I’ve been a mother for over twelve years so I thought I had this whole motherhood thing down to a science. I gave everyone chores, we all pitched in to get them done and everything in the household went smoothly. Things worked that way, until I had two toddlers within 18 months of one another, started my own business while still working a full-time job and moved to a new city. Needless to say the last four years have been chaos. To add to the chaos, I never feel like my house is “clean enough” because we are all always on the go from after school activities, business meetings and just living.

There would be some days I would come in and see a load of laundry needing to be folded and I’d literally want to scream.

I grew up in a household, ran by my mother, who seemingly kept her house so clean you could eat off her floors. She never even thought about having someone come and help her—she was a dictator when it came to us doing our chores and punishing us accordingly if we did not do them to her liking. So imagine the horror when I’m running after two toddlers and a preteen to keep their rooms clean. Everyone has chores but it always seems to more to clean so I’m always left feeling fearful that my mother will come over and take her white glove to inspect the cleanliness of my house. One Saturday morning when I was trying to wash baseboards and juggle a business meeting my husband said something that literally jolted me into reality. He suggested that instead of wasting entire Saturdays to deep clean, let’s hire someone to come once a month to do it for us and we just keep up the maintenance in between visits.

As soon as he said that, I literally had an epiphany of epic proportions. While my mother always kept a clean house, I wasn’t like her because I work outside my home. She did not. My mom had the support of older children helping her corral the younger children into cleaning—even if we didn’t want to. There was nothing wrong with asking for help.

The next day, I called my friends around and before long I had a list of reliable cleaning ladies who were modestly priced and did an excellent job. It felt weird calling and asking for someone to clean my house. I even felt weirder when one by one they all came and gave me a quote on how much their services would be.

In the end, I chose someone and along with having a cleaner house I also have a clearer mind. No longer do I dread Saturdays because I know that all the whole family will be doing will be cleaning the house. Instead we can do light cleaning and have fun like we’re supposed to on weekends.

My MommyNoire family, have you ever hired someone to clean your house? How did it go?

Franchesca Lane-Warren is a blogger, freelance writer and business owner behind the widely popular BossyGirl in the City blog. Follow her on Twitter @bossygirl1980 for more tidbits on how she sees motherhood, natural hair, running and life- in general.