Struggling to get it all done? With Kurashinity in your corner, you’ll have a clean house - and the time to enjoy it.
I’ll be the first to admit that housekeeping is not my happy place. But I do love the feeling of a put-together house with sparkling faucets, crystal-clear windows, and unblemished mirrors. Life with two kids, a family business, and various freelance gigs, however, is busy enough; trying to keep up with household chores on top of everything else leaves me a frazzled mess.
We’ve considered housekeeping services in the past, but with the pandemic affecting our finances for the last two-plus years, we’ve had to be cautious about anything that felt “extra.” What we came to realize, though, was that hiring a housekeeping service is anything but extra. Outsourcing your housekeeping is the same as outsourcing anything else that’s time-consuming and keeping you from the activities that you value most, whether it is spending time with your kids, fitting in an extra career-advancing assignment, or simply enjoying some much-needed me-time.
But finances being what they are, we wanted to know what we were getting into before signing any contracts. Kurashinity made that easy.
With its Initial Trial Service, Kurashinity provides an accessible look at what they offer, but really, the name says it all: “Kurashinity” combines the Japanese word kurashi (lifestyle) with the Tagalog word ngiti (smile). Believe me, after a few hours of house-cleaning help, you will most definitely have more ngiti.
On the day of the trial, a coordinator from Kurashinity visited, along with a housekeeper, and provided a comprehensive overview of the company and its services. Of course, I had plenty of questions about the different plans available - more on those later - but I really appreciated the opportunity to ask questions that went beyond the topic of housekeeping.
Having seen the online job postings offering less than a living wage for housekeepers and the recent headlines concerning the treatment of non-Japanese housekeepers, I was keen to know that Kurashinity’s employees were being paid fairly and treated well.
The representative explained that Kurashinity provides initial training in housekeeping and the Japanese language to experienced Filipina housekeepers, as well as ongoing training programs, leaving me confident that whoever ended up cleaning my house would be more than qualified. I also saw it as a good sign that Kurashinity was investing so much in its employees right from the get-go.
Learning about the continuous support provided to employees - including with living arrangements, doctor’s visits, and planning for the future - took care of any lingering concerns I had about employee welfare. Chatting with the housekeeper left me feeling even more assured that Kurashinity’s employees are both well supported and well paid. With my conscience clear, I was ready to dive into the housekeeping side of things.
The Kurashinity services I was most interested in were its Regular Service and its one-time Spot Service.
The Regular Service comes with four main frequency options: weekly, twice-weekly, biweekly, and monthly. If you need more visits than twice-weekly, that is of course a possibility too. This flexibility acknowledges that not everyone needs the same amount of housekeeping to keep things shipshape and also allows those with a smaller budget to access housekeeping help.
Each day of service includes at least three hours, and housekeepers can perform a variety of household chores during that time, including laundry, dish washing, vacuuming, window washing, organizing, bathroom cleaning, gardening - well, you get the idea: housekeepers take care of all the chores that usually eat up your weekends and evenings.
If monthly help is more than you need, but you find yourself wishing for occasional help - for example, before company comes or after a particularly chaotic few weeks - then Kurashinity’s Spot Service will be of interest to you. With the Spot Service, you get a one-off housekeeping service that’s sure to put a smile on your face and a few hours of free time into your schedule.
Besides frequency, there are two big differences between Kurashinity’s Regular Service and its Spot Service: With the Regular Service, the same housekeeper visits your house for each cleaning session, whereas with the Spot Service, you’ll see a different housekeeper each time. The Regular Service also allows for cleaning sessions to be done while you’re out and about. With the Spot Service, you’ll need to be home.
Once the basics had been explained and all my questions answered, it was time to experience Kurashinity’s housekeeping services. I got out my cleaning supplies - Kurashinity housekeepers use their clients’ cleaning products - and explained what I was hoping to have cleaned.
My housekeeper for this session, Shielou, was terrific. She asked a few questions to clarify what I wanted done, answered a few of my questions regarding cleaning products, and requested permission to use her own cloths (of course!). Then, she got right to work.
Afterwards, while admiring the freshly cleaned areas, I understood the depth of difference between my level of cleaning and that of a professional housekeeper. I’d never seen the mirrors so clear, the faucets so shiny, or the tiles so clean. The glass bathroom door, which I had assumed would always be stained with... soap scum? ... water minerals? ... was immaculate.
Even a week later, after doing my own tidying up, everything still looked brighter. It was like Shielou had created a new base level of clean, and I look forward to not being the only one responsible for maintaining that. Was I smiling as I thought about this new lifestyle? You bet.
Discover Kurashinity for yourself with the Initial Trial Service
A writer, editor, and innkeeper, hails from a small town in Ontario, Canada. She now calls the seaside city of Kamakura home.
