Tag: cleaning

When you try to make cleaning easier

Sitting in my kitchen, I can hear the robot vacuuming and mopping upstairs. Although vacuuming is not a chore I particularly dislike, it is convenient to think that it can be done when you are not at home.

As one of the older millennials, I feel like I still hold on to some pride to do things without too much technology involved. Smart technology only makes me suspicious. I do not need a smart fridge, a smart coffee machine or a smart rice cooker. The Google Home in my house has been off and disconnected from electricity since its entrance. I think the only thing about smart technology that I read about, is the fact that they tend to record way more information then necessary. We already live without curtains, no further transparency is needed.

But a vacuum robot seems weirdly benign. As a word, robot conjures more old-school images of machines that buzz and blink when you turn them on. Humans are in full control, the machine is not meant to think along but merely follow orders or a program. And sure, any simple machine these days involves an app which opens it up again to much more information than it probably needs. But that big bad company seems far away and the robot certainly cannot make use of any information that is on my phone. And seeing the cleaning lines on the map appear almost fully equally spaced is very satifying.

At the same time, I mainly like the convenience of the robot because I usually do not turn it on myself. Having someone else takes care of the whole process, makes it all even more seamless and automatic. Alas, I am on my own again for a couple of weeks and thought I should not need to resort to old school vacuuming.

So I took the robot from its docking station, wetted the mop as expected, checked its water and sent it of on its cleaning journey. I fiddled with the necessary map I needed to put it on, then I thought I had put everything away but somehow the robot really wanted to have a hangout session with our drying rack. All in all, it took some time before everything was right as it should be and the cleaning lines started appearing on the map.

The old adagio is still true. Everything is automated but nothing happens automatically. Well, at least not when I am by myself.

I need to come clean

So, let us talk a bit about hygiene today. China is a very two-sided country to live in with regards to this. On the one hand, no one will put bags on the ground and restaurant staff will be quick to bring you something to put your bag in or on. Furthermore, once you drop something on the table it is deemed to be lost. Contaminated and poisoned for only the bravest to pick up. And of course food preparation itself is something that is under increased scrutiny these years, to make sure no mice, cockroaches or other foreign object end up in your mouth.

On the other hand though, this is the country where people spit freely on the streets. Where people will rather sit on the toilet itself than the seat. And where cleaning is being done to spread as many bacteria as possible, by using the same cloth to wipe counters, tables and the toilet.

All in all, it seems that there is a notion of hygiene, but it is not always very logical. For example, many large shopping malls and office buildings have cleaning ladies. Oftentimes, they are middle-aged and clearly cleaning the building the way they have always done. With age comes this certain tenacity, so you get the feeling that no matter what you say, they will stubbornly continue doing what they have always done.

Putting away the part of people cleaning useless bars, fences and glass panels, I want to focus on the toilets for now. I have literally seen the worst techniques for cleaning toilets being used here daily.

Exhibit A: I once entered a toilet where some mango ice smoothie was spilled on the ground. Not only was it wet, it was also sticky. No problem, the cleaning lady simply got the bin from the toilet (keep in mind that we do not flush toilet paper here in China, it is thrown separately in those bins), emptied it above the mango stain and in a few swipes brushed it away. Needlessly to say, the floor was not clean.

Exhibit B: just yesterday, I wanted to go to the toilet at my office building, but the cleaning lady was doing her rounds. With a familiarly greasy mop (I do not think I have ever seen clean mops being used here) she absent-mindedly swept the floor. When one of the stalls opened, she swiped the floor, put the mop into the bin with all the toilet paper to make it humid and stomped it a few times, swiped the mop past the toilet itself and was then generous enough to let me enter.

A few days ago I saw a cockroach in the toilet which was so large it made me instantly flee the stall. When I came out, another girl went in and went out again immediately as well. We connected on a spiritual level.