Project Household - Survival, The Apprentice and Maid Swap all rolled into one
2 weeks of blogging hiatus - long story. Presenting a new reality show - Project Household: Survival, The Apprentice and Maid Swap all rolled into one. This I gotta see, except, that I'm in it...
Our maid ran away. Nooo... we didn't ill-treat her. She just ran away, to her embassy - another long story. So, obviously this blog is not going to be about her, that ingrate! It's about an experience that makes it all worth-while.
Managing a household can be simple, but simple never meant easy. 'Expectations' and 'compromise' are too words that always pop out in my mind. 'Legacy' and 'innovations' are the other two. Coming from a Project Manager's background back in my IT days, this is one huge project that has to be managed. Traits of a Project Manager is needed in this project, just like any other project.
* Problem solving skills - how to operate the washing machine with the dry-spin mode.
* Communications skills - how to pacify and ensure that everything will be fine to Mommy.
* Resource management - which tasks is to allocate to who (3 cheers to big family!)
* Decision making skills - when to agree on better technology to help lighten the workload. eg. magic clean (sp?)
* Customer management - how to convince the changing of mindset of legacy systems to the new age systems. Mommy, being accustomed to her legacy ways of doing things, is our biggest customer. Other internal customers are my siblings who are easily convinced with lower expectations and great compromise.
* Time management - which task goes first, which task goes next.
I don't have to worry about budget and timeline. Budget has always been a non-issue. Timeline is, well, until the new maid (actually it should be the old maid - we're getting back Sannah, yay...) is here.
There are likes and dislikes. Call me crazy but I like ironing, which incidentally makes me 'indispensible' cos' no one in my family likes it. I dislike washing clothes, don't ask me why. I have no qualms with the rest of the work. In fact, I enjoy the satisfaction of the outcome of work. I can briefly divide the household activities into 5 areas.
The Kitchen Department: Includes tidying up the kitchen, washing the dishes, marketing for grocery, preparing and cooking dinner
The Clothes Department: Washing the clothes, hanging the clothes, ironing the clothes.
The Cleaning Department (Indoor): Sweeping, mopping and vacuuming.
The Cleaning Department (Outdoor): Sweeping, mopping and gardening.
The Miscellanous Department: Curtains, bedsheets, carpets, cars.
There's more insight into domestic activities than just pure mechanics. I'll blog about it hopefully in the next few days, if I have time.
Our maid ran away. Nooo... we didn't ill-treat her. She just ran away, to her embassy - another long story. So, obviously this blog is not going to be about her, that ingrate! It's about an experience that makes it all worth-while.
Managing a household can be simple, but simple never meant easy. 'Expectations' and 'compromise' are too words that always pop out in my mind. 'Legacy' and 'innovations' are the other two. Coming from a Project Manager's background back in my IT days, this is one huge project that has to be managed. Traits of a Project Manager is needed in this project, just like any other project.
* Problem solving skills - how to operate the washing machine with the dry-spin mode.
* Communications skills - how to pacify and ensure that everything will be fine to Mommy.
* Resource management - which tasks is to allocate to who (3 cheers to big family!)
* Decision making skills - when to agree on better technology to help lighten the workload. eg. magic clean (sp?)
* Customer management - how to convince the changing of mindset of legacy systems to the new age systems. Mommy, being accustomed to her legacy ways of doing things, is our biggest customer. Other internal customers are my siblings who are easily convinced with lower expectations and great compromise.
* Time management - which task goes first, which task goes next.
I don't have to worry about budget and timeline. Budget has always been a non-issue. Timeline is, well, until the new maid (actually it should be the old maid - we're getting back Sannah, yay...) is here.
There are likes and dislikes. Call me crazy but I like ironing, which incidentally makes me 'indispensible' cos' no one in my family likes it. I dislike washing clothes, don't ask me why. I have no qualms with the rest of the work. In fact, I enjoy the satisfaction of the outcome of work. I can briefly divide the household activities into 5 areas.
The Kitchen Department: Includes tidying up the kitchen, washing the dishes, marketing for grocery, preparing and cooking dinner
The Clothes Department: Washing the clothes, hanging the clothes, ironing the clothes.
The Cleaning Department (Indoor): Sweeping, mopping and vacuuming.
The Cleaning Department (Outdoor): Sweeping, mopping and gardening.
The Miscellanous Department: Curtains, bedsheets, carpets, cars.
There's more insight into domestic activities than just pure mechanics. I'll blog about it hopefully in the next few days, if I have time.
posted by ink-think at 8:01 AM
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