A house manager ensures the smooth and orderly running of a house and, often, looks after many properties. As the job title infers, he or she is not usually involved in management of the grounds or estate. Supervising, scheduling and training staff are just some of the duties and, therefore, familiarity with domestic roles and responsibilities is essential. Other duties include purchasing, budgeting, security matters, making travel arrangements for the principals and planning and co-ordinating events. Increasingly, as technology advances, house managers are also expected to have knowledge of complex systems relating to heating, air conditioning, lighting and security as well as being computer literate. Please visit the Job Descriptions page for a full list of duties.

At the very least, a housekeeper will clean the house and wash and iron clothes. However, many will undertake additional tasks – care of special floor and kitchen surfaces, care of antique furniture and other special items, shopping for groceries, dealing with tradesmen and contractors, looking after pets, childcare (nanny housekeeper), cooking (cook housekeeper) and, above all, ensuring the smooth running of the household. Please visit the Job Descriptions page for a full list of duties.

As the name would suggest, the laundry staff handle the day to day laundry functions at the family residence, generally excluding any dry cleaning or staff laundry.  They would be expected to maintain the laundry room to a high standard, keep the stocks of cleaning materials and laundry products up, wash and press bed linen, towels, table mats, napkins and table cloths, as well as laundering the employer’s personal clothing.  They can also launder any guest clothings as required.