Serviced

Big day today. I'm up early and have already showered and eaten. I've checked my email and have read a few blogs.

I am off to the grocery store in order to pick up a few essentials and to purchase a few cleaning products. I have a cleaning person coming over this afternoon to take care of the nastiness that is the top floor apartment. I couldn't face cleaning the bathroom or the kitchen, and though I think that it is incredibly horrible to pay someone else to do it, I am realistic enough to know that that is the only way that it will get finished and finished properly. Usually, I am an extreme cleaner, but the bathroom in that apartment is huge and I really am not up to the challenge. I am also a firm believer in cleaning up your own mess. I will never have someone else clean my bathroom; that's a job I take care of for myself. When it comes to the rental apartment, I think that the jerks who used to live there should have cleaned it themselves, but they didn't and I really don't want to do it.

So, I've become one of those people who will pay to have someone else do their dirty work. I'll justify it by saying that it's simply a professional service. I pay to have my eyes checked, I pay to have my cavities filled (my teeth, sheesh!), I pay (through taxes) to be consulted by a doctor. Granted, these are things that I can't do myself. Consider, though, going out for dinner. I can cook and enjoy cooking, but I will still go out for a nice meal every now and then. Might paying someone to clean be similar? I can clean and enjoy cleaning (in as much as one can enjoy cleaning). We don't look down on people who pay to eat at a restaurant, why do I feel so bad about paying someone to clean an empty apartment?

Well now that that rationalizing is out of the way I can stop feeling so guilty, lazy, and aristocratic about it. Still, it has this air of exploitation about it, and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe I'm a bad person, or maybe I'm just thinking too much about nothing. It makes me a little sad to know that while I'm out working, someone will be doing a job that I should have done. That will never make me feel good.

With the apartment cleaned, I am having an open house tomorrow so that I can get the apartments rented for September 1st. I have had over 60 people who are interested in renting and rather than trying to arrange meetings, I have just decided to open up the house tomorrow morning and evening. With luck, I can get the place rented quickly so that I can stop stressing about it and stop feeling guilty about procrastinating. My Dad, too, will be extremely happy, and that will make me relax a little.