Housekeeping

Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running and maintaining an organized physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as cleaning, tidying/organizing, cooking, shopping, and bill payment. These tasks may be performed by members of the household, or by persons hired for the purpose. This is a more broad role than a cleaner, who is focused only on the cleaning aspect.[1] The term is also used to refer to the money allocated for such use.[2] By extension, it may also refer to an office or a corporation, as well as the maintenance of computer storage systems.[3]

The basic concept can be divided into domestic housekeeping, for private households, and institutional housekeeping for commercial and other institutions providing shelter or lodging, such as hotels, resorts, inns, boarding houses, dormitories, hospitals and prisons.[4][5] There are related concepts in industry known as workplace housekeeping and Industrial housekeeping, which are part of occupational health and safety processes.

A housekeeper is a person employed to manage a household[6] and the domestic staff. According to the 1861 Victorian era Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, the housekeeper is second in command in the house and "except in large establishments, where there is a house steward, the housekeeper must consider herself as the immediate representative of her mistress".[7]

  1. ^ "What's the Difference Between Housekeeping and Cleaning". ThinkACW. 21 December 2017.
  2. ^ "housekeeping" Oxford Dictionaries Online. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  3. ^ "housekeeping" The Collins English Dictionary. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Collins was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hospitals was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "housekeeper" Oxford Dictionaries Online. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  7. ^ Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management Web version of the book at the University of Adelaide Library. Retrieved 2 June 2013.