The Calendar Group

Hiring guide

Housekeeper

Daily, devoted care of your home — rooms reset, laundry done properly, and fine things handled by someone who knows how.

Begin a search for this role(877) 404-5290

Compensation

$65,000–$95,000 base

Typical base compensation, major U.S. markets, 2026. Scope, travel, and household complexity move the range.

We advise on offer structure — schedule, housing, benefits, bonus — before every search. The right package is how great people stay.

A private housekeeper is the daily caretaker of how your home feels: beds turned with hotel corners, bathrooms reset to morning-fresh by afternoon, the kitchen counters cleared before you knew you wanted them cleared. It is quieter and more skilled work than the word suggests, and in a fine home, it is the work you notice most when it's missing.

The role in a private residence differs from cleaning service work. A housekeeper on staff learns your home — which soap the guest bath keeps, how the cashmere is folded, what the marble tolerates — and learns your rhythms, working around naps, calls, and comings and goings without ever needing direction.

Whether you need one housekeeper three days a week or a full-time presence five, the qualities to hire for are the same: skill with fine materials, genuine discretion, and the pride that shows in a perfectly made bed no one asked about.

What the role owns

  • Clean and reset bedrooms, baths, and living spaces daily
  • Launder, iron, and put away clothing and household linens
  • Care for fine surfaces, fabrics, and delicate objects
  • Make beds and refresh rooms to a consistent standard
  • Keep kitchens, pantries, and closets orderly and stocked
  • Prepare guest rooms before arrivals and refresh during stays
  • Handle dry-cleaning, small errands, and tidying as needed
  • Report damage, wear, and supply needs to management

What great looks like

A great housekeeper works to the same standard whether you are home, traveling, or watching — the empty house gets the hotel corners too.

They handle your things with informed care, knowing what the silk blouse, the brass fixture, and the oiled walnut each require.

They notice and report — the loose hinge, the moth hole, the running toilet — instead of cleaning around problems.

They move through your day without friction, reading when a room is off-limits and when the vacuum can run.

Their discretion is complete. What they see, hear, and launder is never discussed anywhere.

Interview questions worth asking

  1. 01

    Walk me through how you clean a formal living room with antiques and art. What do you touch last, and what do you never touch?

  2. 02

    How do you launder fine knits, silks, and table linens? What goes to a professional?

  3. 03

    Describe your ideal daily routine in a home this size. How do you sequence rooms around a family's day?

  4. 04

    Tell me about a time you damaged or nearly damaged something valuable. What happened next?

  5. 05

    What have past families trusted you with that went beyond cleaning?

Questions

Hiring a housekeeper, answered.

What's the difference between a private housekeeper and a cleaning service?
Continuity and trust. A service sends different hands each visit and works from a generic checklist. A private housekeeper learns your home and your preferences, works unsupervised with keys and codes, and cares for things a service should never touch. Fine homes with fine contents outgrow services quickly — usually right after the first scratched surface or shrunken sweater.
Full-time or a few days a week?
Let the laundry decide, honestly. A household with children, frequent guests, or daily cooking generates full-time housekeeping work in laundry and resets alone. Smaller or quieter homes often do beautifully with three days a week from the right person. We would rather place an excellent housekeeper part-time than an adequate one full-time; the standard matters more than the hours.
Should the housekeeper also cook or watch children?
Light cooking and hybrid roles are common and can work well — housekeeper-cook is a classic pairing. Childcare is different: it is its own profession with its own screening, and a housekeeper minding children does neither job to standard. If you need both, say so at the start and we will shape the search honestly, sometimes toward two part-time specialists instead.
How do you screen housekeepers?
The essentials are verified work history with direct reference conversations — principals, not friends — plus comprehensive background checks and legal work authorization. Beyond that, we look for demonstrated experience with homes and materials like yours; caring for a residence with antiques and fine fabrics is a skill set, and references reveal whether it is genuinely there.

Begin

Looking for a housekeeper?

Tell us about the household and the role. A senior advisor — not a coordinator — will come back to you within one business day.

Held in confidence. No obligation.