Have you been considering becoming a caregiver? If so, you’ve probably heard that light housekeeping would be a daily task. This post answers the question, “What is considered light housekeeping for a caregiver?”
Overview of Light Housekeeping for In-Home Care
When clients are ill, injured, or unwell, they can’t clean up their houses like they usually could. Their mobility is limited, and cleaning is physically challenging work. But clients still deserve a clean environment to live in.
As a caregiver, your light housekeeping creates a clean space for you to provide care. It also maintains a safe, comfortable living space for your client. But you won’t be thoroughly cleaning your client’s entire house. You’ll only provide light housekeeping in the limited areas where you serve your client.
Housekeeping is not your only task. It’s one small part of the job, besides your other responsibilities as a caregiver. But that doesn’t make housekeeping any less essential.
What is Considered Light Housekeeping for a Caregiver?
You’re probably wondering, “What is considered light housekeeping for a caregiver?” It’s far different from a private cleaning company’s deep cleanings. Instead, light housekeeping consists of limited tasks specific to your client’s needs.
Light housekeeping duties may include:
- Tidying Up. Cleaning up any items on the floor that could cause a tripping hazard or items that are crowding the surfaces.
- Kitchen Clean-Up. Disinfecting the counters and cooking areas helps you create meals that are germ-free.
- Wiping Down Surfaces. Surfaces collect a lot of dust, which can cause breathing problems for your client. Wiping these down will help your client breathe easier.
- Vacuuming and Mopping. Keeping the floors clean is essential, but this task will only be necessary once or twice a week.
- Light Bathroom Cleaning. Bathrooms collect a lot of bacteria, so cleaning this room will allow your client to stay healthier.
- Changing Bed Linens. Taking off the bed linens, throwing them in the laundry, and changing them will create a more comfortable bed for your client to rest in.
- Laundry Tasks. A pile of laundry stresses anyone out. You’ll help your clients by taking care of their laundry.
- Taking Trash Out. Old trash can lead to a smelly home and unsanitary conditions, but you’ll keep the home smelling fresh by regularly taking out your client’s trash.
- Watering House Plants. Keeping your client’s plants healthy will help them love the home they live in.
Now that you understand what light housekeeping may consist of, it’s time to understand what it isn’t.
What Isn’t Considered Light Housekeeping?
Many tasks aren’t considered light housekeeping. You are there to care for your client, not clean their home like a cleaning service. A client shouldn’t ask you to perform these tasks.
Light housekeeping isn’t:
- Deep Cleaning. Deep cleaning goes far beyond light housekeeping. It takes longer and is far more thorough. For example, instead of simply mopping, deep cleaning requires you to scrub the grout. You shouldn’t be asked to deep clean.
- Shampooing Carpet. Vacuuming is part of your tasks, but shampooing the carpet is not.
- Scrubbing Floors. While you may mop, you shouldn’t be expected to get on your hands and knees to scrub the floors.
- Moving Heavy Furniture. Light housekeeping shouldn’t require you to move heavy furniture. If you ever consider moving furniture and cleaning under it, you have moved beyond light housekeeping. This lifting and moving isn’t part of your duties.
- Washing Windows. Clean windows are great, but they’re not required for a safe environment. You won’t ever have to clean the windows.
- High and Low. You won’t dust ceiling fans or clean baseboards. This type of deep cleaning is far beyond light housekeeping. In fact, you shouldn’t do anything that requires you to be higher than on a two-foot step stool.
- Yard Maintenance. Your light housekeeping shouldn’t take you outside beyond hauling items to the trash can. You won’t be providing any yard maintenance services.
- Shoveling Snow. Again, your light housekeeping should stay inside the house. Shoveling snow will never be a part of your job description.
These tasks are considered more intense than light housekeeping, and you shouldn’t be asked to do them as a caregiver.
Other Ways Caregivers Can Help
Aside from light housekeeping, you’ll help your clients in various ways. Your other duties help your clients feel the best they possibly can while recovering from their illness or injury.
Other duties of a caregiver include:
- Providing companionship and being a friend to your clients
- Helping with activities of daily living (including bathing, dressing, and grooming)
- Providing personal care (such as helping them eat)
- Activities of daily thriving (including running errands, grocery shopping, meal prepping, or picking up medications)
- Monitoring the health of clients and reporting back to their care team
- Reminding clients to take their medication at the correct times and documenting it
The best thing you can do as a caregiver is to treat your clients with the same compassion, care, and respect as your loved ones. It is important to remember that no one else in your client’s life will be more invested in their well-being than you are.
Ultimately, caregiving is one of the most fulfilling roles there is. As a caregiver, you are your clients’ key to achieving the highest quality of life possible. You keep your clients safe, secure, and comfortable, while they can live more independently in their own homes.
Become a Caregiver at Providence
We’re looking for caregivers who want to positively impact their clients’ lives. Providence will support your efforts to continue growing personally and professionally. We invite you to apply today.