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What You Can Expect Of A Professional Housekeeper

When you hand over the everyday running of your household(s) to a professional Housekeeper, it is important to understand beforehand how broad this role is, what you can reasonably expect from them and how to keep good, open communications with your Housekeeper in order that the house runs as smoothly as possible!

A Housekeeper plays a fundamental role within the household and right from the word go, their professionalism should shine through. This means you can expect them to be competent, reliable, discreet, conscientious, efficient and well organised. As a valuable and key member of staff, you will rely on them to interpret your needs and requirements and above all listen to your wishes in how you would like your household to run.

As the role is so varied and will differ from household to household, you can expect your Housekeeper to come with many different skills – some will be general and basic housekeeping skills and others will be more specialised skills, depending where they have worked. For example they may have particular knowledge of the care of antiques, silver, art, vintage/designer clothing and so on. A Housekeeper will also possess good culinary skills and additionally may have specialist areas of expertise in a particular cuisine or knowledge of restricted diets such as coeliac/gluten-free, dairy intolerances, nut allergies, vegan, paleo and so on.

Usually a Housekeeper will provide nutritious meals for the family on a daily basis and should you require it, they can also cook for dinner parties and help when you are entertaining.

Your Housekeeper’s day will start early and if there are children in the household this may include preparing their breakfast, organising packed lunches and doing the school run. Every day, they will generally clear up after the family, keeping the house clean & tidy and daily duties will probably include: making beds, laundry, food shopping, hoovering/dusting. Other duties will depend on the household, but could include: dog walking, menu planning, dry cleaning pick up & child-minding/babysitting. Your Housekeeper will also deal with visitors to the house (friends, contractors, gardener and so on) and if required will answer the house telephone and take basic messages.

Given the demanding nature of the job and the huge range of requirements and responsibilities for the role to function efficiently, effective communication is absolutely vital! In order to achieve this, it is important that some time is set aside each week or  possibly even daily to achieve this. Obviously a regular face to face meeting is best and then beyond that a notebook for messages, directions, requirements/planning & expectations for the day/week ahead would be useful for both parties.

For further advice and information on employing a Housekeeper, please give the Eden Household Team a call on 020 7471 6000

January 27, 2021

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