Do you need some home help but you’re unsure whether to hire a housekeeper or a cleaner?

There are certain differences between housekeepers and cleaners. We will help you establish the differences between these two professions to better understand what service is more suitable for you and your household.

Hiring a housekeeper or a cleaner for your home is a very advantageous solution if you need support with a variety of household tasks. As people are living busier lives, they resort to outside help to look after their homes.

Hiring a housekeeper or a cleaner is a great solution for busy households, where both partners are working. More than this, for the older population who may not be able to tend to their homes in the same way they used to or who suffer from illness or conditions, hiring a housekeeping or a cleaning service will help them out immensely.

What is a housekeeper?

A housekeeper is a consistent presence in your home. They will be there one or two times per week or more, depending on your needs and household size. With Guardian Carers, you can hire a housekeeper to come in for a couple of days per week, five days per week or even on a live-in basis, if they are required to run a bigger household.

A housekeeper will be able to complete a list of daily or weekly chores. You need to know that the cleaning products will need to be provided by you. Some housekeepers may have preferences regarding what type of products they like to use. They will either bring some of these themselves or they will ask for you to purchase them.

What is a cleaner?

A cleaner, on the other hand, is a person whom you would typically hire for a shorter period of time and less frequently. They are normally required to take care of bigger jobs, such as deep cleaning of your home or getting a house ready to be sold, for instance.

A cleaning service will focus on improving an area’s cleanliness which typically means deep cleaning the area. Some examples include mopping the floor, scrubbing the kitchen or wiping marks off of the walls.

What is the difference between a housekeeper and a cleaner?

The definitions for housekeepers and cleaners are not exactly clear cut. Every housekeeper and cleaner’s job role will vary. The line between a housekeeper and a cleaner’s duties can be quite unclear depending on the different households they are required to work in.

As stated above, the main difference between cleaning and housekeeping services is that a cleaning service will focus on improving the home, while housekeeping focuses on maintaining the cleanliness of the home.

Housekeeping will involve, for instance, organising your clothes, doing the washing up and cleaning the oven. A housekeeper will clean your oven, but won’t necessarily deep clean it. On the other hand, a cleaner will. To get a better understanding, we will list below the duties you can expect from a housekeeper and a cleaner.

What are the duties of a housekeeper?

• Light cleaning in the living areas, such as dusting, hoovering, hoovering, sweeping and mopping
• General tidying of the rooms such as decluttering and light organising
• Cleaning the bathrooms such as the mirrors, toilets, showers and baths
• Cleaning the kitchen area such as wiping down appliances, counters, sinks and cabinet doors
• Washing, drying and putting the dishes away
• Making the beds and changing the bed linen
• Washing, folding and ironing clothes
• Cleaning the interior windows
• Taking the bins out
• Running errands such as grocery shopping, dropping off the dry cleaning and mail
• Preparing meals

While these are some of the main duties you can expect a housekeeper to do, you should lay out from the beginning additional tasks that you will need to be completed such as pet care, for instance.

Furthermore, in relation to meal preparation or running errands, you should explain to the housekeeper exactly what tasks you expect of them and how you expect them to do them. This will ensure that they will provide you with a service that will meet your standards.

What can a cleaner do?

• Do deep cleaning or do outdoor window washing. These sorts of jobs can be done by a specialist cleaning service.
• Clean up human waste. Exposure to human waste can be dangerous. If you require such a service, you should enlist the help of a professional waste removal service.
• Lift heavy objects or furniture. Due to the safety concerns of this role, you should look for someone who is specialised in performing jobs that require a certain amount of physical strength.

These are just a few of the duties you can expect a professional cleaner to perform. Cleaners can also be hired to do a complete deep cleaning of your home or to get a home ready for sale, for instance.

How can you hire housekeepers and cleaners?

There are a myriad of cleaning services available based on your location. Most services will provide you with deep cleaning services for your home. If you require a particular cleaning service, you should enquire to see whether they can supply what you are looking for.

Housekeeping services can be provided by Guardian Carers. Hiring a housekeeper is easy with us. Our consultants will perform all the vetting for you and then send you profiles of suitable candidates for you to choose from. You can make a selection of your preferred candidates which you can also interview.

Once you have made a final decision, our consultants will support you throughout the hiring process by liaising with your chosen housekeeper, sending you sample contracts and payslips for you to use.

If you would like to know more about how a housekeeper can support you in the upkeep of your household, you can make a no-obligation enquiry with one of our consultants on 0207 183 1395 or via our online form.