What is it like living with a house cleaner? Life becomes a lot more interesting when you live in the home of a maid.
The quirky habits and daily routines of house cleaners will improve your life… and can also drive you a little crazy.
Listen: What is It Like Living With a House Cleaner?
Watch: What is It Like Living With a House Cleaner?
Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
What Is It Like Living With a House Cleaner?
What is it like living with a house cleaner? This is a question that came in and they asked, “If you run out of ideas for videos, why don’t you do a video on what is it like to live with a house cleaner?” And I started laughing because I don’t think we’ve ever done a show on that and it’s a hilarious question. What is it like to live with a house cleaner?
Now, every house cleaner is a little bit different, but I will share with you this. The house cleaners that I know, and there are six of them in my family. All six of my sisters have had house cleaning businesses at different times, or worked in the house cleaning industry.
So, I’ve lived with house cleaners and I am a house cleaner. I’ve also worked closely with other house cleaners, and I’ve an inside scoop. But I’m going to tell you about my personal experience and what it has been like living with me.
House Cleaners are People Pleasers
So, the very first thing that pops out for many of the house cleaners that I work with is, house cleaners are by trade, people pleasers. And so, if you live with the house cleaner, you’re probably a lucky person. They probably jump through hoops to make your life happy.
House cleaners go through a lot for everyone, including their families. They give a lot to their customers. They give a lot to their families. They jump through all kinds of hoops.
House Cleaners are Systematic
The next thing is that they’re very systematic in what they do, and the question was, is it a gift or is it a curse? It can be both. Once they have a system in place, they go on autopilot, and like runners being in the zone, sometimes house cleaners clean in the zone.
And this happens a lot in their own homes, not so much at customers’ homes because, at customers’ homes, they have to be on high alert.
They cannot be in the zone. They have to be paying attention to what’s going on around them at all times. If a door clicks, Oh no! Did someone come in the door? They have to be aware.
House Cleaners Have to Be Time Conscientious
Also, as they’re cleaning, house cleaners have to be very conscientious of time. So, as they’re cleaning a customer’s house, they’re thinking about how fast can they get this done because they have these other activities that they have to clean. Then they have to budget their time so they can get everything done in the time that they have.
When they are at your their house, it’s like erasing that time sensitivity. And so what happens is, they might get caught doing the dishes for a while and their mind is just exhausted from the day and so they might end up washing their own dishes for a long period of time. Then their spouse will walk in and they’re like, “Hey, are you okay? Is everything going on?” And the house cleaner is in their own zone. They’re still cleaning but they’re in their own zone.
Sometimes House Cleaners Get in the Zone
Now because of the systems, house cleaners clean things sometimes without paying attention, because they are in the zone, especially if they are the business owner. Now I know for me, this has happened on numerous occasions.
My husband makes fun of me, but my mind is racing and I’m thinking about the day. I’m thinking about my employees and clients. I’m trying to figure out in my head, what happens next? How do I do this? How do I do that? And then mysterious things happen.
Sometimes I Lose Track of What I’m Using
The other day I was making a sandwich. My knife disappeared. What on earth happened to my knife? Now, no one else is in the kitchen. I’m the only one there. The knife disappears. I’m probably guilty. So, I start looking around and I’m like, “Hey, what happened to my knife?” And I went opened the drawer where the knives go and between a minute ago when I cut something up, I had washed the knife, dried it and put it away.
Now, if you walked through the kitchen, that looks amazing. But I was in the middle of cooking a meal. That happens all the time. We do things without even knowing it and so you might put milk on someone’s cereal and then before the next person gets the milk, you’ve already put on the lid and put it back in the fridge.
And the other person is like, “What about me? Don’t I get milk on my cereal.” You’re like, “Whoa, did I already put it away?” So that happens sometimes too. We’re in the zone and we’re not paying attention in our own home. However, when we’re at a customer’s home, we are on and that’s a hundred percent attention. It’s front and center.
House Cleaners are Always on the Go
So, the other thing is from sunup until sundown, house cleaners are always on the go. They are on. So from the time they get up in the morning, and I know this is true for me, health has always been my first priority because if I’m not healthy myself, I cannot be healthy for my customers, for my family and, for my employees.
The first hour of the day is my own and even though we burn a lot of calories while we’re working as house cleaners, we don’t necessarily get the strength training that we need.
So, it’s still important to go running. It’s still important to lift weights. It’s still important to have that meditative time where you can work out and build your body, your mind and your spirit.
Then there comes this window in the morning for the husband is probably still sleeping, but you have an early client you got to bounce out for and I know this has been true for many, many years. My husband is sleeping and I’m in the shower, I’m putting on my uniform and, doing my hair. There’s a lot of noise and chaos that goes on in the morning that he has had to learn to sleep through. So that part is probably a curse for him.
You Have to Make Lunches for Yourself and Your Family in the Morning
Then immediately, there’s packing lunches for both of us. So, if there are kids in the house, you’re packing lunches for school. If it’s your husband, you’re packing lunches for him. If it’s you yourself, that’s on the go, you’re packing lunches for yourself. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the reason I say dinner is because oftentimes we don’t get home until after six o’clock at night and we should not be eating late into the evening.
My husband has always worked late. He works in the car business and so he gets home at eight, nine, 10 o’clock at night. So, I want him to eat before he gets home. So, packing breakfast, lunch, and dinner is a part of every single morning. It’s the reason we use the little, tiny meals so that everyone can pack their own lunches, but everyone can eat throughout the day and still have nourishment.
You Have to Clean Up After Making Lunches
Then there’s always a part of the cleanup from getting everybody’s lunches packed. In the Airbnb industry, it’s called a turnover service, and, in my house, I have employees always coming and going from my house, so I’ve always maintained that turnover in the morning.
But even to this day, a part of every morning is sanitizing the bathrooms and wiping everything down. Also, wiping down and sanitizing the faucets and toilet and doing the toilet paper roll in case other people use that toilet.
It’s wiping down the kitchen area and getting rid of all the crumbs. We don’t want mice or ants in the house just like you wouldn’t add an Airbnb. So, we want to make sure that everything is tidy.
We Have a Coffee Bar in Our House Too
In my house, we have a coffee bar as well. That coffee bar has to be restocked every single morning. And so, filled with water, the Keurig machine, we got to restock the hot chocolates. We restock the coffee. We restock teas. We make sure that there are marshmallows for the hot chocolate. We have sugar sweeteners and coffee creamers and all that stuff and so that has to be restocked every single day.
We also have bottled water for the employees. The refrigerator has to be restocked every day. So, after we pack the lunches, everything is wiped down. Everything is sanitized and then in our house now, we have a media lab and the media lab has computers in it in case one of the employees drops by to check their email, or they want to check their schedule, or if their computer went out, or if they didn’t have a computer or whatever, we have a media lab.
All those computers have to be wiped down and sanitized every day. The tables that they sit on, have to be wiped down and sanitized. The floor underneath, they’re wiped down and sanitized because they probably ate something and dropped some crumbs.
There is a System to Living With a House Cleaner
So, there is a system living with a house cleaner. It’s not, “Hey, I’m going to roll out a bed and throw my hair in a bandana and run out and go clean houses.” There is a process.
When they get home at night, they are exhausted. And so, from about six o’clock in the evening on, it’s kind of like living with a mummy or a zombie, where they’ve been cleaning all day. They’ve been going all day and then they get home and it’s kind of like just taking off that mask.
So, its like “Whew, I’m at home now.” They’re going to get really ugly.
House Cleaners Want to Relax After Work
House cleaners get ugly after about six o’clock at night. The makeup comes off. T-shirt, leggings, maybe barefoot, maybe flip-flops go on. It’s not going to be cute at all and don’t worry because you know what? They gave it all day. They look professional all day. Now that they’re at their house, they don’t care what they look like and they want to relax.
Like if you had lunch or dinner, great. But now, whatever. It’s whatever is in the fridge. Whatever’s on the menu. And then they don’t care. So, it could be soup and crackers. It could be soup and a sandwich. It could be a sandwich and a salad. The dinner doesn’t have to match. It can be five different kinds of squash. It doesn’t matter.
And then they might just bury themselves in front of the TV and kind of annihilate the rest of the evening and just chill.
House Cleaners are Exhausted After Work
Now for me, living with the house cleaner, last night, this happened, my husband invited me to dinner and a movie, and I said, “Yes, it’s date night. Let’s do this.” So, he went down to get dinner and I sat down on the couch, with my laptop on my lap, and the next thing I knew it was time to go to bed.
I had fallen asleep with my laptop on and he brought the dinner upstairs and then he saw that I was asleep. He didn’t want to wake me, but didn’t want the food to go to waste. So, he ate his dinner, and then he ate mine. So that is typical in a household where there’s a house cleaner. It is typical because, at the end of the day, there’s nothing left to give. There’s just nothing left.
Living With a House Cleaner is a Blessing and Curse
So, living with a house cleaner, it’s a blessing and a curse, but it’s something that you get used to. It’s something that you learn to live with and if you have a house cleaner that you’re married to, my suggestion is that you be kind and patient because this is a person that is literally out changing the world for other people, all day, every day.
And then when they come home, there’s only so much left to give. They’re going to give you as much as they possibly have to give and then they’re going to crash and fall asleep.
Anyway, that’s the life of a house cleaner. I’ve lived the house cleaner life for three decades and it’s one of the finest careers that I’ve ever hoped to have.
It’s been a blessing, where you get to see progress every single day. You get to meet some fantastic people. You get challenges that you did not ever expect to have to live through, and yet you survive, and it makes you a better person as a result of it.
Permissions To Share
You Have Our Permission To Share This Episode
Show Sponsor
Savvy Cleaner Training – House Cleaner Training and Certification
My Cleaning Connection – Your hub for all things cleaning.
HouseCleaning360 – A hub connecting homeowners with house cleaners
Savvy Perks – Employee benefits for your employees.
Turnover Cleaning Tips – for Vacation Rental and Airbnb Hosts
