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Surviving Lockdown Without Your Housekeeper

Marta PerroneHousehold Management Surviving Lockdown Without Your Housekeeper
Paella scaled

Surviving Lockdown Without Your Housekeeper

2020 needless to say is a year no one will forget.  We will never forget the worst of circumstances for those who fell ill and passed.  Wearing masks and living under a lockdown mandate not seeing friends and family was a first.  Another topic of discussion was how we had to do all the housework with no assistance.

Surviving lockdown without a housekeeper was difficult for many people.  In our household, we didn’t have as much trouble on the cleaning side since that happens to be my specialty but doing it daily was wearing.  In between cleaning, I took lots of on-line cooking classes and made new and old favorite dishes like paella.  We also learned  how to zoom for the first time with friends and family and make it work.  Learning to keep distance and not hug others as personally the most difficult.  To this day, I’m yearning to hug again.

 

Learning how to survive lockdown without a housekeeper is particularly hard for people who don’t know how to clean, do laundry, organize the house on a schedule since housekeepers were always there to do it for them. Housekeepers were asked to stay home and this gave household employers a new appreciation for their value in the workplace as they learned how to do their jobs.  It isn’t easy regularly cleaning bathrooms, floors and the kitchen while cooking and doing laundry while caring for kids on top of it all.

Fortunately, we have a small home and no children at home.  However, many friends and clients have homes ranging from 8-20,000SF with young families.   Cleaning is hard labor but that wasn’t the only problem. Many people simply don’t know how to clean. If you depend on your housekeeper who is well trained in every aspect of cleaning, doing laundry, organizing and managing all household maintenance, you can see that you might be at a loss without her there.

 

On-line training became very popular during the lockdown phases.  I was pleased to see many of my students return to the platform now that they had the time to complete their basic housekeeping, executive housekeeping and household management courses.

 

Those clients who have virtual household manuals in place are ahead of the game because at the very least they have all the schedules and procedures for cleaning and maintaining every aspect of their residence at their fingertips. They also know what products to purchase and how to use them on every surface. They just go to their IPad and open up their personalized household manual. In the housekeeping section, there are the procedures, descriptions and which products and tools to use to get the job done.

 

Clearly, I have been personally spoiled by my amazing housekeeper who insists she has learned from the best.  While that may be true, I was still thrilled to have her back in our house – and my husband was particularly happy to be relieved of duty.

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