House Cleaning

The traditional approach to house cleaning is to hire a maid or cleaning service. When using a cleaning service, a crew of several people comes to your home on a scheduled day and cleans it from top to bottom. They use professional tools and a systematic approach that allows them to complete the job in about an hour or less.

A maid will be someone with whom you become familiar. The advantage of using a maid service is that you will know him or her and can set expectations based on their work.

Whichever type of service you use, having your home professionally cleaned is a great idea, especially if you work long hours, or if you are unable to perform some cleaning chores.

Professional Lawn Care Services

Yard work presents its own set of problems. The easiest solution is to contract a reputable landscaping firm to handle all the mowing, raking, trimming, weeding, etc. Your yard will be maintained with minimal hassle on your part. Here are some tasks the typical yard service can do for you:

• Mow lawn.
• Mulch grass clippings into lawn.
• Remove and dispose of grass clippings.
• Rake leaves.
• Clear fallen branches and debris.
• Fertilize lawn and plants.
• Aerate lawn.
• Edge garden and grass areas.
• Prune bushes and shrubs.
• Control and remove weeds.
• Spread mulch and wood chips.
• Thatch grass.
• Water garden and lawn.
• Remove small dead trees and shrubs.

Using Neighborhood Help

It can be tempting to hire a neighborhood youth to help with yard work, but there can be drawbacks. The most critical is reliability. School or summer vacation might interfere and he or she might simply quit. In addition to the reliability issue, remember that most kids won't know a petunia from a buttercup. Any knowledge they have about plants will probably be what you teach them.

If you are lucky enough to find a kid in your neighborhood who wants regular work and is reliable, list the specific jobs you want completed. This will help eliminate misunderstandings. Remember to increase the amount you pay him or her if you add specialty tasks to your list.

Whether you're talking about cleaning or yard work, there is one other factor to keep in mind. Most people have a couple of "chores" around the home they really enjoy doing. If possible, the homeowner should retain these activities. They help maintain a sense of connectedness with the home, provide satisfaction and form a welcome routine that can be good exercise.

by David Hollies, reprinted courtesy of HomeAdvisor.com