My parents never once hired a housecleaning service when I was young. When the holidays came, they put us kids to work polishing furniture and scrubbing the tub, while they focused on preparing the feast. So when I booked my first housecleaning session (and with a Groupon no less!), it felt positively decadent. I had put a lot of thought into the timing of the session, too, choosing the day before Thanksgiving. I'd taken the day off, and was looking forward to letting the pros do their thing before I'd unleash a flurry of holiday baking.

I was so excited, and telling everyone about the appointment. But when they heard I planned to bake after the cleaners, it was like a record scratch.

"Wait," my well-meaning coworkers would say, "Don't you want them to clean up the mess you'll make?!"

To be honest, I hadn't considered this as a possibility, but when I thought about it, there was just something strangely unappealing about it. I shrugged off the raised eyebrows and now—a new apartment, a marriage, and many Thanksgivings later—I'm still booking my holiday cleanings for before I start to bake. Here's why:

Your Work Station Will Be Ready to Go

It's no fun to head into the kitchen ready to cook dinner when the countertop is a mess and the sink is piled high with dirty dishes. Having to tidy up just to carve out a place to cook can delay your schedule by a half-hour or more. This is especially true of tiny kitchens, where a single dirty bowl can mean the loss of half your countertop!

Dirty Ovens Are Dangerous . . .

A dirty oven is a truly disgusting thing. Blackened stalactites of pizza cheese, perpetually smoking grease stains, and undefinable crumbles are more than just gross, though: they can make it more likely for your oven to catch fire. And all the holiday baking you'll be doing? In no world should sugar cookies be a fire hazard.

. . . and Can Make Your Food Taste Worse

Unsurprisingly, all that nasty gunk stuck in your oven stinks. It can emit odors that make your baking taste off. You don't want to spend a couple hours in the kitchen lovingly preparing your world-famous pumpkin pie only for your oven to ruin the flavor, do you?

Clean Kitchens are More Inviting

I happen to love baking and cooking, but that doesn't mean I'm always looking forward to doing it. But clean, shining spaces are just more inviting. If a housecleaner has already spiffed up the place and left it sparkling, it's like a big, fat welcome mat.

Baking is More Relaxing if Your Other Chores Are Done

Like I said, I love baking and it can be terribly relaxing, but it's a lot harder to relax if I'm running through a mental list of all the other things I need to do around the house. If the shower is scrubbed and the floors are washed, that's a lot less holiday stress for me to worry about. All that'll be left is tossing a few dishes in the sink or dishwasher, giving the counter a quick wipe, and voila!