Housekeeping cleaners typically do the following:

• Clean rooms, hallways, and other living or work areas
• Change sheets and towels; make beds; wash, fold, and iron clothes
• Empty wastebaskets and take trash to disposal areas
• Replenish supplies, such as soap and toilet paper
• Dust and polish furniture and equipment
• Sweep, wax, or polish floors using brooms, mops, and other floor-cleaning equipment
• Vacuum rugs, carpets, and upholstered furniture
• Clean or polish windows, walls, and woodwork
• Lift and move lightweight objects and equipment.

Housekeeping cleaners do light cleaning tasks in homes and commercial establishments, such as hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and nursing homes. Those who work in hotels, hospitals, and other commercial establishments are responsible for cleaning and maintaining the premises. They may also share other duties. For example, housekeeping cleaners in hotels may deliver ironing boards, cribs, and rollaway beds to guests’ rooms. In hospitals, workers may have to wash bed frames and disinfect and sanitize equipment with germicides.

There are no formal training or education requirements. Most housekeeping cleaners are trained on the job. Entry-level maids and housekeeping cleaners typically work alongside a more experienced cleaner and gain more responsibilities and more difficult work as they become experienced.

Most housekeeping cleaners work full time. Most cleaners work indoors in a hotel, restaurant, hospital, or nursing home. The work can be physically demanding. The following industries employed the most maids and housekeeping cleaners in 2010:

• Traveler accommodation, including hotels and motels - 29%
• Private households - 25%
  
• Nursing and residential care facilities - 9%
• Hospitals; state, local, and private - 8%
• Services to buildings and dwellings - 6%

The median annual wage and housekeeping cleaners was $19,300 in May 2010. (The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less.) The lowest 10% earned less than $15,980, and the top 10% earned more than $29,510. The following are median annual wages for housekeeping cleaners in select industries:

• General medical and surgical hospitals - $22,090
• Community care facilities for the elderly - $19,850
• Nursing care facilities - $19,330
• Services to buildings and dwellings - $19,070
• Traveler accommodation - $18,750