A Capetonian couple arrived home on Sunday night to find that they had been “cleaned out”… their sense of humour is making others leave comments of appreciation for all South African domestic helpers.
Cape Town, South Africa – Martin and Jeanine Cloete arrived home on Sunday night to an apartment that had been “cleaned out”… they took to social media to share their story.
Amidst all the negativity on social media surrounding the current state of South Africa, I’ve been debating whether or not to post this. You never think that you’ll become another South African statistic but over the weekend Jeanine and I were left shaken after coming home on Sunday evening and finding that while we were away our flat got cleaned out.
The moment I stepped through the front door I knew that something was very wrong, so I sent Jeanine in ahead of me.
She noticed it too. Things were clearly not the way we left them and the evidence was quickly stacking up that someone had been in our flat.
The breakfast bowls and coffee mugs we left on the dining room table were gone, used pots and pans had been removed from the stove, the lounge, dining room and kitchen surfaces had all been wiped clean (probably for prints), the sink was empty and there wasn’t a shred of evidence left from the previous night’s braai and entertainment.
I knew what I had to do but I was almost too afraid.
I reluctantly walked towards the dishwashing machine. I knew from the heat and humidity being given off by the machine as I approached what I was going to find. I unclasped the latch and peered in.
My suspicions were confirmed.
Through the rising steam I could just make out the silhouettes of clean bowls, mugs, pots, pans and braai tongs. Our flat had been cleaned.
A couple of weeks before, Jeanine and I had done some spring cleaning. We generally give anything we no longer want or have a need for to Beauty, our domestic worker. The spring clean resulted in about 5 or 6 bags of goods that we told Beauty she could take, and leave whatever she didn’t want behind.
She wanted everything but couldn’t take it all at once so she said that she would just take a couple of bags home each week when she came to work for us.
On Sunday, Beauty happened to be working for someone in our area and wanted to collect a few more of her bags from us once she was done. Her phone wasn’t working so she couldn’t get hold of us. She got to the flat and knocked but there was obviously nobody home. She has a key so she let herself in and collected her bags.
If she’d just taken the bags we wouldn’t have even known that she’d been there but before leaving, and as her way of saying thank you, she thought that Jeanine and I might appreciate coming home to a spotlessly clean flat so she spent what was left of her Sunday doing that.
South Africans do have a lot to complain about and have the right to feel angry and frustrated and sometimes even hopeless, but every now and then, you just have to let the Beauty in.
The post has been seen and shared thousands of times, leaving South Africans feeling inspired to leave messages of appreciation for their own domestic helpers.
Laralyn Britz posted: “Amazing read. We sometimes take Beauty for granted here in SA.”
Susan Howard commented: We too have been blessed to have a beauty care for our family for the past 32 years, thank you Mabel Dano for your love and commitment and we have also been blessed with a wonderful gentleman Patrick Dingwayo who has been our right hand man with such a positive attitude and always a laugh and a smile. We thank you both x x
by 
I have an amazing lady who comes in to help me on a Saturday. Her name us Martha. Well, I was retrenched, and when I was still unemployed after 3 months, I really had to sike myself up to tell Martha that I was no longer in a position to keep her on, and I was dreading the conversation … short story … her response was … “Don’t you worry about my money. You just get a new job. I like it here. When you can you will start to pay me again. Do you think you will have work in 3 months?” and she carried on cleaning as though nothing had happened. I was totally floored then, and have been every Saturday since when I hear the knock on the front door. You are one very special lady Martha. Thank-you! Life lessons sometimes occur in the most unexpected situations.