Maid

I was reading Mommy Lyna’s entry on this. Hati terpanggil nak share my experience.

We don’t have a maid. It’s amongst the many mutual decisions we made when we got married. Banyak faktor yang membawa kepada keputusan ini. But let’s not go there – perhaps in a different entry. Bottom line is as long as we can bertahan, there is no reason for us to have a full time live-in maid.

The never ending house chores

But I have to admit I’m no superwomen. I can’t do the laundry, clean the house, wash the toilet, cook and take care of IY all by myself. Of course Mr G’s been helping a lot. He is the Superman. I have to applaud for his effort. I’m thankful that he’s very ringan tulang when it comes to the house chores. *Thanks abang – saya appreciate everything yang awak buat, walaupun awak pernah TER-rosakkan baju Munawwarah saya – uwaaaa!*

Once a month, we have a weekend part time maid who comes to our house to do the house cleaning. She does everything from A-Z for 4 hours. The company is owned by Malaysian Chinese and the maids are from Indonesia. So far they are doing a good job. No hanky panky incidents or problems up to now. If something goes wrong, I can report to the company directly – I feel much more secure that way. They have a driver who sends and picks up the maid to our home.

*picture googled

The pros:

• the fees are cheap (at least to us) and we are not tied to a contract. just pay as and when the maids come to do the cleaning.
• rumah bersih hati senang – touch up sikit2 je while waiting for the next round of cleaning. even then, if you feel like calling them every week pun boleh – as frequent as your cashflow permits.
• can call them anytime for an appointment
• the maids understand Malay – senang nak communicate. once we tried a different cleaning company that provides Filipino maids and it was a struggle to communicate coz their English was too complicated for me to understand. too thick and semacam lah accent dia. cakap Melayu lagi senang kan.
• the maids are trained – tak payah nak ajar pakai vacuum nor I have to tell them what to do specifically. they already know what to do. just give them the cleaning tools and whatnot and they are good to go.

But, nothing is perfect:

• they aren’t punctual. sometimes datang awal sangat..appointment 7-11am…6.15 dah ding dong bell depan umah. apakah?? tapi kalau dtg lambat pulak, dorang akan balik lambat pulak. coz they need to meet the 4 hours requirement. the problem is when we have plans to go out, satu hal pulak nak kena tunggu dia balik dulu pulak baru boleh keluar.

That’s the only BUT I can think of..for now. I hope there won’t be more.

Toodles!

-Pu3-