MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
05 November 2010
Friday night question, chosen randomly from The Book of Questions:→[More:]
#72- If you could have free, unlimited service for five years from an extremely good cook, chauffeur, housekeeper, masseuse, or personal secretary, which would you choose?
I do not do enough business for a personal secretary. I guess that I would go with the masseuse, in that it would encourage me to maintain my body for all that time.
I am torn between the housekeeper and the cook. I think in the end I would go with a housekeeper. Will the housekeeper do yard stuff too? That'd be perfect.
Hard choice! Right now, chauffuer looks good bc we're sharing a car. I'd never give up cooking - that's my relaxation. Housekeeper sounds pretty good ...but honestly? A secretary could get a ton of shit done for me, from paying bills to taking meeting minutes and sending them out to filing and organizing stuff for me... I say secretary.
Definitely a housekeeper. I'm a great cook, I don't need a secretary or a chauffeur and I'm not big on massage. But, oh, sometimes my bedroom looks as if burglars have ransacked it. I would definitely love someone to do all the housework.
Personal secretary, no question! He/she could run all my boring errands, make phone calls for me, keep household papers organized, help with appointments, just help me keep on top of stuff. It's hard to be a working-outside-the-home mom with a little kid. When I get home I basically start my second full time job. A personal secretary would handle all the little chores that keep me from spending time with my child.
I love cooking, don't mind staying on top of household cleaning and don't want to be driven around. No thanks on massages. So yeah, a personal secretary.
cook: Whenever I have to travel I get sick of other people's cooking within 3 days. Sometimes, I just want to eat some buttered toast and tea for dinner. chauffeur: I get horribly motion-sickness when I'm not the driver. masseuse: I had this while my friend was going through a 16 month program to become a massage therapist. I agreed to be her practice dummy. She was very good even at the beginning but it quickly got old to be constantly coated in oil and it was very time consuming. personal secretary: By the time I'm done explaining what complex task I need done, I could have done it 10x already. Most of my needs are 1offs. housekeeper: Oh wow, yes please. Can s/he start today?
If I chose the housekeeper, that would be solely for me: maybe someone would fiiiiiiiinally get the bathtub squeaky clean, and I'm the only one who cares about that.
The chauffeur would be great for both of us: I never got around to getting a driver's license (I know!) so The Fella does all the driving when we travel together, and I go on foot or by mass transit when I travel alone. A chauffeur would mean The Fall could tipple at family dinners, or sleep in the back during long road trips, or just sit and chatter with me.
I choose chauffeur. Can I expect the car and driver before Thanksgiving? That would be super-convenient, kthxbai.
Housekeeper. As a matter of fact, I am in the process of hiring one right now!
I love a clean house, and I simply can't keep it up to the standards to which I have grown accustomed. (I am a bit of a neat freak, and I can't get all freaky neat anymore). No chauffeur, I barely use a car. Masseuse? I hate being touched. I love to cook, and everyone around me moves my cooking, so the cook is out. Finally, I have no need for a personal secretary because I definitely am one of those "if you want something done right you have to do it yourself" types of people. I can turn over the care of my household chores to another, but not my errands and such. Besides, I don't have much to do!
I'm hopelessly torn between the housekeeper and the secretary. Can I have somebody who does both? Cleans my house and deals with stupid shit like the broken dryer and the evil cable drones from planet doom? Then my life would be purely awesome.
Cook, in the sense of chef to modulate my diet in a delicious and healthy and slimming way.
Still, it is fun to conjure up a housekeeper, who like, knows everything going on in the house and is way up into everybody's business, while dusting. Sven, I think I'd call him.
Can't I have a part time housekeeper/part time chauffeur? My health keeps me from being able to clean regularly AND from being able to drive. But I don't need to go places every day. What if they drive me a couple of days a week, and the other days they clean?
I'll be the second vote for masseuse (or, preferably, masseur!) then. I hate being a passenger in vehicles (and I like to cycle anyway); cooking and cleaning are stress relievers for me; and I can manage my personal affairs well enough without an assistant. However, I desperately need someone to help stretch and roll me out after runs and the gym, so the masseur is pretty much all I'm missing in life.
No question: Housekeeper. I can't keep up with the dust. It's like once the kitchen is nominally clean, I don't have the will to keep going. I've recently seriously considered hiring someone for a deep clean.
Slight derail: why are some houses dustier than others? My last place was constantly dusty, but my current place not so much. Neither place had blowing vents; one had baseboard heat and one has radiators.
Housekeeper. Once something is clean, I can keep it clean, somewhat. Or maybe personal secretary because a lot of my mess is currently due to not having things organized and lots of projects I don't have time to finish.
Once something is clean, I can keep it clean, somewhat
TrishaLynn, I'm with you: I just want the housekeeper to come once, get everything scrubbed and fresh, then we can keep it up to our standards for a long time. Why don't I hire an actual cleaner to come once? Uh, money, weird privacy issues, and the feeling that EW AN ACTUAL PERSON WOULD SEE MY DIRTY TUB. That seems unkind to the cleaner and embarrassing for me. Apparently I don't mind a fictional cleaner seeing my tub once.
Housekeeper. I want one very badly but don't know how to go about getting one, and I am worried that one would scare or accidentally hurt the bunny.
But right now I am looking at my gross apartment wishing someone would fix it.
I'm hardly home anymore because I work so long and then when I do get home all I want to do is eat and relax and watch dumb tv and I very much don't want to clean. Plus the bunny has been throwing his hay around so it's got a barnyard feel now.
Chauffer. Bigtime. I've even looked at my finances to see if I could afford one NOW. My house is clean. I stay well fed. I'm organized. But I dislike driving myself to and from places and I feel that I could be more effective if I could snooze or read or surf the internet and still be able to get to my destination. I travel a lot, and I'd like to travel more but I dislike the driving part. Also I'm a wimp about driving in the snow but I'd feel better if someone else was driving and I'd go out in the snow more.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
