Holidays

We are going away for 12 days this festive season.
Months ago we started to wonder who we could get to look after the house and dog. Our previous housesitter had selfishly gone and become a homeowner so she was no good to us.
Someone I know had housesit for a friend of mine and I totally got the vibe that he spent some serious time sniffing around her private affairs. Searching bedside drawers for vibrators, reading through personal notebooks, looking for porn on her browser history. So I knew I wouldn't be asking him to stay. Oh the notebooks he could read! We needed a responsible stranger of mature years to mind our lovely home and dog.
Miraculously easily we found them! A husband & wife on the mindahome.com website. I was able to check them out (totally legit & 'normal') through their references via airbnb and the only thing I was really concerned about was how they would cope in my tidy, but not particularly clean, home.
Honestly if I could change one thing about myself it would be that rather than eating when I feel stressed instead I would clean.
Our home is by no means dirty, it's just a bit dusty and smudgy. The floors are maintained but goddamn it you do know if you clean one area of a wall you then need to clean ALL the walls in that room because it looks just as bad with one clean area as it does one dirty spot.
Anyway I became aware of how many areas needed to be clean in order for me to comfortably allow these strangers to stay in my home free of charge for 12 days. Fucking ridiculous.
Kitchen drawers. Cupboards. The pantry. The fridge (17 dead flies. 17!? How did they get in there? When? Who let them in? Fuck!). The cupboard above the pantry that actually had cleaning products in that expired in 2012. Along with a few more dead flies. And heaps of dust. So much dust.
I hired 2 lovely Irish girls to help me clean for 2 hours ($100 - money well spent!) the day before the housesitters arrived. What a genius idea that was. My house is just lovely. It always was, but now it's lovely without being dusty.
The housesitters arrived today, they are delightful (semi-retired, here to visit grandchildren, easygoing) and I am so pleased to be leaving them in my wonderful, clean home. We are going to have a lovely Christmas break and I look forward to returning to our deliciously clean and tidy (for now) home.