Re-inventing MY life - Part 1: Being Maid-less

Have you ever reached a point in life that you decided that enough is enough? And YOU woke up and smelled the roses.. poo?! Well, I reached that point when my maid went back for her home leave.

Here's the start of (perhaps a very long) story...

I renewed my maid's contract after 2 years.. We verbally agreed that we would hire her for 2 contracts, meaning 4 years.. provided she does a good job for us. However, when she left for home leave, I discovered that many things weren't done properly. Perhaps, I wasn't sufficiently strict with her or clear with my expectations. Hubs says I'm lousy at people management. =P

Anyways.. My house was in shambles. (Drastic word eh?) My washing machine was mould coated, downstairs toilet was rarely scrubbed, cabinets were filthy.. Best part - I moved in to this place only a year ago!

We decided that we will try to cope without a maid. All of us pitching in, including the kids helping to do their part in chores. So after she came home from her home leave, we told her we decided that we didn't want her services anymore. Granted, we could have save her a trip back here but we wanted to let her have a chance in finding another employer here. However, she decided to go home.. So we compensated her sufficiently and sent her back.

It has been almost a month without her,  two if you count the time she was away for home leave. We are still trying to get a handle on things. We are pretty much okay for most of the time.. UNTIL this week.

The washing machine broke down, MIL was down with stomach flu (she is better now so its my turn to lie in bed), my mum and I are down with bad flu. Being sick is the worse.. cause we are the main caregivers (MIL and I) with my mother as the standby for the girls. As I type this, my head is feeling really heavy, ears stuffed up from being congested. So, it is HARD when the housework piles up. I've got a PT helper coming in twice a week, that helps relieve the housework load.

I won't say life is easy without a maid.. Do I really need one? I would say its really nice having someone else being in charge of housework. But I am young enough to accept the hard work. I am OCD and I love seeing my own house clean and tidy. Will I hire another in future? Perhaps. Maybe. Maybe not. I will hire one only if I desperately need to.. For now, it is nice to see the girls pitch in and learn some responsibilities.