Desperate House Cleaners

While recovering from surgery, the house got progressively dirtier. F only did so much and I couldn't do anything on crutches, so I placed an ad on a local internet site for help cleaning the house: 2 hours once a week. Just enough to do some basic cleaning like vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom.

To my surprise, I got over 80 responses. The calls kept coming at all hours from early morning to evening and weekends, too. My mobile phone's battery was completely drained at the end of everyday by the sheer volume of telephone calls. The emails popped up in my box, one after another. Foreigners, Italians, women, men and girls. I got printable CVs! They were willing to drive 30 minutes to get to our house to clean for just 2 hours. They wanted to be interviewed immediately. I was absolutely shocked. Even the 45-year-old daughter of the family that lives door happened to mention that she saw the announcement, figured out that it was me, and asked for the job.

If anyone tells you that the economy is just fine here, they're wrong. There are thousands of people who are trying to make ends meet by cleaning. Young girls doing poorly-paid internships who need a little extra money. Women out of work. Mothers who wanted to do a little extra work when the kids are at school. Men who lost their jobs.

I am lucky that F and I have a job.

Welcome to the World of Holiday Cleaning

In Italy, just about the whole country goes on holiday for two full weeks between Christmas and the Epiphany. The kids are elated they don't have school and the adults are happy to catch up on sleep, eat and drink a lot, ski and maybe get some travelling in during the vacation dates they carve out for the themselves.

It is a time that signifies family and reunion. Many of the Italian families gather in large extended clans over a big dinner table for Christmas Day, Eve or Saint Stephen's Day, 26 December. It has the feeling of Thanksgiving with the added element of Jesus Christ's arrival, Santa Claus' gift delivery service and ends with a witch, the Befana, being burned over a bonfire.

However there is another aspect to this holiday season that I would like to mention: the fact that the house help goes on holiday, too. My middle-aged clients and friends were complaining about how much "work" they had while not strictly working. What do they mean? These women did what their paid service normally accomplishes during the rest of the year: clean, iron and do the grocery shopping. These lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc. were shocked by the mundane aspects of life. You see, the staff of house assistants very often go home to their native countries at Christmas time or simply refuse to work during the holidays.

These career women I know couldn't wait for life to get back to "normal" at the conclusion of the holidays so they could avoid the everyday chores of their own houses. It's amazing to me how many of them do not do these rather "normal" duties, in my opinion.

It must be nice to only clean 2-3 weeks a year and not 2-3 days/week all-year long! (I am writing this post after having cleaned the oven and mopped the floors only hours before it started to rain, when the dog made them muddy again.)

Meanwhile for interesting statistics relating to the Italians who do clean, and of course they number many, there's an informative article at An Expatriate in Rapallo.