Anyone know of a reliable way to find an English-speaking maid who is prepared to do all the pain-in-the-ass things around the home you don’t wanna have to deal with on your day off?
I don’t need the silverware buffed or to be served breakfast in bed with my newspaper, but rather just need someone to clean the damned place coz i have’nt got the energy or time to do it.
How much is the going rate for a casual working housemaid, and any success or horror stories to be told?
I have a maid who comes in once a week to do the tasks that would normally ruin half of my Sundays. She cleans the bathroom, kitchen, sweeps, mops, dusts and straightens things up. She also washes down my patio. She is a Filipina, married locally and with an ARC, so there is no worry about her working illegally. I pay her $1000NT each time she comes (works out to about $300NT an hour), she has a copy of my house keys, so she just lets herself in while I am at the orifice, which is VERY convenient. She does a pretty good job, too - but you should always communicate what your expectations are up front, so that there are no problems later. I believe she is always looking to add to her client list, so if you are interested, send me an e-mail. I can be reached at TaipeiCanadaMao@yahoo.com
I need a maid because if I did the work it would just ruin half my Sundays. Why, last week, Lord Astor and myself were discussing the issue after polo. He heard the most absurd notion the day before: that people who hire maids are lazy and could easily do the work themselves but for the fact that they have enough money to hire a maid and it is a “socially presitgious” arrangement.
Really! Can you imagine dusting or cleaning the toilet yourself!? What a preposterous idea! I would be simply lost with out my Maria. Good heavens, who would wash my socks if it weren’t for her?
Wolf, I saw your posting and saw myself. Dammit, you’re right. I’m firing my maid forthwith. She’ll have to find some other shmuck’s house to clean to pay for her son’s kidney transplant, because I won’t be had any longer. That, and the social cachet that comes with having a maid just isn’t what it used to be. Seems even people without references are getting hired these days, by social climbers from backgrounds of questionable quality and Taipei’s High Society wannabes.
I’ll be damned if I give up my Gurkha driver, though.
What kind of bounder would be without a maid?
My plan has been foiled by those beastly commoners. One asked one’s butler to post the message under the name “dirty dozen.” I just wanted my candlestick buffed by a nice Filipina girl.
You horrid peasants!
And, Master Reinhold, you may have unseated me in polo, but i’ll give you a jolly good thrashing in croquet after tea tomorrow. I say! My mount was quite perturbed after what you did. Bloody commoners.
Why throw your money away on maids. Just get a girlfriend instead.
Is hiring a maid supposed to be some form of altruism, Maoman?
They are called house cleaners, and “it” is called gainful employment. One has a need for a service – in this case it’s cleaning house – and another is willing to provide that service under the terms offered – in this case NT$1,000/hour.
There are people in this town who have limited time to do things. That is why we pay others to do some of those things for us. They in turn choose to accept or decline. Wolf, what is REALLY bothering you. Come now.
NT$1,000/hour? Wow! I’m going to give up my office job right now … I want a new career as a housemaid.
My bad. NT$1,000/visit. Whatever the price, the employee can choose not to take the job.
I couldn’t care less whether or not a person has a “house cleaner” (got that term everyone?), but in my humdrum life, my family never had a “house cleaner” nor did anyone I have ever known. That is until I hit Taiwan and parts in Asia.
My feeling is that doing the routine chores around the house (and in Taiwan there are no outside chores like mowing the lawn, for example) is just a part of everyday life. Too “busy” to wash your own clothes? To dust? To clean the bathroom? To straighten the coffee table? I mean really, my parents and me and my friends and acquaintances have been able to get along fine for our whole lives without this help. Are we just holdovers from the Industrial Revolution, slaving away while the “post-modern man” pays to use his free time?
Either you are too lazy to do what housework is required, have disposable income that you want to toss at unnecessary hired help, like the ego trip of having a “house cleaner,” or want to get a bit on the side.
Remember here, we are talking about “house cleaners,” not caregivers attending to a sick or aged person.
I don’t have a house cleaner, but I wish I did…
I hate cleaning those damn screens! Ugh! and the balcony…it took me five hours one Sunday. Hey, Maoman, could you send me her number, please? Ta!
Wolf, homes get a bit dirtier here in Taipei than they do at home. Could be because we leave the windows open and the air pollution settles inside. I remember last year after a visit home, how the first thing I did was overhaul my whole flat before unpacking. It just seemed so grotty in comparison. I’ve never had anyone clean my place here though, except my boyfriend (kidding)
My family had a maid who did the ironing when I was a child. She was a black woman named Annie Ruth, I adored her! Because our family had four kids and clothing wasn’t made of manmade fibers back then, does this make me a racist? Spoiled? Elitist?
Please get over it, Wolf. If someone wants a house cleaner, is it not their business? Big hairy deal…
I could think of a lot more imperialistic behaviours than hiring a house cleaner once a week.
I too would love to have a maid to come in and do things like wash the floor and clean the bathrooms. I agree with Alien - whereas in the States, I could get away with doing vacuuming or floor cleaning once every 2-3 weeks, I find myself cleaning the floor several times a week here. There’s simply too much dust. Plus, my pipes have apparently rusted, because my water always comes out orange for the first few minutes: whatever this stuff is, it leaves a lot of residue in the sink/bath. Again, things I’ve never had to deal with in the States.
However, I haven’t been able to bring myself to hire a cleaner because of the privacy issue. Even if a cleaner is completely trustworthy in the sense that he/she doesn’t steal - I just can’t believe that he/she wouldn’t succumb to flipping through my documents, bank books, or whatever. How do those of you who hire help deal with this? There is just a lot of information in my house about me I would prefer not to share with someone I don’t know.
I said “I couldn’t care less whether or not a person has a ‘house cleaner’…” and then the very next post from Alien says: “Please get over it, Wolf. If someone wants a house cleaner, is it not their business? Big hairy deal.”
Do people actually read these posts first before responding? Unreal.
So for Alien, I don’t care about the maid issue. I was just throwing in my two-cents’ worth.
By the way folks, I’ve been cleaning my own house here for over 16 years and I know how dirty it gets, but come on. It is not so bad that you can’t do it yourself.
But if you want to hire someone to dust your doorknob, go ahead.
Wolf, Jesus, get a grip on yourself. It’s called capitalism. Love it or lump it.
Stop preaching!
quote[quote] Either you are too lazy to do what housework is required, have disposable income that you want to toss at unnecessary hired help, like the ego trip of having a "house cleaner," or want to get a bit on the side.[/quote]Wolf,
Whether or not you ‘care’ that someone has a house cleaner, you have assigned several negative attributes to those who do.
I am not lazy. I do not have much disposable income. I would never toss about the phrase, “my housecleaner…bla bla” in order to bolster my ego. I would never ‘get a bit on the side’ from anyone who helped me clean my abode, unless he had a firm, muscled bottom and was wearing a
g-string (kidding)Your initial response to this posting insinuates that you DO care if someone has a housecleaner by that fact alone.
If I were to give you the gift of one free day of house cleaning service, would you really turn that down??? Be honest! Just think how shiney your knob would be…
Preaching? Sorry, I thought this was the place to voice an opinion. Guess I got that wrong. Put me right in my place!
Wolf Doggie,
Let me explain simple economics to you. The going rate for mopping floors is NT$300/hour. If you can make NT$1000/hour at work, why not spend those two hours doing what you’re good at, earn $2,000, pay the maid $600, be up $1,400, and have your place clean at the same time?
Unless you derive $1,400 of pleasure from the mindless droning of cleansers, dustpans, and toilet scrubbers, it just doesn’t make sense.
PlacardJoe, you are assuming that Wolf can earn more than NT$300/hour. That’s a huge assumption there.