Typical Day
It's Monday and school is back in session, so Tammy hops in the shower at 5:55AM. By 7:20AM, she has her three kids fed, dressed, and in the car on the way to school. Not bad.
Tammy gives herself an invisible pat on the back and sits a little taller in the driver's seat of her Honda Odyssey. It's going to be a good day—she can feel it. Once the kids are dropped off, she pulls onto the highway and heads to her first job of the day.
A twelve-year veteran housekeeper, Tammy loves making her own schedule. When she first married, work was ten-hour days at a manufacturing facility and cleaning houses on the side for extra cash. Once the kids came along, Tammy decided to clean houses full time so she could spend more time being a mom.
She checks the clock as she turns into the Gurney's drive. Fifteen minutes early. But, that's no problem. Tammy's been keeping house for the Gurneys for several years, and she knows they're early risers. Some clients would kill her if she showed up before 8:00AM. But not the Gurneys; they'd invite her to eat breakfast.
She parks by the garage, grabs her cleaning kit, and starts up the steps. Before she reaches the top, Howard Gurney opens the door with a wide smile. "Good morning Tammy. Let me get that for you."
"Good morning. It's not heavy, but thanks." She knows better than to argue with Howard. He's an old school gentleman—just one of the things Tammy loves about him.
As she walks into the kitchen, she greets Kathryn Gurney, who invites her to sit and eat breakfast (shocker). Tammy already ate, but she'd be crazy to refuse one of Kathryn's biscuits. The woman has been making them for fifty years. They're excellent and everyone knows it.
The biscuit is great as always, but nothing comes without a price. Tammy can see that Kathryn has something on her mind.
"Tammy, dear. I'm afraid I have an extra chore for you today. The grandkids were here last night and they colored on the hall wall below the chair rail. I scrubbed 'til nearly 10:00PM but had no luck at removing it."
"Don't worry. I have something I'm sure will get rid of it in no time," Tammy says to a skeptical-looking Kathryn. She finishes breakfast, takes one more gulp of coffee, and starts toward the hall.
The Gurneys are Tammy's oldest clients and it'd been a while since their children were small. A few years ago, crayon on the wall might mean repainting. But, with a little water and a magic eraser sponge, all traces of last night's art festival are gone. Then she moves on to changing the bed, washing a load of linens and towels, dusting, and vacuuming. Finally, Tammy leaves a little room for a five-minute water break, then it's on to the next house.
No one will be home at that next house. That means she can get in, get busy, and get on to her next job. As Tammy lets herself into the Jordan home, she smells something...something very not-good. Sure enough, in the kitchen there's a note on the island, asking her to try and solve the "mystery odor." With a baby and a three-year-old living in the house, finding the source of the mystery smell could be challenging.
She begins cleaning the kitchen, checking the trash can, inside the pantry, and all the cabinets. But no luck. When she gets near an antique washstand, Tammy's pretty sure she's keyed in on the source of the stink. She peeks behind the washstand and, sure enough, there sits a warm, still-wrapped bacteria factory that once was an ice cream sandwich.
Delightful. Moments later it's in a trash can and sitting outside—and Tammy only gagged once as she hustled it out the door. She's really earning her bonus tip from the Jordans today.
Tammy sprays the area with air freshener and moves on to tackling the bathrooms, cleaning tubs, toilets, and sinks. Scrubbing everything in sight gives Tammy a sense of pride that non-neat-freaks would never understand. She's making good time at this second residence: another hour to dry laundry, vacuum the rugs, then fold and put the laundry away. Piece of cake.
On to a quick job—more of a tidying up than an all-out cleaning—then Tammy can grab lunch and pick up the kids at school. Mrs. Stacey can't vacuum while recovering from surgery, so Tammy has been spending an hour at Mrs. Stacey's every few days.
She gets right to work at the Stacey home and finishes vacuuming with a few minutes to spare. That means a nice cushion of time before she has to get to the school to pick the kids up.
In the car line at school, Tammy looks forward to hearing about the kids' day and taking them for a visit to her mom's. Her phone buzzes with an urgent text. A long-term client found her kids left two new boxes of cereal out and the cat has been playing in it all day. In the world of housekeepers, this is what's known as a disaster. Tammy's on the case, but first she needs to get the kids home.
So Tammy drops off the kids and drives to the client's house to face what the cereal killer did. Thank goodness for good vacuums. After painstakingly picking up cereal by hand, Tammy sweeps and vacuums, then texts her client to tell her everything is clean. And no, she doesn't know of anyone looking to adopt a mischievous cat with a penchant for Cheerios.
Counting the extra pay she'll get for the rush job at the end of the day, Tammy calculates the amount she's earned today as she heads back home. It's been a good day indeed. Because of the extra job later in the day, though, she hasn't had time to cook a proper dinner. That's okay, the kids will be happy if she whips up some quick breakfast-for-dinner. But we're talking French toast and pancakes—not cereal.