Jamie has been itching and scratching more than ever.  The poor thing, I know she inherited my atopic dermatitis, and the erratic weather and the horrible state of pollution this country is in doesn’t help one bit. 🙁

Because of the state of her skin, I’m more than ever becoming anal about keeping our home clean from top to bottom.  We’ve been home for over a year now; I figured some spring cleaning was required.  At the height of our monsoon season, where all the dust and pollution gets washed to the ground.  In September.

I have an all around nanny that does the day-to-day chores and keeps the as dust-free as possible.  The other day I left the kids in their father’s care and took her with me up and down and all around the place, just dusting and disinfecting and cleaning.  It’s amazing how a small family can pile up so much in 12 months.

Then there are the air condition units.  Our building’s maintenance crew have just told me that the vents and the pipes are clogged and muddy (MUDDY!) — probably another cause for Jamie’s allergies since we breathe that air on a daily basis.  And to think that I just had them cleaned 3 months ago!  The 5-month time frame doesn’t hold in Manila anymore it seems.  How sad (and how expensive!).

Then I panicked because I realized we haven’t had the beds, carpets and sofas cleaned and shampoo-ed since we arrived.  It’s been a year!  Of all the horrors, right?  These are the spots that the girls use the most.  The carpet is above the coffee table which the girls do most of their activities and most of their eating on.  I dread what’s trapped in there that our day-to-day cleaning can’t capture.

As the cleaning gods would have it, one morning I received a message from Marivic Arambulo.  Janice had given her my name and number, and would I be interested in trying out her services?  But of course!  So we set a Tuesday afternoon for the task.

Sam was on her way out to Kumon and Jamie had just gone down for a nap when Marivic and her cleaning crew arrived.  She calls herself the Cleaning Diva, and she personally oversees the jobs that are done by her team.  Prior to the cleaning day, Marivic interviewed me to ask me what cleaning needs we had.  This was so that she could adequately prepare the items and the equipment that they would bring over.  She could also estimate the number of hours they would spend here (as that is how she computes for the rate she will charge).  I like it because she seems to have gotten it down to a mathematical computation, and her charge of P1,500 per hour (minimum of 2 hours) for a residential unit seems fairly reasonable. For example:  A queen-sized bed will take 20 minutes to deep clean, and 30 minutes to shampoo.  And when she totals all of what you’ve asked her to do, she can give you a time frame that she’s working with so that you can estimate your total Cleaning Diva expense.  She never charges over the rate that she quoted, but she will work overtime to get the job done if need be.

She’s very hygiene conscious too.  Marivic and her staff walk around in uniforms, wear socks and leave their shoes outside.  They also ask prior to doing anything where they can get water, and where they can throw the dirty water out.  Marivic takes pride in using organic and self-made cleaning products that are used in her service.  And I have to say, they smell good!  Of course I had her get to the rugs, sofas and beds straight away.  I didn’t realize even our dining room chairs may need some cleaning too, and she was happy to oblige.

I watched them work and was completely horrified to see all the dirt the machines had dug up from the rugs and the sofas.  There were clouds of dust flying from the materials of the sofa in my husband’s “man cave”.  Thank goodness Jamie doesn’t like to go in there much!

As Marivic was bustling about, she noticed that our electric fan had a layer of dust forming on the blades, and she went straight for it with her deep cleaner.  I appreciated that attention to detail and the initiative as well.  As she says, she charges on a per hour rate so it doesn’t matter how many items they deep clean, for as long as we are able to stick to the time.

When Jamie woke up from her nap, she supervised their cleaning too.

I thought the noise from the machines would scare her but she seemed fine.  And when she saw the carpet she wouldn’t stop stepping on it.  “It feels soft Mama.”  I guess her little feet could feel the difference too.

I definitely need to keep a tighter schedule over deep cleaning our home. The results from this last quarter’s spring cleaning was a big wake up call.  I didn’t realize how fast we accumulated dirt, particularly since we live in the city.  It’s not funny, and my poor Jamie suffers the consequences.  I do hope she feels better now.

Thank you Cleaning Diva for making us a little less itchy and scratchy!  Find Marivic on Facebook:  The Cleaning Diva Cleaning Services