If you want something done properly...

...then don't ask the maid to do it! Or as an alternative title: How often does a dish have to be washed before it is actually clean?

Monday to Saturday Santosh comes "to clean the house". I use inverted commas, because she doesn't see dirt, or dust, or cobwebs. It would really be more accurate to say she sweeps and wet wipes the floors, washes the dishes and makes the beds. But she doesn't make Keir's bed. Never has. When he slept on the top bunk I understood it, because she's short, and it's not easy. But when he moved to the bottom bunk it would have been an easy job. Maybe she just doesn't see his bed either...

On Monday morning Santosh washed up all the dishes. Before making dinner each night, I put them away. I noticed a small white bowl wasn't clean, so I put it back with the dirty dishes. On Tuesday, Santosh washed the dishes. When I went to put the dishes away that evening, I noticed the dish was still not clean. I know it was the same dish, because I recognised what it had contained. It still had purple conditioner in it from the hair treatment I'd done on Sunday. It was definitely the same bowl. Nothing else I'd cooked was pearly purple, nor smelled of lavender... To ensure the dish really got clean this time, I filled it with water to make sure it was easy to get off, and left it to soak by the sink. Wednesday Santosh did the dishes. Was that dish clean when I went to put it away? What do you think? So I washed the bloody thing myself. It's clean now...

Why don't we get a maid who can see dirt? Well, she's cheerful, relatively punctual and doesn't steal. All of which we rate higher than cleaning ability...