Why Do When You Can Outsource Your Cleaning Woes?

To be frank I admit I rely on cleaning service for my household cleanliness and hygienne. It goes back as far as 2004 when I first used such service. The there was a 'break' - during the time I had lived-in maids from 2009 to 2011. And now it commenced back. My first maid ran away after we renewed her permit, second maid ran away after barely two days (after eating a big plate of nasi and sambal sotong PLUS took away my kids duit belanja sekolah) and my third maid quit due to family problems. I don't want to start on the maids in this entry since it deserves a very lengthy one on its own :P

Now back to the original topic, you can call me pemalas or whatever but I'd rather spend the free time with En Tebby and the kids than spending it scrubbing the toilets and climbing to wipe all windows. To us (me and Tebby), time is very precious. It is precious. To add to that, it is something you can't pay to get. But you can, when it comes to outsourcing your cleaning woes.

The first cleaning service I ever subscribed to was Kak Wan. It was not a proper company and her girls came and went. It was mid 2004, I was heavily pregnant with Iman. It worked well between us and I had the longest 'friendship' with a cleaning team, up to 2009. 5 years. Over that period, she charged us only RM70 per session. Not taking into consideration of the time taken. Janji siap satu rumah. She'd leave her girls (usually 2 persons, sometimes 3) and later came back about the time the girls finished cleaning up. Sometimes she joined the girls doing their chores. Sorry, I lost her contact number during many transitions of many handphone :P

Thing was, during that time, it was hard to find such service. With K Wan most of the times I needed to book a month ahead. And sometimes when the time came, I had other unforseen things to attend to. In between I used another small company service. They came only once. To me, when you are providing cleaning services, you must know what to do and do not have to rely on me to tell you EVERYTHING. That was my shortest 'friendship'. Once only.

When we were back maidless in 2011, and that I have lost Kak Wan's contact number, I started scouting around again. Remember when I wrote this? With the tittle 'Sapa Mau Tolong Kak Mon Cuci Rumah?'

Merrymaid (http://www.merrymaids.com.my/) & Parttimemaid (http://www.parttimemaid.com/) - They did not reply my enquiry. Maybe their financial situation is merry enough already.

Mynie informed me about Cinta Alam. Thanks Mynie.

Cinta Alam will do what they call 'initial cleaning', and they charged RM270 for that. 4 hours with 4 workers. I was told that it is called 'initial cleaning' as they'd clean your house inside out. Sadly though, it was not up to my expectation. The workers dilly-dally on many things. But then, beggars can't be choosers right? I called up again after two weeks to get subsequent cleaning. Not available. And the week after and the next. Always not available that I gave up. And they don't work on Sunday. And their Saturdays were always fully booked. Funny thing was, they called my up few months later offering yet another 'initial cleaning'. WTH? Okay, I don't cinta Cinta Alam. We were just not meant for each other, we broke up. In fact, they tried to resminiscence by calling me up again yesterday. Sorry, I am so terribly brokenhearted with you guys.

Then I discovered Lee Power Clean (http://www.lkspowerclean.com/) The first time, I booked a 7.00am slot. By 6.15 am they called me up to tell me they were coming (*yawn*) and by 6.30 am, a girl stood waiting at my front gate! She left her bag outside the front door and came in empty handed. She gave me a booklet containing the do's and don'ts, the warnings and whatnots. This is the kind of service I expected. They charged RM60 per cleaner for 4 hours. They have many packages and variation, please check their web okay. I usually take their 4 hours-1 cleaner. Puas hati okay. All work done in 4 hours by 1 person, which was better that what have been done by 4 persons by Cinta Alam. Why pay RM270 when you can do with RM60? Betul tak. Sila call dan book sekarang :D You need to book a week ahead.

In the spirit of 'trying', after one time using Lee Power Clean, I hired Embun Daun cleaning service. They charge RM90 for 2 persons for 4 hours. That is the most minimum. Since I also send my clothes for ironing at laundry shop (average of RM50 for 2 weeks load), I thought I'll get one cleaner to do ironing and the other to clean the house. My calculation - I saved up RM50 from the outsourced ironing, so I only used RM40 for the cleaning. One cleaner was competent enough to do the ironing. Too bad, she's also the one that was good in cleaning. The other one kept on yapping away talking. When the other one is ironing, she kept close holding the clothes. When the other one is scrubbing the toilet, she would also want to be in the toilet. By their 2nd visit, she started telling me bad things about her employer. Adoilah. I forgot to mention they did not sweep under the dining table and under the bed during their first visit. Like I said, when you are providing cleaning service, I expect you to know what and how to clean. Letih okay...... letihhhh!!! Oh lupa. On their 2nd visit, they were an hour LATE.

I first got to know about Embun Daun from this tiang!


Having written all that, I am sure you can guess already which company I am subscribed to. But then again, please be reminded this is solely based on my personal experience k...