Often we find as live-in carers that housekeeping, whether it involves wiping down counters, vacuuming the carpets or cleaning the windows, all gets to be lumped together under the category of light housekeeping.
It sometimes seems far easier to categorise all the household chores in the same way, than to separate them into light, medium or deep cleaning.
Housekeeping, or rather the definition of light housekeeping, is often a matter of conflict for a live-in carer because unless jobs are specifically laid out, they are often simply classed as light housekeeping duties.
If you have done your live-in care training with an agency, then this will have been covered, and it will have been told to you that you may be asked to carry out light housekeeping. Unfortunately, sometimes even agencies can be vague about what exactly is involved in this.
Most agencies will agree that the live-in carer cleans the areas where the client is, as well as the areas where the carer is, and this equates to the client bedroom, bathroom, carer bedroom and bathroom, kitchen, sitting room and possibly the dining room.
It is accepted that the carer will clean up after the client, namely, cook a meal and wash the dishes afterwards. It is also accepted that the carer will do the laundry for the client and themselves, keep both bedrooms clean and tidy, and the sitting room free from dirty dishes.
Light housekeeping means that all the countertops sinks and basins, baths or showers will be clean and ready for the next time they are used.
Light housekeeping also means dusting surfaces, sweeping or mopping floors and vacuuming around furniture. It includes taking out the rubbish, changing bedding and keeping the laundry up to date.
Now while this may seem like a large list, it is really nothing more than most people would do in the course of a day in their own homes.
Where this gets interesting is when the live-in carer is required to go ‘above and beyond’ light housekeeping. Naturally this may cause some objection and dissension between carer, and family or next of kin.
Compared to light housekeeping, a deep clean, which many live-in carers are coerced into doing, includes tasks such as cleaning windows, shampooing carpets, cleaning ceiling fans, cleaning grout lines in bathrooms, cleaning appliances such as fridge and cooker, scrubbing floors, raking or mowing the grass.
Unfortunately the list here is endless and would take pages to itemise!
Basically, deep cleaning is anything that you may normally hire a cleaning service to carry out.
Light housekeeping duties can include:
While this is not a complete list, it should give an idea of what light housekeeping entails.
Yes, there are always exceptions to any rule and this is no different. You may be asked to walk the dog every morning, scoop poop after him and brush him daily, and you might agree to this because you love animals and it gets you out of the house for an extra hour.
However, you should be aware that by agreeing to this extra chore you put every other carer under the same obligation to accept this because ‘that's what the other carer does.’ They may not be inclined to walk the dog and scoop poop daily but will be pressured into it.
It is a good idea, before you gladly agree to do something which is over and above the call of duty, that you ask how the next carer may feel about it.
While the list of what entails light housekeeping is not complete, it gives us an idea of what we as live-in carers are expected to do.
The list of deep cleaning tasks also gives us an idea of what we really should not be expected to do, either because of a risk of falling or simply because we are being used as a form of cheap labour.
Rather than hire a window cleaner or cleaning service, it is assumed that the carer will pick up the slack.
If you do find yourself in this position then it is important to address the issue as soon as you arrive so that there is a clear line drawn between deep cleaning and light housekeeping – as there should be.
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