For years, whenever I saw the topic "what would you do if you had a million $$$... or won the lottery... or even had an extra thou-..." my first thought was always "housecleaner."

Forget the fancy toys, the luxury vacations et al; I want service! And time, which is so precious.

No, I didn't clean the house first. That's why I'm paying someone, but I did put away some of the clutter. However, I had to control myself to not look over her shoulder to make sure she was doing it right

Allegedly, my husband has done half the cleaning, but that's only after MONTHS and the house looks like hell, and then he only manages to do 1/3. I work at home (mostly) and it's so much more peaceful when everything looks nice.

Eagle Heart, not to bust in on YOUR pity party (I brought shiny cardboard hats. I brought cheap party favors and cheaper candy! ) but did you steal my story GF?? From about the same ages you mentioned, I had to wash dishes every night for the family of 6, and I was not allowed to go anywhere or do anything until they were done. The night of my senior prom, we finished dinner 30 minutes before my date was due to arrive, and I had to wash dishes or I couldn't go to the prom. And ya wonder why I have cleaning issues and get depressed whenever I have to clean? This, and other stories...

So now, there should be no more cleaning depressions, no more 3 days fighting with husband who doesn't want to clean, and more free time.

All I have to do is work harder at selling my jewelry to pay for this. Of course, that question can also be interpreted as "Which would I rather do, make more jewelry or scrub toilets?"

Any rocket scientists out there wanna hazard a guess?