Hiring Help

I spent a good amount of the day cleaning house so as to ready four areas around windows being replaced. It was more freeing up the spaces than as much cleaning so the installers have an easy time of it. 

Once again, I used Q-Tips to pull dust out of the machine and re-loaded bobbins. Its interesting to see how long it takes to do mindless tasks, whether its general housekeeping, gardening or even quilting. They can fill up a day and suddenly it seems as if nothing got done. From time to time in my life, I have hired housekeepers to do these kinds of tasks and I sure have been thinking about it the last few weeks.

There is a fine line to get into the mindset of hiring help. While there is a lot to be said for delegating some of the chores, on the other hand, it takes a lot of courage to give up control in doing things on my own. In the past, when I did hire help, I would often work in the house at the same time. My list of tasks was divided between what I wanted to do and what I wanted them to do. It always seemed to make the time go fast and a lot got done. 

However, once I got into the "Fly Lady" system of having zones and doing 15 minutes a day in a zone, it seemed that things didn't pile up or become too intimidating. 

As of yet, I have not hired out my quilting projects. Both fabric shops in town offer long-arm quilting with about an 8 week wait time. Adding the cost of quilting to the project makes it pricey if one is on a budget. 

I have thought nothing of hiring companies to install windows, paint the house, re-doing the plumbing and put in an electrical socket outside. These are projects beyond my desire to do. I take my car to have an oil change, tires rotated and recently had a throttle box replaced.

Yet, I have not made the jump to getting a quilt done by someone else. And I am starting to wonder why. Thinking. Really thinking about it.