This blog is about something I am incredibly passionate about – 5 star housekeepers.
Tell me what what you think at the end of this blog. Is housekeeping actually an unskilled job?
I have watched studied housekeeping in many different environments and levels and I have come the conclusion that there are 5 main skills that make up a great housekeeper.
1. Mathematician
To be a housekeeper you need to be able to walk around a house, whatever size it is and work out how long it will take to do this job. So if you can imagine a fifteen bed mansion, one needs to be able to walk around the house and calculate the amount of time it will take to service each bedroom, each bathroom, analyse all the surfaces, weather it needs a light, medium or a deep clean and assess what needs to be done in the kitchen. When looking at potential properties to look after we need to be able to give an estimate.
So within just a half an hour walk around, I mathematically make lots and lots of calculations in my mind so I can quite accurately give an estimate of how long it will take. This is important because your client may be counting on the property being ready for a particular event or it maybe getting it ready for the weekend. Imagine if only half the house was ready when you had set the expectation to get the house ready in time, it would seriously let your client down. A good training ground for housekeepers is to have to get a house ready for a same day turnaround in a five star holiday let!
2. Artist
Having an artistic eye, I have sometimes tried to train people in this and it just has not been successful. Having said that, most of us, somewhere in our heart, we have a really good eye for beauty and can recognise something when we walk in to a beautiful space. Nine times out of ten it will be because it’s ordered (it could be ordered chaos) but it’s ordered and everything has a purpose!
When I talk about zooming in and zooming out, a little like feng shui, making sure things are in the right space, given the room, so it’s working with your space and it’s working with the detail. Zooming in and zooming out like an artist you can see the final picture. Imagine a water colour, the amount of details one goes into to produce a beautiful picture of a flower, the amount of detail is immense. But it’s zooming in and getting the detail right and then zooming out to make sure the perspective is right. Make sure the curtains are beautifully hanging equally, you have all your items beautifully ordered maybe in hight order and facing the front. Pictures aren’t wonky, the cushions are beautifully displayed and there is no right or wrong way to place cushions, but it depends on the size of the sofa and the materials and volumes in the cushion! You need to be able to play with what you have got like an artist would. Whether it’s oil, water colour or pencil. We work with what we have got. Having an artistic eye is a real advantage as a housekeeper.
3. Clown
A clown can juggle all the balls in the air at the same time. You need to be able to keep a tab on when the dishwasher is on, when it needs to come out, when the washing machine has finished, given what’s in the washing machine. Be it a hand wash, a long wash and when and how it needs to be dried. You maybe juggling three different washes at the same time at once and maybe more. Maybe one is soaking the oven while cleaning the rest of the house at the same time. You may need to be managing the flowers they maybe dying and you may not be in next week so you need to make sure they are replaced. So it’s being aware of the whole picture. We do need to be a bit of a clown and good at juggling!
4. Athlete
I wear a fit bit and often we will do up to 40,000 steps in a day and a lot of that will be cardio! I have worked out that bed making is one of the skills that requires most energy. The more energy one has and the fitter we are the more one can do a fantastic job in the time.
So it’s also about the energy and passion we have for attacking the jobs. I often say that to be a cleaner one needs to be have an almost aggressive positive energy/ approach to getting things done. I have often come across housekeepers who spend so much energy looking at what they can get away with not doing! Rather than just doing it and it’s so disappointing. It does happen so you really want to have someone who really does have the energy and intention to get the job done. You will see it in someone’s eye when they arriving to do their work if they are resenting being there or if they are there for a purpose and really looking forward to doing what they need to do. That’s a special person !
5. Politician
Communication skills, you need to be a bit of a politician. I am often walking into scenarios where my clients will expect outrageous results in short spaces of time. So I will walk around the house with my mathematical brain working out how long it will take to do the property. I may suggest that OK this house will take fifteen hours to do a deep clean. I typically get the reaction, “are you serious?”
I need to be able to explain my reasoning in a caring, logical and a clear way. Like a politician. We need to be able to step into someone else’s shoes and be diplomatic and not take it personally when some says and looks at you in disdain. There is a massive lack of understanding of the science of housekeeping. So its being able to explain and reason to your clients and try and educate and explain the best/solutions. Communication and negation skills are a great bonus to have in a housekeeper.
I do feel housekeeping is very underestimated and there is a lot of distrust out there.If I estimate this a job will take 15/20 hours I come across a lot of suspicion and clients often feel they have to clock their housekeepers time in and out by the second they arrive and leave and have a sense of being anxious as if they can’t trust the person to do the job. So that’s another reason why communication is a valuable part of the job and if your client feels you are communicating with them it helps towards gaining great trust.
So to summarise these are the five skills a great housekeeper needs and that’s why I put this question to you…
Can you tell me now that you feel a housekeeper is an unskilled job ?
I hope you can feel and see how important this role is and what a difference it makes when it’s done properly and what a difference it makes to mental health. The end product is that we have helped make spaces beautiful.