With your busy, important life, there’s no shame in employing a cleaner. A cleaner is simply someone who does a job you don’t have the time or skill to do. Really, it’s no different to employing a doctor, an accountant, a mechanic or a lawyer. Okay the cleaner has to scrub your shit from off your toilet bowl, but let’s not split hairs. It’s still more dignified than being a lawyer.
What is shameful is exposing your dirty house to a stranger’s prying eyes. It is essential, therefore, that you scrub the place from top to bottom prior to the arrival of your cleaner.
When your cleaner does make an appearance, it is important to treat him or her (okay, just her) as an equal; offer her tea and follow her around every room to make sure she doesn’t nick your stuff.
When your friends ask how much you pay your cleaner it is customary to double the amount. This expedient prevents you from appearing exploitative.
Truth!
I have the same loo as the one in the photo – my wife’s choice. I wanted to go the whole middle class hog and have a 21st century water-saving cistern, with the graceful, Modernist curves of Le Corbusier. But my wife’s genuinely middle class and I’m upper working (my mother has a doll loo roll holder) so I always defer to her style choices.
Sometimes I wonder about her credentials though, as she keeps removing my books from the bathroom. However, my wife is solidly middle class when it comes to having a cleaner. I’d rather undergo ritual disembowelment than employ a cleaner, but my wife would have one at the drop of a hat (I suppose the obvious comment at this point is that my wife does more housework).