On Being Domesticated

do·mes·ti·cated

/dəˈmestəˌkādəd/

adjective

(especially of a man) fond of home life and housework.

There. Straight outta google.

I'm at the marrying age, and I find myself rushing through it sometimes. I've always wanted to get married at 25, but that wasn't successful, if it isn't obvious enough.

I grew up like a princess. I had everything I wanted, and I had everything done for me. I can't really say it's an ideal way to grow up because I find it hard to do things on my own as I grew older. We've had quite a number of house helpers since I was a kid. I barely remember living in our apartment in the Scout area. Year 1996, as our home was ready for move in, I remember how excited I was to have my own room. I was 6.

Since then, we've always had helpers with us. On most occasions, we had more than two. Two became the minimum requirement. I was a mean girl, imitating those brats I watch on Philippine TV. I once had been slapped by my dad because he learned that I was slapping and kicking one of our best helpers ever, Ate Marissa. She didn't leave because of me, I swear to you. After I've learned my lesson, she stayed with us for a couple of years more. She left for a different reason I will not disclose. Since then, I've been nice to all our helpers, including drivers. Ate Marissa worked for us with her cousin, Ate Rosie. Ate Rosie was the first person to teach me how to cook. I started with just sautéing, and eventually evolved to cooking. Up until high school, I was used to having helpers around the house. I never learned to do any household chores.

Then came college, where we had to deal with different sorts of helpers with different sorts of flaws. We once lost two iPod videos because our maid secretly let his boyfriend to the house. There goes the iPods. She was sent home. The next one was a tandem of mother and daughter. The mom was performing so well, until she got lazy and I caught her in the act - arriving randomly from school and seeing her watching tv, having the dishes still in the sink, and so on. The daughter, on the other hand, has been stealing from my brother - coins, paper bills (from P20 - P1000), my old broken cell phone, etc. They were sent home. We also had a stay-out mother who was supposed to be teaching the two young helpers how to do things. One of the young ones told us that she has been stealing canned goods and meat to bring home to her kids. 

...and a lot more stories. We then grew tired of having them here. Nowadays, we only have a stay-out helper who comes every weekend to do most of the laundry, cleaning the house, and do ironing of clothes. On weekdays, it's me who's in charge of everything.

Since college, I've learned a lot of dishes to cook, and a lot of chores. I now like to do things my way, and get annoyed everytime somebody ruins whatever it is I'm doing or have started.

Here's some of the chores I love doing:

 I love being in charge of my mom's fridge!

It is my duty to:

• keep it organized
• make sure no leftover will stay for more than a week
• refilling my mom's soda
• refilling our Yakult
• refilling water pitchers
• taking note of which stuff to buy
• making sure there's ice

Okay ka ba tiyan? Yakult every day para okay ka tiyan.

I didn't miss refilling the canned coke light - my mom and brother finished the whole box already. This goes to the list!

For several months now, I have been successful in doing all my duties. I love it when I see it very organized. We have a freezer at the lanai, which is also my responsibility. That's where I store meat, ice, and other frozen stuff that won't fit the freezer inside the house.

Yep, I store ice like crazy.

I hate it when our driver puts the stuff here, because it becomes disorganized. When he does, I immediately reorganize it since I'm the one in charge of cooking.

Unfortunately, I have no photo of how I do my cooking for now. I might just put that in another entry.

Another household chore that I may not love, but I want to be done by me, and me only is doing the dishes and organizing the sink. I don't want anyone else doing it because sometimes, they don't clean it properly; or they don't clean it the way I want it to be cleaned. Yep, I think I'm a neat freak when it comes to that.

We have two sinks at home: one inside, and one outside. After we got our house renovated way back 2009, we moved our cooking to the dirty kitchen so that the house won't smell like food. We also started eating out at our garage to make it easier for the server to refill the food, and clean the table afterwards. Obviously, that server is still me. Yep, I cook, I serve, and then do the dishes. Sometimes I feel exasperated about it, but most of the time, I like it.

This is where I wash tumblers and straws. All the tools needed are here!

The sink inside are for dishes that are used inside. Yep, my mom has lots of Corelle sets, therefore there's a set for the outside and for the inside. Party sets are different, mind you. Most of the things I wash from the inside are just glasses, mugs, tumblers, and saucers. It's just mostly what my dad and brother use inside. I am also in charge of keeping all cabinets organized, especially the part for the glasses.

If you ever see this area messy, it's most likely my fault. I probably got lazy. You see, I'm not perfect. Lol.

The blue one is the dishwashing soap, the one behind is a handsoap. I use a different sponge for glasses & plates, and a diff one for pans

The outside sink is the one that's used more often. If you see that plate dispenser organized, you'll know I did the dishes. When somebody else would do the dishes, it won't look like that. That's also where I prepare cooking and do the cooking that's why I like keeping it like that - where I know where all things are. I'm mostly the one who cooks, so I hate it when somebody misplaces things.

That's how our garden looks like every weekend, whenever our stay-out maid does laundry. On weekdays, the garden looks really gorgeous with all my mom's plants. I have to deal with this eye sore each weekend, but I'm grateful that I don't have to do all those. I still don't know how to iron clothes properly. That's something I have to learn before getting married.

I wrote this blog mainly to prove to myself that I am ready for the next chapter in my life. These may be small things, but they're small things that are part of the everyday life of a person. I know Rab knows these things, and I'm very grateful that he appreciates it and praises me for keeping things clean, and for actually doing it even though sometimes, I'm tired of it. 

I am mostly proud of myself for outgrowing the laziness I had and lack of experience doing these chores. I'm more responsible now and I guess the discussion over getting house helpers in the future would be a difficult one because I would vote NO, for now.