When all else fails, hire a housekeeper!
It first dawned on me that the $2 per workday I was spending on drive-through coffee could be put to better use when I sat in my recliner one night, took a look around me at the dust and dog hair that I didn't have the energy to vacuum up, and decided to stop beating myself up for not always having a neat and tidy home.
A friend had recommended her housekeeper and, after much discussion, we finally decided to swallow our pride and call her. It was probably the smartest thing we've ever done.
She is a delightful, energetic lady, wise way beyond her 32 years, who spent about six hours working her tuchus off the first time she came to our house. The most significant impact of her efforts on my feeling of relief was delayed, however, until the next morning, when I realized I could actually walk into the kitchen without slippers on and not worry about stepping on a sticky spot of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream that had dripped on the floor. I walked out of the kitchen, paused, looked at the bottoms of my BARE FEET, and Lo and Behold! They were CLEAN!!
Yes, in case you were wondering, most of the time when we drop food on the floor we do wipe it up right away. Or the dog does. But there is that occasional rushed intermission when the commercials have ended and our favorite show is coming back on when we may have dripped a glob or two and not paused to clean it up.
There is something about the feeling of having a really clean house that is hard to describe. It's not just pride of ownership, although that figures into it. Unfortunately, it seems that now our energy level is inversely proportional to our increasing years.
We still have lots of "stuff" to throw out, but just knowing that the floors are clean makes the prospect of having a neighbor actually come into the house when she wants to borrow an egg not quite so daunting (instead of asking her to wait on the front porch for the egg!).
Maybe it's just psychological, but paying someone to do something you just have no energy for is a good thing. I know many people will read this and say well, that's nice if you can afford it. Believe me, with one of us on a staff writer's salary at a small-town newspaper and the other on disability, I didn't think we could either. Until I took a closer look at where our income was going.
For me, that daily $2 for coffee on the way to work added up to about $500 a year (2x5x50, allowing for 2 weeks of vacation)! When I looked at it that way, it really did seem like an extravagance I could give up, or at least cut back on for the sake of having clean floors.
Now I buy organic coffee at the natural food store and make myself a cuppa Joe when I get to work, using a one-cup coffeemaker I've had for years. (You can find them just about anywhere.) The housekeeper vacuums, mops and dusts every other week, and it really IS something we can actually fit into the budget. And when we have some extra bucks, we have her stay a bit longer and help us clear out some of the clutter in the garage or office.
When I was a kid, my dad quit smoking. But, he continued to put the 35 cents per day that a pack of cigarettes was costing him (yes, this was WAAAAAY back when) into a huge jar in his closet. When it filled up, he took it to the bank. Eventually he had saved enough to buy my mom a mink stole. Not that I advocate buying a dead animal's coat with your savings if you quit smoking or make your own coffee at work, but think of what you could do with that money -- besides hiring a housekeeper.
For $500, you can:
(1) donate some of it to CARE (http://www.care.org), one of the most worthwhile organizations in the world that has many different programs fighting hunger, poverty, AIDS/HIV, and increasing access to education in developing countries, especially for girls. Or, to Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org) to provide a cow, goat, alpaca or chickens to a family in a developing country that will help them become self-sufficient by selling the milk, fleece or eggs in their village.
(2) buy a small TV for the kitchen so you don't have to miss the first few seconds of your favorite show after the commercial, if you're still dishing out the ice cream.
(3) buy two round-trip tickets from Eureka to Portland to visit Powell's, the coolest bookstore in the world (http://www.powells.com).
I'm sure you can think of all kinds of other ways to spend $500. And what the heck, make it $400 and buy yourself that special cup of coffee once a week. And maybe even a scone. You're worth it.