Maids and housekeeping cleaners perform any combination of light cleaning duties to maintain private households or commercial establishments, such as hotels and hospitals, in a clean and orderly manner. Duties may include making beds, replenishing linens, cleaning rooms and halls, and vacuuming.

  • Keep storage areas and carts well-stocked, clean, and tidy.
  • Carry linens, towels, toilet items, and cleaning supplies, using wheeled carts.
  • Clean rooms, hallways, lobbies, lounges, restrooms, corridors, elevators, stairways, locker rooms, and other work areas so that health standards are met.
  • Empty wastebaskets, empty and clean ashtrays, and transport other trash and waste to disposal areas.
  • Sweep, scrub, wax, or polish floors, using brooms, mops, or powered scrubbing and waxing machines.
  • Replenish supplies, such as drinking glasses, linens, writing supplies, and bathroom items.
  • Clean rugs, carpets, upholstered furniture, and draperies, using vacuum cleaners and shampooers.
  • Wash windows, walls, ceilings, and woodwork, waxing and polishing as necessary.
  • Dust and polish furniture and equipment.
  • Disinfect equipment and supplies, using germicides or steam-operated sterilizers.
  • Observe precautions required to protect hotel and guest property and report damage, theft, and found articles to supervisors.
  • Sort, count, and mark clean linens and store them in linen closets.
  • Sort clothing and other articles, load washing machines, and iron and fold dried items.
  • Assign duties to other staff and give instructions regarding work methods and routines.
  • Move and arrange furniture and turn mattresses.
  • Answer telephones and doorbells.
  • Replace light bulbs.
  • Deliver television sets, ironing boards, baby cribs, and rollaway beds to guests' rooms.
  • Hang draperies and dust window blinds.
  • Request repair services and wait for repair workers to arrive.
  • Prepare rooms for meetings and arrange decorations, media equipment, and furniture for social or business functions.
  • Remove debris from driveways, garages, and swimming pool areas.
  • Wash dishes and clean kitchens, cooking utensils, and silverware.
  • Polish silver accessories and metalwork, such as fixtures and fittings.
  • Run errands, such as taking laundry to the cleaners and buying groceries.
Work Context
  • Spend Time Standing — 85% responded "Continually or almost continually".
  • Spend Time Making Repetitive Motions — 83% responded "Continually or almost continually".
  • Spend Time Walking and Running — 73% responded "Continually or almost continually".
  • Spend Time Bending or Twisting the Body — 70% responded "Continually or almost continually".
  • Face-to-Face Discussions — 72% responded "Every day".
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled — 83% responded "Every day".
  • Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets — 70% responded "Every day".
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Work Activities
  • Performing General Physical Activities — Performing physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.
  • Assisting and Caring for Others — Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
  • Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates — Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
  • Performing for or Working Directly with the Public — Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
  • Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
  • Handling and Moving Objects — Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
  • Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work — Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
Detailed Work Activities
  • Move materials, equipment, or supplies.
  • Clean facilities or sites.
  • Dispose of trash or waste materials.
  • Inventory materials or equipment.
  • Clean facilities or sites.
  • Inventory materials or equipment.
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Knowledge

Customer and Personal Service
  • Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
English Language
  • Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Public Safety and Security
  • Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Skills

Service Orientation
  • Actively looking for ways to help people.
Coordination
  • Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Time Management
  • Managing one's own time and the time of others.

Abilities

Trunk Strength
  • The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without 'giving out' or fatiguing.
Oral Comprehension
  • The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Oral Expression
  • The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Stamina
  • The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
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Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Achievement/Effort
  • Persistence
  • Initiative
  • Leadership
  • Cooperation
  • Concern for Others
  • Social Orientation
  • Self Control
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Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Operating system software
  • Microsoft Windows Hot Technology
Spreadsheet software
  • Microsoft Excel Hot Technology
Data base user interface and query software
  • Data entry software Hot Technology
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