We've been maidless for close to 6 months. First month was tough, coupled with CNY and I was baking for sale, home and life was madness and messy. It took me a couple of months to get organized with cleaning the home, sorting the laundry out, etc.
Firstly, get organized and throw away unwanted stuff. Don't get sentimental and don't ask the hubs for opinion. He'll want to keep everything. My hubs is a hogger and likes to collect anything and everything.
Then, don't display too many things at home. Having lived in a 1300 sq ft condo before, and space was never enough for 2 of us and every cleaning maid who comes in will sigh at the amount of stuff to wipe and dust, I learnt my lesson. I asked for an extra big store room for our new house and got lots of Ikea storage boxes and pack everything away, those little souvenir photo frames from Phuket, that shot glass from Hard Rock Bali and the whole set of espresso cups from London, need not be displayed. I'd rather have a streaking clean tv shelves with nothing except remote controls and some cds which I want to watch
Thirdly, get good cleaning equipments. Get the best mop that suits you, a wet mop for tiles and a dry mop for timber flooring. Another mop for outdoors and another for kitchen. A good mop saves time and back ache. Get a suitable pail for the mop too, so you don't have to dip rinse, bend and wring dry the mop. I mop my floor without bending down and finish the entire living, kitchen and dining in 10 minutes. I'd just die If I had to mop the traditional way with traditional mop !
Get good cleaning agents too. I use Kao Magiclean for my kitchen and bath but be careful not to use them on marbles and granite, the chemicals will corrode into the porous materials. I once thought garbage enzyme was disgusting but a friend gave me a bottle and I added a capful to a pail of mop water and it works like magic. My ceramic tiled floor is now squeaky clean and shining and the 'shine' lasts for a while. I only need to sweep regularly.
Now, I'm into making garbage enzyme. My first pot is into 2nd month of fermentation and I can't wait to harvest.
Lastly, organize your time. A FTWM will never have enough time to do everything. Prioritise what needs to be done first, like the daugther's uniform needs ironing and hubs needs clean socks. The rest can wait and iron in between tasks, ie while waiting for laundry to be done, that'll make ironing less of a big dreaded chore.
Meanwhile, get a jug of chilled tea and hydrate ourselves while doing the silai stuff.
Why am I ranting about housework ?? Coz I need to get my 31st post up. Am trying to do one post per day for month of May !! muahahahahaa......
