11 Housekeeping Secrets From a Five-Star Hotel

Hospital corners are a must if you want hotel-standard tidiness. Jolanta Burke, Executive Head Housekeeper at The Berkeley, reveals her top housekeeping tips for a clean and tidy home.

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1. When you start your clean, open all the windows to refresh the room and for a burst of fresh air. Close them when you come to do the dusting.

2. At The Berkeley, we use a clockwise principle for every room – something I’ve adopted at home. Start from one spot and work your way round rather than darting from area to area. You will find that you cover the entire space, and don’t forget to look up and down for really meticulous cleaning.

3. Don’t wait for there to be a mark on the wall to clean them – walls can attract a surprising amount of dust especially around window areas. Once a month, go over your walls with a damp cloth to keep them spick and span.

4. Microfibre cloths really are a must-have. They are the very best tool for cleaning mirrors, glass tables and windows but we use them everywhere. A hotel trick you can adopt at home is having a different colour cloth for different areas, for example red is for the loo, blue is for the bathroom, yellow is for the kitchen and so on. This keeps things super hygienic.

5. Don’t throw away old sheets. Cut them into cleaning cloths and use them. The cotton is perfect for glass cleaning, its more sustainable and saves some pennies.

The Berkeley

6. Sometimes an old wives’ tales are the very best – boiled vinegar and water is the very best way to descale a kettle, over and above buying a pricey cleaning product.

7. As silly as it sounds, don’t forget furniture has sides. So many of us only clean the top of our furniture but often it’s the sides that get scuffed or marked. Always look up and down the piece, and clean accordingly.

8. We’re all moving our homes around in lockdown but this can lead to those dents in the carpet where a piece was. Try placing an ice cube in the dent, and the fibre of the carpet should pop back into place. Failing that, lay a cloth over the dent and steam it with an iron, then lift the fibre with a fork to bring back to normal.

9. I prefer to use baking powder and water in the kitchen. On the sink, on the surfaces, inside the fridge, everywhere! It’s such an effective mix and preferable to using harsh chemicals.

10. Don’t forget the details. Things like door hinges, tops of paintings, inside lamp shades and tops of a curtain rail go neglected.

11. A freshly made bed finishes a good house clean. For hotel standard bed making, hospital corners keep sheets in place and look incredibly slick.

From £475+vat per night. the-berkeley.co.uk

Featured Image: Getty Images

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