This tip is about breakages. I would imagine that all housekeepers had broken something at some point in their cleaning history. I know I had!
One thing that I always do before I walk into the client’s property is make a mental note to get into head-space where I am really, really conscious about my environment when I clean there. It is like before I get into a car – I think, “Right, I am going to drive safely and I will pay real attention to the road”. It is the same thing with cleaning.
It can be incredibly frustrating if one does break something. The things is to be really aware of the “physical universe” – that is what I call it. It is almost imagining the worse case scenario – like when driving you always need to be aware of somebody who may do something that is incorrect and that could cause an accident.
One thing that I broke in my early days was a picture. Pictures can be notoriously difficult to put up and can be very, very delicate. I once was quite heavy-handed when wiping a frame – the picture crashed to the ground and the frame broke. It was very upsetting.
The thing to do is to always assume that things are not very well put together. It is the same with TVs – if they are up on the stand or on the wall, don’t put too much pressure when you are cleaning them and the areas around them, to make sure you don’t break anything by mistake.
When removing items, like china, for example, I always make a mental point to gently pick them up (even if you are under stress and have a lot to do in a short period of time) it is worth taking a deep breath and moving things properly before you clean. Rather than frantically cleaning – moving something, cleaning under it and moving it back, as so may breakages can happen that way!
What I recommend as well when you first meet your client is to ask them whether there are any particularly high value items that you need to be very careful with. I like to do that to then make a mental note to go into a super-high sensitivity zone before I do the cleaning!
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