All About Life Without Maids

[preciousjam]

skunk:

IJJ:

I have a dishwasher. Yes, it cleans well. Love it. Contemplating to get a dryer, but did not really like the texture of clothes after drying.


Now, I am thinking of the robot vacuum.... skunk, can share your verdict of its usefulness? Does it vacuum corners well? Is it noisy during operation? Do you have to change the filter bags frequently? How costly does each replacement bag cost?

TIA!

i didn't get a dryer because it makes ironing harder hehe

The vacuum robot a.k.a Roomba, is super useful. It's not as good as a real vacuum, but worth more than it's $299 price tag by a thousandfold. Saved me many hours and effort. Its effectiveness is halfway between a real vaccum cleaner and a really good sweep...best of all, it's automated, so by running it daily, the house is super clean.

It's noisy, but i made myself tolerate it for sheer laziness lol. No filter bags, it's bagless. It does corners reasonably well, but have to keep rugs and wires off the ground or else it'll get stuck.

hi skunk!! curious to know that you got the roomba at 299...that's a very good price...so far I heard prices like 500-1000....where did you get it from?

[skunk]

xuanting:

hi skunk, what's the brand of your steam mopper? any good?

It's Karcher. It's good...but just be sure not to fill in too much water...

[skunk]

preciousjam:

hi skunk!! curious to know that you got the roomba at 299...that's a very good price...so far I heard prices like 500-1000....where did you get it from?

there are different models, $299 is for the smallest and most basic model. The others are more powerful and have more functions....but for a 4-room flat, the basic model is enough.

[xuanting]

thanks, skunk. told my hubby abt both the roomba and steam mopper. watched some demos on youtube and now he’s interested too! hehehe… do u know if irobot products can be found in dept stores or do we need to go down to their showroom to touch-see?


how easy to use is your karcher steam mopper? we were interested in the osim one but heard that the handle breaks really easily and the warranty doesn’t cover that.

and on nudist colony
we actually saw a naked couple in an apartment across my mom’s place! nothing kinky la, they just klkk and there was a toddler in the room too.

[skunk]

xuanting:

and on nudist colony
we actually saw a naked couple in an apartment across my mom's place! nothing kinky la, they just klkk and there was a toddler in the room too.

OMG i hope it's not us...i usually draw the blinds...not completely as to suffocate air-flow, but the gap is small enough so others cannot see us easily....hmmm

I bought them all at Courts....there are demo sets around.

The steam mopper is easy and powerful....just drag across the floor, no need scrubbing action....all stains, grease and sweat all gone hehe

[qms]

skunk:

The steam mopper is easy and powerful....just drag across the floor, no need scrubbing action....all stains, grease and sweat all gone hehe

Agree. Our bathroom tiles have rough and uneven surface. Some stubborn dirt just stuck on the tiles, and in the gaps between tiles can easily be removed with the brush that comes with the steam cleaner. If you use the steam cleaner on this type of tiles, you will be amazed at the effect after the cleaning.

[tamarind]

This is a very useful thread ! Although I have a good maid now, I plan to be maid free when my kids are older. I am always interested to learn about how to manage without a maid. In fact, my maid, although very nice, is not a super maid, and I still need to do some housework.


Here's my comments about the dryer. I cannot live without my clothes dryer ! I have a Fisher and Paykel one which is very good. I cannot imagine how to dry bedsheets, especially king sized bedsheets and large blankets without the dryer. Especially during those times of the year when it rains everyday. I simply don't have the space at home to hang wet laundry everywhere.

One trick is to remove clothes from the dryer immediately and hang the clothes up inside the wardrobe, then the clothes will not be wrinkled. In fact, I don't iron my cotton knit blouses or cotton T-shirts at all. My hubby's cotton shirts are also very easy to iron after taking them out of the dryer.

I also bought boxes from Ikea, so I don't need to fold bedsheets, towels, underwear, even home clothes when I am super busy. I just pull out from the dryer and dump straight into the boxes.

For toilet floors, I like the Scotch Brite sponge mop very much, available at NTUC Fairprice.
http://www.fairprice.com.sg/wcsstore/FairPrice/images/catalog/fullimage/11561073.jpg\">

I just spray a little Magiclean bathroom cleaner, splash water on the floor to rinse off the cleaner. Then use the sponge mop to mop the floor. I don't need to squat down to scrub the toilet floor, don't even need to get my hands wet. The floor turns out squeaky clean and very dry !

[hquek]

Regards floor cleaning, I stand by the 3M microfibre mop (current version is bright green in colour - it used to be blue). Akin to Kao magic clean mop, but the cloth is reusable and (esp when the cloth is new) picks up a lot of dirt and hair.


Becos of this, I reduced my floor wiping to about twice a week only - yet floor still feels nice and clean.

Mop not that cheap (depend on your pain threshold) - close to 30 (I think). when the cloth is well worn, I just use it for toilet walls.

[xuanting]

thanks, skunk. off to courts we'll go then!


hi tamarind, i'm v lazy with folding too. sometimes, we just live out of our laundry basket (washer-dryer-basket-wear). got to try your hang immediately method – i really dislike ironing!

[2ppaamm]

peapot:

Hi Nichei,


As I typing this message, my maid is actually whistling in the kitchen. Sigh! She's so happy that she got what she wanted. Can you imagine??!!! After what my hubby say, I don't even dare to raise my voice because previously I would tell her off if I don't like certain things.

My child is 6 and will be going P1 on the 4th Jan. The school bus will pick her up at 11.45am and she will be back at 7pm. How ironic can it get? She's actually safer in school than at home!!!!!???? My hubby says he will station at home in the morning for a week and see how it goes.

In the afternoon, my maid will be alone. We will just have to leave it as it is. We also try to eat first and leave the leftover we've eaten for her so that all of us are eating the same food. In that way, we are assured she didn't do anything funny to the food.

Dear Peapot,

Here's my little story. By any measure I need a maid badly. I have 5 children, ranging from P1 to 15 years old. But I don't. I work full-time and I have a 4 storey house. I don't even have a part-time maid. Why?

I have enough of all these maids! I used to employ 2 of these foreign maids at any time, but I have survived without a single maid for the last 6 months now. I clean, iron, feed, cook and also teach all my kids myself (no tuition). I can vouch to you that I'm much happier and most of all, my kids are much more independant.

My last maid climbed over our wall on several occasions to meet Bangladeshi men till late at night. She provides sex services. I gave her stern warnings so many times, then I sent her to the agency. She did the same thing there, running away from the maid's agency. She is the 2nd maid who does the same thing to me. Prior to this, I had maids who worked for me for 7 years. Lately, my experiences has changed drastically. The quality of maids coming to Singapore are poor and we must learn to be independent of them.

For your current maid, get rid of her, immediately. Buy a ticket using one of those budget airlines, then send her to the airport. Log in to the website and cancel her pass. She deserves that for doing this to you. After that, just send a note to MOM and blacklist her from entering Singapore forever. You'll need good reasons for blacklisting her, if you are not successful in blacklisting her, at least she will learn her lesson.

Why am I suggesting such a mean measure? Simply because if you don't do that, more and more maids will know about how she got away with you (their network is really fantastic), and you will see that her demands will become standard procedure very soon in Singapore.

As for your child, get a student care to take care of her. I'm sure you can find one near your house, or call the school to see if they offer such services. You'll find that very quickly, I assure you. Trust me, life will be much better without a maid. I could not imagine without a maid just a year ago, now, I am coping very happily. The house is CLEANER!

How do I cope? I use robots to clean the house, and plan my calendar carefully. If you want to know, I can share how they are done!