We have finally reclaimed the major public areas of our house after having gone through our most recent renovation. Can’t believe how big a mess it was to clean up! It’s amazing how dust can travel through the entire house, even if you hang dust barriers. As I was finishing the last of the cleanup, it occurred to me – I could have hired someone to do this!

It may seem strange to think about hiring someone to clean your house, particularly if you were raised, like me, by a mother who taught you all about housekeeping, and expected you to carry your share of the load – particularly if you were out of school for the summer. But, it actually makes a lot of sense, particularly after a construction project, to let the professionals do the cleanup. After all, do you want to work all day at your regular job and then come home to a mess that you know isn’t going to clean itself? Or, do you want to spend your whole weekend cleaning, after all the stress you just went through with a renovation? No, paying a professional cleaning service is really to your benefit.

I can tell you right now, after this most recent cleanup, that I will definitely invest a couple hundred dollars to let someone else come in and clean up the mess (my research shows that post construction cleanup around here costs about $30 per hour, with a 4 hour minimum, but, based on the size of your home, it could take more than 4 hours, so I’m estimating $200 to complete the cleanup) next time. I recently read that your free time is actually worth about $160 per hour, so I think investing $30 an hour is definitely worth the cost to have a little extra free time on my hands.

So, if you’re planning a renovation project, think about calculating the cost of a cleaning service into your budget. It will relieve you of a lot of hard work, and you’ll get to come home to a nice clean house at the end of the day!

Rae the Renovator