Life Without Maid

This is my third day without maid (helper). It is not exactly relaxing but manageable...so far. That is with me and Dominic at home fulltime. Daily chores we have to do are:
1. open and close the windows - which are quite alot. If it rains suddenly, we both scramble to close them before the rooms get wet. And we have already stop bothering open/close the windows on the rooms that we do not use.
2. Clean the floor. I only sweep them. Forget about mopping. I leave the vacuuming and mopping to the cleaning lady that comes once a week. We are thinking about getting the iRobot initially but decided against it. iRobot can't clean bathroom and windows and these robots are not cheap either.
3. Do my own laundry, folding and ironing. Forget about ironing bedsheet. At one time, I was thinking of getting a dryer but Dominic is not game for it. He said why add more carbon the atmosphere, pay higher electricity when we get plenty of sunshine everyday. I was thinking of saving some time on hanging the laundry under the sun and clothes are generally less wrinkly after dryer.
4. Clean up after each meal. I put everything I can into the dishwasher. The rest have to be hand washed. We are also making sure Lucas is not making a mess after each meal. We used to be lenient on his mess cause we know we don't have to clean the mess but not anymore.
5. Boil drinking water. Haha...I just bought a water filter that comes with both room temperature and hot water. So, no need to boil drinking water and the water is also much cleaner.
6. Surface outside the house like the patio, garage and backyard don't get cleaned. If anyone wants to go out, just wear slippers. I make sure I put the slippers on all exit points.
7. Water the plant and clear the dried leaves from the garden.
8. Take the rubbish out.

Sometimes, I think it would be a lot simpler if we have a smaller place :) But Lucas enjoyed the space here.
My fingers are quite sore from all the cleaning after 7 months break. Need some really heavy duty hand cream to salvage those hands.

We have a conversation with Lucas preparing him for days without kakak. We told him he has to clean up his own mess like his playroom, bedroom and after each meal to take the plates to the kitchen sink. To our pleasant surprise, he knows how to clean up his own mess. He just need encouragement and persuasion to do the tasks. That's the blessing in disguise.