Living the dream in Sydney can be a real juggling act. There’s so much going on and only so many hours in the day to get things done. It has gotten very much to the point now that the real wealth in this life and in this city is free time. So how can a professional house cleaner save you time, energy and maybe even your marriage?
As the founder of one of Australia’s fastest growing professional house cleaning services I’ve seen the innards of a lot of Sydney’s households. It is a common human tendency to want to project an image of perfection onto the outside world as we see so patently with people’s social media profiles. Dig a little below the surface and it’s easy to see that we are all imperfect humans. This ideal of having it all is unrealistic as in my experience life is a series of choices and whilst few choices are purely binary, each choice subscribes to the law of cause and effect.
In a general sense some people choose to focus on making their career the priority, for others it’s their family, some love to party and others focus on travel. Some focus on exercise and others find a good time on the couch. In all the 1,000’s of homes I’ve visited I’ve yet to find the person who literally has it all and I doubt I ever will. Perhaps it’s an impossible dream. A mirage in the distant future that can never quite be reached for once we think we’ve arrived at the place where the promised land of plenty looked like it should be, again it has moved.
Perhaps the real priority is internal peace and some wise sage must have once said that this can only be achieved by finding balance.
We get to see the Sydney social experiment in action and I must say that some of our customers are the kindest and most decent people you could ever hope to meet. These are the ones who seem to have found a work/life balance and have a certain calmness of spirit that does not rush. These people are interesting to me and I have observed something of a pattern amongst them. Their work and life are balanced towards the end goal of facilitating their human relationships.
I used to think when I was a younger man that money was the key. I devoted myself towards that end and achieved a lot. But the cost was too great and I’ve managed to reconsider my values and goals accordingly. Indeed, my thinking back then was that if you made enough money to retire early you could make up lost ground with relationships later. That was a mistake. In fact, now when I look around at society, I can see that we have been conditioned to work hard for our entire lives for some dream of a wonderful retirement that doesn’t always eventuate. It’s not about getting to the final destination through gritted teeth but to enjoy the ongoing journey.
Now, I finally understand the vital importance of human connection.
So, what’s this got to do with cleaning? Well quite a lot actually.
I have noticed on the first visit to a customer’s home that there can be a strange and uncomfortable energy in some homes when we first enter. This can often correlate with overt levels of clutter, high levels of stagnant dust and strangely very dirty air conditioning filters. It’s like the neglected hidden corners are emblematic of the hidden deeper things not attended to in the family’s home life and it’s a self-fulfilling cycle. The air quality is often lower and the energy levels are heavier. This can create a downwards spiral. When a family shifts its focus towards getting help with the cleaning a number of things start to happen both in the temporal realm and in the energetic realm too. Getting help with the cleaning is in fact a vital act of self-love and the first step in the right direction.
The early stages of the relationship between a cleaner and their client can really turn things around and can begin an upwards spiral. The air quality in the home improves, the energy levels lighten, cluttering starts to be reduced and the feeling of returning home becomes one of entering your own serene sanctuary. More quality time is provided and getting present with loved ones and the true priorities in life become easier to achieve. The frustration with perpetually cleaning your home disappears and a renewed appreciation for life and love returns.
I have a good mate who is one of Sydney’s most promising bachelors. Like many of us he has endured the heartache of divorce. When we first went to clean his home, it was a real shambles. I have seen a link between cluttered dusty homes and depression and looking into his bedroom told me all I needed to know. It was a mess. I called my assistant into the room, a young Spanish lady and explained to her that this was our opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life. That today our job was not just to clean for the customer but most importantly to care for the person. In this case my beautiful friend. Usually when I train new people, I explain the importance of caring. It leaves behind an energy and it is felt. She not only got it straight away, she accurately predicted that he would become so house proud that he would start to fold his towels and she was proven right.
To successfully live the dream in a busy city like Sydney, we need to save time and create space wherever we can. To have the time to look around and enjoy the fruits of our labours and to be present to all the things we love including and especially our own good selves. To appreciate the beautiful things, we have in our life and to savour those things yet to come. To view the world through a lens of abundance and to bring that attitude of gratitude home with us and to fill the place we live in with that same ethereal energy.
Michael Sweet is the founder of 1800 CLEANER and has over 30 years of professional cleaning experience.
