Housekeeping tools and equipment ideas

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mlucier

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My housekeepers are struggling each day with having to lug all linen, towels, cleaning supplies, etc from the first floor laundry room up to the second and third floors. They have to make multiple trips and there is no storage to have housekeeping carts on each level. Any suggestions? We do not have the facilities to put in a type of laundry shoot. I was thinking of some sort of backpack or something to help make it easier for them to at the very least have to just make ONE trip. Any advice is appreciated. What works best for everyone?
Thanks!
 
The only thing I can think of is on the down side. Can you bundle and toss out a window? An unobtrusive window.
I shake my throw rugs out an unseen window before washing. Helps keep sand etc from gumming up the washer works.
 
I can't help with the laundry shoot, but we do have storage on each floor for garbage bags, shampoos, glasses, water bottles and such that are used every day. One floor, we use an antique drop down desk and the other, we use an antique sink cabinet. They appear to be simple furnishings, but are used as housekeeping 'carts.' If you have a desk, dresser or hutch in your hallway, it can come in handy.
Of course they need to be replenished, but it helps keep the up and down trips to a minimum.
 
Welcome!
Yes, I had 'secret stashes' -- locked cubbies where I stored the sheets and towels for the third floor, the second floor had a closet.
Love the idea of converting a piece of furniture for the cause!
I had a carrier that I made out of gardening bag - it was made out of canvas and had all kinds of pockets. I had another that had been a carpenter's tool bucket. We put every conceivable item in the pockets.
http://www.grainger.com/category/bucket-bags-and-tool-organizers/tool-storage-and-transfer-tanks/hand-tools/ecatalog/N-o10
 
Can you see the first floor from the third floor - as in look down and the stairs go around? I stand in the hall on the second floor - say "Look out below" loudly (do not want to bean Himself) and drop the linens. That is my laundry chute. As for storage of stuff, I still have half of the 4th room upstairs (the other half was made into a private bathroom).
 
My laundry is on the first floor and in the basement.
Here's how I lug everything around: 5 gallon pail (think cat litter or buy them at the paint store) holds all the cleaning supplies. A separate zippered plastic bag (think the wrapping pillowcases come in) is clamped to the outside of the bucket. Fill amenity bag first, before going to rooms.That goes up first with the vacuum. Stash it in a room that is being stripped.
Strip the beds and the bathrooms. Put all the dirty laundry in the pillowcases to make it easy to carry. One pillow case for towels, one for sheets. Bring downstairs, dump in appropriate location. Bring sheets and towels and glassware upstairs for as many rooms as you can carry. I can do one room at a time with a full stack of towels. Otherwise, I bring up all the sheets in one trip and all the towels in another. (I'm talking three rooms to a floor. One floor at a time.)
If you have more than one housekeeper doing the work, have a runner. That person runs everything up and down before they start cleaning. It can be a different person each day.
I batch up the jobs. If I have to fill the snacks in each room I bring all the baskets downstairs and do them all at once.
If you bring the glassware to the kitchen to be cleaned, have a tray at hand to bring all the cleaned glasses up at once.
Sounds like your cleaners are more disorganized than anything else. You need to think thru the process and then teach it to them. Ask for their help. What do they think would work to make life easier?
Probably the most important thing is to take inventory in the room BEFORE running downstairs to get anything. Do I need towels? Which ones? Tissues? Toilet paper? Soap? Your staff should have that in their heads before they come down for anything. Nothing drives me batty faster than watching someone run up and down the stairs 5 times for one room.
 
We don't have a lot of stairs to go up and down, but we are spread out over acres. Each cottage has a large plastic tote bin that is pre-packed with all the sheets, towels, bath mats, TP, paper towels, garbage bags, literature, etc... that might be needed for a change-over of that cottage (an inventory is marked on the outside of the bin). We try to send someone around to the cottages to strip them as they are vacated, and then the cleaners follow. We use a golf-cart to transport everything back and forth between the linen shed and the cottages. The cleaners know to load the cart up with the bin for the cottage they are going to, vacuum cleaner, their cleaning tote, mop and bucket, duster, etc... still it seems that everyone has to go back to the shed for something missing/forgotten or for which the need was not anticipated.... Someone else (often the same person who stripped) follows the cleaners to place fresh flowers in the cottages, and catch any issues.
 
Do you have room for an armoire or something similar in your hallways on the higher floors? Have seen that in several B&Bs in historic buildings with lack of closet or built-in storage space. You can purchase some inexpensive ones or refurbish older pieces and store your supplies, extra cleaning supplies, and linens in them. I recommend locking them, if possible, to prevent guests from foraging around in them.
Instead of the bucket idea, I had the over sized cleaning caddies which allowed me to keep wet and dry cleaning supplies and tools separate. Worked well for both myself and housekeeper.
I have to admit that my stairwell was sometimes the laundry chute to get linens downstairs...but only if all the guests were out of the house. :)
 
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