Morning Household + Pet Support— $30.00/Hour
I am looking for someone to help me keep my home and animals cared for during a shitty time in my life where, very simply, I cannot keep up. I am a single parent to an infant. I solo run a highly robust business in the mental health field. And the last year has been absolutely brutal.
I am not looking for a housekeeper who comes in once a week and deep-cleans everything until it sparkles. I am looking for another set of hands in the ordinary, relentless machinery of keeping a life running: the laundry that somehow reproduces overnight, the dishes, the dog hair, the litter boxes, the garbage that needs to go out, the pile by the door that needs to make it to the car, the mail that needs to come inside, and the floors that have apparently decided cleanliness is optional.
This is a Monday–Friday morning position, approximately 1.5–3 hours a day, ideally starting around 7:30 AM. Pay is $30.00/hour, paid weekly through payroll. This is a part-time household employee position.
I am hoping to find someone who could potentially become a long-term part of the rhythm of our household, rather than someone simply looking for a few weeks of temporary work. Obviously we both need to make sure the fit is right first, but consistency and the possibility of staying in the position longer-term are important to me.
I need consistency more than anything. I need to know someone is coming, the house will get a little more breathable, the animals will be tended to, and several things that are currently living in my brain can simply stop living there.
The work will vary from day to day and may include:
- Laundry — washing, drying, folding, putting away, and changing bedding
- Dishes and resetting the kitchen
- Sanitizing baby toys and bottles
- Upkeeping the inside of the car
- Restoking the diaper bag
- Sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming
- Cleaning bathrooms
- Taking out trash and recycling
- Litter boxes
- Scooping dog poop from the yard
- Spending intentional time with the dogs, including playing frisbee with them daily, rain or shine
- Bringing in mail and packages
- Running ordinary household errands—picking up a grocery order, picking up pet food, washing heavy blankets at the laundromat, dropping off mail at the post office, picking up items at the pharmacy, exchanging books as the library
- Making occasional household phone calls, specifically calling to pay the water bill every month because they only accept payment via phone and I always forget to call
- Putting things away and helping slowly bring order back to spaces that have gotten away from me
- Looking around and noticing the obvious thing that needs doing without requiring me to create a fifteen-step instruction manual first
There is no childcare involved in this position. You will not be responsible for transporting my child, doing activities with her, supervising her, or taking over parenting responsibilities. There is also no work for my business. This is intentionally just home, animals, errands, and the basic infrastructure of being alive.
That said, this is a real home where a baby and several animals live. It is rarely quiet. There may be barking, a crying baby, people moving through the house, toys to step over, food thrown on the floor, interruptions, and multiple things happening at once. I need someone who can remain reasonably grounded, humble, and continue working in an environment that can sometimes be busy, loud, overstimulating, or chaotic.
I have dogs and cats, so you need to genuinely be comfortable with animals, pet hair, litter boxes, poop, barking, and the general chaos that comes with sharing a home with creatures. My dogs can be high-energy, and experience or genuine comfort with large, energetic dogs is important. I care very deeply about my animals. Part of why I am hiring someone is because I want them to have more consistent care, exercise, and attention than my current bandwidth is allowing.
My home has stairs, and this is a physically active job. You need to be comfortable regularly walking up and down stairs, bending, reaching, twisting, changing bedding, carrying laundry, vacuuming, mopping, and doing other normal household movement. There may occasionally be something heavier to carry, but nothing heavier than a large bag of dog food is expected.
Applicants must be 21 years of age or older. You are free to engage in your personal life as you see fit; however, please be sober while at my home, please call out if you are sick, please do not bring firearms into my home, please refrain from wearing heavily scented products such as perfume, and we are a gluten free and tree nut free household because I have celiac and am highly allergic to tree nuts.
You must have a valid driver’s license, reliable transportation, and current auto insurance and be comfortable using your vehicle for ordinary household errands. Mileage for requested errands will be reimbursed.
It is extremely important that the person in my home is genuinely affirming. My household and my life do not fit neatly into every conventional box, and I am not interested in having to shrink, translate, defend, or explain myself in my own home. You need to be LGBTQ+/queer and trans affirming, neurodiversity and disability affirming, mental-health affirming, and respectful and affirming of plurality/DID and different ways of existing in a brain and a family. You absolutely do not need to understand every part of my life before you arrive. Curiosity and respectful questions are fine. Judgment, debating someone’s identity or lived experience, or treating differences like something strange that needs fixing are not.
I tend to work well with people who are sensitive, thoughtful, unconventional, and able to communicate openly. I also want to be transparent about myself: when I am extremely overwhelmed, I can become blunt, short, scattered, or less graceful in how I communicate than I would like to be. It is not personal, and I am willing to own it, apologize, clarify, and repair when something lands badly. I need someone who can do the same from their side. Direct communication and the ability to work through an occasional misunderstanding or rupture are important to me. If something bothers you, I would much rather you tell me than quietly become resentful or disappear. I am not looking for perfection from either of us; I am looking for a working relationship where people can communicate, repair, and keep going.
I want to be transparent that I smoke cigarettes outside on the back deck, so applicants need to be comfortable working in a household where cigarette smoke may be present. I know that may make this position inaccessible or simply unpleasant for some people, and I would much rather be upfront about it so you can decide whether this environment works for you.
I am tired and overwhelmed. I do not need someone who is going to judge out loud the state of my house or question why I haven’t kept up better or completed this "simple" task. I already know what hasn’t been done and all that has piled up. I ask that you offer kindness and compassion because what might be simple to you may be profoundly impossible to me right now. Please be capable of walking into disarray and just beginning somewhere. You are not expected to fix my life. You don’t need to emotionally take care of me. I need someone to help carry some of the physical weight of my environment so I can be more present and reduce the amount of stress meltdowns I have in a week.
Time Off & Benefits
This is a small household position, so I am unfortunately not able to offer health, dental, vision, or retirement benefits. I can, however, offer paid time away from work and want this to be a job where being human is allowed.
Benefits include:
- Washington State paid sick leave, accrued according to state requirements
- 12 paid personal/wellness days per year, which can be used for whatever you need them for — mental health, appointments, family needs, rest, life happening, or simply needing a day
- 10 paid floating holidays per year. These are intentionally floating rather than tied to one particular religious or cultural calendar. Use them for the holidays, religious observances, cultural events, birthdays, family traditions, or other days that are meaningful to you.
- Paid household closures. If I cancel your regularly scheduled work because my household is unavailable — for example, because we are traveling or I otherwise close the household — you will still be paid for your normally scheduled hours.
- Reasonable additional unpaid time off with reasonable advance notice. I want whoever works here to be able to travel, have a family, attend important events, take vacations, and generally have a life outside of this job. At the same time, this position exists because I genuinely depend on consistent support, so extended or frequent absences need to be communicated and planned in advance whenever reasonably possible.
Reliability matters tremendously. Privacy also matters tremendously. Because of the nature of my work and my personal circumstances, anyone hired will need to pass a background check and sign a nondisclosure/confidentiality agreement. What you see or hear in my home stays in my home.
If you’re interested, please send me a short video, about five minutes, introducing yourself. Nothing polished or professional is necessary; recording something casually on your phone is completely fine. Tell me a little about who you are, why you think you might be a good fit for our household, any experience you have with high-energy animals, and how comfortable you are working independently in an environment that can sometimes include barking, a crying baby, competing sounds, interruptions, and general household chaos.
You are welcome to share whatever else feels relevant about yourself, your experience, or the kind of working relationship in which you tend to thrive. I am much more interested in getting a sense of you than receiving the perfect application. Please do not send me a cover letter or your resume. I will not read them and I don't care to subscribe to the politics of corporate culture that is not often designed to support those who find masking exahausting.
If a video application, any part of the application process, or aspects of the job description create an accessibility barrier for you, please reach out. I am happy to discuss reasonable alternatives or accommodations.
Pay: $30.00 per hour
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
