02.06.07

Culprit Tax (Carbon Tax) to Pay For Disaster Preparedness

Posted in Abrupt Climate Change at 4:13 pm

An astute reader may have noticed I haven’t pushed carbon dioxide offsets or other mitigation strategies to slow or stop abrupt climate in the game. I’m looking at things that will make a community better able to deal with a range of future disasters. Guilianni probably didn’t think a terrorist attack would take out his command center on 9/11, but because NYC had thought hard about disasters in general they were able to rebuild the facilities they needed in record time in the midst of dealing with a disaster.

That said, paying for disaster preparations takes some money & taxing the culprit to both generate the funds needed for planning and as a deterrent makes sense.

Carbon taxes raise the price of fuel and encourage conservation. They’re easy for a state or community because a fixed percentage can be added to the existing tax structure and can be presented with a clear rational of the social good expected from paying the higher cost. Similarly, property taxes in potential flood zones can be used to discourage development or ‘escrow’ funds to pay for the inevitable recovery effort that will be needed. (This need is independent of global warming needs – if people insist on living in 100-year flood plains, we know that the area will flood, even if only once every 100 years and the community will have to rescue the inhabitants.) Can a disaster tax help / be administered to encourage more global anti-disaster positions?

A Humvee is not only a polluting disaster, it’s excessive weight wears down roads faster and escalates fatalities of others in a crash (the Humvee occupants rate to survive). The least expensive refrigerators are often the least efficient and are another slow-moving environmental disaster. Items made in developing countries not only benefit from cheap labor, they don’t pay environmental costs more developed countries force on their manufacturing facilities. Can sliding taxes on these items encourage more socially good choices?

Can technology make this workable? Start with an initial tax rate – for cars – a sliding scale tax rate based on their weight or – for imports – a fixed amount based on the environmental impact of the source country or state. Exemptions from the tax could be applied for on a wiki. Allow manufacturers to post a non-pollution claim with documentation to the wiki and invite evaluations from the public. Broad public scrutiny may help determine if the comments by Highly Energetic People IN Favor of Humvees (HEPINFOH) is the union of distracted drivers transporting badly-behaved children who would like a vehicle that protects them and their charges from accidents or the knitting circle of highly-paid vehicle-manufacturing executives’ wives. HEPINFOH’s claims can then be evaluated accordingly. Periodically accept or deny exemption claims based on current input to the initial claim. Since the evaluations would be publicly available more than one region could use the exemption bureaucracy.

Preparing For The Maid’s Arrival

Posted in Hiring A Maid at 12:19 pm

My mother always cleaned before the maid came. I swore I’d never do that.

Sociologists 100 years from now will probably blame the Internet phenomenon of publishing one’s most private details on children watching the insanity of their mother cleaning the house before the maid arrived. It didn’t help that mothers wanting their children to take some responsibility for their rooms while paying someone else to clean them said, “We have to clean up before she arrives so she doesn’t know what a pigsty we live in.”

By now you may have noticed your mother was not a raving lunatic when she gave directions or advice and usually had some rational thought behind what she did. (Even if you still disagree, getting to the age where you are ready to pay for your own maid gives one a remarkable appreciation for the rationality of an older generation’s views. One hopes.)

Maids are not the highest status workers in society. To get satisfaction from their job most will try very hard to leave a room much neater than they found it. They did not sign on, however, to memorize the location of all your possessions and return each thing to it’s proper spot.

This leads to books being replaced on any bookshelf in the room or house.  Sometimes the books will be put in backwards so that at your leisure you can go through the bookshelf and put them were they really belong. Clean clothes your daughter didn’t put away from the pile on the sofa might be carefully folded and put in your husband’s sock drawer because that was where there was room. All pictures might be a trifle askew just to let you know they’ve been dusted.

Your mother’s solution was to clean before the maid came.  You, in the spirit of instilling personal responsibility, can try screaming at your family that the maid is coming and they better clean their rooms, or you can try a more laid-back approach.

Designate a ‘junk space’ in each room. Ask the maid to put stray items in the junk space. I use the bed for bedrooms, a counter for the kitchen and a drawer for more public areas. After the maid comes, put away everything in the public junk drawers immediately.  Put your items and your husband’s items away immediately.

Please note I am a child of the 60’s & 70’s and a committed women’s libber. Putting away your husband’s items rather than nagging him will greatly increase the happiness quotient of the universe – particularly your universe. If you are stressing out over picking up after your husband try asking him to pick up something (socks, tools, whatever) before the maid comes once. If he has trouble remembering, try saying you don’t want a birthday present you just want him to pick up the something routinely.  If it still doesn’t work go back to the point about you doing it increases sattwa  in the universe.

Get your kids to put away things on their bed before they do anything fun they want to do. If you don’t, they will shift it to a side table or chair & a small mountain will grow that you will have to spend a weekend with them demolishing. (been there, done that)

If you’re new – I wrote the How to Hire A Maid like a book. Click Table of Contents for future articles and links to old blogs in a more comprehensible order – or just click here & go to the bottom to read it straight through by scrolling up to each article.

 

02.05.07

Cleaning Supplies for the New Maid

Posted in Hiring A Maid at 2:03 pm

If you’re new – I wrote the How to Hire A Maid like a book. Click Table of Contents for future articles and links to old blogs in a more comprehensible order – or just click here & go to the bottom to read it straight through by scrolling up to each article.

Materials

Cleaning items should be on hand and organized before the maid arrives. The maid will need:

  • rags or cleaning cloths – paper towels will also work but she will probably use more than you ever thought possible
  • broom
  • dust pan
  • mop
  • 2 buckets (one for water and one for carrying cleaning supplies)
  • correctly sized gloves (1 plus spare for each person)
  • vacuum cleaner
  • glass cleaner
  • furniture spray
  • tub & sink cleaner
  • tile cleaner
  • floor cleaner

The Maid and Her Mop

Posted in Hiring A Maid at 2:02 pm

The mop of choice for many maids is a string mop. It allows them to wet all surfaces and pick up any pieces they may have missed when sweeping. It doesn’t really clean your floors. If she doesn’t express a preference, try getting her to use a sponge mop. If she says she prefers a string mop, give up and let her use it.

In one or two selected rooms, like the dining room or kitchen you may also request that she dry the floor afterwards with a rag. This should take care of the mystery stains that may or may not be dried milk. Again, you don’t want to know what it is, you just want it gone – without rewashing the floor after the maid leaves. This will not work throughout the house.

What you can do (if using a string mop really bothers you) is to check the floor after she’s finished mopping a room by wiping a slightly damp white rag over it. (This may work best on the third or fourth visit.) If it is visibly dirty, repeat as she is finishing the next room in front of her. Encourage her to mop, change the water and mop again.

This must be done with respect. Remember that the maid is not trying to make your floors turn black over time – she just wants to do a reasonably good job quickly. She has not thought about the effectiveness of one mop over another (other than on speed of use). If you are not very careful, she will think you are trying to tell her she is doing a bad job instead of telling her that her tool is not the best. If she feels demeaned (should I have said a more modern dissed?), she will be stewing over the conversation while cleaning the 18th centuary porcelain or 17th centuary cut glass. When it breaks, try to keep in mind that it had too many crevises to be dusted well anyway.

Cleaning Fluids

Posted in Hiring A Maid at 1:55 pm

Most maids are set in the way they use their equipment and even the cleaning supply brands they use. Unless you own a cleaning solution manufacturing plant, go with their choice. It’s not important.
I like vinegar in water for floors, glass and cabinet cleaning (2 T/gal). I have fond delusions that it may cut down on the high incidence of asthma in professional house cleaners. No matter what your choice, if your cleaning supplies are going to be diluted in water you must tie a tablespoon or measuring cup to the container and write in dark marker the amount to be added. Each time you replace the cleaner, transfer the measuring tool and write the amount. If you don’t, maids (and others) have a universal mind-set that more will clean faster and with less work. It won’t, but it will stain or eat away at your fabrics and woods.

Proper Use

If you are supplying Comet® or other chlorine-based powder and Windex® or other ammonia-based spray:

Make very sure that your maid knows that they cannot be mixed.

Spraying a mirror liberally with Windex® above a sink filled with Comet® can produce chlorine gas that can gas your maid.
Accidental death inquiries are very time consuming and completely defeat the idea of having a maid.
All cleaning supplies are chemicals that must be handled correctly to prevent injury to the maid and damage to your possessions. Take the time to read the precautions and repeatedly check that your maid is using things correctly. For instance – tile cleaner is essentially dilute bleach. If your maid is waving the sprayer around and spritzing your cloth shower curtains, you’re going to have bleached spots. Not pretty. Worse, she’s probably breathing in much too much.
Maids should also be encouraged to well-ventilate the room they’re spraying chemicals in. House and ceiling fans should always be on. Windows should be open in the bathrooms, the kitchen and the room that is being deep cleaned.

02.02.07

One Way to Think About A Community Disaster

Posted in Abrupt Climate Change at 9:24 am

Here’s a picture from PostSecret, a blog in the running for best American blog & best of year for 2006 (vote here through February 2, 2007). Not necessarily the way I’d like to think about disaster but perhaps something to keep in mind if you didn’t plan anything (or those days when the plans really aren’t helping.)

The picture was removed – basically a very cheery shot of a city in primary colors with the message:

“I can’t wait for the apocalypse to see what I am made of.”

Salary for the New Maid

Posted in Hiring A Maid at 9:14 am

If you’re new – I wrote the How to Hire A Maid like a book. Click Table of Contents for future articles and links to old blogs in a more comprehensible order – or just click here & go to the bottom to read it straight through by scrolling up to each article.

When you’re asking your friends for recommendations for maids ask what they pay.  If they tell you a total amount try & find out how many hours they think they’re buying.

You’ve already estimated the minimum time you’re really going to need your maid for. Tell her you need her for that amount of time and how often you will need her. Ask how much per hour she charges. She will probably give you a price for the whole house.

Sanity check the amount. How big is your house compared to your friends’ homes?  How much is cheap housing within 30-40 minutes of your house? If the salary is very low, she’s counting on cutting time.  Don’t worry if the amount she cites is below your estimate. You’ll want to give her a raise after 3 months if she works out.

Don’t forget to ask when she takes a vacation, if she works holidays & how she handles missed days. Does she make them up during another part of the week, come longer the next time or just skip them? Be prepared to specify if you plan to pay her the normal salary while she is on vacation.

Arrange for her to come the time you calculated that she will need her to clean your whole house even though that’s not what she will be doing for a while.

Don’t worry if your salary conversation comes down to a simple she says she’ll clean your house for x and you say OK. (Nobody really likes salary conversations.) With luck she will turn out so well you will happily be giving her a raise shortly and volunteering to pay her salary while on vacation because she makes your life so much better.

Coming Monday (sorry this post & the last Maid post were so dry )

Maids should not be permitted to gas themselves with Comet / Windex concoctions.

02.01.07

The Interview For A New Maid

Posted in Hiring A Maid at 6:34 pm

If you’re new – I wrote the How to Hire A Maid like a book. Click Table of Contents for future articles and links to old blogs in a more comprehensible order – or just click here & go to the bottom to read it straight through by scrolling up to each article.

 

At some point the potential maid comes to see your house, gives you a price and sets up a schedule.

You need to make the following point extremely clear:

You do not want her to clean your whole house in one visit. You are just hiring her to clean two or three rooms at a time. You have another maid that cleans the whole house. 

You are going to have a checklist for each of your rooms as you walk through your house. Show her the list, talk and act through each item (quickly). Ask when she is available and when she needs to leave.   Try to find out how booked she is. Maids are very reluctant to reveal how many people they are really working for. I don’t know if they think that their employers are out to report them to the IRS for the 10% cut of the unreported income or they think they can fool their employers over the length of time they’re really at the house. The answer she gives you can only be regarded as a best-case answer.

01.30.07

The Best Shade Tree

Posted in Abrupt Climate Change at 10:30 am

 If you’re new to the Community Planner Game on Abrupt Climate Change see the premise here. (You don’t need to be a Community Planner to give your ideas.)

Oaks and maples seem to be very popular for municipal shade trees.  But if your community needs to be a net food exporter at some point (a goal of the game) what about nut trees?Yes, they can be messy but nut trees need approximately 20 years to mature and they can withstand colder temperatures. Some nut trees will ‘poison’ the ground below them so you can’t plant vegetables even after you take down the trees. Is it worth the aggravation to have a future source of protein along the town streets?A grant may get you going http://www.americanforests.org/news/display.php?id=160

Info on:

 Black Walnuts http://www.americanforests.org/productsandpubs/magazine/archives/2002summer/inprofile.php

Carpathian Walnuts

http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/extforest/ATC4.pdf

Butternut

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/juglans/cinerea.htm

Do you have better sites to evaluate trees? Let me know.

 

 

Nannies are Not Maids

Posted in Hiring A Maid at 10:03 am

If you’re new – I wrote the How to Hire A Maid  like a book. Click Table of Contents for future articles and links to old blogs in a more comprehensible order – or just click here & go to the bottom to read it straight through.

It really helps if you figure out your Maid’s goals. before hiring her.

You thought the caste system in India was rigid?

In the 4 months between my daughter’s attendance at full-time kindergarten and the birth of my son I came up with the idiotic plan of allowing my fabulous Nanny to take the place of the maid. In my defense, Bella normally kept the house sparkling. I came home to everything in its place and a clean kitchen.

Bella understood that I really didn’t want to pay her for a full week when I only needed her for 2 ½ hours a day. Taking the place of the maid while the children were at school seemed perfectly reasonable.

Wrong. The status of the Maid is infinitely below that of the Nanny. After 4 months of a filthy house I discovered that she had been so embarrassed that ‘she hadn’t even told her husband that she was cleaning toilets.’ Even jobs she had cheerfully done on a voluntary basis as a Nanny, took on a demeaning status when she did them as “The Maid.”

 

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