h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"maybe i should call kim n aggie!"

That's not such a bad idea you know. OK, maybe not the ladies themselves but perhaps if you look in your local paper or Yellow Pages you'll find a cleaning company that would work just once and after that you could keep on top of it yourself. Or maybe book them every 3 months or so? Look under "Cleaning - domestic" and ring a few for a quote. Perhaps family and friends could chip in as a present? I think some of my local ones are just groups of mums who want work that suits school hours etc and they've made a business out of it.

I've had the itchy hives thing myself after staying in a rented place on holiday a few years ago and it isn't nice. For a while almost everything seemed to make it flare up again.

I think I should be able to sort it out if I can get myself properly motivated.My little one owes me some hard labour at the mo too (at least a good tidying of his room) while hes grounded for the next week for stealing from me !

Kids eh!

Ah yes. Motivation. Now I'm sure I had some somewhere...

I just thought it would be lovely to come home to a clean and tidy place when you weren't the person who'd put in that effort. It would be worth the .

Certainly is tempting

Though it might do more to encourage me to be lazy (as i get when i get depressed) but than to get up n do something..

Well I'm only suggesting it as a one off. A treat to yourself and to cheer you up at the end of the school holiday.

After that you keep on top of it yourself which is much easier to do from tidy. So, far from encouraging you to be lazy I actually think it would give you that motivation, since the mountain you need to climb won't seem so high. It'll be a small step every day.

Also, if it's going to trigger an allergic reaction when you do it, better for your health to let someone else come in and do a really thorough job. Then you won't itch. Think of it as a public service too. If you pick a business that is a "mum's army" you're helping them as well. They'll have all the tools and products and if yiou explain about the allergies they can make sure they use stuff that will help you.