The art of window cleaning 25 storeys above ground

OCT 16 These days my outward world is rather cloudy. Dirt-stained, in fact.

I wake up in a morning unsure if it is hazy out or whether I'd lost to put my eyeglasses on. Or, from 25 floors upon tip of belligerent whether it is raining in a distance.

Then we realise it is a state of my windows. Unwashed since Apr 2010. When we initial moved here, I'd wondered how people spotless their windows at this height. My neighbour upon a 52nd building has hers spotless each week (!).

The homeowner/ proprietor does not customarily trouble himself with such a death-defying act. They have their supporter do it instead. I've had H2O season onto me (bird pee?) usually to look up as well as spy a palm wielding a washcloth or a consume by an open window.

Don't look down. Window cleaning is usually for a brave. Picture by Anita Anandarajah

In a previous two-storey home, when it was usually my father as well as I, window cleaning was never an option. The subject came up mostly enough yet a continue was mostly too cold as well as we did not own a ladder nor could we equates to to hire a professional to do a correct job. So we left it to a rain. The same applied to a automobile that saw a inside of a automobile rinse once a year.

After relocating to a unit in Hong Kong, post-renovation left a windows lonesome in dust so we attempted getting my once-a-week help to purify a extraneous of a windows. we figured it was a normal to make such a request here.

A no-nonsense 40-something Filipino, she gave me a disapproving look as well as flatly refused to. "I purify usually a inside," she said.

She put her foot down upon cleaning a ceiling air blower too when she saw a rickety orange stool we offered for her to stand on. "Don't we have a ladder?" she asked.

In all honesty, we admired her organisation position upon preserving her longevity. Nonetheless it did not sto! p me fro m rock rock climbing onto that stool to purify a air blower after she had left.

The fact is most employers design their domestic supporter to purify windows inside out. There is no safety harness, usually a long-handled squeegee.

Some windows do not have grilles which, if we can design it, upon a high-level floor, equates to sticking half your physique out, facing strong wind.

I roughly dropped my squeegee once a initial as well as usually final time we spotless my windows in a 42 months I've lived here. we shuddered to consider of a children who might have been in a stadium below had a rod landed upon them.

Another suspicion dawned upon me: my son might confirm to 'help' me purify a windows a single day after examination me do so. So we've learned to live with a freckled view of Victoria Peak.

One supporter lost her hold up final month when she was performing a identical action from a 10th building of her employer's home in Pok Fu Lam. Indonesian Istiqomah, 30, from East Java, is believed to have fallen to her death while cleaning windows, The Jakarta Post reported.

Sadly, Istiqomah is not a initial supporter to remove her hold up this way. Nor will she be a last.

Back home, cleaning windows is pretty straightforward. we never liked it yet my mum was no worker driver. Using scrunched up newspaper as well as water, we scrubbed usually as distant as my palm could reach.

Watching my neighbour's maids though, we can say it was no walk in a play ground or roof tiles for that matter. Scaling a balcony as well as tiptoeing opposite roof tiles tiles is frightful things even if usually 4 metres from a ground.

So how does a single keep a windows purify from such great heights, generally when family visits from great ol' Malaysia where windows have been spotless religiously?

My mum-in-law is a initial to notice dust bunnies so in an attempt to be a dutiful daughter-in-law we Googled "cleaning windows Hong Kong" ahead of her visit.

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Here is what we came across:

1. "The normal rehearse here is to discuss it your supporter to do it";

2. "Get a single of those window cleaners with a consume upon a alternative finish with a frame of rubber upon tip of it";

3. "We purify those that open next to alternative windows yet differently do not worry as well as usually purify a interior side of a windows";

4. "My supporter cleans a windows usually from inside, when a kids have been at school. We have absolutely banned her to risk her hold up for a purify window. We consider it's not value it as well as we do not want to see a kids to see her rock rock climbing upon a windowsill as they love to duplicate her. Yes, a windows have been dirty from outward yet we do not mind. As prolonged as a rest of a residence is clean";

5. Use a magnetic window cleaner that cleans a inside as well as outward of a window concurrently by securing both sponges in place (Note: this object does not seem to be upon a marketplace anymore); and

6. "Normally we usually wait for a typhoon to do a job."

So if we ever come to my home, greatfully squint a little while admiring a view. You might usually make it past a dappled panes. Unless of course a typhoon's made it's round a day before.

* The views voiced here have been a personal perspective of a columnist.

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Courtesy of Bonology.com Politically Incorrect Buzz & Buzz