• Housekeepers ensure the routine cleanliness of a home or business.Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
  
  The duty of maintaining a residence or business often falls on the shoulders of housekeepers. Both commercial and residential housekeepers are primarily responsible for a space's cleanliness and tidiness, but housekeepers sometimes are assigned a variety of miscellaneous tasks necessary to maintain normal routines. Though once a luxury of the wealthy, part-time housekeepers are also making the service accessible to middle-class families.
  
  

Residential Housekeepers

• Residential housekeepers are employed as either full-time or part-time workers. Private full-time housekeepers are most routinely employed by wealthy families and are often given room and board as part of their salary agreements. Residential housekeepers are responsible for a range of routine cleaning tasks, including sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, washing dishes, scrubbing bathrooms and arranging toy rooms and offices. Washing, folding, replacing and putting away linens and clothes is also a daily task. Residential housekeepers sometimes go grocery shopping and prepare meals, sometimes for larger groups. Residential housekeepers are rarely responsible for minding the children of the home; it is more common that housekeepers pick up and drop off children from school, but a full-time nanny is often the main paid caregiver for children. For parties and at-home events, housekeepers sometimes assist in preparing a menu, shopping for food and party supplies and setting up the main party area.
  
  

Business Housekeepers

• The custodial staff of a business includes a team of housekeepers charged with maintaining a clean office space. A housekeeper for a small office is responsible for removing trash, emptying recycling bins and maintaining the cleanliness of common bathrooms. Often housekeepers for businesses work evenings so that he office is not disturbed by vacuuming or other cleaning tasks. Other tasks include waxing and shampooing floors, washing interior windows and stocking bathrooms with the needed supplies.
  
  

Hotel Housekeepers

• Hotel housekeepers are responsible for the quick changeover of guestrooms so that they are ready for the next set of occupants. The main duties of a hotel housekeeper include replacing and washing linens, resupplying room toiletries and vacuuming rooms after guests depart. Disinfecting and sanitizing rooms is also an important job of a hotel housekeeper, particularly in the bathroom spaces. Hotel housekeepers also clean common spaces like lobbies and restaurants.
  
  

Hospital Housekeepers

• In hospital settings, housekeepers require specific training to handle hazardous materials and properly disinfect hospital items. Changing and washing linens is particularly important because of the risk of infection and illness. Housekeepers are charged with routine cleaning of rooms, disposing of hazardous materials and sterilizing equipment so that it is safe for patient and doctor use. Housekeepers who work in hospitals are required to use hospital-supplied cleaning equipment to ensure that items are properly sterilized and to avoid introducing potentially harmful chemicals into patient environments if patients have chemical sensitivities or suppressed immune systems.