I wrote quite a couple of posts about maids in India, and in the nearly 9 years I have been there I had the very good, the good, the bad and the downright ugly, but there are things that no matter how many times you explain them, no maid will really grasp, not even the good ones like the one I have now. And frankly I gave up because it’s not worth loosing breath and saliva over these matters. If you are new to India, here is the list of the things you can if you want try to explain, consider a bonus if followed, but should not sweat upon.
- Draining baskets: at the exception of one maid, all asked for it, and I refused, because the basket in question is a giant space eater in which they will pile your washed dishes without any rhyme and order which could cause to breakage of your non steel glasses and plates. If you have a separate utility area where you can keep the damn thing out of sight, fine go for it, I never really had that luxury and the way I see it, the damn basket would cause me to use more expletive during the day having to move it around to use my tiny kitchen, or bump into it, for the few minutes it is used to drain a dishes each day…not worth the hassle. My Kitchen is modular, and I like it neat so I always store away the clean stuff promptly, but hey never stopped even my current maid for asking I buy one a million time.
- The other reason I do not want to buy one, is that my kitchen has a sink with a draining platform. The problem is that day in day out I end up with this scenario:
As you can see the draining area is clear and all the stuff are piled dripping wet on the granite counter. The reason being that despite my showing her how to do it right, explaining how to do it right and repeating a million time that the ribbed thing on the side of the sink IS the new draining basket my maid still soap up all the dishes one by one, pile them all soapy on the draining area, and then rinse them one by one and dump them on the granite. While the correct way would be to soap one, rinse it and place titled on the slots of the draining area, and take the new dish to repeat all over again. I had this draining system in all my flat but one, and in all the houses that had one I explained the system, only for the maid to ignore it, I even had a particularly cheeky one telling me that no there are too many dishes and it can’t be done, only for me to show that yes it could and be blurted to my face it is time consuming…that was the crappy Navi Mumbai maid I once upon a time told about if you were wondering. After so many years trying to explain how to stack the dishes…I gave up, they still don’t get it, probably never will. I just try to remember to clear them away fast and mop the counter dry so I get my workspace back and don’t get too much water leaking between the wall and the counter top as it has been sealed poorly, otherwise the storage area below gets wet.
- For them there is no such thing as too much soap, soap cleans, and more soap equals to cleaner. Don’t let them use liquid dish soap unless you plan on putting a dent in your budget, they can empty a bottle in a week (been there), get the good old desi alternative : dish soap bars, they will still disappear in a week, the difference is that a bottle cost about 90 rupees and a bar cost 15. And they don;t stop there, floor cleaner used in excess is apparently also better than just a cap for many, go for the cheap, or like me, go with none at all, the floor is mopped daily, and I’m not living in a hospital, so it doesn’t need to be 99.9% germ free, germs found in houses anyway help you build up immunity, and I do my wallet and the environment a huge favour. I would go for vinegar if it wasn’t so costly around here.
- Don’t bother confusing them with too many cleaning products, they will not remember half of what you told them, will end up using the same thing for everything anyway and you will loose your mind over it. I had a maid in Chennai who used the dish wash liquid soap to mop the floor I kid you not! Buy one floor cleaner, one dish soap, and a toilet cleaner and let it be, if you are a clean freak and want more stuff, keep it for yourself and do that speciality cleaning yourself.
- They strongly believe that huge bucket of waters poured all over the balconies and in the bathroom is better than moping these area. Even in my current flat, with my current maid where we have western style bathrooms with properly segregated wet and dry area she will wet it all over, never use a mop at all, and never even use a sponge to wash the basin. I tried telling all my maids to MOP the bathrooms, they simply don’t. Invest into a foam wiper blade thingy and wipe off the excess yourself to avoid breaking your leg. And never mind that they could clean a balcony with half the water, they still will fill the bucket to the rim and pour, water preservation is apparently not their concern.
- Back to the dishes, don’t bother trying to explain that a scotch brite sponge/scrubber can be used on the sponge side to clean melamine plates with patterns, non-stick coating pans and other fancy items with prints on them. The will use the green scrubber side for EVERYTHING even if there is nothing to wipe, there is one of Ishi’s tiffin box that lost a cartoon design in just a week, and I gave up buying non-stick pans eons ago, they will strip the coating in less than a month with vigorous scrubbing, never mind that nothing ever stuck to the bottom of said pan. If you have non stick stuff, clean them yourself if you value them, because no matter how many times you tell them not to scrub them, they’ll keep on doing it
- They have trouble getting the concept of dusting too, or they will bang a dry cloth on your furniture just spreading the dust somewhere else, or they will mop them with a dripping wet cloth. I managed to get mine to stop mopping them with a super wet cloth, but haven’t been able to make her switch to the proper microfiber duster that grab the dust without being soaked. Only WET cleanses, dry can’t do that in their mind. I even showed her how to dry dust…massive fail, she doesn’t get it, but since the dust accumulates so fast in India one need to dust twice daily, so she does it in the morning her way, I do it in the afternoon my own way. Don’t bother trying to make them use pledge, it’s costly and they won’t use it right and all it does is buy you around 12 hours of dust build up.
- if you are very particular about certain cleaning tasks and really really want them done a specific way, do it yourself, learn to pick your battle with household stuff in India, a spick span glossy home is not possible here, give the thing you don’t nit pick too much over to the maid, do the other yourself.
- if you don’t have a washing machine and care about your clothes, wash them yourself, the Indian way consist of banging them hard on a stone or the bathroom floor while wet, it will kill anything in just a few months, we used to let the maid clean them in the beginning, before we got a washing machine, the stains would not come out, the fabric looked worn out a few weeks after purchasing said item, and I even had neighbours reporting that they were constantly sewing button back on their husband’s shirts because the maid’s bang wash technique broke them.
- Remember that more than in the West your maid doesn’t come from a background where she will be used to multiple cleaning products, and gear, or know that certain items need to be washed with care. Provide her with tools she can understand, most maid will not get how to use a mop broom, so even if it breaks your heart to seem them squat on the flour to mop, let them do it. Each time I moved to a new place I always asked my maid what type of mop she wanted and what she was more comfortable using, the one I have now is the first one that asked for a mop broom and knows how to use it well, so we invested in a 800 bucks microfiber pad scotch brite one. It comes in handy when we spill stuff and both DH and I can mop the floor ourselves with it too, but if she was not comfy with it, we wouldn’t ask her to use it in the first place.
And more important than all for you not to loose your sanity is to remember than when you delegate a task, you must accept loosing a bit of control over it. You can offer tips, try to explain to a certain point, but that stops there.