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Life is busy and there is only so much time to spend cleaning and tidying. What are the non-negotiables of a well-managed home? Here, housekeepers share their tips and hacks for making a chaotic house feel more orderly.
Run a tight ship
There are four elements to a well-run home, according to Matt Church, AKA Mr Housekeeping, from Maldon in Essex. These are keeping the place “clean, tidy, decluttered and organised,” he says. “I call myself a housekeeper because it’s not just cleaning. Cleaning is one element, but some cleaners wouldn’t tidy, empty bins, make beds, put laundry away or organise cupboards. They are all jobs I get involved with.” People laugh about tidying before the cleaner comes, but they are different things entirely, Church says.
“When you take on somebody’s house, a lot of it at the beginning is about listening,” says Georgie Cutbill, who runs The Bruton Housekeeper, a household management service in Somerset. “People have very particular ideas about what they want, so you’ve got to get into their headspace.” Cutbill has found herself in all kinds of surprising scenarios, from organising parties involving miniature donkeys to sourcing Tadelakt [Moroccan lime-based plaster] specialists. “No two days are the same,” she says.
Lisa Williams is head of housekeeping at The Grand hotel in York and chair of the UK Housekeepers Association. During the pandemic, when hotels were closed, Williams worked in hospitals and learned a great deal about using chemicals to avoid infection transmission.
Guests expect to check in to a room that is spotless, but “obviously you’ve got your time constrictions,” says Williams, explaining that it is not the same as cleaning a home. “You have to clean 11 rooms within an eight-hour day. And obviously, if guests don’t check out on time, that can put tremendous pressure on you.” Sometimes things get broken or there is other damage to a room: “We appreciate that guests sometimes can be sick, but they don’t always tell you. It’s great if guests can be honest, because then we can deal with it straight away. If it’s left there all night and all day, it’s harder to get out.”
At home, Williams says it helps to have a regular cleaning routine that you stick to, otherwise you are constantly “chasing the dirt”.
Always make your bed
“It makes a massive difference when you go to bed for the bed to be made,” says Church. “It can make a bedroom feel a lot tidier than it is.” Should you do it as soon as you get up? “Yes, in your own home,” says Church. “It’s the last job I do before I leave a client, because if you make the bed and then you start dusting the light fittings above it, you end up with dust all over the sheets, so I make the bed last.” How often should you change the sheets? “Once a week is good,” says Church, but more frequently is preferable in hot weather. Sam Hodges, who owns Hectic Housekeepers in Hastings, suggests twice a week if you have pets that sleep with you.
“There is nothing nicer than a fresh bed,” says Williams. If you’re in a hotel for a long stay, your bed might be changed as frequently as every other day. At home, weekly is fine, he says. “I keep my bed fresh. It’s important to remember to vacuum it too.” She also recommends giving mattress toppers a good shake because they can get flattened. Bed linen for the hotel is ironed but Williams says she only does this at home if she has guests, divulging a useful hack if you can’t be bothered: “If you put water in a spray bottle and lightly spray it and pull the bed tight, after a half an hour or so, the creases come out. That’s what we do for photoshoots if duvets have slight creases.”
Williams says she can’t resist putting chocolates on the pillows of guests at her home, although she draws the line at swan-shaped towel arrangements.
Never leave dishes unwashed
Washing the dishes and putting them away is an absolute must if you want your home to appear well ordered, says Church. He doesn’t own a dishwasher and has a baby, so this can be quite a struggle: “You can spend all night getting the kitchen clean, then the next morning it is a complete mess again.”
Ensure your home smells amazing
You’ve got to have a tidy kitchen, agrees Cutbill, which “feels and smells clean”. Cutbill recommends using candles or putting wood oil on surfaces for a more subtle scent. Using good-quality cleaning products also makes a massive difference, she says.
“When somebody walks into your house, it’s about that first impression,” agrees Williams, who swears by plug-in diffusers for a fragrance that makes an impact.
Hodges takes an empty spray bottle with her on jobs and will put some of her client’s fabric conditioner in it with water and spritz it round the house: “The smell is amazing and it lasts.”
Have a sparkling bathroom
Williams says the bathroom is her number one priority: “If you’ve ever got people coming round, make sure your bathroom’s spotless.”
Church is of the view that toilets should be cleaned daily: “not a deep clean but a bit of bleach.” Hodges doesn’t do bleach, opting for eco-friendly alternatives instead. “For limescale, white vinegar or elbow grease usually goes down quite well.” Hodges says that she recently discovered that a pumice stone and water can be used to effectively remove tough limescale from some surfaces.
Don’t forget to leave products on long enough to work their magic, says Hodges. “When people are cleaning their own homes, it’s a quick spray, then they wipe it off. Instead, “Let it sit – then you are saving yourself so much hard work from having to scrub it off.”
Keep the fridge under control
With a fridge, “if you see an obvious stain, get at it as soon as you can, or it will set and become like glue,” says Church. Regularly cleaning the fridge has the benefit of revealing things that are lurking at the back of shelves that you may have forgotten about, says Church. “I clean it weekly or just whenever I have got a cloth in my hand,” says Cutbill, adding: “You cannot beat a freshly washed cloth or tea towel.”
Don’t let laundry languish
“Don’t leave things in the washing machine too long,” says Church. “Hanging it up straight away can mean you don’t need to iron as much.”
“The laundry room gets left behind in my home,” says Cutbill, “but not in my clients’.” She says the key to washing management is strategically placed laundry baskets, getting washed clothes out on the line if possible, then folding everything and putting it away in a timely manner. “Otherwise,” says Hodges, “it will end up on that dreaded chair or table in the bedroom, and it will be there for three weeks, and no one puts it away.”
Keeping on top of the laundry is about doing a little and often, continues Hodges. “Sort clothes before washing and don’t overload the machine or it won’t wash properly,” she says.
If you do one job, make it the floors
A clean floor can make a world of difference, says Church, who starts at the “top of a room and does the floors last”. Cutbill is constantly mopping her own floor because she has three dogs who bring filth from the garden inside. “I regret it from a cleaning point of view, but I don’t regret it because they are very lovely.” She keeps a good brush to hand at all times to deal with dog-related detritus. “I brush most days, then mop regularly to keep it fresh and clean.”
Don’t forget to clean your vacuum cleaner, says Hodges: “I spray the inside of the Henry with fabric freshener, so the room gets a nice smell. And with my Shark, once a week I’ll take the sponges out and I’ll hand-wash them with a washing pod or fabric conditioner.” This then releases a pleasant scent when vacuuming.
Rediscover the lost art of dusting
“Make sure all areas are dusted,” says Williams. Factor in time for “periodically cleaning blinds and curtains. You need to do them weekly or monthly.” Hodges puts an old sock on her hand like a puppet with some diluted washing-up liquid on it to run across dusty slatted blinds. “Don’t spray the actual blind. Spray the sock and then just run your hand along after you’ve given it a dust. It’s so much easier to clean.”
Struggling to remove a stain? Think CHAT
Church explains that this stands for: chemical, heat, agitation and time, a concept developed by the German chemist Herbert Sinner in the 1950s. “If you’re struggling with cleaning something, if you increase one of those it should do it,” says Church. For example, “you could be using the wrong chemical, it might need hotter water or to be scrubbed differently or for longer.”
Be ruthless
“When decluttering, chuck out anything you haven’t used for a year,” says Cutbill. “Find somebody who is going to give it a home because a lot of these things can have a second life.” Cutbill swears by local WhatsApp groups for rehoming unwanted goods, and charity shops.
“I like to get everything out and into the centre of the room,” says Church. “If you are just picking things up around you, you’re dealing with little fires everywhere.” With everything in the middle, it is easier to decide ‘What do I want to keep?’ and ‘What do I want to put back?’ Enlisting a friend can help you to be more ruthless: “When you pick something up yourself and you’re holding it in your hand, you can make up a hundred excuses as to why this is sentimental. But if someone else is holding it and saying, ‘Do you need this random booklet?’ or whatever it is, you are more likely to say ‘no’.”
“Small wins quickly build momentum,” says Hodges. “Pick a corner and start from there. Work your way around until you’ve completed the room. It doesn’t have to be done in one day.”
Keep toys on rotation
“Children get bored of the same toys and overstimulated when there’s too much out,” says Church. Rotating which toys are accessible every few days “helps to keep the room less cluttered – particularly helpful in smaller homes.”
Treat tradespeople with respect
On choosing good tradespeople, Cutbill advises to “go with your gut instinct. And really take the time to get to know them. You’ve got to invest in your people.” Offering regular cups of tea is crucial. If you are fortunate enough to have someone to help at your home, communication is key, says Church: “Don’t be afraid to tell them what you want done because every house is different and what is a priority for you is often different to someone else.”
Know that it is OK to let standards slip sometimes
Church says he can get quite stressed when people come to his home, “because I feel as if they expect mine to be perfect. But I work about six days a week, so when I get home, I’m quite tired of cleaning, and I’ve got a one-year-old – we do our best.”
“I’d love to live in a well-organised home,” says Hodges, “but the truth is, it’s definitely not spotless 24 hours a day. Being busy and doing everyone else’s homes, it’s not usually the top of my list. There’s always a washing pile or a cup appearing from nowhere: things mysteriously migrate from one room to another. I think the saying is ‘the cleaner needs a cleaner’, and it’s very true.”
