Housekeeping

Before a house can be cleaned, it first needs to be tidied up. This is an organisation process that can include activities such as picking up toys, clothes, books etc off the floor. Also organizing items on benches and tables and putting them in their correct spot. Without tidying first, it can hinder or prevent proper cleaning. Organizing out-of-place items, creates a clean space to allow you to deep clean with vacuum cleaners, mops and other appliances.[6]

Broom, sponge and duster

Part of the housework of a London housewife, 1941

Housekeeping includes housecleaning, that is, disposing of rubbish, cleaning dirty surfaces, dusting, and vacuuming. It may also involve some outdoor chores, such as removing leaves from rain gutters, washing windows, and sweeping doormats. The term housecleaning is often used also figuratively in politics and business, for the removal of unwanted personnel, methods, or policies in an effort at reform or improvement.[7]

Housecleaning is done to make the home look and smell better and to make it safer and easier to live in. Without housecleaning, lime scale can build upon taps, mold grows in wet areas, smudges appear on glass surfaces, dust forms on surfaces, bacterial action makes the garbage disposal and toilet smell and cobwebs accumulate. Tools used in housecleaning include vacuums, brooms, mops and sponges, together with cleaning products such as detergents, disinfectants and bleach.

One role of a housekeeper is often laundry such as; washing, folding, and packing away laundry items. Other duties may involve monitoring and changing bed linen and ironing.[8]

Dusting

Some dusting tools

Over time dust accumulates on household surfaces. As well as making the surfaces dirty, when the dust is disturbed it can become suspended in the air, causing sneezing and breathing trouble. It can also transfer from furniture to clothing, making it unclean. Various tools have been invented for dust removal: feather dusters, cotton, and polyester dust cloths, furniture spray, disposable paper "dust cloths", dust mops for smooth floors, and vacuum cleaners. Vacuum cleaners often have a variety of tools to enable them to remove dirt not just from carpets and rugs, but also from hard surfaces and upholstery.[10] Dusting is very important in hospital environments.[11]

Removal of dirt

Two women cleaning the floor

Examples of dirt or "soil" are detritus and common spills and stains in the home. Equipment used with a cleaner might include a bucket and sponge or a rag. A modern tool is the spray bottle, but the principle is the same.

Many household chemicals are using in cleaning, scrubbing, and washing surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom.

While housekeeping can be seen as an objective activity that can be done by either men or women, some people have argued that housekeeping is a site of historical oppression and gender division between men and women.[14] Housekeeping also has a role in maintaining certain parts of the capitalist economy, including the division of home and work life, as well as industries that sell chemicals and household goods.

A survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2014 came to the result that approximately 43 percent of men did food preparation or cleanup on any given day, compared with approximately 70 percent of women. In addition, 20 percent of men did housekeeping chores (including cleaning and laundry) on any given day, compared to approximately 50 percent of women.[15]

The Swedish practice of döstädning ("death cleaning"), a simple living ethic and aesthetic with the primary focus of not burdening your heirs with your belongings,[16] is a permanent form of householding organization[17] which also focuses on keeping only strongly valued possessions.[18]