Prior to that I arranged for the curtains to be cleaned and post-renovation cleaning of the place. Curtain cleaning did cost a bit because of their weight, and gosh were they filthy. I dismantled them myself and my palms were black by the time I was done. How did they live like that? But anyway I only hung them back after post-renovation cleaning was done. 

And the post-renovation cleaning was kind of critical in the end because of all the hacking dust which the bloody electrician didn’t give any hoots about covering up the (newly done) flooring before proceeding (even though he did warn me it will be dusty - but you couldn’t do more than just warning?). My initial idea was to clean everything myself but eventually the combination of an online discount and mental exhaustion led me to hunt for a cleaning company to do it. 

Went for Helpling, which looks like a popular brand online. Again didn’t do too much research because…reasons. Lol. But they seem decent enough though reviews are a bit of hit and miss. Arranged a date, turns out they are just a platform for cleaning companies and they outsourced to a company, which wasn’t a major issue. 

What turns out to be a major issue is on the exact morning of cleaning, 10 minutes before their scheduled arrival, they TEXTED (not even a call) to say the cleaner is unwell and they would never send an unwell cleaner so they have to postpone my cleaning. Again this sent me into a bit of hysteria (for the second Saturday morning running, might I add) because my schedule was very tight at that point - my furniture is coming in the very next Monday so I really needed the place clean. And to top it up when I called back, their hotline apparently doesn’t take calls on weekends even though they are working, so I had to TEXT them back and request for a callback. 

And they did, after 30 agonizing minutes. To which I refused point blank to postpone it by a week and they eventually agreed to send someone the next day, on a Sunday. I had to shift my schedule around (including my 入宅 which was supposed to be on Sat afternoon itself after the cleaning) but it works for me. So confirmed it, but when the booking showed up on their app the pricing is different from what I originally paid for, so I had to request for another callback for me to make noise about. So they eventually compromised by giving me back the original rate by applying a bigger discount, but I was already bracing myself for the worst. 

Returned the next day for cleaning. Two Chinese cleaning staff showed up, briefly explained what I want cleaned and special areas to pay attention to, then left them to their devices while I went off to get a little bit of break from all these stress - like a haircut for example hahah. Returned just before lunch and they said they were almost done - but sigh the cleaning quality. I felt like it’s amateur at best and even I could have done a better job (I did eventually, got rid of some stains with this magical product which I can’t believe I only just discovered - melamine sponge) if I had the time and energy to do it. Had to scrub the toilet walls myself because even though they did clean it twice I wasn’t up to standard and I can’t be bothered with them anymore. But at least all the dust is gone. So let them off. 

But, man. It’s easy money. It’s like $60 per hour. Ok $30 per person but still. If I ever shift house again I am still going to engage one though, but maybe I’ll pay more for a good one.