All About Full-Time Maids
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that is why i say the industry is really rotten
almost like a scam -
SMH FOREST:
Ya.. am sure too... but i wrote in anyhow to say my piece.. hahaha.. :evil:
Thanks! I hope she is good too! The last 1 mth has been very stressful..
and all my grey hairs are SHOWING already!! argghhh 
keep whatever emails you send to and receive from mom. this is to cover yourself in case anything happens. -
Noob in employing maids, so need some help here. Is the following schedule reasonable?
wake up at 6am and free time by 9pm, sleep by 10pm. Main tasks everyday are cleaning the furniture and hand-mopping 3 rooms, and 2 toilets, handwashing clothes, ironing and cooking? My place is only about 1000 square feet or so.
Just had my maid, and she was already crying on the second day, and she woke up late and only cleaned like the living room, study, and washed clothes.
She took 2 hours to wash about 10 pieces of clothes, too long? 5 pieces of clothes took her like 1 hour.
Today, she woke up on time, but she’s behind schedule by like 2 hours. I want to really micromanage and supervise but my toddler is v sticky, and gets upset when I talk too long to the maid.
I think I really have no choice but to really scrutinise her. -
omgmum:
Did you observe how she do 1 piece of handwashing? Is she doing it the way you want her to do? Frankly, I would keep handwashing of clothes to a minimum 'cos I find that maids usually take a long time to handwash clothes. It is really a waste of time and water and it may not be exactly cleaner 'cos they dun rinse properly. They just spend the time to fill up big tubs of water, swirl the clothes inside a bit and then pour away water and fill up tubs again. Repeat for 3-4 times. My mil termed this as playing with waterNoob in employing maids, so need some help here. Is the following schedule reasonable?
wake up at 6am and free time by 9pm, sleep by 10pm. Main tasks everyday are cleaning the furniture and hand-mopping 3 rooms, and 2 toilets, handwashing clothes, ironing and cooking? My place is only about 1000 square feet or so.
Just had my maid, and she was already crying on the second day, and she woke up late and only cleaned like the living room, study, and washed clothes.
She took 2 hours to wash about 10 pieces of clothes, too long? 5 pieces of clothes took her like 1 hour.
Today, she woke up on time, but she's behind schedule by like 2 hours. I want to really micromanage and supervise but my toddler is v sticky, and gets upset when I talk too long to the maid.
I think I really have no choice but to really scrutinise her.
. And they use a lot of soap powder!
The amount of work you mentioned is not a lot if maid is at home the whole day and she is just focussed on housework and cooking. But I think you may want to re-think whether it is necessary to do some of the work a specific way.....like do you really need her to handwash all the clothes, and handmop the rooms? Do you need to wash toilets everyday? We only get the maid to rinse the toilet bowl every night, and only do thorough clean once a week. As for ironing, do you really have so many pieces of clothes to iron everyday? My maid will only iron once a week. I used to have a part-time cleaner and she used to take abt an hour to iron 10-12 pieces of clothes. So, I use this as a benchmark for my maid.
New maids need to give them time to get up to speed. So, have to be more patient with them and guide/adjust when they didn't do up to expectation. As long as she has the right attitude, you tell her wrong and she will change to do it your way without giving you black-face or talk back, you can give her a chance. Also, you may wan to tell your maid that she has to finish all her work before she can retire for the day. -
just to update. after i’ve got my maid’s passport updated. i update the work permit online and today morning, i go to the tanjong pagar complex to collect this morning, les sthan 10 minutes got it liao… FREE. so in all, i spent $45 for passport+photo nia… do it yourself if u want to extend, dun let agent cheat ur money… they charge $400 for passport renewal nia… work permit i dunno how much they will charge.
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$400 for passport renewal?!! :yikes: That's like daylight robbery!
micollh:
just to update. after i've got my maid's passport updated. i update the work permit online and today morning, i go to the tanjong pagar complex to collect this morning, les sthan 10 minutes got it liao.. FREE. so in all, i spent $45 for passport+photo nia.. do it yourself if u want to extend, dun let agent cheat ur money.. they charge $400 for passport renewal nia.. work permit i dunno how much they will charge.
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micollh:
just to update. after i've got my maid's passport updated. i update the work permit online and today morning, i go to the tanjong pagar complex to collect this morning, les sthan 10 minutes got it liao.. FREE. so in all, i spent $45 for passport+photo nia.. do it yourself if u want to extend, dun let agent cheat ur money.. they charge $400 for passport renewal nia.. work permit i dunno how much they will charge.
The Indonesia's embassy is so efficient in processing passport renewal. You renewed your maid's passport later than me but already got it. I am still waiting for mine..probably will take another 1.5 months to complete the renewal.
For indo passport renewal, since it's so straight forward, it make sense to do it on your own and not go through the agency. -
yes. since it’s fast and not troublesome. we can do it ourself. i only take 1/2 day leave each time to submit, collect.
Yes Angelight, that’s how much maid’s agency is charging ! scary right? i was shocked too as i saw on Indon embassy only $35 they earn more than 10 times… they said they will come and pick ur maid bring her back blah… we can do this too. even faster. -
thanks bzmum22!
The maid is solely in charge of doing the housework and taking care of the dog. I bathe the dog and look after my toddler, and I pick up after my daughter as well.
We don’t have a lot of clothes and the clothes get smelly if we wait for a full load. That’s why we wash everyday. Also, we don’t have a lot of space to dry the clothes. Ironing is when we have clothes to iron for that day, if not, then she doesn’t have to iron. At this point, she only has to iron my husband’s work clothes.
I have a dog, and I have very bad sinus and am allergic to dust, that’s why I get the maid to clean and mop everyday. That’s what I did too before she came. I used a sponge mop to mop and a cloth to touch up, and used a 3m mop to sweep, but she didn’t like using either of them. I gave her a choice and she said she preferred to hand mop. And I also told her that she could do away with the sweeping and just mop. I don’t like brooms because they make the dust fly everywhere and my nose gets irritated.
As for cooking, we haven’t even started yet.
Actually another reason why I made the chores daily is so that it’s actually easier to clean, cos the rooms won’t be so dirty.
As far as possible, I’ve made things easier for her. I pack the rooms in advance so that it’s easier for her to clean!
Think will give her another week or so to stick to the schedule. If not, will tell her that she can’t rest if she doesn’t finish her chores. Hope she’ll get the hang of things soon, because if it comes to the point when I end up picking up after her, then it’s probably time to get a new maid, or to do without one again.
Sigh. I knew there would be some teething pains when getting a maid, but I didn’t know that it would be this troublesome. -
Think the maid was expecting to be mainly taking care of my daughter, although I told the agency very clearly that the maid would be doing chores, taking care of my dog, and occasionally, my daughter, as I would be staying at home.
The maid said the agent told her she would be taking care of a baby, and she does seem to get along well with my daughter. But the thing is, if she takes care of and play with my daughter, then I become the maid and do the chores huh? :siao:
Sianz. She would give herself a break at times to play with my daughter, and i would be going around the tidy up the place! Talk about reversal of roles!
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