I am struggling with household help.  I work full time, run my family full time, and am recently ready to lose my mind full time, too.  Every night before I go up  to bed I make sure the kitchen is clean.  Every day when I come downstairs to start breakfast, the kitchen has been ransacked.  Usually, it is my thirteen year old son who had a second dinner before he retired, after I've done my final clean up.  He doesn't bother to rinse his dishes and put them in the dishwasher, or even move them to the sink.  I trip over shoes and cleats that were left scattered around, despite everyone knowing it makes me crazy. This irritates me.

I typically then find blankets on the coach, sofa pillows scattered on the ground, various electronic devices laying around and the mug from my husband's nightly cup of tea on the table next to "his chair".

It is one thing for my family's slovenly ways to irritate me, but my domestic help isn't helpful either !   I'll spare you the long story, but my housekeeper/babysitter/party server/all around helpful gal isn't as young, or as helpful, as she used to be.  She has spent a lot of years in our home, and while I have cut back the hours she works each week, she is still here weekly, or at least she's supposed to be.  I'm not sure what day she is going to come or when she'll arrive or how long she'll stay.  Or what she will or won't get accomplished.  Do you see how this really isn't helpful ?

As I've reduced my original housekeeper's schedule,I have hired a cleaning lady for a thorough weekly cleaning.  She does not speak English, so I communicate through the owner of the service.  After years of chit chat, I initially found this very appealing.  Until she sprayed bleached on my bedroom carpet.  I assume this is because she can't read the label.  So tomorrow I will have a carpet guy here to see about cutting out the bleach spot and patching the carpet.

Is this helpful ???  When my family isn't helpful and my help isn't helpful, how the heck am I supposed to keep order in this house ?