Domestic goddess I am not. I hate cleaning. I hate all forms of cleaning. I hate every possible way you can clean your house.

Now, that does not mean I hate BEING clean. I love being clean. I love it when my house is clean. But most specifically I love it when other people have cleaned my house for me.

This doesn't happen often. I was green with envy when my sister-in-law informed me they had gotten a maid service (and they didn't even have kids then). Her husband was a consultant for a company that was not based in the Memphis area, so even though they already lived in the area before he became a consultant, they considered him to be on an out-of-town project, and so they paid him a living stipend to cover housing and transportation and stuff like that. So they got the rent on their house paid, and had enough left over for my sister-in-law to pay for a maid service. It wasn't heavy-duty cleaning; she did the vacuuming and dusting and cleaned up the kitchen and the bathroom.

Hell, that's exactly what I want someone to do at my house! I don't care if someone gets on his or her hands and knees and scrubs my kitchen floor--I'm certainly not going to do it and I wouldn't expect anyone else to do it either--but I would love the basics do get done: my toilet cleaned, my floors swept and vacuumed, my dishes washed and put away (I have a dishwasher that is not installed, so we have to do them by hand). That's really all I ask for. I don't mind doing my own laundry. I don't mind making my bed. I don't mind wiping off the counter tops. I can handle all that. Is it really so much for me to ask that someone else does the other stuff?

I know I sound really petty and lazy. I am. I freely admit it. I would love to have someone do this stuff for me. I just don't have the money to pay anyone right now.

Does anybody know someone who needs to get public service hours? I've got a bathroom floor that needs some attention...