ome, our safe place. These days we're spending less time and money on travel and more on building our nest. We're juggling more and more activities: career, marriage, children, community involvement and physical health. Most of us can't find enough time in each day to do the things we need to do, let alone the things we want to do, all the while keeping our homes clean.
Creating a home environment that is serene and orderly fosters mental wellbeing. To help achieve this setting, many of us turn to a housekeeping service so we 
can be free to spend our time doing the things we love. What would you do with an extra 16 hours each week? That's the average time a professional housekeeping service saves the homeowner.
Choosing the right kind of housekeeping service for you and your lifestyle is important. When doing so, consider your needs. Is your home busy with lots of traffic, kids and pets bustling in and out, dirt and messes piling up? Then you may need a weekly visit from a service that changes linens, sanitizes the bathrooms, makes the kitchen sparkle and gives your floors the attention they need.
Perhaps you are busy with your career, often traveling out of town, and only need light dusting, bathroom detail and vacuuming, but also want someone who can take on the annual window-cleaning project and wax your floors occasionally. Maybe you're retired and enjoy the regular housekeeping, but want someone else to climb ladders and clean the ceiling fans, replace light bulbs, clean out the garage and do the heavy work in the basement. Or maybe you suffer from asthma or allergies and need someone skilled in detail dusting to keep your home as free of allergens as possible.
Is your home generally clean, but your cabinets and closets are overflowing? It might be time for someone with a talent for organization to help you clear space and restore order. Maybe your home is neat and organized, but it lacks that feeling of serenity. If this is the case, a FengShui expert can make all the difference. A full service housekeeping team can do all of these things, as well as move-in or move-out cleanings and the special preparation required for a party or event.
Once you establish what you need in a housekeeping service, you can begin your search.
Get some names and set up interviews. Ask the service how it recruits employees and what it pays them. Are its people mostly temporary with a high turn over? 
Cleaning companies support themselves by either volume or quality. If they try to do both, one will suffer. If a business concentrates on volume, they look for low salaried employees and spend more on advertising. A business that concentrates on quality employs trained professionals that are passionate about cleaning as well as giving good service. Consider the cost. What is more important to you - consistent, quality work or lower price? You can't have both.
Are the employees bonded and insured? Will you be comfortable providing them with a key to your home or the code to you alarm system? Will the crew also be pleasant to your family and considerate to your pets? Call the Better Business Bureau to check a company's record. Ask as many questions as it takes for you to be satisfied. A professional, quality service will be more than willing to answer and elaborate on any issue.
Now you can give yourself permission to go out and enjoy those 16 hours any way you like.
Lisa Martin is a master housekeeper with Housekeeping Specialists.
