Today our new donna delle pulizie (cleaning lady), Giovanna, came today for the first time to clean the house. She came by Monday for us to meet and for her to look at the house. She's a sweet Italian woman who I'm liked the second I met her. I was happy that I finally found a donna delle pulizie after at least 6 months after the other one left us.
I asked all my friends for numbers of other people to clean the house, but back in July it was almost August, so no one wanted to start. Then, September came and we were going to go to the States the next month. When we got back in November it was almost Christmas, so people told me to wait until January. I asked my friend for the number of her donna delle pulizie and she was too busy, but she referred me to Giovanna.
I spent a few hours Sunday cleaning the house and recruited Dave to help me out. I wanted our house to look good when she came by on Monday. She wanted to start cleaning, but we both decided that she come back today because the house was clean enough.
She purchased a window cleaner that she raved to me about. She even brought a few of her own rags that she took home afterwards. I felt odd about her taking dirty rags home since I wouldn't have wanted to even keep them if they weren't mine. When she comes back next week, I'll probably tell her to use my rags so that I can clean them myself.
Before she left, I didn't want to go over everything in the house, so I waited until she left. She did a fairly good job, but I might have to go over a few things with her. I didn't want to spy on her while she was cleaning our place for the first time. I do know that she needs to get to orient herself first with what needs to be done and what she can accomplish in three hours.
I gave her some extra money for the window cleaner she got me. At first, she refused, so I had to force it in her hand before she finally took it. She offered to get me another product for our furniture although I'm hoping I don't have to knock her down for her to take my money.
Share your comments for this blog post on the Living in Florence's Facebook page. Grazie!