Meet Chidet, the House Cleaning Diva

Are you one of those who's overwhelmed by the daily challenges of housework? Who have exerted a lot of effort on cleaning your home and still feel it isn't enough?

Meet Chidet, 54, college graduate, housewife and mother of three (3) adult sons and grandmother of six (6). She can very well fit the title of the Cleaning Diva who seems to be always busy working in and around her queendom, a squeaky clean house which she personally maintains with utmost efficiency, consistency and happiness.

Guests are often awed by the sheen of furniture, windows, floor, walls and even the ceiling. Bric-a -brac, utensils, clothes are neatly arranged. Even on ordinary days. She does them all.

She wakes up early at 5 a.m. to sweep the nearly hundred square meter of lotus blue and burgundy tiled floor. She prioritizes sweeping over other housework because she doesn’t want the feel of dust and sand on the tiled floor. She wipes the furniture everyday. She cleans the bedroom and kitchen earlier than the other parts of the house. Everyday. She uses dry cloth to dust the furniture. It takes her four (4) hours to do the cleaning and folds the clothes in between. She does the laundry using a washing machine once a week and presses everything using an electric flat-iron. Every thing includes under wear and hand towels.

She cleans the ceiling once a year, during sunny days when the sun is still up. Yesterday, she made the most of the free and overflowing water by scrubbing the concrete stairs under the heavy rains.

She describes her house cleaning routine as a habit that has been ingrained to her by her mother, Nanay Nening, since she was very young. The traditional Filipino family expects the girls to take charge of house cleaning from day one, that is, the moment the girl is tall enough to handle a broom. Being the eldest in the family of nine (9) siblings, she deemed it a responsibility to keep the house clean. She can’t leave home without sweeping the floor. For her, dirt and disorder is stressful.

She doesn’t neglect herself. She schedules hair cut and coloring every 3 months, gets a manicure and pedicure every two weeks. She wears her (house) jewelries, too. After all, she was a campus beauty queen when the Visayas State University (VSU) was still known as Visayas Agricultural College in the 70s.

She would sometimes sing at the top of her voice or entertain herself with Waray music- the curacha major and cha-cha, a fixture on her mobile phone. Wonder, if she, dances, too.

Chidet is not a diva for nothing. She is strict and disciplined and almost a perfectionist when it comes to housework. Her house is a testament to her gifts. She inspires you to clean, dust and makes you wish that you’d have the same skill and passion in that department. What makes her a true diva is her generosity and caring spirit especially towards her siblings. She never forgets to equitably share the first fruits and harvest from their farm.

Here are some cleaning tips from Chidet:

Use only dry cloth when dusting the furniture.
Use wet cloth when cleaning the walls. Do not use soap.
Do not alternate wet and dry cloth when cleaning. Use either wet or dry all through out.
Always have good quality soft brooms made of “tambo” in Leyte. The nylon brooms cannot sweep dust smoothly.

Are you a housewife? Fulltime or parttime? And a cleaning diva, too?