Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive

As an independent contractor, Stephanie finds a few other clients to supplement her work with Classic Clean. One of these clients, Donna, pays $20 an hour and encourages her never to accept less. Stephanie notes that while Classic Clean charges $25 an hour to clients, she only receives $9 an hour. The extra money is helpful, but comes as the result of unpaid labor, searching for work on her own. These independent clients also come with a certain amount of risk as she can’t afford insurance for potential property damages.

Stephanie’s budget is extremely tight, and whenever a new item is needed—from new shoes to toothpaste—she must consult a stringent inventory of the bank account she keeps on the wall. She notes that if she hadn’t received a government grant for childcare, she couldn’t have afforded to work at all. Picking up extra work shifts—and making more money—means a higher co-pay and a reduction in the amount of food stamps she receives.

Nevertheless, Stephanie takes every opportunity possible to improve her life with Mia. At a local food co-op, Mia enjoys using her “banana card”: a card which earns her a free apple, orange, or banana every time they shop. Stephanie also furnishes their apartment and Mia’s wardrobe with affordable items from a consignment shop called Sprouts.

To downsize for the studio space, Stephanie is forced to get rid of many cherished furniture items, including family antiques. She is hesitant, though, to give up many of Mia’s toys and belongings. Stephanie’s manager at Classic Clean kindly offers a storage loft where Stephanie can keep some items. The storage loft also contains items such as a footstool—which Stephanie takes to use as a coffee table—and a jar, which she uses to store kitchen utensils. 

Stephanie develops a close bond with Wendy, an elderly, grandmother-like woman or whom she works. Wendy has cancer and needs a cleaner to help her perform tasks for which she no longer has the physical capacity. Unlike many of Stephanie’s other clients, Wendy treats her as a friend, making lunch and inviting her to sit at the dining room table.

Stephanie also feels a close connection to Wendy through the familiar objects and spaces she encounters while cleaning. For example, Wendy always keeps a vase of red roses because her long deceased husband insisted she have them. Wendy’s kitchen floor also features a worn area where her husband used to sit and smoke. Her house is filled with containers of belongings she’s sorting through to give away “because of the cancer” (127). After a few months, Wendy cancels her cleans, claiming she can’t afford them. Soon after, she passes away.

Stephanie posts an ad on Craigslist that reads, “I WORK 25 HOURS A WEEK AS A PROFESSIONAL CLEANER, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO PAY THE BILLS” (131). Some of her clients start to offer extra tips because of the ad, saying they understand and empathize with her struggles.

Stephanie begins working for a new client; she refers to their home as “The Plant House” because it is filled with greenery. Stephanie notes the house owners are “empty nesters” who fill the void of their lives with plant growth.

Mia begins to experience health problems caused by the black mold in their studio apartment. Stephanie takes her to the doctor who tells her she needs to buy a costly humidifier. When Stephanie protests that she can’t afford one, the doctor is judgmental.

The doctor wants Mia to undergo surgery that day, but Stephanie is terrified that she is too sick. While Mia is in surgery, a kind nurse chats with her and eases her mind. Mia emerges from the surgery exhausted and depleted. Stephanie, likewise, reflects, “This wasn’t a moment of empowerment of a celebration that we’d done it; this was a saturation into a new depth of loneliness that I now had to learn how to breathe in and out” (138).

After Mia’s surgery, Stephanie cries in the bathroom of The Plant House. She never cries in front of Mia because “crying meant admitting defeat” (139). The calm, green atmosphere of The Plant House helps her feel safe and protected—if only for a moment.

Stephanie recalls how, when she lived in the homeless shelter, she used to imagine her dream house and dream belongings, believing she would be happy if she only had these things. As a cleaner, she sees how discontent many of her clients are and realizes that affluence and material possessions don’t make anyone happy. Her clients essentially “work to pay Classic Clean” (142) and don’t have time to enjoy their well-furnished homes. She muses, “Maybe the stress of keeping up a two-story house […] and maintaining the illusion of grandeur overwhelmed their systems in similar ways to how poverty did mine” (146).

One of the homes Stephanie most admires is “The Chef’s House”: a large, beautiful home owned by a chef that features an amazing kitchen and wonderful food. The counters are filled with pain pills, which she presumes the owners recreationally use. Stephanie feels tremendous strain from cleaning the home’s floors—especially in her back—and fantasizes about using the pills. Though Stephanie is able to receive health coverage for Mia, she makes just a little too much to receive Medicaid, and therefore can’t afford to see a doctor for her back pain.

Stephanie also begins working for “The Cigarette Lady,” a mysterious woman she almost never sees. The Cigarette Lady leaves small gifts for Stephanie—like a nice-smelling candle—and builds her own collection of expensive candles and cosmetics. Though the Cigarette Lady’s home is immaculately furnished and clean, Stephanie notices small signs of dark habits, such as flecks of vomit around the toilet. She also finds dozens of stacked cartons of Virginia Slim cigarettes in a freezer inside the garage. The secrecy of the Cigarette Lady fascinates Stephanie because of “the amount of energy she put into appearing perfect and clean” (148). 

Stephanie examines the prejudice often directed toward government aid recipients, including the ideas they are lazy and irresponsible. Stephanie references drug testing for welfare recipients, citing the false perception that all aid recipients abuse drugs. She also mentions a friend who works at a supermarket and mocks the purchases of customers on EBT, suggesting that they don’t deserve junk food or luxury items.

One day, one of Stephanie’s kindest clients, Donna, makes disparaging remarks toward immigrants, believing they leech off other Americans. Stephanie is taken aback and wonders if Donna would feel the same way toward her if she knew she was a government aid recipient.

Stephanie exemplifies this prejudice with another story from her own experience. At the grocery store, she attempts to purchase organic milk on her food stamps, and the transaction is initially (mistakenly) rejected. After she summons the manager to resolve the situation, a disgruntled customer waiting in line behind Stephanie demands that she thank him (suggesting—just as her friend on Page 110—that he is owed gratitude for paying the taxes that finance government services).

Stephanie sadly reflects that this kind of authoritarian judgment is all-too common. She is grateful, however, for her clients who treat her with kindness and dignity, including Henry, Wendy, Donna, and the Cigarette Lady.

Stephanie’s work schedule makes it virtually impossible to maintain a social life. She lives in constant terror of something going wrong—especially the idea that her car might break down, she couldn’t afford to fix it, and therefore couldn’t afford to continue working.

When a new client cancels his clean at the last minute—after Stephanie has already spent precious money on gas—he attempts to repay her with front row tickets to a Mariners game. Though Stephanie would love to go, she turns them down because she could never get time off work to go to the game. 

Despite being constantly busy, Stephanie attempts to cultivate her family life with Mia and her inner life as a writer. She tries to cherish small moments of joy with her daughter, finding beautiful places to hike and enjoy nature. She also develops a daily ritual in which she writes for 10 minutes, recording whatever is on her mind.

Stephanie continues to experience friction with Jamie. They fight on the phone while she cleans the Porn House, and from then on, the house triggers memories of their fight. He also berates her for not telling him he is a good father to Mia. Stephanie points out he has “manipulated [Mia] to need [him]” (167) and that this manipulation is hurting their daughter.

Stephanie begins working at a new house owned by a man whose elderly wife passed away several years ago. She notices that the man keeps several mementos of his wife around the house—from photos to her personal belongings, to lists of day-to-day tasks she made. Stephanie reflects that this house is filled with love, even though it’s a sad kind of love. Working there makes her feel grateful for the connection she has with Mia.

An old family friend recommends a new daycare for Mia. The woman who runs the daycare is affectionately known as Grandma Judy, who serves as a mother-figure for Stephanie. Stephanie is relieved her daughter is spending her days in a supportive environment.

Stephanie becomes an expert at finishing cleans early. This gives her extra time to explore the houses she cleans, looking through books, clothes, hidden stashes of candy and alcohol, and other secrets. She describes this snooping as a coping mechanism for getting through the job. She remarks, however, that she never snoops through belongings in houses where she isn’t “invisible” (like Henry’s and Donna’s).

Stephanie begins working for a client named Lori who has Huntington’s disease—a degenerative disorder preventing her from cleaning her home. Stephanie works in the company of Lori’s caregivers, including Beth—a kind woman who always offers coffee and conversation.

The strain of working, single parenting, and arguing over childcare with Jamie begins to wear on Stephanie’s nerves. She spends most days in a tired fog. One particularly bad day—after Mia’s DVD player breaks and she throws a tantrum—Stephanie has a panic attack in Lori’s bathroom. Thereafter, every time she cleans the bathroom, she triggers her feelings of panic on that morning. She asks Pam if she can cut down her hours at Lori’s house.

Stephanie explains because she is so busy and tired, she rarely questions the “why” and the “how” of things and simply does what needs to be done. One morning as Stephanie and Mia are driving down the highway on the way to daycare and work, Mia accidentally drops her doll out the car window. In her tired “get things done” state, Stephanie stops the car along the highway and searches for the doll. While she is searching, another car rams into the side of their car and totals it. Though Mia isn’t injured in the accident, Stephanie is shocked and horrified that her daughter could’ve died. She is also distraught by the loss of her car, which is essential to her job.

The officer who arrives on scene is not sympathetic to Stephanie and writes her a $70 ticket. He reports that he doesn’t know if the man who hit her car has insurance. He leaves Stephanie and Mia by the side of the road, scrambling through their limited contacts to find a ride.

Stephanie calls Jamie after the accident, and he screams at her for being “stupid.” Mia cries and wants to talk to her dad, displaying signs of Jamie’s emotional manipulation. Stephanie is terrified Jamie will use this incident to gain custody of Mia.

Stephanie’s grandpa picks them up but doesn’t have enough gas money and needs Stephanie to help him pay. Stephanie recalls her grandfather’s frequent attempts to give her precious family heirlooms, reflecting, “I couldn’t keep any of those heirlooms or give them the space they deserved to live in. I didn’t have room in my life to cherish them” (189).

On the way home, Stephanie asks her grandpa to stop at Walmart. She goes into the store to buy a replacement for Mia’s lost doll. They don’t have the same doll she previously bought, but they have a more expensive version, which Stephanie purchases in spite of her limited finances. Even as she buys the doll, she knows she’ll be forced to “juggle the bills later” (190).

Stephanie’s casual boyfriend Todd lends her a car to help her get to work. Stephanie feels uncomfortable taking such a big favor from someone she’s only casually dating. She also feels uncomfortable driving, knowing it’s psychologically “too soon” even if she needs to work.

Mia responds to the accident with feelings of sadness, guilt, and confusion. Stephanie feels hurt by her daughter’s pain and tries to appear “okay” for Mia’s sake. 

While cleaning “The Clown House”—a home filled with cheesy, sometimes creepy clown art—Stephanie breaks down crying in the bathroom. She can’t stop picturing the car accident that almost killed Mia. Stephanie also can’t stop picturing an earlier childcare drop off with Jamie when he glared at her like he was a hero “rescuing his daughter” and she was “the evil witch” (199). She is terrified of the ways this car accident might change her life and relationship with her daughter.

Desperate for emotional support, Stephanie calls Pam, crying over the phone. Pam offers to give her the day off work, but both she and Stephanie know that her cleaning shifts are necessary. Stephanie also gets a call from her dad, who is angry that she posted about the accident on Facebook. He worries that the insurance company might see the post as an admission of liability. Stephanie protests she needed to feel support from someone, even if support came in the form of a comment from someone hundreds of miles away.

A lawyer calls Stephanie about the accident and declares she had no fault. The lawyer offers to cover all damages, the remaining amount of Stephanie’s car loan, and just over a thousand dollars for a new vehicle. Stephanie uses the money to buy a reliable Honda Civic from a couple who used to own a detail shop.

In need of extra money, Stephanie takes a new job from “The Loving House.” The Loving House is owned by a kind elderly couple. The wife is physically frail and the husband adoringly cares for her, waiting on her needs, and fondly recalling shared memories. They also tip generously. As Stephanie leaves, he comments on his daughter’s motorcycle in the garage, explaining that she is on her annual road trip. Stephanie remembers her old dream of going to Missoula, Montana, and begins to think about pursuing it.

Stephanie reflects on the difficulty of moving forward with her life. Though she is currently enrolled in classes at Skagit Valley Community College with the hope of earning a degree, her work schedule makes it nearly impossible to keep up. She tries to catch up on assignments whenever Mia is with Jamie, but she feels like her classes blur together into a tired haze.

Stephanie compares the love within her home to the love she feels in The Loving House:

Despite our surroundings, I woke up in the morning encased in love. […] I was present, witnessing Mia’s dance routines and silly faces, fiercely loving every second. Our space was a home because we loved each other in it (209). 

Stephanie describes the mix of love and exhaustion she feels with Mia. As winter makes the apartment cold and the streets difficult to traverse, Stephanie bemoans the fact that she has very little money to provide for Mia, let alone pursue fun activities with her. Time with Mia is also rare and precious, as she only gets her every other weekend when Mia isn’t staying with Jamie. Mia frequently struggles with the transitions between Jamie and Stephanie, and often throws tantrums when she returns to her mother’s apartment.

Despite longing for connection, Stephanie finds it difficult to bond with mothers from two-parent families and mothers with ample financial means. She struggles to relate to them when they make privileged statements about poverty and homelessness that don’t measure up against her own experiences.

Stephanie begins writing again with purpose, developing an online journal with “still life” moments of Mia. The journal helps her appreciate moments of fleeting joy and beauty she shares with her daughter, such as Mia’s face “engaged in wonder” (216) and the stroke of her watercolor paintbrush.

Stephanie and Mia often fantasize about their dream home, a dream life of their future. For Stephanie, this dream—and the promise that she will one day make things better—is essential to surviving poverty.