Confessions of housekeepers
Good Housekeeping asked cleaning professionals to reveal their craziest and funniest stories. Employees of the rich and successful, these housekeepers revealed some serious dirt.
"I know for a fact that some of my coworkers try on the clients' clothes if they're left alone in the house. Some other cleaners always help themselves to food or even alcohol. Plus, there's just general snooping. If you leave important papers laying around, most of us are going to look to see how much you charge on your credit card, what you owe on your mortgage, or what your bank statement looks like." – A full-time house cleaner from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
"I've had husbands outright flirt with me. Some have even offered me money — clearly hinting that they'd hope to get something in return. I've had guys hire me and then call me to ask me out. I do consider myself an attractive woman, I just didn't realize how desperate some guys are." – A full-time house cleaner from Lawrence, Kansas
"Two months after I started working for this millionaire, she got a goat — in addition to her 10 giant dogs. The dogs had access to the entire house. Soon enough, she started feeling bad about leaving the goat outside, so she started letting it sleep in her bed along with the dogs. I would go four times a week (for at least six hours a day) and spend the entire time just cleaning up after the animals. The goat peed on everything. It got to a point that was just too much. I cleaned everything with such attention to detail and she'd go back hours later — after the dogs and goat had been through again — and complain that I wasn't doing a good job. After a year, I had to drop her as a client." – A full-time house cleaner from Centennial, Colorado
"A client asked me to set up a filing system with crazy category names such as 'easiest way to kill someone without being traced,' 'types of murder weapons,' and 'types of poisons.' At first I was horrified; then I found out that this client is a successful mystery writer." – A full-time organizer from Los Altos, California
"After working for nearly eight months for this one family, the wife accused me of breaking her mini blinds. I reminded her that they had been broken since I started, but she didn't believe me. She said I had to pay for new ones or she was going to dock my pay. I said it was unfair but she didn't care — she fired me on the spot." – A full-time house cleaner from Bethesda, Maryland
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