can help you out, too.
Hello Klalota I can sure understand how you feel. Not being able to keep up with the housework always was a source of anxiety for me. Like Jo, I broke up my work into smaller tasks and I still do, as I have fibromyalgia and it's the only way I can get my work done. My house isn't as clean as I'd like it to be, but the folks that do come never seem to mind. There are lots of good suggestions here.. I wish you well..
