The “High Tipping Season”.

viajero wrote:

seisdedos wrote: Altruism does not exist.

Do you know that for a fact or is it just your opinion?

I would suggest that you take a guess...you'll probably be right.

gringal wrote:

ferret wrote:Not if he uses a service like Spring Clean. You pay more DURING the year for the service and you can stop the service at any time or change maids at any time...there are NO added costs like severence, vacation or Aguinaldo. Period.

I've used Spring Clean for five years: and am happy. Freedom From Guilt, among other advantages. I've gone the maid route before and the responsibility that goes with it is a deeper pond that I wish to swim in.

I'm idly curious about why many expats, who probably never had a full time or even part time maid in their lives, move here and need a regular maid and a gardener. Maybe they bought a larger property since it was affordable. Personally, I prefer my privacy.

Does Spring Clean have a website? I'd be interested to know what they charge.

In answer to your other question about why: We are slobs (admitted freely... is there a support group for that?). No, we've never had a maid or gardener, and we know we don't "need" them. It has been SO nice in our few months of retirement to have a relatively clean house ALL the time, and not just before company comes for a pre-planned visit. We still handle everyday stuff ourselves... laundry, cooking, de-clutter, make the bed, dishes. But that can be leisurely, and we still have plenty of time for doing what we want. With the gardener, they bring their own equipment, so we don't need to have our own lawn mower, trimmer, blower, lawn tools, etc. (which we don't really have space to store anyway). Hubby's hobby is playing with his plants, and he can enjoy doing that without having to worry about the standard, tedious maintenance stuff to keep things tidy. We considered not having a maid or gardener when we moved here, but decided to keep them initially until we got settled in and had more time. It's been such a wonderful experience not having to worry about dust, cat hair, cleaning toilets, washing windows, and mowing the yard that we're inclined now to keep it going as a "reward" to ourselves in retirement.

By the way, we are pretty private and nervous about having people in our house, so it's a strange feeling to have a maid here. But I'm getting over it, as I learn to enjoy the benefit of having her here. And, getting back to the original topic... Our maid and gardener are handled through a service, so we don't worry about figuring out tips and benefits. That's what we pay the service for, and it's part of the freedom to enjoy having them here. We needed at one time to switch days that the maid came, so they just adjusted the schedule and provided somebody whose schedule was free on the day we wanted. Very convenient, and no worries about switching things around, or "firing" one person to hire another. And no guilt about the previous maid as she's still working for the service and didn't lose her job for our convenience.

Heather

765-2953: Spring Clean. The jefa is Letitia, a tiny lady with a good head for business. No web site I know of; it's a low tech operation. If you make an appointment to have her come to your place and asses your needs, she will give you the costs to consider.

Our house is easy with all tile floors and little clutter. We have no pets, so no shedding, etc. There really is no yard; just flagstone patio and potted plants, so my husband enjoys the job of gardener. Two maids come for four hours every other week and that does the job for us. We do the in-betweening.

Friends of our who have an extensive garden, complete with ponds, hire Spring Clean's gardening service.

Thanks, Gringal! We may check them for comparison to our current service.

Very useful thread, thanks for starting it Parker. Always good to check what we're doing against others.

We typically give our two gardeners and one maid four times weekly pay for Christmas. They are all excellent and we are happy to do it.

We're including the yard waste pickup guys this year. I previously assumed they were part of the regular garbage group, but we've been told they are not.