Everybody deserves to have some home help, but few people can afford full-time help and fewer still can find it in this Celtic Tiger economy, where a range of more interesting and better paid jobs are attracting women away from housekeeping as a career. Until recently you could say that for every successful woman in the workplace, there was either a house-husband or an excellent nanny or housekeeper keeping the lifestyle afloat and the squalor at bay. But there's nothing like the resignation of your treasured helper to bring you down to earth with a bump. Suddenly it is you, not she, who has to tackle the sea of unmade beds, foetid fridges, dirty ovens, filthy bathrooms and greasy kitchen floors.

The worst thing about housework is that it's boring. The second worst is that it is totally thankless, since as soon as you have the place spruced up, the children muck it up again. The third is that you resent it so much that you end up going around red-faced like the charwoman of the apocalypse snapping at anyone who so much as dribbles on the floor.

To take the place of human hands, there are labour-saving devices that can cut or even eliminate the time involved in the most onerous tasks but be prepared to pay for them.

If all else fails, there is only one emergency rescue device for the overwhelmed house-spouse: leave it all behind and check into a hotel, leaving the housework to the mini-maids - if you can find them.