Let me tell you something nobody tells you when you’re starting a business as a mom. Everyone talks about the hustle, the late nights, the “you can do it all” mentality. But nobody mentions the absolute chaos that happens when your toddler decides to reorganize your office papers while you’re on a client call.
Last month I hit my breaking point. Picture this – I’m trying to impress a potential client over Zoom, my three year old bursts in covered in what I hope is chocolate (spoiler: it wasn’t), and in the background you can see yesterday’s coffee cups, scattered toys, and enough paperwork to wallpaper a small apartment. That was the day I realized something had to change. I started looking into getting help with office cleaning and found Commercial Cleaners Zoom Office Cleaning who literally saved my professional life. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
See, when I first started my consulting business from home, I thought I had it all figured out. Wake up early, work during naps, clean during… well, I never really figured out when cleaning was supposed to happen. It just didn’t. And when I finally moved into a small office space downtown, I brought all my bad habits with me.
The thing is, as moms we’re already juggling seventeen different things at once. We’re making lunches, scheduling doctor appointments, remembering which kid needs new soccer cleats, AND trying to run a business. Something’s gotta give, right?
For months I tried to do it all. I’d stay late at the office vacuuming, scrubbing the bathroom, emptying trash cans. Meanwhile my kids were at home with a babysitter costing me $20 an hour while I cleaned toilets. Make it make sense.
Here’s what I learned the hard way – trying to be superwoman is overrated and honestly, kind of dumb. We wouldn’t try to be our own accountant if we weren’t trained in accounting. We hire professionals for that. So why was I trying to be a professional cleaner on top of everything else?
The worst part was how it affected my actual work. You know that feeling when your workspace is a disaster and you can’t think straight? That was me every single day. Client proposals scattered everywhere, coffee rings on important documents, and don’t even get me started on the state of the break room microwave.
I remember one particularly awful Tuesday. I had three client meetings, two kids with stomach bugs, and a presentation due by 5pm. I walked into my office that morning and almost cried. The garbage was overflowing, there were mysterious crumbs everywhere (how do crumbs even GET there when you don’t eat at your desk?), and the whole place smelled like… well, like an office that hadn’t been properly cleaned in weeks.
That’s when Sarah, another mom who runs a marketing agency down the hall, pulled me aside. “Girl,” she said, “you need to delegate. Stop trying to clean this place yourself.”
She was right. Of course she was right. But my brain immediately went to all the reasons I couldn’t hire cleaners. Too expensive. Too complicated. What if they didn’t do it right? What if they judged my messy office?
Sarah just laughed. “You’re literally losing money by doing it yourself. How much is your hourly rate? Now how many hours are you spending cleaning instead of billing clients?”
Ouch. When she put it that way…
The math was embarrassing. I was spending at least 5-6 hours a week cleaning, badly I might add. At my consulting rate, that was… well, let’s just say it was enough to hire professional cleaners and still come out ahead.
But here’s the thing that really got me – it wasn’t just about the money. It was about my mental health. Every time I walked into that messy office, a little part of my soul died. I felt unprofessional. Scattered. Like I was failing at this whole business owner thing.
And you know what? Our clients notice. They might not say anything, but they notice when your office looks like a tornado hit it. They notice the overflowing trash can in the conference room. They notice when you’re stressed and frazzled because you spent your morning scrubbing floors instead of preparing for their meeting.
So I finally bit the bullet and hired professional cleaners. Best. Decision. Ever.
Now I walk into my office and it actually feels like a real business. The floors are clean, the surfaces are sanitized (super important during flu season when you’re a mom bringing germs from school), and I swear I’m at least 40% more productive.
But the biggest change? I actually leave work AT work now. Before, I’d get home and stress about the office being dirty. I’d lie in bed making mental lists of what needed cleaning. Now? I lock up knowing that everything’s handled and I can focus on my family.
My kids have noticed too. “Mommy’s not grumpy after work anymore,” my daughter announced at dinner last week. Kids, man. They see everything.
Look, I know what you’re thinking. “Must be nice to afford cleaners.” I get it. But honestly, can you afford NOT to? Add up all the time you spend cleaning. Then add the mental energy. The stress. The lost productivity. The potential clients who might be put off by a messy office. It adds up fast.
And it’s not just about having a clean space. It’s about what that clean space represents. It’s boundaries. It’s professionalism. It’s saying “my time is valuable and I’m going to use it for what I do best.”
Since making this change, my business has actually grown. Coincidence? Maybe. But I don’t think so. When you’re not worried about when you’re going to clean the bathroom, you can focus on strategy. On growth. On actually serving your clients.
Plus, there’s something to be said for supporting other businesses. The cleaning company I use employs working parents too. We’re all just trying to make it work, you know?
So here’s my advice to any mom running a business – stop trying to do everything yourself. You’re not proving anything to anyone by scrubbing your own office floors at 8pm. You’re just making yourself tired and resentful.
Hire help where you need it. Whether that’s cleaning, bookkeeping, social media management, whatever. Focus on what you’re actually good at. That’s why you started a business in the first place, right?
Your kids need you present, not perfect. Your clients need you focused, not frazzled. And you? You need to give yourself permission to let some things go.
Trust me on this one. Future you will thank present you for making the investment. And your family? They’ll just be happy to have the non-stressed version of mom back.
Because at the end of the day, we’re not just building businesses. We’re building lives. And those lives are way too short to spend scrubbing office toilets when we could be reading bedtime stories instead.
