If you’re like me, chances are you’ve used quarantine time to reflect. With all of this extra time at home, the mind wanders to how we can elevate everything from our living rooms to our recipe game. Maybe you’ve taken up a new workout routine, or you dove headfirst into the Defined Dish cookbook. Applause all around for any and all improvements, but in my humble opinion, no improvement is more important than that of your headspace.

Elevating your headspace means optimizing your inner voice. Having the best possible headspace makes you the best possible version of yourself – more centered, more focused, and more efficient. Ever heard someone refer to their “higher self?” They’re talking about the voice inside their head that leads them to be the best version of themselves. In order to hear that voice, you’ve got to get your headspace crystal clear.

Headspace begins to take shape first thing in the morning. Everyone knows that much – we’ve all interacted with a family member or a coworker who was stuck in traffic on the way to work, spilled their coffee all over their car, or scrolled Twitter and found something that infuriated them before the sun even came up. It’s not the wrong side of the bed – it’s the wrong headspace. And that headspace, created by your experiences and perceptions from the day thus far, heavily influences your mood, actions, and choices until your head hits your pillow once more. That’s all day, every day. Your headspace really matters.

So – how do you improve your headspace? It seems trivial, but one of the keys to keeping your mind clear is keeping your space clean. Ever feel like when things in your life are a mess, your house is a mess too? Or ever get the sudden urge to scrub your home from head to toe when you’re trying to get your life together? It’s not just you. A cluttered or dirty room sets a stressful and negative tone in the brain that lingers in the subconscious throughout the day. According to brain scientists, it can also lead to lowered cognitive function.

A clean bedroom and workspace are proven to help the brain perform at its maximum potential. Yes, your husband might INSIST that he’s actually MORE organized and works BETTER with all those papers piled everywhere on his desk, but neuroscientists would beg to differ. If you want to think clearly, you have to have a space that’s clear, and vice versa.

So before you turn off the light tonight, do a quick scan of your room. Anything out of place? Does that mirror need quick dust? Those cups piled on your nightstand – can they make the quick trip to the dishwasher? We get it – by bedtime you’re exhausted, and not in the mood to clean, but what if cleaning your room before bed meant feeling more awake all day tomorrow? (Spoiler alert: it does.)

So Marie Kondo your space = Marie Kondo your mind. Really, it’s that simple. Tidy up and tell us what you think. Now I’m going to go meditate. Hey, I didn’t say cleaning was the ONLY step to elevating your headspace.

There are lots of things that make Vella different. But this post isn’t about a sales pitch, marketing buzzwords, or shiny before and after pictures.

This is our creed.

Comparing our business to other house cleaning services, one of the biggest and most obvious differences is that we don’t use the word “maid.” We call our employees Housekeepers, and that’s not just because of the handy alliteration with “Vella”

Housekeeping is a skill. Any person with a home to clean can tell you that. It requires knowledge of products and protocols, of services and surfaces. Which cleaner should you use where, and why? How do you address pet hair on sofas? Mold in your shower? What about grease in ovens that just won’t budge? And how do you do all of this while still avoiding the use of harmful chemicals in the home?

These are things all of our Housekeepers are trained in. Each new hire goes through an extensive training and vetting process by our expert Housekeepers, who boast years of experience achieving housekeeping excellence. And because of that expertise, we believe our Housekeepers, our skilled workers, deserve to be paid well. That’s why we pay well above the industry average – an average that we believe is unjust given the talent it takes to clean a house well.

That brings us back to why we don’t use the word “maid.” Take a moment and visualize a maid. What do you see? Someone in an old black and white uniform? Maybe the term isn’t as outdated or snooty as “the help,” but it’s not far off. What about a Housekeeper? A Housekeeper is a person with skill, with knowledge — with organization, urgency, and the expertise to match. We’re a female owned and operated business, proud to employ women (and one man!) as Housekeepers. Our Housekeepers deserve a dignified profession with an appropriate title that allows them to support their families and feel proud of the job they do.

So maid? No thanks. We prefer something more elegant. Something honorable. We are Housekeepers.