Cleaning my own place ...

We started engaging the services of a part-timer when Snowylady went back to work.  Our apartment was very small, so 3 hours on a Saturday morning usually got the job done, including the ironing (the only part of the laundry we don't do ourselves.)

The first part-timer was a part-timer for our neighbour, who also baby-sit their children on weekdays.  She worked with them and was so trusted that two other families also employ her on a part-time basis : another neighbour to babysit her daughter who was a little older than mine, and my family for a weekly cleaning.

It worked well enough, until the original employer discovered her pilfering some of their cash.  It was a nasty shock to all 3 families.

It took us a while before we found another - this time, a lady from the Philipines who married a Singaporean and is now a citizen here.  She decided to work to supplement the family income.  After a while, it went well too.  As she got a Primary school going daughter, we were flexible sometimes when she needs to attend to her daughter's school matters.

Though none of the part-timers cleaned the house as cleanly as when we do it ourselves, we lived with it as it allowed us more time with our children, very important as both parents work during the week.

Well, our second part-timer departed too, this time, because she has been taking a part-time diploma course in childhood education and could no longer afford the time to do the part-time work.  We wished her all the best.

So now, it's back to us cleaning our own house.  A life-saver for us is when my mother-in-law offers for us to bring our ironings to her flat and have her maid help out.

Ironing is the most tedious part of laundry work.  I am incompetent at it (my brothers-in-laws laughed and said it's because I never did NS), my wife finds it too time-consuming.

But at least our house is cleaner ... well, at least as clean as we can make it ... still plenty of mess in odd corners created by the children, but we come to accept that living with 2 of them.

We still take the kids out of weekends, and plonk them at my in-laws' place for their naps, while we quickly rush home to do the housework.  Recently, Snowylady even got to go back to school on Saturdays (so much for MOE's plan for Saturday to be an offday) so I did it myself.

The bad thing is of course I got to it alone.

Well, it is also a good thing, 'cos I sometimes annoy Snowylady when we are cleaning the house together.

Anyway, I will definitely not be inviting any friends over any time soon.

Despite the efforts put in, my place is ...homely and very lived-in ... so there.