Since transitioning over to my new blogging schedule, a typical Sunday for me usually consists of me preparing for the upcoming week. I make sure: the posts for the week are ready to go, draft/s for weekly posts (such as Where Did the Dough Go? and Sublime Saturday Assemblage), catch up on commenting on other blogs and make my extensive list of things I need to get done for the week.
I’m always hesitant to take a detour from these Sunday planning days because they help me get a little organized (which is still a constant struggle for me) and prepared. Any slight disturbance in the balance just throws me off, rendering me all confused and unable to get anything productive done.
An Earning Opportunity Presents Itself
That’s exactly what happened to me yesterday when I got a call from my mom at like 8am. You might remember from my other post, How much house do you really need?, that my mom hires somebody to help her with the housecleaning for her crazy-huge house.
Well, Sunday was my lucky day. My mom called me in the morning because she wanted to know if I could come over and help her clean for the day—she was even going to pay me. Woo hooo! How could I turn down an opportunity to earn money? Even though I knew my sacred planning day would be completely demolished and I’d have to spend Monday doing my normal weekly planning, I told her that I would love to help her clean for money. There’s no way that sticking to my little routine was worth passing up an earning opportunity, that would just be silly.
I Hate Housecleaning!
I’m not one of those people who enjoy cleaning; I absolutely hate housecleaning. Sure I’ll keep our apartment clean and do the spring cleaning sometimes, but I’m not smiling while I do it. I try to stay focused and get it cleaned as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Apparently getting paid to do something I hate isn’t really that bad. I love money and people usually have to work for it, so I’m not complaining whatsoever.
Embracing an Opportunity to Earn
My honey was at work with our only car, so she even offered to pick me up. So I spent the day at my mom’s house and cleaned my little heart out. I totally understand why she pays somebody to help her clean that place, it just can’t get completely clean in one day.
I’d have to pay somebody too if I had a house that big, otherwise I’d be spending most of my life trying to keep up with the cleaning. We are only given so much time in life, who wants to spend it all cleaning house? Not me, and apparently not her either since she pays for help. 😉
In the end, I earned $120.00 for helping her with the housecleaning and my desire to have a small house was definitely reinforced. I might have given up my day of planning, but it was well worth it. Don’t get me wrong, I seriously busted my @ss, which by the way got a great workout from going up and down 3 floors all day.
If somebody is going to pay me to do something, I’m going to kick butt and make them happy they chose me, even if it’s something I hate like housecleaning. Maybe one day in the future she might need a little more help…and she’ll remember how great I worked.
Do you embrace earning opportunities?
Can somebody pay you to do something you hate?
If someone paid me to clean, I could do it of course! $120 is good money!
Yeah, I was surprised I was able to earn so much.
I’d definitely do it – there are a lot of things I don’t love but would do to earn money. I used to paint for my dad and hated it, because I’d be out in the cold.
It’s funny what kinds of things our parents can get us to do, especially as they get older.
I don’t mind cleaning – it’s not my favorite though. I also cherish my Sunday afternoons. Yesterday, I wrote 5 blog posts and got caught up. I am trying to get really far ahead in my post schedules because I am taking a vacation and will be busy starting in May.
Wow, 5 posts in a day! I wish I could pump out posts as quickly as you.
Back in October when we went on our anniversary/my b-day vacation, I wrote posts ahead to cover for when I was gone—it was nice to not worry about writing and posting while on vacation.
Where are you going on vacation, Corey?
I don’t think I’d take on an extra job to clean houses, just too much for me. I’m a messy person.
My honey is a messy person too.
I wouldn’t mind cleaning for her more often, but I think this might have been a one-time thing.
I kinda like doing cleaning since it gives me quiet time to think and it’s a nice break from computer work. Still, I hate all the time that it takes up. It sounds like your mom needs to consider moving into a smaller house. Then again, you don’t want to suggest that while she’s willing to contract out the cleaning to you.
Cleaning really can take up a ton of time, especially if you’re cleaning up after other people. 😉 They just recently added on a couple thousand square feet, so I don’t think they’ll be downsizing anytime soon.
I think that was a good deal even though you don’t like cleaning. You’re not alone. Not many do.
I am like you, I prefer a smaller space with less to clean and maintain. I always get a chuckle out of couples on House Hunters when they look for 5,000 square foot homes for the 2 of them. I wonder if they have a clue of how long it will take them to clean the house each week. I enjoy having a clean house, but would rather do other things, then spend tons of time cleaning it.
I’m thrilled that I was able to earn some extra money, even if it was for cleaning.
I used to love watching House Hunters on HGTV back when we had cable. At the time I never thought about why somebody would need so much space or how much they’d have to clean. Luckily I do now and couldn’t imagine doing it myself.
By the way, I meant to include that I really like the shade of blue you chose for your hearts!!
Thanks. 😀
That is a pretty sweet way to make money! Tax-free!
My mom paid me to sort through her and my dad’s bank statements and file them by type/name/date. It was exhausting and I understood why she was paying me to do it. It took over 5 hours and I seriously got lost in all the paperwork. At first I was intrigued but then it got old really quick. Then again, I was glad she trusted me because there was no way she could trust anyone else especially with all that info and access to private info.
There’s no way my mom would hire me to clean her house – she is way too OCD! I’d get yelled at haha.
I hate filing and paperwork even more than cleaning. It really gets exhausting after a while, no wonder she wanted to pay you to do it.
Oh, my mom is OCD about her housecleaning too. I don’t get yelled at, but constant inspections were essential to making sure she’s happy with it.
While I would love to make money on the side, I hate cleaning so much that I don’t think someone could pay me to do it. On the other hand, if my mom asked me for help cleaning, I would do it in a heartbeat (but not let her pay me for it). It just depends on the task – there are plenty things I would do for extra money.
lol It sounds like you hate cleaning even more than I do.