It's been nearly a decade since I wrote about feeling Sparkly, getting a sparkling clean house all by myself...
Well, a few weeks ago, I decided that a decade (ok, OK! Eight years 🙄) was long enough for that experiment! I started it in an apartment in New Mexico, which was relatively easy to keep clean, and very satisfying to see. Since then, we've moved to France, and moved again, still in France. The French places we have lived are just not easy! Besides all the normal cleaning (including stone floors and exposed plumbing), there's an unbelievable amount of dust (it has its own thread on one French forum I'm in), and! Mold! It's a constant battle!
In the middle of a cleaning routine, I often found myself swearing and angry, and generally banging around. It was not pleasant. Eventually, I proved beyond a doubt that having a list, a calendar entry, and cleaning supplies does *not* mean that your apartment gets cleaned...
It was time to move on. I found a couple of companies that advertised housecleaning, but when I talked to them (already a difficult hurdle for me), as soon as they heard that I wanted regular cleanings, boom! Ah, non, we don't do that 😕. I guess the third time is the charm though; we signed a contract a couple of weeks ago with a cleaning service - Isabelle has now been here twice, and the place is getting back into shape!
We're starting to work out a routine - she's here 2 hours per week, so she takes care of the basics (dust, vacuum, mop, kitchen, bathroom), and I get special projects (de-mold, de-calc, de-frost 🤭). We're both busy the whole time, and this is just a one-bedroom apartment!
The nice thing is that it's a schedule that we're paying for, so there's no incentive to cancel or delay-delay-delay.
Speaking of paying... France has a very interesting outlook on these sorts of small jobs. The temptation is to pay for them under the table, and the work doesn't count when "done on the black." From the worker's point of view, it doesn't count towards the pension, and there are no benefits like top-up health insurance, meal and fuel subsidies, vacations, or unemployment. It's also illegal, of course, but they keep 100% of what they're paid. From France's point of view, there's a whole group of people who are at a disadvantage, living on the edge. The government eventually pays for this situation in one way or another. Plus, the government doesn't get their tax money from undocumented work.
What's the solution? People are given an incentive to hire workers legally - the government subsidizes these small jobs by paying half of the bill! Fifty percent off! The workers get all the benefits, plus a take-home pay that is about what they would get on the black. We who hire them pay about what we would for a cash job. France gets tax dollars and keeps an intact social contract - no big surprise costs for suddenly disadvantaged situations.
The method (known as CESU) for this is somewhat in flux. For us, the company we signed up with took care of all the paperwork - we now have an account with them, and with URSSAF (I'm not going to even try to say what that acronym is for, but just know that it's a government entity that's needed for this). They bill us at the end of each month for 50%, and URSSAF pays the rest to them, and enters a credit on our tax account. At tax time, it shows up as a credit we've already taken. Seamless, right? (Any hiccups may be blogged about at the time).
Meanwhile, here's to celebrating!
~~~
The company: Shiva
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