Pinoy in Singapore

Cleaning is the one chore I dread the most… ok, maybe it’s tied with ironing clothes but it all started with our air conditioning units. We wanted to do a maintenance service for the air conditioning units at home to make sure that they were still efficiently running and not just running up the electric bill.

Since it was our first time to call for maintenance service, I didn’t really know what it entailed. So when the maintenance crew arrived and proceeded to our living room air-con, he suggested we have it chemically cleaned because it was too dirty. That set me back S$80.00. For the 2 other aircons we had, we were charged S$25.00 each. All they did really was to wipe the aircon clean and dust it off. As for the chemical cleaning, they just sprayed some chemical on the unit and it made some bubbles then that was it.

Before they started, they asked me where they could wash the filters and the covers so I directed them to the guest bathroom. After the maintenance was done, I realized I had to do a lot of cleaning up after the crew. They left muddy drops of water all over the house! And they left our bathroom looking like 100 people just took a bath. The mat was all wet and the shower cubicle was muddy.

I’m very anal about having a clean house even though I hate cleaning. So imagine how I felt when the maintenance crew left. I suddenly felt the urge to mop the whole place - all 113 sq m of it.

It’s a funny scene actually now that I look back at it. There I was mopping away like crazy and at the same time I was crying (screaming at times) coz I hated that chore. I was spraying kitchen cleaner on our floor and after having mopped everything, I realized that the kitchen cleaner was too sticky so I tried diluting it water and did it all over.

When Mr. Tsiken came home, he noticed that the floors were streaky and sticky. That kept me bothered the whole night. So first thing in the morning I got a pail of water, went down on all fours and started wiping off each tile with water. (Can somebody say OCD?) This time I was no longer crying and my strokes were purposeful but I did feel the urge to sing “Sing Sweet Nightingale” ala Cinderella.

I really could have just hired someone to do it but I wouldn’t have been able to get somebody right there and then and I wouldn’t have slept well until I knew the floors were clean. Besides, it’d be kinda dyahe to have someone cleaning the floors while I’m just standing around or sitting in front of the computer typing away.

What I take from this experience is to shop around for another aircon maintenance service provider. I saw one offering the same service for S$25 but they do other stuff like check gas pressure and spray anti-bacterial on the filters. OR maybe do the cleaning myself since now I know where to find the filters.

I dread the day that we need to go find another unit to live in. I have come to love our unit. And we’ve spent so much effort on cleaning it and keeping it clean. It’s old but it’s big and clean, cheap and isolated - just how I like it.