Am I a too-picky clean freak?

I had a lady come in today to clean our house. If you know me personally, you know I am pretty much a clean freak, so choosing not to do my own cleaning is usually out of sheer necessity and doesn't happen often at all. However, I have to admit that it is nice to get a break too. Or it should be, for normal people.

I usually leave the house while the cleaning is happening because I don't want {the kids and their trail of mess} to be in the way.

But I have found that often I come home and there are things that didn't get done or not done the way I wanted. And even though I know the house is clean per se, having those few little details incomplete makes it feel like it isn't.

Ken would call me way too picky and crazy. On that I would agree. He also thinks I clean too much as it is and that the house is already so clean it could go uncleaned for weeks and be fine.

On that, I disagree.

Plus, he's a boy and to him not having towels on the floor and an almost white toilet bowl would probably suffice.

The reason it's so clean (his opinion, in mine it could be cleaner! I'm my worst critic of course) is because I make cleaning part of my daily work, below the radar so as to not make it totally overwhelming. After all I do have 2 very exhausting kiddos to chase after. And then I just do a real good cleaning once a week {and Ken helps too; did I mention how great he is? Well now I did}.

It's not that I mind the kid's playing messes. I don't mind toys being taken out and set up in elaborate kiddo designed make-believe worlds. No, never that. And I never mind houses that look lived-in. I don't want sterile looking environments {like you see in those home design magazines} where nothing is out of place or completely free from clutter; after all, a home wouldn't be a true home without some shade of lived-in imperfection. What I mind are the dirt, grime, sticky, dirty things and dog hair on the floors, walls, etc. And you know how sticky and grimy kids and pets can get!

Anyways, I was again slightly dissapointed today with the job she did. It's not that she did a bad job, in fact the house is clean, she just didn't do a me job. But she also didn't lay out the rugs again after vacuuming, empty the trash cans, there were still some strands of hair in the tub and, worst of all for me, she left the toilet bowl scrubber holding bowl thingy on top of the bathroom counter in the kids' bathroom. Now I know my toilet bowl scrubber holding bowl thingy is not super dirty because I wipe it off after every time it's used, but still, she doesn't know that. And it's a toilet bowl scrubber holding bowl thingy!!! It should stay on the floor where it belongs no matter how clean it is! Is that too much to ask? Am I being too picky?

Oh well. I know I can't expect anyone to clean exactly how I do, after all I am crazy, remember? Plus Ken says that clean freaks like me don't sign up to clean other people's houses. But maybe they do...? It would be nice if one day I could find someone that would {be as crazy about cleaning as me*}, so I could truly get a break.

Now, here's the disclaimer. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to even have the option to hire someone to help and I admit that tomorrow (my usual cleaning day) I will like having the whole day free to spend it with Ken and the kids or maybe even do something just for me.

This is just a vent but mostly I just wanted to let you all know that I am a freak about clean.


*Last year I had a couple of gals that came a couple of times and they did do a great job. They even organized Maddie's books on her bookshelf. Those are the little things that make you come home and say "Ahhh, that's nice." But, sadly for me, they no longer have their business (which incidentally was called "CleanFreaks").