Your helper is going on home leave in Singapore: how do you hand over household work before she goes and after she's back?

Yiru · Updated 23 October 2026

When your helper (maid) goes on home leave, prepare at both ends:

• The week before she goes: go through the house guide together and write down what only she knows; keep a short version at home for while she's away.
• After she's back: explain only the few things that changed while she was gone, and don't fill her first day.

The week before she goes: write down what only she knows

After a while in your home, there's a lot only she knows:

• where the detergent and cleaning products are kept, and where to buy more when they run low;
• which appliance has a quirk, and how to use it without problems;
• the small routines of elderly family members and children: when they take medicine, when they nap, what they don't eat;
• monthly and quarterly jobs: changing filters, cleaning the cooker hood, which bills to pay.

Ask her to go through them one by one while you write them down — or she writes them in her own language and you translate them.

While she's away: keep a short version at home

Keep only the most important things your family will do themselves:

Weekly cleaning can wait while she's away and be caught up when she's back.

After she's back: explain only what changed

She's just back and still settling in, so don't fill her first day.

• Say hello first, and let her put her bags down and rest a little.
• Only mention what changed: a new appliance, a new timetable for the kids, things that moved.
• Everything else stays the same — no need to explain it all again from the start.
• Afterwards, ask her to say it back to check you're on the same page.

Paperwork to confirm before she leaves

Home leave involves her work permit, flights and return date, and should follow your employment contract and Ministry of Manpower (MOM) rules. Every situation is different, so confirm the details with her and with your agency before she leaves; we don't cover them here.

Yiru makes this easier

• The house guide stays in the app, so when she's back it's already up to date — nothing to rewrite.
• While she's away, family members can open the same house guide to see how each thing is done.
• If something changes in the meantime, just update the house guide. When she's back she sees the new version, translated into her language.

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