Everybody goes through periods where their home simply isn’t as clean as they’d like it to be. Maybe you’ve been extremely busy at work and haven’t had as much time to devote to cleaning, or maybe you’ve been away a lot of the time. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t take much time for you to end up with dust, dirt, and piles of laundry building up in your home. An unclean home isn’t just unpleasant to look at, it can actually affect your mental health, making you feel less comfortable and content in your natural habitat. That’s why cleaning is such an important part of home maintenance. When it comes to keeping your home pristine, hiring a home cleaning service could be the best way to save time and feel your best when you’re relaxing after a hard day at work. Even if you have reservations about the cost of maid services, consider this: Time spent cleaning takes away from time spent working. If you really have a lot of ground to cover, hiring a service could actually help you save money. If you feel your home has gotten out of control, here are a few ways to tell you might just need to hire a cleaning service.

1. You’re Overworked

Nobody likes coming home from work to be faced with even more work. It’s totally understandable to come home after a long day and, faced with a pile of dirty dishes and an overflowing trash can, put off the problem until a later date. The problem is, that later date just keeps getting pushed, and things get more out of control by the day. If you find yourself so overworked from spending late hours at the office that you can’t even find it in you to take out the trash at the end of the day, you should seriously consider hiring a cleaning service.

2. You Put Off Cleaning Forever

Procrastination has its uses. It can help us face harder deadlines while prioritizing other projects. However, when it comes to your home, you don’t want to keep putting off cleaning until things get totally unmanageable. Maybe you don’t have the time, or maybe you absolutely hate the act of cleaning. Whatever the reason, it’s going to end up being far easier to make the call and hire a cleaning service rather than making tons of excuses and leaving your home in a state of chaos for months. If you really hate cleaning that much, why not let someone else take it off your hands?

3. You Need Your Home to Look Amazing

Sometimes we’re faced with a situation where our home has to look way better than average. It might be a book club, a party, or a baby shower. Whatever the reason, you need your home to sparkle, and you simply don’t have the time or energy to do it. A cleaning service won’t just make your home look great in record time, they’ll help you get organized in ways you weren’t even thinking of. If your home really needs that extra level of care for a special event, don’t place all the work on your own shoulders. Hire a service to help out and impress your friends and family with the advanced cleanliness of your home.

4. There Simply Isn’t Enough Time in the Day

For most people holding down a full-time job and tending to other, extracurricular commitments, whether it be a relationship, a hobby, or a dependent, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to deal with everything that comes our way. For most busy working people, cleaning is just not at the top of the list of priorities. Of course, it comes at a price. When you ignore cleaning, your home, your mental health, and your dependents end up suffering.

5. You’re Coughing More Than Usual

One of the ways in which an unclean home can affect your physical health is by allowing unpleasant byproducts of dirt, dust, and bacteria buildup to fly into the airstream, causing you and your family to start coughing up a storm for no reason. This doesn’t mean you’ve suddenly developed new allergies. More likely, the culprit is your grimy sink or your overflowing trash.

6. You Don’t Have the Energy

You might be wiped out from a day of work, looking after the kids, or simply living your life. No matter what the reason, you just don’t have the energy to think about vacuuming or scrubbing. That’s totally fine. However, don’t let the house go unclean because of it. Hire a cleaning service so you don’t have to add it to your list of things to stress about.