Paying a house cleaner is the best money I've ever spent

In the latest issue of Personal Finance Insider: Spending $150 a month on a house cleaner is worth it for the mental-health benefits.

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Here's what: Spending $150 a month to have my house cleaned is worth every penny

Earlier this year, in the throes of new motherhood and postpartum depression, I looked around my house — at the dust bunnies, the piles of unpacked moving boxes, the spills on the stove — and wept.

After giving birth, selling one house, buying another, and moving, all in the span of six months, I had not one ounce of energy left after working all day and caring for my son to clean my house. But of course it needed to be cleaned. It was gross, and I had a newly mobile baby and a dog who tracks things in on her paws. 

A few weeks earlier, I'd started desperately cleaning one thing, one area, one room at a time. If I had five minutes one day, I'd vacuum my son's bedroom while he was downstairs with my husband. Ten minutes another day, I'd clean the stove and wipe down the kitchen counter. But by the time I got to my next cleaning "window," the things I'd already swept, mopped, and scrubbed were dirty again. I had to start my piecemeal journey all over again.

So I wept.

It wasn't just the house, of course, it was everything. I was overwhelmed by my many responsibilities and new identity as a mom, and postpartum depression made me feel like I was wearing a head-to-toe robe of molasses — I could barely see through it, let alone move with ease. It doesn't help that visual clutter and household mess are connected with anxiety and stress. It was just one big stress snowball.

Something had to give, so I started looking for solutions.

Could spending money help?

I am not a person who easily "throws money at a problem" — I have far too much spending guilt for that — but I finally realized there was at least one part of this problem money could solve: I could hire a house cleaner. 

I looked at my budget and, thanks to inflation, didn't see a lot of wiggle room. Yes I could cut a subscription here or a takeout meal there, but that was not going to get me the $150 I needed for my monthly cleaning. So I decided to trim my savings.

I was putting over $500 a month into various savings buckets for things like travel and healthcare expenses, but most of it was sitting there, rarely getting used. I decided I could easily cut that back some without jeopardizing my family's financial security while also providing for us in the present.

And so I did. And for the last several months, a team of very lovely ladies has come to my home every few weeks and made it sparkle.

I so appreciate them. And I couldn't be happier to pay that monthly bill.

— Stephanie Hallett, senior editor of Personal Finance Insider

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